Somerset Council said the site would be reopened to the public from Monday (13 November) following the demolition of an unsafe building that was badly damaged by the fire.

The site, which is run on the council’s behalf by Biffa, was forced to close after a major fire took hold of the neighbouring Material Recovery Facility (MRF). The cause of the fire is still unknown.

Fire damage to the MRF was severe and structural engineers deemed it damaged beyond repair.

Executive lead member for environment and climate change Dixie Darch said: ‘Safety had to be our priority and we couldn’t open the site until it was safe to do so.’

Cllr Darch said the first few weeks of reopening were likely to be extremely busy and asked residents to refrain from visiting immediately if they were able to safely store waste.

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