Norwich's Mile Cross recycling centre will close its doors for the last time today - but it will be almost two more weeks before its replacement is open.

The new £2.75m Norwich North recycling centre is being built near Norwich Airport, close to where the Northern Distributor Road meets the A140.

Norwich Evening News: A 300-tonne crane on site at the new Norwich north recycling centre close to the city's airport, which is scheduled to open later this year and replace the current facility at Mile Cross.A 300-tonne crane on site at the new Norwich north recycling centre close to the city's airport, which is scheduled to open later this year and replace the current facility at Mile Cross. (Image: Norfolk County Council)

Work on it started late last year, but the hope that it would be ready when the contract Norfolk County Council held with the operators of Mile Cross ended has been dashed.

It will mean it will not open until Wednesday, September 22, which is 12 days later than planned.

But council bosses say alternative centres will be available to people who need to dispose of rubbish and recycling in the meantime.

Andy Grant, the county council's cabinet member for environment and waste, said: "It’s been a challenge to build in these difficult times due to national material shortages and the need to do things safely for everybody in a pandemic.

"And despite the team pulling out all the stops unfortunately the site is not quite ready to open as yet so we’ve had to take a prudent decision to delay opening the site for 12 days.

"The brand-new Norwich North recycling centre is due to open for the first time on Wednesday, September 22.

"The opening will mark a major step forward for our project to give the Greater Norwich area two large modern new recycling centres, to make a service that’s fit for the future and that can meet the needs of a growing population."

Norwich Evening News: Mile Cross recycling centre.Mile Cross recycling centre. (Image: Archant Norfolk Photographic © 2007)

If people are not able to hold onto their recycling and rubbish for a short while, the nearest recycling centres to Norwich are at Mayton Wood, Ketteringham and Strumpshaw.

But Green city and county councillor Ben Price said: "Although it's been a challenging year in construction, this situation should have been anticipated, so I question the logic behind deciding not to postpone the closure of the Mile Cross depot by two weeks to cover this loss in service provision.

"The city is already blighted by incidents of fly-tipping. This gap of two weeks will undoubtedly have an uptick in fly-tipping, and I hope that the county council will provide compensation to its city partners to cover the extra costs incurred cleaning up the mess."

Once up and running the Norwich North recycling centre, which will feature a one-way system, will be open 9am to 5pm, seven days a week (9am to 4pm in the winter).

Norwich Evening News: Andy Grant, Norfolk County Council cabinet member for environment and waste.Andy Grant, Norfolk County Council cabinet member for environment and waste. (Image: Norfolk Conservatives)

The new Norwich South site at Harford is due to open later this year and will replace the Ketteringham recycling centre.