Atherstone and district warned: We'll throw the book at you without a 'time slot' for recycling at civic tip

SYSTEM FOR HOUSEHOLD WASTE RECYCLING CENTRES GOES LIVE

COUNCIL bosses plan to 'police' civic tips when they reopen next week to stop recycling customers from Atherstone and North Warwickshire queue jumping the online pre-booking service.

Kickstarting household waste centres at Lower House farm Dordon and Tuttle Hill, Nuneaton after eight weeks of being closed due to coronavirus comes with a tranche of measures all designed to ensure social distancing is observed.

And Warwickshire County Council is urging returning customers to consider whether their trip is "absolutely essential" and should only visit either of the two sites if the waste cannot "be safely stored at home and is presenting a hazard" in line with Government guidance.

While Monday, May 18 is seen as 'salvation day' for the thousands of people forced to hoard their excess waste since March 24 – the county council confirmed to Nub News last week it will be operating a booking system.

And local authority staff intend to control the number of vehicles on site at any one time, so customers are being asked to book a 15-minute slot via an Eventbrite link on the council website at warwickshire.gov.uk/hwrc.

Car registrations will be checked before arrival at the entrance and any vehicles not booked a time slot will be asked to "drive on" – without being allowed into the site.

Customers should expect differences in traffic management arrangements around site entrances and differences in terms of parking layout and container availability. Pre-sorting waste will mean a faster and safer visit to the site.

Councillor Heather Timms, portfolio holder for Environment and Heritage and Culture, said: "We are really pleased that we can reopen our household waste recycling centres, as we know how important the service is to our customers, but we have to do so safely.

"Limiting the number of vehicles on site at any one time is the only way that we can do this.

"We urge people to only attend recycling centres if they have made a booking, not only to keep the numbers at a manageable safe level but also to ensure that there are not vehicles making unnecessary or fruitless trips and adding to congestion around the centres.

"While this is not as full a facility as we would normally provide, it is a testament to the huge amount of hard work that has gone into taking a step, safely, towards our usual services and getting the county moving forwards again.

"We will continue to work to develop the offer and look forward to making it available more widely as soon as it is safe to do so."

The reopening decision follows Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick's announcement at the end of last month that he had written to local authorities across the UK telling them to plan to get centres operational again. The delay between announcement and effecting the decision is to ensure that sufficient staff are available to open and supervise the safety of centres.

A statement from Warwickshire County Council said: "Although the Government has given permission for local authorities to reopen household waste recycling centres, its guidance advises they should only be used where essential.

"If possible, waste should either be stored safely at home or put with kerbside collections which have been maintained by the district and borough councils."

The 'thanks' from households in the town and surrounding villages for the efforts of North Warwickshire's bin men and women has been self-evident with a "wall of gratitude" covering the Atherstone-based local authority's Waste Services' offices.

A depleted refuse workforce kept main and recycling collections going as "best they could" after the borough council had to suspend the green bin service until early May, blaming the decision on "many key staff" being unable to work through having to self-isolate and changes to working practices.

Last week the garden waste collection service was reopened.