A temporary recycling centre is set to be built in a flagship Bath location before the current facility at Midland Road shuts for redevelopment.

Bath and North East Somerset Council has assured residents they will not be left without a recycling centre as it secures a permanent new site in Odd Down, more than three miles from the current location.

The interim facility is set to be created in Bath Western Riverside, where more than 2,000 homes are being built.

Council bosses are aiming to maintain the same level of service for Bath residents but said that will depend on land availability and planning, licensing and permitting consents.

The stopgap solution was announced this week as cabinet members signed off a further £13.6million in funding for the state-of-the-art new recycling at Pixash Lane in Keynsham that is due to open to the public next summer, taking the budget to nearly £30 million.

The interim site at Bath Western Riverside will open before Midland Road shuts in July 2023 to make way for redevelopment with 176 flats – bridging the gap until Bath’s permanent new recycling centre opens in Odd Down in July 2024.

A 2018 Local Plan consultation said that a recycling centre could be built south of the Odd Down park and ride.

Earlier this year the council suggested Bath could have multiple recycling centres – potentially at the Newbridge and Lansdown park and rides, too, as part of plans to turn all three into transport interchanges.

But the supplementary papers to this week’s cabinet meeting said: “Previous option assessments and sequential testing of sites only point to a single location suitable for the permanent relocation of a full replacement for the Midland Road household recycling centre at Odd Down.”

The papers say the new facility will be designed “to provide for the full range of recyclable, hazardous and bulky materials and large reuse facilities, and to continue to enable the district to meet its climate emergency policies”.

Speaking at the cabinet meeting on July 20, Councillor Dave Wood, the cabinet member for neighbourhood services, said: “I’m pleased to be moving this report that brings us one step closer to our brand new state-of-the-art recycling centre in Keynsham.

“As a council we are one of the best performing areas of the country, with record-breaking recycling rates this year.

“I’d like to thank our hard-working staff and our diligent residents for recycling so assiduously.

“I’m proud that as a council we’re investing even more to make sure we can recycle at higher rates going into the future.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to reaffirm to residents that there will be no gap in recycling centres in the city of Bath. As such cabinet members have been sent a supplementary paper about our plans for Bath recycling centres.”