News

Recycling centre to close during roadworks

By Tim Harris
March 11, 2013

RESIDENTS and businesses could face disruption and frustration this month when a key industrial estate road is closed for a weekend.

Hampshire County Council has confirmed Eelmoor Road will be closed from 7pm on Friday March 22 until 6am on Monday March 25, as re-surfacing work is set to take place.

Eelmoor Road is home to Farnborough Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC), which will also be closed for the duration of the weekend. It will close at 5pm on the Friday and not reopen until 8am the following Monday.

Rushmoor Borough councillors for Farnborough’s town centre Empress ward said there will be probable disruption to residents wanting to use the recycling centre.

Cllr Gareth Lyon said: “It will inconvenience residents that weekend, there will be some frustration. We will keep an eagle eye on Hampshire County Council to make sure the work is completed on time and disruption is minimised. I do also sympathise a lot with the businesses in Eelmoor Road, and I would certainly encourage any businesses to get in touch if they have any complaints.”

Cllr Lyon suggested those who would usually use the Farnborough HWRC could instead travel to Aldershot where there is another recycling centre.

Cllr David Clifford said: “The works are bound to cause disruption, the weekend is the prime time for people to use the Farnborough centre. It is inconvenient, but it is important work that needs to be done.”

Blue Box Storage is among the businesses in Eelmoor Road open on a Saturday, and manager Mark O’Grady voiced his discontent about the planned road closure.

“I think this will disrupt our business, I am not too happy about it,” he said. “It will be a problem, if we have people moving house and they want to get the stuff out of our storage it will be disruptive for them.

“It is not good for business. It could be quite difficult for our customers, we may even lose their business if they cannot get into our car park.”

The work is part of Hampshire County Council’s planned structural maintenance programme Operation Resilience, a long-term project the county said will make Hampshire’s road network more resilient to extreme weather and increasing volumes of traffic.

Councillor Mel Kendal, deputy leader and executive member for environment and transport for the county council, said: “We came to the conclusion that a weekend road closure would be the least disruptive, after talking to all of the affected businesses and services.

“I accept that the closure of the HWRC will be inconvenient in the short term but I hope they will understand that it would not be possible to carry out this necessary work without the closure. We have gone to great lengths to give people as much notice as possible of both the road and recycling centre closure and I think most people would understand this work needs to be done.”

He said it was essential to reconstruct the road which is “starting to fail significantly” due to traffic, particularly from heavy goods vehicles.

Warning signs will be displayed in advance of the works, informing that the road will be closed.

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Most recent user comments 2 of 2

Well said catmad

peter hensman
12/03/2013 at 13:57

Oh, for goodness sake. It is closed for one weekend. Road resurfacing needs to be done in Eelmoor Road, it is atrocious. It will cause disruption, but notice has been given, so work round it. Or perhaps those businesses on the industrial estate would rather the road is not resurfaced and theirs and customers vehicles are damaged? Get some perspective.