Household recycling is set to improve in Swindon.

Last night Swindon Council's planning committee approved plans for a new £6million recycling depot at Cheney Manor.

The move will mean the closure of the existing facility at the Barnfield site and the consolidation of all Swindon Council's blue collar workers under one site.

As revealed in the Evening Advertiser in April, the council wants to build the depot and recycling centre on a large site formerly used by Trespaphan UK on the Cheney Manor Industrial Estate.

Members voted unanimously for the plans to go ahead.

The plans must now be referred to the Secretary of State for a seal of approval.

Household rubbish is currently increasing by five per cent a year in Wiltshire and Swindon Council targets state that by 2005 some 40 per cent of municipal rubbish and 36 per cent of household rubbish should be recycled.

Committee member Keith Small (Lab), whose Western Ward encompasses the proposed Cheney Manor site, said it will mean Swindon will be more in line with these targets.

He said: "Household recycling will only get better with the new site. It will put all of Swindon Services on the one site, which will be more cost effective.

"We will be able to take our recycling programme forward as soon as the Secretary of State approves it.

"Until we get permission the plans will remain a bit vague but it is very exciting."

The site, in Darby Close, was acquired at a cost of £3m and it has been estimated that it will need a further £3.5m to convert it to the new use.

The new depot will be less than half a mile away from the existing site on the northern side of the railway line.

It is some distance away from any homes.

In addition to a municipal depot, it will include a household recycling centre for separating re-usable household rubbish, a materials recycling facility and ancillary offices.

Bin lorries, maintenance workers, grounds keepers and most Swindon Services workers will be based at the new depot.

Meanwhile, DIY chain B&Q has exclusively revealed to the Evening Advertiser that it wants to build one of its stores at the Barnfield site.

Company spokeswoman Alison Yaldren told the Evening Advertiser last week: "We have made a planning application for a B&Q store at Barnfield.

"The application will come before Swindon Council's planning committee in July."