WHEN volunteers in Lanner were taking down the village Christmas tree they thought recycling it was the right thing to do but what they didn't realise was that they might have to pay for it to be taken away.

The volunteers took down the village Christmas tree, which had been kindly donated to them by Penventon Nurseries, cut it into three pieces and borrowed a truck to take it to the civic amenity centre at the United Downs Household Waste Recycling Centre.

When they arrived workers told them that the tree could not be put with the other Christmas trees for recycling as it was classed as trade waste which meant it would be sent straight to landfill and would involve a charge.

John Wilson of the Lanner Inn, who was one of the volunteers, was outraged when challenged at the United Downs site, he said: "We were disgusted when they told us they would not take the tree. They said that because there was a link to the parish council it was classified as trade waste.

"But if I had taken the tree and said it was from my house they would have taken it and recycled it. This is a ludicrous situation they would not take something that is recyclable and has come from a charitable origin."

Mr Wilson returned home and brought the tree back to his pub and contacted county and district councillor for Lanner, St Day and Carharrack Mark Kaczmarek.

Coun Kaczmarek said: "This is ridiculous. How on earth do Cornwall county council and SITA believe they are going to encourage recycling with this attitude.

"I will be challenging Cornwall county council and SITA on this as it would appear that decisions are now to be profit driven rather than community spirited."

Coun Kaczmarek also contacted Kerrier district council and arranged for the tree to be picked up and recycled free of charge.

A spokesperson from SITA Cornwall said they would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused to the volunteers of Lanner and said they were also sorry for any embarrassment that they may have cause to Penventon Nurseries and to the parish council.

The spokesperson said: "The tree was mistakenly classed as trade waste by site staff, who have to be very careful under the terms of their contract to only accept household rubbish."

SITA said that staff are happy for voluntary and community groups to bring Christmas trees along for shredding at all SITA Cornwall sites to help improve the recycling rate in the county.

Louis de Poncheville, general manager of SITA Cornwall said: "It is better for groups to bring waste along during the week because at the moment when waste arrives from charities we are legally bound to have the county council's permission on each occasion to process it, however we are working to improve the situation."