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21
May
Council tip restrictions ‘a recipe for fly-tipping’, say Greens
A Green Party councillor has criticised new council recycling centre restrictions as a “recipe for fly-tipping”.
North Yorkshire Council introduced the restrictions in April, which mean motorists need to register their name, address and vehicle before visiting any of the 20 centres in the county.
Locally, they include tips at Pennypot Lane and Wetherby Road in Harrogate, Dallamires Lane in Ripon and a mobile site at Bewerley Park, Pateley Bridge.
The council said the move will ensure the sites are used by North Yorkshire residents who fund the service, and reduce visits from people outside the county.
But Cllr Andy Brown, Green and Independent councillor for Aire Valley, said the move was a recipe for increased fly tipping that would cost more than allowing someone from outside the county to use the centre.
He said:
If someone takes the trouble to load up their car and drive to a recycling centre only to discover that they live outside the permitted area or haven't filled out the right form then if they are turned away, a certain proportion of irresponsible people will simply tip the items by the side of the road. This is saving money by one route in order to spend more money cleaning up the consequent mess.
Despite all the bland assurances I was given that everything was for the 'best in the best of all possible worlds', I still believe that North Yorkshire residents will end up paying a lot more to sort out fly tipping than we will save.
At a full council meeting on Wednesday (May 20), Cllr Brown asked Cllr Carl Les, Conservative leader of the council, how many people had registered for the scheme so far and what plans the council had in place to deal with any increase in fly-tipping.
New registration checks have come into force at North Yorkshire's household waste recycling centres.
Cllr Les said 163,000 people had so far registered to use recycling centres under the new restrictions.
He added that the council would be “robust” in prosecuting those who choose to fly-tip in North Yorkshire.
Cllr Les said:
Nobody has been turned away yet. Actually, staff have been very helpful in helping people to register there and then at the gate.
I think many of the residents that I represent are very pleased that we are taking steps to minimise their council tax being used to pay for other authority’s waste disposal. It's not a new or unique approach. Many, if not most, of our neighbours do it already.
I think I seem to have a higher regard for the honesty and integrity of our residents than you do. I think fly-tipping is much more likely to be carried out by people who don’t even attempt to go the the tip. However, whoever does it, we are determined to be more robust in prosecuting fly-tippers.
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