A report to Buckinghamshire county council’s cabinet has suggested that the authority reverse plans to close a civic amenity (CA) site after the “successful” implementation of charges for non-household waste.
This comes despite “lower than anticipated income levels from waste charging” in the first five months of the fees being introduced on April 1, after a spike in residents delivering waste to the borough’s facilities in March.
Cllr Bill Chapple, Buckinghamshire council’s cabinet member for planning & environment
In January 2019, the council approved a host of cost-saving measures for CA sites as part of plans aimed at cutting around £1.25 million from the council’s current budget (see letrecycle.com story).
This included charges for ‘non-household waste’, as well as closing the Bledlow Ridge HWRC, reducing opening times and potentially closing the Burnham facility this month.
Material classed as ‘non-household’ includes waste resulting from the construction, demolition, renovation or alteration of homes and outbuildings, and rubble, soil and treated wood resulting from garden landscaping.
Burnham
In its report to the cabinet this month, the council has said that the Burnham facility will no longer need to close, as financial forecasts show that the council is on track to meet forecasted savings.
Despite the rush of material being deposited prior to the charge coming into place, the report said that this is returning to normal levels and is projected to increase next year.
The table below shows that the changes are expected to deliver between savings of between £122,000 – £136,000 in the 2019/20 financial year, slightly below the target of £157,000. However, this will be made up in the next year, according to the forecasts.
Savings
“Although the introduction of charges for non-household waste is not something we wanted to have to bring in, the process of charging is bedding in well, and not leading to inconvenience for visitors to the recycling centres.”
Commenting on the results, Bill Chapple, the county council’s cabinet member for planning & environment, said: “It’s still early days, but the indications are that the changes that we had to make to the county’s household recycling centre service are having the desired result in terms of cost savings achieved.
“Although the introduction of charges for non-household waste is not something we wanted to have to bring in, the process of charging is bedding in well, and not leading to inconvenience for visitors to the recycling centres. And although people to now have to pay to dispose of their non-household waste, the cost isn’t onerous.”
The report also said that there had been no impact on fly-tipping since the charges were introduced, with reported incidents actually falling.
The post Bucks to scrap CA site closure after charge scheme appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
