A HUGE £300,000-plus facelift and upgrading of Kirklees' household waste recycling centre at Meltham is on the cards.

The scheme will be recommended to a Kirklees Council Cabinet committee on Wednesday, August 11.

The proposals to be put to the Regeneration Committee centre on extending and upgrading the Bent Ley Road site to provide a modern, split-level area, similar to others in Kirklees.

Clr John Smithson, who chairs the committee, said: "The Meltham site is the least customer-friendly of our five sites. It badly needs upgrading to provide the 25,000 households it serves with a modern facility, which will be much safer and better meet residents' needs.

"At the moment the way the site has to operate leads to delays and queues."

"The upgrade will bring it up to the quality of the services at our other sites, where there is much more space for skips and containers and better traffic flow," added Clr Smithson.

"Providing a modern site will encourage more people to use it. This will mean more waste being recycled, which is important in terms of the council reaching recycling targets set by Government.

"Also, the more we recycle the more we save in landfill tax."

The plan will see the demolition of a former Yorkshire Water building, to enable the extension of the waste recycling facility.

The council will also consider extending the opening hours of the site, to include weekend afternoons. This will bring it into line with the other sites in the district.