Over 130 people marched to Whitland’s Town Hall for a public meeting to show Carmarthenshire County Council (CCC) just how much they love and care about their recycling centre.

The public meeting which was held on Friday, February 14 was called to discuss the threat of Whitland’s recycling facility.

CCC’s potential decision to close the centre comes despite the Authority declaring a climate emergency.

As a result if the centre were residents from town and villages around Whitland may face driving up to 20 miles to the next recycling centre in Nant-y-Caws.

County councillor for Llanbiody Dorian Phillips said it would be devastating for his constituents if that were to happen.

Closing the recycling centre would also mean that more CO2 emissions being sent into the atmosphere.

Opening the meeting, Tom Godwin who campaigns for local issues said that his group wanted to run a non-political campaign for everyone who is affected by the issue. This he said was because it was one that people cared enough about.

As a result the local campaigner said they thought that they could stop the recycling centre from closing.

Indeed the residents of Whitland may well be thinking just that following Carmarthenshire County Councillor David Jenkins’ comments last week about the proposed closure.

He said: “Whilst we are still analysing the feedback, the proposal for Whitland HWRC in particular received a strong response from members of the public and as such we are likely to agree to withdraw it, possibly along with some others.

“We still have a lot of difficult decisions to make over the coming weeks, but I’m sure that those who felt strongly about the Whitland proposal will appreciate knowing how we are inclined to vote at Executive Board.”

Mr. Godwin said that they wondering of whether to go ahead with the meeting, but because the decision of (CCC) wasn’t guaranteed, they decided to go ahead with the meeting.

Following on from this, members of the public were given their chance to express their views on the issue.

Alastair Cameron, the Liberal Democrat candidate for West Carmarthen and South Pembrokeshire for the 2021 Senedd elections suggested that Pembrokeshire County Council and Carmarthenshire County Council work together to find a way to save the recycling centre.

Whitland County Councillor, Sue Allen then rose to give her contribution.

During her remarks she praised the people for signing the consultation.

Clr. Allen said the council were surprised at the response because there very few responses in 2019 about it.

She added that the amount of responses had prompted CCC to say they would be withdrawing plans to close the recycling centre.

However, Clr. Allen said no definitive decision would be made until the beginning of March.

Clr. Phillips argued that the council would not be saving any money if the recycling centre were to close.

He said he told the council that it would cost them £20,000, for the fly-tipping and another £60,000 for the extra staff needed to clean the waste.

Following contributions from the public, people gathered together in small groups to discuss what the next step should be.

It was decided that the campaign to stop Whitland recycling centre from closing would continue right up to when Carmarthenshire County Council make their decision.

Speaking after the meeting, Councillor Rob James leader of the opposition at CCC, said: “I think it was fantastic the amount of people we had in the room today, it was really encouraging and it shows that strength of feeling within the community about this important issue.

“The contributions are clear that we speak with one voice, we need to keep this recycling centre as it’s important to our local community.

“We are spending half a million at the moment cleaning up the mess of people when they fly tip, this will just exacerbate the situation.

“It is clear that there is going to be an increase in fly tipping which will probably cost £80,000 if not more.

Clr. James added that the recycling centre provides so much to the community and warned that taxpayers would have pay more for the clean up of fly-tippers.

“It’s a local service that provides so much community benefit explained, you’ve got people that congregate around.

“When it comes to it there is also convenience, if you take away that service, then the burden on people, the individuals that don’t care about the environment as much as many of us do will not go for the effort of recycling their things properly and that’s going to have an added cost to the taxpayer.”

Alistair Cameron said: “Expecting people to travel by car to Nant-y-Caws is absolutely ridiculous, no way would they (CCC) meet their recycling targets if they close this centre.

“It will increase the carbon footprint in Carmarthenshire if they close it, it will led to more fly-tipping, the council would have to spend money clearing up the waste which can’t be recycled.

“You’ve got to have recycling centres near to people where they can get to them.”

Clr. Allen continued: “I think it was a positive meeting and the number of people that responded this year was amazing and it shows just how they care about the recycling centre.

“I think there is an affection for the recycle centre aside from all the practical issues, we enjoy going there to recycle, people met up there and they talk to each other, I bet its busier than some churches on a Sunday morning.”

Tom Godwin, who chaired the meeting added: “We didn’t expect to have hundreds of people turn up to Whitland Town Hall and have really good ideas.

“Whitland recycling centre is one of the highest performing centre of its kind.

“There’s a really strong feeling in communities across Carmarthenshire that it should be an example of excellence.”

Mr. Godwin then gave his thoughts on what would happen if the recycling centre were to close.

“It would mean people traveling up to 40 minutes, more spending on fuel, more fly-tipping and it would mean a complete missed opportunity for a well functioning recycling centre to be even better.”