They will also face questions over the possible establishment of a replacement in Royal Wootton Bassett – on land earmarked as the gateway to a country park.

An extraordinary meeting of the Royal Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Area Board will be held on Tuesday, January 20.

Area boards were established in 2009 when Wiltshire became a unitary authority. They were devised to keep decision-making and accountability close to local communities.

Royal Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Area Board was not due to meet until March.

Earlier this month Wiltshire Council’s Liberal Democrat-led cabinet voted to close recycling centres at Purton and at Lower Compton, near Calne.

They said the decision was being taken because private company Hills Waste Services, which operates the two facilities on behalf of Wiltshire Council, was asking an “unjustifiable” amount of money to renew the contract.

Originally, the cabinet was being asked to seek an extension to the contract – which expires on July 31 next year – while it consulted the public on the matter.

But after going into a private session – from which the press and public were excluded – the motion was amended to seek an immediate exit from the contract when it expires next summer.

Liberal Democrat MPs Roz Savage and Sarah Gibson, and the town and parish councils of Royal Wootton Bassett, Cricklade, and Purton have all protested the planned closures, while a petition to keep the Purton site open until an alternative is in place has attracted nearly 4,000 signatories.

Conservative and Reform UK councillors have also been critical of the decision, and the suddenness at which the July closure seemed to have been reached.

Councillor Paul Sample, Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for waste services, confirmed to the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We are holding an extraordinary Area Board meeting on January 20 to allow residents and local councillors to ask questions and provide feedback about changes to waste service delivery arrangements, specifically the decision to close the household recycling centres at Lower Compton and Purton from August 2026.”

The meeting will be held at Royal Wootton Bassett and starts at 6.30pm.