People in the west of the Island have emphatically voiced their opposition to plans to expand the Western Civic Amenity site at St John's.

The village Methodist church hall was packed last night, to hear arguments for and against plans by the Department of Local Government and the Environment to enlarge the facility.

The majority of those who attended feel the projected cost of up to ?700,000 is too high.

And, while not against some form of modernisation, they believe the expansion isn't needed (play audio file):

Chairman of the Western Civic Amenity Site committee Rodger Gimbert accepts some residents feel the cost can't be justified.

But he believes an expansion would offer a vastly improved service.

He told Manx Radio:

"The committee are passionate about recycling and reusing, and we will do our best to make sure that we carry on and improve on the statistics that we have now.

"Our ideal is to reduce the amount of waste that is going to the incinerator and to other areas. We are trying to reduce the amount of recycling and increase the amount or reuse.

"Now bearing in mind, as I said in the meeting, even when Douglas closed down, over a very busy period, we actually only had one extra skip. That's down to the amount of reuse that we have, and that's a figure that we can't actually quantify."

More on Thursday morning's Mandate.