B&NES Council’s Budget consultation 2026/27 is available on their website at https://www.bathnes.gov.uk/budget-consultation-2026-2027 The B&NES Council consultation opened on 12 December and closes on Monday 19 January 2026 (5pm).
Saltford Parish Council (SPC) has formally objected to B&NES Council’s proposal to change opening hours at Household Waste Recycling Centres in Bath and at Welton in Midsomer Norton. SPC’s main concern is that reduced or rotational closures at these sites would divert extra traffic to the Pixash Lane facility in Keynsham, worsening congestion, road safety risks, and air quality along the A4 corridor through Saltford. The Parish Council has also highlighted that such changes could undermine the planning assumptions and commitments made when the Pixash Lane site was approved in 2021.
SPC resolved its response to the B&NES Council Budget consultation proposal made under the ‘Resources’ section to change (reduce) the opening hours of B&NES Council’s recycling centres in Bath and Midsomer Norton at its January 2026 meeting (Item 14). Draft minutes from SPC’s January meeting are available on SPC’s ‘Meetings – Agenda and Minutes‘ page.
SPC’s full response to the B&NES Council Budget Consultation 2026/2027 is as follows:
Saltford Parish Council Formal objection response to B&NES Council’s Budget Consultation 2026–2027: Resources – Review of Household Waste Recycling Centre Site Capacity and Usage. ‘Change opening hours of recycling centres in Bath and Welton, Midsomer Norton, ensuring people can always get to a recycling centre seven days a week.’
Saltford Parish Council (SPC) has considered the proposal within the limited information available in the B&NES Council Budget Consultation 2026–2027 relating to the ‘Review of Household Waste Recycling Centre site capacity and usage’, specifically the proposal to change opening hours of recycling centres in Bath and Welton, Midsomer Norton, while ensuring that a recycling centre is available to B&NES residents seven days a week.
SPC wishes to raise a formal objection to this proposal as it is highly likely to result in increased use of the Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) at Pixash Lane in Keynsham by residents from other parts of Bath and North East Somerset during periods when alternative facilities are closed.
Traffic Impact and Planning Context
The Pixash Lane HWRC is accessed via local roads including the A4 which already experience significant congestion, particularly at peak times. Any increase in traffic volumes through surrounding villages, including Saltford, would have a detrimental impact on highway capacity, road safety, residential amenity, and local air quality. SPC considers this risk to be particularly acute if weekday closures or reduced opening hours at other HWRC sites encourage displacement of users to Keynsham.
SPC notes that during the planning process for the Keynsham waste and recycling facility (planning application reference 21/00435/EREG03), B&NES Council gave clear assurances that Bath residents would not be left without local HWRC provision and that traffic impacts at the Pixash Lane site were assessed on that basis. This position is explicitly set out in the Miles White Transport statement submitted (and as displayed on the B&NES Planning Portal) for the above application in July 2021, which confirms:
- B&NES Council’s commitment that Bath residents would not be left without at least one, and potentially more, HWRC facilities within the city, ensuring no break in provision.
- That the Transport Assessment (TA) used worst-case assumptions assuming no replacement HWRC facilities in Bath, which the Council confirmed would not occur.
- That under realistic assumptions, with HWRC provision retained in Bath, visits to Pixash Lane in the 2027 design year were predicted to be approximately 182,558 per year, little different from the current figure (at the date of the document) of 179,337 visits per year.
- That the worst-case scenario of 329,423 visits per year was used only for robustness and significantly overstated likely traffic flows.
- That B&NES Highways accepted that lower, realistic flows would result in no objection to their own planning application.
SPC is concerned that any reduction in opening hours or weekday availability at HWRCs in Bath or Midsomer Norton could undermine the assumptions and commitments relied upon when planning permission for the Pixash Lane, Keynsham facility was granted. Such changes risk creating the very “worst-case” scenario that the TA explicitly states would not occur.
Planning history and considerations – Impact on cumulative traffic and air quality
SPC further notes that its concerns regarding traffic congestion and air quality impacts associated with the Pixash Lane waste and recycling facility are longstanding and were formally set out in SPC’s response to the planning consultation for the site in March 2021 (Item 10.e, Planning Matters – Planning Consultations).
In that response dated 2021, SPC identified its principal concern as the cumulative effect of the Pixash Lane redevelopment when taken together with other recent and proposed developments between Keynsham and Saltford, particularly in relation to peak-period congestion and air quality along the Bath Road (A4) corridor. SPC explicitly requested that highways and environmental assessments should not consider individual developments in isolation, but should instead take full account of incremental traffic growth arising from multiple housing, commercial and infrastructure developments in the area, alongside other factors such as Clean Air Zone displacement traffic and post-COVID changes in travel behaviour.
