MORE public consultation will be held if Somerset Council decides to go ahead with the closure of recycling centres in Dulverton and Williton.

Parish councillors on Exmoor were told although the recycling centres had been earmarked for closure, the council was still talking with operator Biffa about possible savings with its current contract.

The council has been facing bankruptcy in the wake of a £100million budget shortfall this year and named five recycling centres it wanted to close to save nearly £900,000, the others being Crewkerne, Castle Cary, and Cheddar.

Somerset executive Cllr Dixie Darch told a gathering of Exmoor parish councillors that if a decision was made to go ahead with the proposed closures then a county-wide consultation would take place.

Cllr Darch said Somerset was ‘well-served’ as a whole with recycling centres but she pointed out the council was not legally required to provide them.

She said she was dismayed at the council’s current financial situation but the need to protect vulnerable adults and children left it with a ‘stark choice’.

Cllr Darch said ideological concerns could not take precedence over the demands of adult social care and children’s services.

She said it would be easier if the amount of waste going to recycling centres was reduced to zero through the Freecycle service, reuse, restore, repair, or removing the need for the items in the first place.

A packed public meeting in Dulverton in February saw large opposition to the loss of the town’s recycling centre.