However, the challenge is now much more difficult following the cancellation of Suffolk’s County Deal by the government last week.
The recycling centre on Depot Road has been closed since 2018 when current permit holders, Newmarket Open Door, ceased operations citing that it was no longer a financially viable venture.
Last week the government cancelled Suffolk’s devolution deal, or ‘County Deal’, which included an additional £16 million per year for the next thirty years.
Councillor Chris Chambers, Suffolk County Council’s Cabinet Member for Transport Strategy, Planning and Waste, said:
“Suffolk County Council has always had the ambition to find a solution for a recycling centre for Newmarket’s residents. We have been working together with West Suffolk Council on this for some time. However, one of the main avenues open to us as a county council was the use of funds attached to Suffolk’s County Deal. That opportunity has now been wrenched from us, and from Newmarket residents, by the government.
“This is a big setback, and whilst the county council will continue to try and explore options with Newmarket Open Door to retain the Environmental Permit, which is needed to operate a recycling centre, the government’s decision last week has made those efforts very difficult indeed.
“What is even more disappointing is that Cllr Waterman personally led the efforts of District and Borough councils against the County Deal by orchestrating a letter to Government urging them to bin it, abandoning all the progress made, and throwing away the half-a-billion pounds worth of investment that the deal would have brought to the whole of Suffolk, including Newmarket.
“This is part of a growing theme of the new government letting Suffolk residents down. West Suffolk Council pulled out of our joint legal challenge to the Sunnica Solar Farm, while the government has cut Winter Fuel Payments to tens of thousands of Suffolk pensioners and now stopped £500m investment in our county.”
Discussions will continue for the county council to look at feasible options to provide a recycling service in Newmarket.
