Six sites identified for new recycling centre in Cupar – but none are good news

Councillors at thet North East Fife Area committee were told that each and every site has been “largely rejected”.

The council had looked at sites in the Cupar North Development Zone, Coal Road Yards, Prestonhall, Duffus Park, Tarvit Green, and Cupar Mill to possibly house the relocated Cupar Recycling Centre. The current centre is considered too small, and there is a strict booking service for access as a result. It is also only open two days a week locals want a larger centre with a greater range of facilities and longer opening times, but that means finding a new site.

Sandy Anderson, Fife’s service manager for Waste Operations, told the area committee on Wednesday that so far, no suitable locations have been identified.

“At present, we aren’t aware of any other suitable locations for a new household waste and recycling centre in or around Cupar, but that’s not to say we’ll give up on our efforts to find one,” Mr Anderson said.

The Commercial Development Zone was rejected because the site’s access road cannot be developed until “at least 2027”. Existing council leases at Coal Road Yards would need to be terminated, and the site is considered too small for expansion. Prestonhall is also too small and would need to be extensively developed to be usable.

Duffus Park could mean the loss of some local recreation area, and it is near housing. Similarly, Tarvit Green sits next to a Traveller Site, which Mr Anderson said could be poorly perceived. Lastly, Cupar Muir is frequently flooded and therefore unacceptable.

Councillor Stefan Hoggan (SNP for Cupar) said he was "very disappointed" by the news adding: “Cupar is massive and surrounded by land; there has to be someplace that can be found to build a new recycling centre," he said.

“Beyond that, we need to make things better for residents now. The way the Cupar and Ladybank Recycling Centres are run is unfair for the people of North East Fife. We can’t go to a recycling centre whenever we want like the rest of Fife can.

“There’s things we can change now to make it faire before we even look at opening a new centre, which I still think needs to be a priority."

Mr Anderson said there are “various other options” on the table – such as keeping the status quo; keeping the Cupar centre open for residual waste only, which would go against local and national policy; or investing money to improve the Ladybank centre.

“One of the other considerations is whether or not a reuse and recycling centre in Cupar might actually be a better investment,” Mr Anderson said.

The information about the proposals was limited on Wednesday because the information came from a service presentation rather than a standard committee report - that meant that both the subject and scrutiny were time limited.

Councillors Margaret Kennedy (Lib-Dem for Cupar) and Donald Lothian (Lib-Dem for Howe of Fife and Tay Coast) both pushed for further, detailed reports and more communication going forward.

“We need to understand what the reuse and recycling model means,” Cllr Kennedy said.

“There [also] needs to be community engagement in the wider sense. We don’t seem to be progressing anywhere fast. There’s just not an understanding of what the plan is and how we can get there.”

The committee unanimously agreed to put the issues surrounding the Cupar Recycling Centre onto their forward work programme.