Work has got underway today on an £8m rail recycling centre in Westbury which will create 20 new jobs in the town.

Network Rail hopes the site in Brook Lane, Westbury, which will recycle disused track materials for use in the south and south west, will be open this spring.

The site will take nearly 25 per cent of disused track materials from Britain’s rail network, which works out as 110,000 concrete sleepers and 30,000 tonnes of rail and fixtures a year.

The rail company’s other two major recycling centres are in Crewe and Cambridgeshire.

Network Rail recycling projects manager, Andrew Blackmore, said: “The materials come to us like a Hornby train set and then we’ll break it down into its component parts.

“The primary object of the site is to make concrete sleepers available for re-use on sidings and low speed lines, rather than buying them brand new.”

Part of the conditions attached to the planning application, which was agreed by Wiltshire Council in August, was that a traffic management plan should be agreed for heavy goods vehicles coming in and out of the site.

Network Rail said there could be as much as 160 heavy goods vehicle movements at the site each week, but have stressed the majority of materials will come into the centre by rail, which they say will remove 1,200 lorry journeys from UK roads each year.

Mr Blackmore said: “The residents on The Ham were concerned about more lorries so we sat down and worked out a traffic management plan with the Highways Department.

“Most of our HGVs will be heading north so it has been agreed that the A350, M4 route is the most suitable.”

During the excavation process the rail company, which already has a distribution centre next to the railway line in Stephenson Road, has found new homes for reptiles on the site.

“We’ve moved on some slow worms and common lizards to Hawkeridge and Fairfield. We sub-contracted Chalkhill Environmental Consultants to do the work because of their local expertise.” Mr Blackmore said.

The company has also agreed to reduce light pollution in the surrounding woodlands to protect foraging and commuting bats.

The new five acre facility will include a two-storey office block, 20 car parking spaces, storage areas, and a 1km rail siding.