THE closure of Dulverton's recycling centre - the smallest in Somerset - would save the cash-strapped county council just £76,000 a year.

As exclusively revealed in the Free Press in October, the facility on the outskirts of the town has been earmarked as one of eight under threat as part of major cost-cutting measures aimed at delivering around £43 million of savings.

At their full council meeting last week, county chiefs confirmed that Dulverton was one of four recycling centres likely to close before next April - the others are Coleford in Mendip, Middlezoy in Sedgemoor and Crewkerne in South Somerset.

The closures, which are subject to consultation, would save the council £314,000 a year, with a further four - as yet unidentified - sites also under threat.

And residents are being warned that the cutbacks will also mean changes to services at all 18 centres in the county, including reduced hours and charges for depositing certain types of waste, such as soil, rubble and tyres.

The Dulverton centre has just over 1,000 Somerset households within a five-mile radius, although its catchment area is larger and users would face a 36-mile round trip to the next alternative.

The site takes in under 1,200 tonnes a year, less than a quarter of the 5,700 tonnes average tonnage for all sites in the county.

And a significant proportion of the waste comes from Devon residents.

Figures show that an estimated 12,000 visits are made to the Dulverton centre each year, compared to an average 98,000 across all the sites in Somerset.

The cost per visit to Dulverton has been estimated at £19 - the highest in the county.

However, the nearest alternative sites are in Minehead, Williton and Wellington, meaning substantial journeys for residents.

All 18 centres are managed by the Somerset Waste Partnership.

It said that with long-term contracts in place for recycling and waste and the commitment of the county and all five district councils to offer enhanced Sort It Plus kerbside collections to most households by the end of 2011, the recycling centres were almost the only area where savings could be made within the timescale.

The hit list was drawn up looking at site costs, household numbers served, levels of materials received and distances to alternative sites.

A SWP spokesman said the risks of closure had been made clear to councillors, which include more fly-tipping to recyclable materials being put in refuse bins and sent to landfill at a cost of around £68 a tonne.

Managing director Steve Read said: "We regret being asked to consider closing recycling centres as this would be in conflict with our aim of reducing waste going to landfill and raising recycling rates but we are all aware of the financial situation.

"If any closure is agreed, the impact would be partly mitigated by improvements in kerbside recycling across the county through the Sort It Plus service but we do fully appreciate that it would have an impact on users of the closed sites, other sites and potentially the surrounding area."

Mr Read said that SWP was offering to talk to local councils in the catchment areas of the affected sites to explore alternative options that could deliver the same level of savings as closure.

He said that even with the potential closures, Somerset had a very high ratio of recycling centres to the number of households.

In addition, Sort It Plus collections reached more than half of all homes, while all residents had access to chargeable kerbside garden waste and bulky waste collection services.

l Bridgwater and West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger is fighting the corner for recycling centres in his constituency due to get the chop.

He is taking a petition and letters from Dulverton people wanting to save their recycling centre to Westminster.

And he says people in North Devon who use the facility ought to pay for the privilege.

He has a meeting with Minister of State for the Environment Greg Barker to put the case for Dulverton - and for Middlezoy, which learned only last week that its recycling centre's days are also numbered.

"This country wants to continue recycling at a high level so cutting back recycling centres is just madness - there's no logic in it," said Mr Liddell-Grainger.

"I have had lots of letters from people in Dulverton and North Devon and there is also a petition which I will be presenting.

"I will also make the point that people in North Devon who use our recycling centres ought to be charged for it."