Harrogate Stonefall recycling centre to open after traffic review

Harrogate Stonefall household waste recycling centre will reopen tomorrow after a council review into traffic and safety around the site.

North Yorkshire County Council closed all of its centres as part of the national lockdown back in March but did not open Stonefall along with others in May.

Stonefall will reopen tomorrow from 8.30am to 5pm and will be operating the usual six days a week – every day except for Wednesdays.

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Staff will be unable to help unload so only take items you can handle yourself and make sure you keep two metres apart.

They will not accept any hardcore, rubble, plasterboard, tyres and wastes from charities along with the other recycling centres.

Cllr Andrew Lee, North Yorkshire County Council’s Executive Member for Waste Management, said:

“We are really pleased to be able to re-open this very popular site. It is one of the busiest sites in the county, so it has taken a little bit longer to be able to open it safely. We have worked hard with our contractors, Yorwaste, to be able to reopen this site to ensure the safety of staff and the public.”

Hand sanitising facilities at sites are limited, so people are advised to wear gloves on-site and are reminded to wash their hands before and after attending.

Council to open up waste recycling centre in Ripon

North Yorkshire County Council will reopen a further five household waste recycling centres, including one in Ripon.

The Ripon recycling centre on Dallamires Lane will reopen tomorrow along with others in Malton, Northallerton, Tadcaster and Wombleton.

It comes after the council opened a further 14 waste recycling centres earlier this month. Penny Pot Lane in Harrogate was particularly busy with queues.

The council closed its 20 recycling centres temporarily in March. The Harrogate Stonefall centre will be the only centre to remain closed.

North Yorkshire County Council has said that it cannot the Harrogate Stonefall recycling centre just yet because of difficulties managing highway safety.

Councillor Andrew Lee, the Executive Member for Waste Management, said:

“It is great to see all but one of the sites reopening, and I would like to thank the North Yorkshire residents for their understanding, and for playing their part by continuing to recycle and dispose of their waste responsibly and only visiting the sites when they can’t store their waste at home. All the sites that have reopened so far have been managed well by our contractor Yorwaste with new controls to keep the public and staff safe. We would like to remind residents that we are currently unable to accept trailers or commercial customers at any of the sites.”

Traffic control measures around Penny Pot Lane as tip re-opens to public

A short queue of cars was waiting outside the Household Waste Recycling Centre on Penny Pot Lane in Harrogate this morning.

After North Yorkshire County Council announced yesterday afternoon that it was going to re-open some of its tips today, locals were ready to make use of the facility.

Traffic management was in place, forcing drivers to approach the site from the west only. Those arriving from the Harrogate side had to follow signposts to go along the A59 and down to join the queue on Penny Pot Lane.

NYCC said if the queue becomes too long, it will ask drivers to come back later in order to spread demand.

Diversion signs at Penny Pot tip

Diversion signs re-direct traffic arriving from the east

With 10 tips now open from 8.30am to 5pm, seven days a week across North Yorkshire, the county council said they are only to be used by people who cannot store their waste at home until lockdown is lifted. Commercial waste is not being accepted and nor are trailers, but charges are still being made for disposing of some non-commercial waste, including hardcore, rubble, plasterboard and tyres.

Coun Andrew Lee, NYCC’s executive member for Waste Management, said:

“Please consider others and go to the HWRC only if you are struggling. If you can store your waste at home, please do so. And please continue to try to minimise waste and where possible use your kerbside collection services rather than visiting a recycling centre. Ask yourself whether your trip to the centre is really an essential journey.

“As outlined in Government guidance, a visit to your local HWRC should only be considered essential if the waste materials cannot be stored at home without causing risk of injury or harm to health.

HWRCs on Wetherby Road in Harrogate and Dallamires Crescent in Ripon remain closed.

Harrogate recycling centre to reopen under strict controls

One of Harrogate’s waste recycling centres will reopen under strict controls along with half of the others in North Yorkshire.

Penny Pot Lane will be the first of Harrogate’s centres to reopen after the Government updated its advice and urged councils to make them safe for the public and for staff.

The centres will be open seven days a week including bank holidays with opening hours be between 8.30am and 5pm.

It will be managed with a queuing system with a cut-off point so if it becomes too long people will be sent back home. Trailers will not be allowed until further notice.

A limited number of people will be able to visit at any one time. Only one person will be allowed out of their vehicle once on-site, and people must remain in their vehicle while queuing.

To support social distancing, site staff will be unable to help with the disposal of waste.

People will be able to separate waste into different skips. The usual rules will apply for chargeable waste. Payment by card will be accepted only, contactless where possible.

Hand sanitising facilities at sites are limited, so people are advised to wear gloves and will be reminded to wash their hands before and after.

Commercial waste will not be accepted at this time. Commercial-like vehicles that are registered with the council will be permitted on site.

North Yorkshire County Council closed all 20 of its centres in March but will reopen ten of them tomorrow.

The council said that it cannot open all of its centres just yet because of their size, layout and proximity to roads but added that this will be reviewed continually with a view to opening more as soon as possible.

The household waste recycling centres to reopen are:

Councillor Andrew Lee, the executive member for waste management, said:

“I am pleased that we can move forward now, and thank residents for their support of the measures we have taken to date and in anticipation of their continued support to ensure the arrangements we are now putting in place can operate successfully. This will be the first phase of the reopening and we will work to reopen the other sites as soon as we can.”

 

UPDATE: Continuing tip closures ‘completely unreasonable’ according to Harrogate councillor

Household waste recycling centres (HWRC) will remain closed in North Yorkshire, despite several around the country re-opening this weekend.

North Yorkshire County Council said it is still working on the safest way for its tips to re-open, including the two in Harrogate and one in Ripon, despite growing demand from the public and concerns that a lack of the facility may lead to fly-tipping.

The decision to keep the gates closed has been challenged by Coun Geoff Webber, who represents Bilton and Nidd Gorge on NYCC. He said:

“I fail to understand how people are expected to calculate sufficiency of storage space when we can’t tell them when the tips will reopen. Furthermore it seems to me completely unreasonable to ask people who are mainly confined to home not to generate waste through DIY or gardening.

Compliance with current regulations relies on the public acceptance that the regulations are reasonable and I fear that the County Council’s current position is far from that.”

Around the UK, other local authorities including Greater Manchester have re-opened their waste and recycling centres, after the local government secretary, Robert Jenrick, told the House of Commons on Tuesday that he expected tips to be open “within weeks”.

‘Cut non-essential travel’

Ian Fielding, NYCC’s assistant director for waste management, said:

“As it stands our household waste recycling centres remain closed for public safety and to cut non-essential travel but we will open them as soon as we can. The government are indicating that sites can reopen where they can be operated safely, and are preparing guidance for local authorities on how this might work in practice.

“We are considering how and when we might be able to open our sites, and operate them without putting staff or the public at risk. Before making a decision, we want to ensure that we have addressed all potential challenges regarding social distancing and traffic management but it is probable that not all sites will open initially, and it is likely that there will be significant restrictions on their use.”

Mr Fielding said the decision to close was made alongside other local authorities in England and NYCC was working hard to get the HWRCs open again as soon as possible.

While the tips remain closed, he urged people not to create additional waste and reminded the public that fly tipping carries legal penalties:  

“During this lockdown period we are asking people to minimise their waste as much as possible. For instance, please do not begin DIY or gardening projects if you don’t have space to store that waste until the HWRCs are able to reopen.

“Do not be tempted to fly tip. It is an offence punishable by fines or imprisonment and offenders will be prosecuted.”