Residents out in force to fight over recycling

MONIFIETH residents who turned out in force to fight for the retention of the local recycling centre have been given little reassurance that the battle has not already been lost.

During t wo hours of impassioned debate at a hastily-organised public meeting just weeks before a decision on the reshaping of recycling provision is due to be taken, Angus Council leader Bob Myles was forced to admit the group set up to examine a possible U-turn on the controversial closure proposal for the facility was bereft of alternative options and facing a race against time.

A meeting of the full council on September 7 is due to consider the way forward for Monifieth, Forfar and Kirriemuir after the new multiparty administration vowed to look again at the decision of its SNP predecessors to shut the coastal facility and establish a supersite for the two inland towns.

Mr Myles had vowed to “leave no stone unturned” in the quest for alternatives but he came under fire from the packed community cabin meeting.

The council says it will save £100,000 by axing Monifieth, leaving residents with the option of travelling to recycling centres i n Dundee or Carnoustie.

Monifieth Community Council organised t he meeting, which attracted almost 100 people — another forum is scheduled for Kirriemuir Town Hall on September 6 — and chairwoman Sheena Cochrane said the mood was that Monifieth was very much the forgotten burgh.

She t old t he council leader: “You say you do not want to pit burgh against burgh but that’s exactly what you are doing.”

The meeting asked for councillors to defer a decision but Mr Myles said: “If a difficult decision has to be made, the quicker the better.”