The Household Recycling Centres (HRCs) at Pyke Quarry, Horsley and Oak Quarry near Coleford will re-open next week for pre-booked visits only.

The HRCs at Hempsted in Gloucester, Wingmoor Farm at Stoke Orchard and Fosse Cross near Cirencester are already open with all trips needing to be booked in advance.

Next week, from Tuesday 26 May, the HRC at Pyke Quarry, Horsley will re-open with Oak Quarry near Coleford opening the following day on Wednesday 27 May. Social distancing measures will be in place to help keep visitors and staff safe and crucially anyone with covid-19 symptoms and those in self-isolating households MUST NOT visit.

To limit the number of people on-site pre-booking is now required at all five of the county's HRCs and vehicles should only have drivers wherever possible - a maximum of one passenger is permitted if you need help to unload your waste and recycling.

The booking system has a limited number of timed slots available each day for visitors to select and visitors can book up to 14 days in advance. Bookings can only be made online. The necessary cap on vehicle numbers does mean that the capacity of the sites is lower than normal, so residents are being asked to make essential bookings only.

Visitors are asked to only bring to site what they can safely unload themselves as site staff need to social distance so will not be able to help with unloading.

The re-use shops at the county's sites are closed and some recycling bins may be unavailable. For an up to date list of materials which can be accepted at all sites please refer online to Gloucestershire Recycles.

Everyone should keep using their kerbside waste collection service, which the local councils are working hard to keep running, as much as possible for their recycling, garden, food waste and general waste.

Councillor Nigel Moor, cabinet member responsible for waste said: "It's great that we will soon have all five of our HRCs open again and available for people to use.

"The capacity of our sites is reduced, and will be for the foreseeable future to maintain social distancing, so I want to thank all our site users for their patience and for following the necessary guidelines.

"We are continuously monitoring the operation of our HRCs carefully to make sure that things are running as smoothly and safely as possible."

The HRC online booking system can be found here.