Dorchester Household Recycling Centre (HRC) will continue to open at 9am as it starts to operate winter opening hours.

From October 1 to March 30, HRCs would usually be open from 10am to 4pm, but from Friday, October 1, all 10 of Dorset Council's HRCs will now open an hour earlier at 9am.

From next year, April 1 to September 30, HRCs will still open at 9am, but close at 5pm.

Average daily traffic shows there is more demand for HRCs between 9am and 10am - around 427 vehicles per hour - than there is between 5pm and 6pm - 227 vehicles per hour.

Councillor Jill Haynes, Dorset Council's portfolio holder for customer and community services, said: "It's important that, wherever possible, we tailor our services to the needs and behaviours of the public that we serve. In this instance, we've looked at the data and it's clear that people would much rather drop their waste at an HRC at 9am in the winter that between 5pm and 6pm in the summer, so we're changing operating hours accordingly.

"This change makes our messaging easier; all HRCs in Dorset are open from 9am, daily all year round - except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day.

"It will also address the historic issues we've had in March - and across the winter months generally - when some visitors want to drop their waste off first thing in the morning before carrying on with their day.

"I'd like to thank our waste contracts team for their hard work researching and devising these changes, to our contractors W&S Recycling for the great job they do managing our 10 HRCs and to everyone who uses them to ensure their waste is disposed of correctly."

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