Anger at waste site ban on big vehicles
Thursday 22nd October 2009, 8:25AM BST.
Incidents of fly-tipping will soar in Shropshire because of a decision to ban trucks and large pick-ups from county waste sites, a councillor warned today.
Under new rules large vehicles are not allowed to enter the five household waste recycling centres in Shrewsbury, Oswestry, Bridgnorth, Whitchurch and Craven Arms.
Shropshire Council says more than 3,000 tonnes of waste was dumped illegally at the sites last year by businesses, at a cost to the council taxpayer of nearly £200,000.
But Councillor Ray Stickland, of Shifnal Town Council, said the decision beggared belief.
“I think whoever has made this decision is off their trolley,” he said.
“If you are getting trucks and big vehicles going to the tips and being turned away, what are they going to do?
“They certainly won’t drive all the way home or back to work – they will just dump it anywhere.
“We already have a massive problem in Shifnal with fly-tipping, for instance on Stanton Road where there are always loads of rubber tyres being dumped.
“I fear these crazy new rules are just going to make things a lot, lot worse.
“Tips are for dumping rubbish and hedgerows are for decoration, but they don’t seem to understand that at Shirehall.”
John Wallen, from Shropshire Council’s waste partnership, said he believed tightening measures would have no impact on fly-tipping.
“He said the last time entry requirements were made more stringent in 2002 incidents of fly-tipping did not go up.
He added: “We can’t say it won’t happen this time – but if fly-tipping does increase then we will make sure we deal with it.”
Large vans and pick-ups were previously allowed on site at the county’s tips if drivers possessed a valid permit.
Smaller vans, 4x4s, pick-ups, camper vans and cars with medium-sized trailers will also have to apply for a permit to get in under the new rules.
By Wayne Beese
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Methinks that it will cost them a lot more than £200K a year to clear up the resulting mess.
Businesses may have been avoiding tax on their rubbish by illegally bringing it to the waste sites, but at least it was either recycled or safely disposed of.
By enacting this rule, the council is merely slipping a middleman into the recovery process.
Instead of waste to waste site, it will now be waste to countryside to council vehicle to waste site.
And in addition to rising costs on the council, they will still not be able to recover the waste tax from the business doing the dumping.
We have a waste problem in UK, but persuading businesses to dump their waste in the countryside is not the answer.
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THIS IS PUNISHING BUSINESS IN THE MIDST OF RECESSION ITS MAD COUNCIL SHOULD REMEMBER BUSINESS RATES TOO NOT JUST COUNCIL TAX FUNDS THESE SITES AND THEIR JOBS
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worst thing is that it might not even be buisness waste as if you have some work done on your own home if you have a pickup or a van you cant take the rubbish to the skip without passes which are a pain to order and take time (wouldnt be so bad if it was a online form and you got them within a day or two) you have to pay for a skip which is alot if plasterbaord is involved.
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They have moved the recycling centre to the most stupid site in oswestry
They have moved it from an easily accessed site to a busy culdesac road right at the end. A road where lorries and cars park on the pavement and lorries squeze down the road as it is. And now they are asking the public to drive small cars up and down with all these commercial vehicles aswell. They are asking for an accident
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My husband drives a pick-up truck because he is a Dry Stone Waller.
Exactly what business waste do they think he’s going to dump??!
We use the truck to take large items to the recycling centre in Shrewsbury because they don’t fit into my Smart Car!
Does this mean I can leave my wooden bed frame out on the curb to be collected with my tin cans?
It’s punishing people who are trying to do the right thing, and take items to be recycled.
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I think this spoils it for people who are not using there vans for trade waste and just household waste, why don’t the staff from the recycling centre check these vehicles before they go in because they are normally standing around doing nothing anyway, why spoil it for everyone, I think this is the wrong decision the council are making or is it there way of making more money!!
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hey look if it really has the potential to save 200k per annum im game – this means lower council tax which should be the number one priority for any council at the moment
would you rather they cut libraries, meals on wheels, personal cleaning for OAPs, after school clubs, park and ride, or maybe close a few rural primaries???
