16258/1YOU may have been told when you were a child that wilful waste made woeful want but Wiltshire waste makes wonderful compost.

Devizes mayor Coun Peter Evans yesterday took delivery of five tonnes of compost that has been made from garden waste delivered to one of Wiltshire's neighbourhood recycling centres or picked up by Kennet District Council's new garden waste collection service.

Devizes Town Council has ordered five tonnes of the peat-free Warrior compost for its prize-winning flowerbeds in Hillworth Park.

The town has previously won the accolade of the best market town in the South West for its efforts in the Britain in Bloom competition, and direct services manager Liz Buys is hoping the new compost will help it repeat its success.

"It's really great to be using compost made in Wiltshire. We are very much pledged to sustainability and recycling and this gives that message out loud and clear," she said.

The compost is made at the premises of Wiltshire County Council's waste contractors Hills Recycling and the raw materials include everything from garden cuttings to Christmas trees, collected through the county's ten recycling centres and the district council green waste collections.

The compost is produced to the BSI PAS100 standard and is accredited by the Soil Association.

It has already proved very popular with gardeners, and the compost is selling well at the recycling centres where visitors can either buy it ready bagged or take their own containers for filling.

"It has proved a real winner people really like the idea of using compost produced in the county and it is a great example of recycling in action," said Steve Palmer of Hills Recycling.