People in the Harrogate district have been advised to avoid household recycling centres this weekend because of expected queues.
North Yorkshire County Council’s 20 recycling centres remain open during lockdown but queueing systems to comply with social distance guidelines have caused tailbacks.
The Harrogate district has three centres: Wetherby Road and Penny Pot Lane in Harrogate and Dallamires Crescent in Ripon.
Queues at the recycling centre on Wetherby Road. Photo: Mark Westerman
Councillor Andrew Lee, executive member for open to business, said:
“We expect the household waste recycling centres to be extremely busy over the holiday weekend, as Easter is always a busy time.
“Given the rules in place to ensure the sites can operate safely, this will inevitably lead to queues.
“We’re asking people to consider whether they really need to visit their household waste recycling centre this weekend. Could you keep the waste at home for another week or so and take it at a less busy time?”
The centres moved to summer opening hours today, meaning they are now open from 8.30am to 5pm every day except Wednesdays.
Hannah Corlett, spokesperson for the Harrogate and District Green Party said the location of the centres was the main issue. She said:
“I know people from Ripon who have travelled all the way to Bedale recycling centres because the queues are so large so we should be asking why the centres are where they are.
“These high traffic areas are a bad place for them if they’re causing such big queues.
“Asking people to avoid them this weekend also sends a bad message about accessibility. Lots of people don’t have time to travel to their local recycling centre and so more and smaller recycling centres would probably be a better option.”
