Pembrokeshire County Council wants to find out people's views on its proposals to open civic amenity and recycling sites five days a week instead of the current seven days.

The county council is also proposing to reduce the opening hours at the six sites.

The sites are located at Winsel (near Haverfordwest), Manorowen, Hermon, Waterloo (Pembroke Dock), St. Davids and the Salterns (Tenby). The Salterns site will soon be replaced by a new site at Crane Cross, near Saundersfoot.

The council is launching a consultation on the proposals on Monday, March 16, at http://www.pembrokeshire.gov.uk/haveyoursay">www.pembrokeshire.gov.uk/haveyoursay

The deadline for responses is Friday, April 10.

The proposals were put forward in a recent report from the county council's director of transportation, housing and environment to cabinet.  

The report stated that all the sites are well used, are locally important and are achieving good recycling performance. However, like other local authorities, the council needs to make savings in order to balance its budget in the wake of government spending cuts.

"While an option could be to reduce the number of sites operated, an alternative option with a lesser impact would be to rationalise the opening hours of the existing network," it states.

"With every site in the county currently open every day of the year except for the three days covering Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day, it is believed that moving to a five day per week operation offers a reasonable compromise between cost reduction and service delivery."

As the busiest days are generally Friday and the weekends, the suggested days for closure would be staggered over Monday to Thursday.

In this way, an alternative site which is not too far away would always be available, if individuals and businesses need to dispose of materials on any specific day.

Usage figures also show that opening hours at a number of sites could be reduced in the summer period with only a limited impact.

Proposals

Opening days: It is proposed that the following sites are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays: Waterloo, Pembroke Dock, St. Davids and Hermon.

The remaining sites to be closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays, namely: Winsel, Haverfordwest, Crane Cross, Saundersfoot, Manorowen, Fishguard.

It is also proposed to amend the opening hours and locally the times being considered are as seen in the accompanying box.

To give your views

Please complete an online response form at http://www.pembrokeshire.gov.uk/haveyoursay">www.pembrokeshire.gov.uk/haveyoursay from Monday, March 16, or print off a hard copy from the website and return it to: Pembrokeshire County Council, Marketing, 2D County Hall, Haverfordwest, SA61 1TP, or request a copy of the response form to be posted to you by phoning 01437 764551 or emailing [email protected]">[email protected]

The deadline for responses is Friday, April 10.