SPC highlighted that further increases in traffic along this corridor risk lengthening peak congestion periods, increasing the likelihood of gridlock at key junctions (including the Broadmead Lane roundabout), and worsening conditions for residents of Saltford, Keynsham and surrounding communities. SPC also raised concern that increased vehicle emissions could result in Saltford once again requiring Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) designation, with particular implications for school travel routes along the Bath Road, including those used by pupils travelling to Wellsway School.
These concerns remain valid and unresolved. SPC considers that any budget-driven changes to HWRC opening hours that encourage additional weekday or peak-time journeys to the Pixash Lane facility would exacerbate the very cumulative impacts identified in 2021, contrary to the assumptions that underpinned the planning consent.
B&NES Ward Councillor Information
SPC further notes correspondence received from a B&NES Ward Councillor, to raise SPC’s attention to the proposal to ‘rotate closures at Bath and Welton recycling centres’. The Saltford B&NES Ward Councillor highlighted that:
- The Keynsham HWRC was only granted planning permission with the explicit condition that there would be no significant increase in traffic, particularly on the A4.
- An additional highways annex was introduced at a late stage in the planning process specifically to clarify this position and enable approval (see Miles White Transport statement, as referred to above).
- Statements within the budget consultation suggesting that “the Keynsham site is large enough to accommodate additional visits” and that it should serve residents “from across the district” are inconsistent with the planning basis on which consent was granted.
- Planning for increased cross-district travel to recycling centres runs contrary to green transport objectives and sustainability principles.
SPC shares these concerns and considers them highly material to the B&NES Council budget consultation proposals.
Air Quality and Sustainability Considerations
Saltford and neighbouring communities already experience poor air quality associated with congestion on the A4 Bath Road and associated ‘rat running’ through its residential historic Conservation Area.
Given the location of the Pixash Lane HWRC on the north-western edge of B&NES, most cross-district traffic from residents eligible to use the site would be routed through Saltford. Encouraging additional vehicle movements to the Pixash Lane HWRC, particularly during weekdays or peak periods, would exacerbate these conditions and conflict with B&NES Council’s wider objectives on climate change, public health, and sustainable transport.
This risk is compounded by the cumulative traffic impacts from other recent and proposed developments along the Bath Road (A4) corridor, which SPC highlighted in its March 2021 planning consultation response and as flagged in its recent Local Plan Options Consultation response at https://www.saltfordparishcouncil.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/BaNES-Local-Plan-Reset-Options-Consultation-SPC-response-FINAL-VERSION-4-Nov-2025.pdf (p.5, under Saltford Village: TRANSPORT OPPORTUNITIES) and SPC’s WECA A4 Bath to Bristol Consultation response at https://www.saltfordparishcouncil.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Saltford-Parish-Council-A4-Bath-to-Bristol-Consultation-4-Nov-2025.pdf .
Conclusion and Request
Saltford Parish Council formally objects to any changes in the availability or opening hours of Household Waste Recycling Centres in Bath, Welton, or other B&NES sites if such changes could result in increased traffic to the Pixash Lane HWRC. SPC requests that:
- No reductions or rotational closures be implemented at any other HWRC sites across B&NES that would divert residents to Pixash Lane.
- B&NES Council reaffirms and maintains existing HWRC provision in Bath and other locations to ensure the assumptions underpinning the planning approval for the Pixash Lane facility are not undermined.
- Any operational changes proposed by B&NES Council either now or in the future are fully assessed for cumulative impacts on traffic congestion, air quality, and community amenity, particularly along the Bath Road (A4) corridor through Saltford, before being considered at a public consultation (with any information presented as part of the consultation papers).
- All relevant planning conditions, Transport Assessment assumptions, and sustainability objectives are fully respected, ensuring that operational decisions do not increase road-based vehicle movements in a manner inconsistent with B&NES Council’s green transport aims.
SPC considers that implementing rotational closures or reducing HWRC availability at other sites would be contrary to the commitments made during the planning process for the Pixash Lane facility and would have unacceptable impacts on Saltford and other local communities especially in relation to air quality, traffic congestion and road safety.
(Resolved: Saltford Parish Council Item 14, January 2026)
Image above shows the busy A4 Bath Road, Saltford (October 2025)