IMPROVEMENTS to the district s recycling facilities have been put on the back-burner because of the high costs involved. The council wants to upgrade the recycling depot in Ronsons Way, St Albans, so that it can accept mixed plastics as well as bottles, a

IMPROVEMENTS to the district's recycling facilities have been put on the back-burner because of the high costs involved.

The council wants to upgrade the recycling depot in Ronsons Way, St Albans, so that it can accept mixed plastics as well as bottles, at a provisional cost of �200,000.

If the plans went ahead, it would produce a small increase in the council's recycling rate, but it would cost up to �156,000 in additional collections each year while the revenue from selling on the materials would reduce.

At a meeting of the district council's cabinet last week, councillors decided that they could not justify an average 1.4 per cent rise in their share of council tax in a year when many families were already strapped for cash.

But council leader Robert Donald insisted that it would be an objective for the future and said: "When we can afford to do it we will.