Gloucestershire County Council's Household Recycling Centres (HRCs) will be moving to winter opening hours from October 25, but residents will still have nearly 9,000 booking slots available each week across the county.

Pyke Quarry, in Stroud will also be going back to its normal pre-covid opening days from Sunday as well as winter opening hours, 10am-4pm. 

The site has been open seven days a week since mid-August to meet increased demand, but with the seasonal reductions in use it will revert to being closed on a Wednesday.

The switch follows a recent residents survey of over 1,100 people visiting Gloucestershire's HRCs. The survey found high levels of satisfaction for site safety and waiting times. Of 1,109 people:

• 97 per cent were satisfied with helpfulness of staff,
• 96 per cent were satisfied with greeting and booking in on arrival,
• 93 per cent were satisfied with queuing time to enter the site,
• 88 per cent were satisfied with social distancing measures in place,
• 87 per cent found the new booking in system easy to use,
• 70 per cent of visitors said the booking-in system should be kept when social distancing is no longer needed.

Councillor Nigel Moor, cabinet member responsible for waste and recycling, said, "Our booking system was brought in to aid safety during the pandemic, but we've had really positive feedback to it and the sites in general. Most users say there are less queues and visitors find the booking system helpful. We know that the seasons effect the demand for the centres though and typically demand drops by 25 per cent in the winter months which is why we make this seasonal change."

Once the changes happen on 25 October there will be 8,982 booking slots per week available to residents needing to recycle waste which can't be recycled from their doorstep with local collections. This is a reduction of just over 2000 slots, however as the evenings get darker and colder and people reduce the amount of DIY/gardening, less people visit HRC's".

Visitors to all household recycling centres need to pre-book their visit. Social distancing is required on site, and to minimise queues and waiting times the number of booking slots available is limited.

Those with symptoms of Covid-19 or who are self-isolating must not visit and should stay at home and follow the most up to date government and NHS advice.

You can find out about HRCs and book a time slot online at https://www.gloucestershirerecycles.com/household-recycling-centres-hrcs/car-and-van-bookings-for-hrc-visits/