I see this as sensible accounting, closing loop holes and finding relatively pain free savings and efficiencies to reduce the burden of taxation for all our benefits
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i think this misses the point – its not the type of truck that matters surely its what they are bringing in, if its recyclable who cares where it comes from???????????????????????????????????????if the material brought in will be kept out of landfill it should be fine but if its rubbish, well where ever it comes from we should be restricting access for these people
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hey angry cant u read !!!
if your hubbie is a dry stone waller then his rubbish is not HOUSEHOLD waste, its from his business, thats why he cant come in
why should i as a council tax payer pay for your husbands profit making business to have free waste disposal
its people like you who make taxes high!!!
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I agree why should I support businesses through increased council tax just so they can get rid of business waste for free at council waste sites?
A business can afford to pay to have waste removed
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how how ” big ” is a big van or a big trailer ??? last time i was at battlefield i nearly got run over by some farmer with a horse box and a 4 by 4 so i agree on banning some trucks (or maybe putting in some mirrors or traffic lights of some sort ??) , i think this is not thought through because i dont know the difference between a ‘big’ transit van and say a camper van, in terms of carrying capacity, similarly a people carrier versus a 4 by 4 versus say a mini bus which is safer to drive on those narrow roads ???
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anything which will reduce council tax is a good plan in my opinon
however we should also seek to reduce business rates and reduce costs for local companies too, so perhaps a comprimise could be found where local traders could use these sites for a small annual charge or the council could do them some kind of a recycling collection ?
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what a load of rubbish!
i think all the council cares about these days is saving money, the environmentalism is used as a shield to hide cost cutting behind
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Jennie powell i think you have missed angrys point she is saying her husband is a dry stone waller so he has no buisness waste as he uses stones to make walls no other bits nessaccery and the extra stones from jobs go to the next job so ther is no waste and she is saying that she cant take her house hold waste to the skip due to the size fo there cars which is the same situation im in.
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There’s a very simple system in Telford & Wrekin. I have a van for work, but if I want to take any large ‘household’ waste to the recycling centres I have to apply for a book of permits that identify my van and its reg. They’re also free. I hand these in at the gate and the site staff check that I’m not dumping ‘business’ waste. It’s never a problem and the staff at Halesfield have always been helpful. If I have ‘business’ waste I do what every other business is supposed to do – pay for a skip or a commercial collection from someone like Biffa. It’s a business cost.
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incidents of fly tipping in shropshire are ALREDY soaring because of fortnightly bin collections and this will make it worse, this idea has surely come from pressure from clown browns government to nanny us into seperating all our rubbish.
well i say NO, i cant be dealing with all that, thats what i pay the council to do it for me, this is not on.
the main problem is that Labour and the EU has cut bin collections to fortnightly, this despite the daily collections of rubbish enjoyed by inhabitants of brussells, paris and rome, as usual we are second class citizens in the franco-german empire. only the conservatives under cameron will reverse this and our chairman eric pickles has promised once elected we will BRING BACK WEEKLY BIN DAY in shropshire and in the rest of england too.
Labour cuts bin collections and now they are even trying to charge you to get into the tip, labour makes you have hundreds of ugly plastic bins outside your house instead of one sack, labour has brought a plague of rats to britain, there are bin strikes in Leeds, like the winter of discontent, labour isnt working, labour has made britain rubbish, labour forces you to recycle and cuts your bin collections
vote blue and go green, get weekly bin day back and stop the brussels diktats on waste now
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this is all because of P F I – by privatising the waste services to the french firm veolia, the council is no longer able to control or influence the policies and procedures at these sites, the sites have been given away to the prviate sector and then ironically they are being paid to run them, this is a bad deal for local businesses and a bad deal for local council tax payers too
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This is wrong – we pay the council huge amounts each year in taxes and cannot even take our navara pickup to the recycling depot – it is not a huge pickup truck and it is also doubles up as a family car. We should all stop paying council tax until the councils actually serve the people that pays their wages!
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surely if the site is being abused by builders and such you could just ask the DVLA about the vehicle registration details and cross reference it with tax and benefits – if they are odd jobbers they will probably be registered as craftsman, builders or some thing and you can ban them, but if they are legitamate people who just happen to own a van they should be banned or forced to pay by the tonne at the gate house / entrance
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