Bath and North East Somerset Council is set to spend £10m on its new city dump — despite campaigners warning the facilities are worse than at the current site.

The council is planning to build a new household waste recycling centre on Locksbrook Road to replace the Midland Road Recycling Centre half a mile away, as planning permission has been granted to build 176 homes on the site.

But moving the recycling centre is set to cost more than £1 million — and it will accept fewer items than the current site.

The Stop the Tip campaign said: “How do you spend £10million and end up with a recycling centre that is inferior to the one it replaces? At a time when councils across the country are going bust, B&NES is lavishing huge sums of money by giving people of Bath less for more.”

The new facility will accept only 80 per cent of the waste Midland Road accepts, and unlike Midland Road, it will not accept DIY waste, electronics, hazardous waste, batteries, tyres, oil, asbestos or gas bottles — which people will now need to take to Keynsham Recycling Centre. The council’s planning committee voted 6-3 to grant planning permission for the scheme.

But the council executive still needs to take the decision to proceed — which will be made by a single cabinet member on or after May 8. The report going before them sets out that it will cost £5.049m to turn what is currently a council street cleaning depot into the new Bath Recycling Centre.

But relocating that council street cleaning depot so the current site can become the tip is set to cost another £5.543m. The total scheme is set to cost £10.937m, £840k of which has already been approved.

The Stop the Tip campaign said: “That money could be used to build a full capacity, state of the art recycling centre at Odd Down, and actually fulfil B&NES’ environmental responsibilities.”

The council has said the Locksbrook Road site is the only suitable location for the new recycling centre but campaigners said there had been a “lack of transparency,” as their review of alternative sites has now been released.

A spokesperson for Bath and North East Somerset Council said: “Following wide consultation on the plans to develop our former cleansing depot site in Locksbrook Road, we listened to feedback from residents, business and stakeholders and addressed concerns around the trees, noise, lighting, traffic and accessibility within the site. The planning application was approved earlier this month.

“Following that decision, the next stage would be to implement the recommendations that are set out in the single member decision report and, if approved, draw down the funds to enable work to start on site this autumn and for the council to appoint a contractor.

“The move to Locksbrook would then make way for housing on the Midland Road site which has planning permission for a mix of 1, 2 and 3 bed homes for social rent, shared ownership and market sale as part of the Bath Western Riverside housing scheme.”