Late taking the rent round the collection centre (6)
I believe the answer is:
recent
'late' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'the rent round the collection centre' is the wordplay.
'round' indicates putting letters inside.
'centre' means to look at the middle letters.
The centre of 'collection' is 'ec'.
'rent' enclosing 'ec' is 'RECENT'.
'taking' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for recent that I've seen before include "Having been done lately" , "Not long ago, a little while back" , "Done not long ago" , "Not long ago, in the immediate past" , "In the near past, not long ago" .)