Rutland County Council is thanking residents for following new safety guidelines at North Luffenham Household Waste and Recycling Centre.

The site had been closed, along with Cottesmore HWRC, in accordance with UK government COVID-19 guidelines but reopened for essential waste on 19 May 2020.

Essential waste is any waste that cannot be stored safely at home or disposed of through other legitimate routes.

Several new safety measures have been introduced at North Luffenham HWRC, in order to maintain social distancing.

These include:

A maximum of four vehicles unloading on-site at a time, with no more than two persons per vehicle

Visitors must stay two metres away from each other and site staff at all times

The site closes for 15 minutes at 12pm, 2pm and 4pm each day so that it can be cleaned

No trailers can be accepted on-site because of the need to move vehicles in and out as quickly as possible

Visitors are asked to pre-sort their waste and separate out materials like metal, wood and plastics before traveling to the site

Staff at the site will provide instructions but cannot help to unload or put waste items into containers

Cabinet Member for Waste and the Environment, Coun Gordon Brown, said: "People were understandably very eager to see the recycling site reopen and have responded very considerately to the new safety measures that have been put in place.

"We'd like to thank residents for their cooperation and understanding at this time. We'd also like to thank the staff running operations at North Luffenham, who continue to carry out essential duties under very challenging circumstances. With everyone pulling together, we've been able to reopen the site safely."

Coun Brown added: "Household waste and recycling services at North Luffenham will continue to operate under restrictions until further notice, so we urge visitors to carry on adhering to the guidelines.

"We're particularly grateful to all those who are pre-sorting their waste before travelling to the site. This means they need to spend less time unloading and helps to keep queues moving.

"Going forwards, these measures will help keep the site safe and give us the best chance of resuming normal service as soon as possible."

North Luffenham HWRC is currently open six days a week (Tuesday to Sunday), from 10am to 4pm. Cottesmore HWRC remains closed until further notice.

For more information about Rutland's waste and recycling services, please visit: www.rutland.gov.uk/waste.