A NEW recycling centre will definitely open in Backwell next month despite villagers' fears about road safety. Last month, members of North Somerset Council's central area planning committee agreed to meet the chairman of Backwell Parish Council and a hig

A NEW recycling centre will definitely open in Backwell next month despite villagers' fears about road safety.Last month, members of North Somerset Council's central area planning committee agreed to meet the chairman of Backwell Parish Council and a highways officer in the village.Residents wanted the district councillors to see for themselves the scale of the development in Church Town and 'the disparity and dangers of the access' to the new civic amenity site.But at the time of going to press, the meeting had yet to take place, and the committee chairman says that regardless of what happens at the meeting, the recycling centre will definitely open next month.He said the local authority's traffic management scheme, which villagers claim has 'serious failings', will be put in place as planned.But officers are looking into the possibility of buying some land near a proposed mini-roundabout at the junction of Church Lane and Church Town, with a view to improving it. Cllr Ian Tonkin, chairman of North Somerset Council's central area committee, said: "It is not possible that the meeting will lead to the road safety measures North Somerset Council has drawn up in relation to the new recycling centre being scrapped."The recycling centre will open with the current road safety proposals in place."But there is a tract of land adjacent to the proposed mini roundabout which officers are looking at purchasing with a view to possibly improving the roundabout junction."If that proves possible, the improvements would be made in the long, rather than the short, term."Residents claimed that a report produced by an independent national highways consultancy had condemned the traffic management scheme on 12 counts.But Cllr Tonkin said that the council didn't necessarily have to take the ideas the firm had put forward on board and officers had chosen not to.At a recent meeting, Backwell Parish Council passed a vote of no confidence in North Somerset Council's traffic management proposals for the new recycling centre.