Recycling collections to resume after fire

Recycling collections paused after a "catastrophic fire" at a waste facility are to resume on Monday, a council has said.

Central Bedfordshire Council stopped picking up dry recycling from properties after a blaze at the Newton Leys storage unit in Bletchley on Tuesday.

The cause is not yet known but it follows another fire at a recycling centre near Bedford in July, which is believed to have been started by a lithium battery.

The authority said it would be using an alternative waste transfer site and advised people to start putting bins out for collection as normal from 07:00 GMT on Monday.

"Following the catastrophic fire at a waste transfer facility in Bletchley, dry recycling collections had to be paused," it said in a statement.

"Thank you for your patience and understanding whilst we resolved this situation."

The council this week called on the government to take stronger action on household battery disposal.

"We are very unlucky as an authority that we can be hit twice in eight months," it said.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said a review of UK batteries regulations was under way.

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