Oxfordshire urges law change to enable HWRC charging

A motion was passed at a full council meeting yesterday (September 8) calling on council leader Ian Hudspeth to write to the Communities Secretary requesting “an urgent re-evaluation of the government’s stance, thereby to enable LAs to charge residents to use HWRCs, in order to prevent their closure”.

It follows news that Oxfordshire is considering closing some of its HWRCs in order to make savings of around £350,000 a year as councils across the UK face budget cuts, with the alternative to closure being to charge residents for using the centres.

However, legislation such as the Civic Amenities Act 1967 and the Environmental Protection Act 1990 has required local authorities to provide free-to-use household waste recycling centres for their residents – a principle upheld by the government’s 2011 waste review.

And, on April 23 this year, the Local Authorities (Prohibition of Charging Residents to Deposit Household Waste) Order 2015 came into effect, barring councils from charging residents at the point of entry, exit or disposal for use of HWRCs (see letsrecycle.com story), despite opposition from local councils and recycling officers.

Around half of respondents to an earlier DCLG consultation over the law criticised the proposals, and the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) said DCLG’s plans were “unwelcome” and were at odds with the localism principle advocated by the government.

But DCLG said in March that it was “not persuaded by the arguments of those respondents opposing the government’s proposed approach”, claiming that charging residents for using HWRCs would not lead to increased flytipping and illegal waste burning (see letsrecycle.com story).

Oxfordshire

Now Oxfordshire council has challenged this view, after Conservative Party councillor Kevin Bulmer proposed a motion to the council yesterday urging the government to rethink its position.

The motion suggests that just a “nominal” charge of £1 to residents each time they use an HWRC would generate “far more revenue than the £350,000 savings target”.

Councillor Bulmer’s motion passed yesterday states: “The government is concerned these charges will inconvenience residents; increase fly-tipping and back-yard burning; and make recycling harder for people rather than its stated objective of making it easier. The government believes that residents should continue to have free access to household waste recycling centres in their local authority area.

“However, when the alternative to ‘free access’ becomes ‘no access’, this argument loses some of its impetus. In spite of the noted success of kerbside recycling in Oxfordshire, there are still a million-plus trips made to HWRCs in this county annually. Clearly, a nominal charge of a pound a time would generate far more revenue than the £350,000 savings target.”