Taunton Recycling Site will remain closed next week following the major fire earlier in the month.

This comes as structural engineers confirm that the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) will need to be demolished before the public part of the site can be safely reopened.

Biffa, which owns and manages the site on behalf of Somerset Council, has instructed a demolition company to carry out the work which is expected to begin before the end of October. It is not yet known how long the work will take.

Wellington and Bridgwater recycling sites will continue to open seven days a week – supported by staff redeployed from Taunton – until the Taunton site can safely reopen.

Both Wellington and Bridgwater saw a large influx of visitors last weekend and advice is to save your visit for a weekday if possible. However Wellington is particularly busy on a Wednesday, so residents are advised to use the Bridgwater site if practical and avoid Wednesday in Wellington.

Kerbside collections are not affected by the closure and residents should continue to put their refuse and recycling out as usual.

To ensure the safety of the public, the recycling site cannot open until the demolition has taken place.

Residents who would usually use the Taunton site in the Priorswood area are asked to either:

• Hold on to their recycling if it can wait
• Put it in their kerbside recycling if it is the right kind of material
• Try one of the council’s other 15 sites if it is waste that urgently needs to go

Fire services were called to the site in Priorswood in the early hours of the morning on Tuesday 3 October and up to 60 firefighters and seven appliances were involved in tackling the blaze.

The cause of the fire is not yet known.

Somerset Council has 16 recycling sites across the county which are managed by Biffa on the Council’s behalf. Staff from Taunton have been redeployed to provide the extra opening in Wellington and Bridgwater.