USERS of the community composting centre in Thornbury are calling on the council to consider keeping it open.

South Gloucestershire Council has considered the closure of its community composting centre in Thornbury, as part of cost-cutting measures.

The council has suggested that it could withdraw funding from community composting sites it operates to help the authority reach its savings target.

Closing the community composting sites was one of the proposals outlined when a consultation was held on the future of the sites earlier this year.

The composters say they have a plan to cut the cost from £130,000 to around £10,000. However the plan still needs support from the council until the new arrangements can be put into place, and other sources of funding can be found.

The group is planning to hire a local contractor to carry out any part of the process that requires machinery.

Currently waste brought to the sites is being transported to a site near Swindon before being sent back as compost however the Council has deemed this as an uneconomical system.

The community composters, in return for taking in compostable waste sell compost to local residents. The composting team are also a part of the Thornbury in Bloom entry.

Alan Pinder of Sustainable Thornbury said, “South Gloucestershire Council owned the machinery to process the waste. The Council has recently retired or sold off its machinery to save money. Since then, instead of composting locally, the garden waste has been taken by lorry to a commercial composter in Wiltshire and the compost brought back by lorry. This is very expensive and bad for the environment.

“We know there are better ways of doing this, and we want community composting to carry on in Thornbury. If the Council pulls the plug to save a few thousand pounds it would be very hard to get things started up again. The Composting team work very hard and they deserve better than this.”

A spokesman for South Gloucestershire Council said: "Like all local authorities we face tough financial challenges as national austerity measures continue. We need to save a further £40m by 2020, and are working with South Gloucestershire’s communities to identify ways to deliver these savings while protecting our core activities as a council.

"The proposals for changes to the community composting sites at Thornbury and Hawkesbury Upton form part of this savings programme. In total the service costs the council £130,000 per year and this has been identified as a saving to be delivered from April 2015.

"We are aware that local people value these services and as part of our public consultation process, invited the groups running the schemes to consider sustainable alternatives to closure that would still allow us to deliver the necessary savings.

"The Thornbury group has proposed an approach that would require a level of continued funding from the council. Members of the council’s Communities committee will be invited to consider this, and other options, at its meeting on Wednesday, November 5.