Brechin will have the shortest hours of Angus’s recycling centres under the skip sites u-turn agreed by Angus Council which has spared Monifieth from the axe for the next year.
As the dust settled on a heated Forfar meeting of the full Angus Council, the authority has clarified the opening hours for all seven burgh facilities which will come into being in either October or February.
Opening hours changes were part of a plan originally agreed in May 2016, before the new coalition administration agreed to revisit the skip site shake-up proposals after taking control of the council at the May election.
The future of burgh dumps was the key issue on the doorstep during the election campaign and council leader Bob Myles has said the authority must make the “right decision, not the quick decision” on the issue.
But the opposition SNP group has mounted another strong attack on what has been labelled a wasteful review which they fear may land the council in trouble with watchdogs.
The agreed plans will see Brechin recycling centre closed on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from the end of October.
Monifieth and Carnoustie will both be closed Tuesday and Thursday and reduced hours of operation will see noon to 4pm weekday hours of operation applied at every burgh recycling centre, with the exception of the recently revamped Arbroath facility.
All Angus sites will operate full days at weekends.
Opening hours changes at Forfar, Kirriemuir and Monifieth will not be put in place until February to allow staff consultation to take place.
A council spokesperson said: “It must be emphasised that it was agreed to monitor the usage at all recycling centre and allow opening times to be adjusted to optimise usage.”
Monifieth’s reprieve following the three-month review by a council member/officer group (MOG) remains to be seen by some as only a stay of execution and senior SNP figures have said they are furious a process costing £50,000 was ignored.
MOG member and Montrose councillor Bill Duff said: “The group visited modern recycling centres in Perth and Dundee and each of the seven recycling sites in Angus.
“The group met on five occasions and was attended by 10 to 12 people each time, with copious amounts of data supplied by officers.
“The MOG cost £49,000 by delaying the closures mandated by the May 2016 decision and a further £4000 in officer time.
“A considered, well- resourced review process that cost Angus Council over £50,000 was overturned after we were given 15 minutes to review the new proposals.
“The governance issues and the process applied were highly questionable and might be rightly criticised by the public and any regulator,” said Mr Duff.
“Given the scale of financial challenges faced by Angus Council, this is nothing short of a disgrace and does not auger well for future considerations,” he said.