PERMITS to allow only Wiltshire people to use the county's recycling centres and the possibility of building a plant to extract energy from waste are among the issues that residents can give feedback on to Wiltshire Council.

It has just launched consultation on how it collects and manages household waste and recycling and people have until November 10 to respond.

The survey comes in the wake of the council giving out new contracts to firms to manage both its recycling centres and rubbish collections.

Hills Waste lost the contract for managing nine recycling centres to Trowbridge firm FCC after a legal challenge but retained other waste collection services.

Mike Hill, chief executive of The Hills Group, said at the time: “We are disappointed that this will no longer extend to the nine council-owned household recycling centres that Hills has successfully provided to Wiltshire Council and its residents in the past. We will work with the council and the incoming contractor to assist with a smooth transition of these services.”

Since winning the contract for recycling centre FCC Environmental has confirmed that it will be looking at improving the recycling centres.

Now people are to have their say on what they should be and to help shape a ten year strategy for the council.

A spokesman said: "It currently costs Wiltshire Council upwards of £30 million per year to manage all of Wiltshire’s household waste and recycling so it is important that its long-term strategy is affordable. Each Wiltshire household produces on average 566 kg of non-recycled waste per year.

"The council has to pay to collect and manage waste and recyclable materials. Not all recycling has a value; any income that is generated from recycling goes towards offsetting a small part of the cost of delivering the service."

Bridget Wayman, cabinet member for waste, said: “The questions in the consultation cover a broad range of ideas and suggestions as we want to be thorough and make sure we’ve had a careful look at all the options."

Following the consultation, the draft version of the strategy will be reported to environment select committee, cabinet, and full council for consideration and to be adopted.

From July 30, 2018 recycling collections in Wiltshire will change. Residents will be able to recycle all of the materials they now put in the black box, excluding glass, in their blue-lidded recycling bin, as well as their plastic bottles and cardboard. They will also be able to recycle plastic pots, tubs and trays and food and drink cartons in the blue-lidded bins. Glass will continue to be collected from the black box.

The council says it plans to continue this as a fortnightly collection. But the survey says further service changes may be needed and one question asks how often recycling should be collected and gives the option for a three or four weekly service.

To take part go to http://consult.wiltshire.gov.uk/portal/