‘Sign up and help us save Gollachy’

TWO community groups have united their efforts in a bid to save Gollachy recycling centre from the axe. Buckie and District Community Council (BDCC), along with their counterparts in neighbouring Lennox, have launched a petition calling for the recycling centres at Gollachy and Dallachy to open for four and three days a week respectively to safeguard both from closure. The Gollachy site has a stay of execution until April next year as Moray Council struggles to save almost £15 million from its budget. BDCC chairman Steve Thornton, who has already criticised closure plans as almost certain to lead to an increase in fly tipping, urged the
community to get behind the petition. “We’ve already got some signatures for the petition and will be putting sheets out in a variety of local outlets,” he told the Advertiser.
“I’d urge as many people as possible to sign up and help us save Gollachy. “Rather than close it, this plan would allow us to keep both sites open. As I’ve said before, what sort of money does the council think they’ll save in reality by closing Gollachy?” His counterpart on Lennox Community Council, Colin Hanover, branded plans to close the Buckpool-based recycling centre as “bizarre”. He continued: “The whole thing is bizarre, to be honest. “Recently we were told that we were going to have to pay for having our garden waste uplifted and now the council are telling us they want to close the alternative place to take it if we can’t or don’t want to pay this charge. “Another strand to this is the fact that over the last 10 or 20 years or so we’ve been educated on recycling and looking after the environment and that was why centres such as Gollachy and Dallachy were developed. Now the council wants to close them. “As a Portgordon resident, I can easily envisage an increase of traffic through the village should Gollachy close as people make their way to Dallachy instead.”
Mr Hanover added that the recycling section of Dallachy was quite small and when it was busy traffic often had to queue out on to the road. He added: “My worry is that if cuts like these continue we’ll very soon end up no better than a Third World country.” Petition signature sheets are available at: McColl’s, St Andrew’s Square, Buckpool; Buckpool Golf Club; Minimarket, St Paul Street, Buckpool; Home Bakery, Well Road, Buckie; Greetings, East Church St, Buckie; Sign Etch, High Street, Buckie; Keystore, Findochty; Spar, Portknockie; Minimarket, Cullen.