Southend residents banned from Essex HWRC use

Essex county council has terminated an agreement which had allowed residents in the unitary borough of Southend to use some of the countys recycling centres free of charge, due to financial pressure.

And, from next month, Essex residents will also no longer be permitted to use Southend borough councils recycling centres in return.

Residents in Southend pay their council taxes to the borough council, as it is a unitary authority and therefore operates two of its own HWRCs separately from the county council.

Until now the authorities agreement had enabled Southend council to charge the county council between 20,000 and 30,000 to cover all Essex residents use of Southends household waste and recycling centres (HWRCs) during 2012/13.

But the county council said that over the last year there has been a significant increase in the number of users of its Rayleigh HWRC that do not reside in the ECC area which was putting financial pressure on the site.

As such, residents from within the jurisdiction of Southend-on-Sea borough council are being advised to use the borough councils Stock Road or Leigh Marshes facilities instead.

According to the county council, in order to enforce the changes, residents may be asked by staff at Essexs Rayleigh and South Woodham Ferrers facilities to present proof of residence such as a council tax bill or driving license with details of vehicles, names and addresses potentially recorded for monitoring purposes.

The county council said: These facilities are paid for by the ECC taxpayer and are provided for residents living within the county council administrative area, so they are able to dispose of their bulky household waste. Neighbouring local authorities will provide similar bulky waste facilities for their own residents to use.

Over the last year there has been a significant increase in the number of users of the Essex county council service that do not reside in the ECC area, placing financial and operational pressure on this site which is no longer sustainable. It has now been necessary to implement changes and direct current users from the Southend area to one of the two facilities provided for them by Southend borough council, as there is no method available for the county council to recover the additional cost to the ECC taxpayer. This change in approach also means it is no longer deemed necessary for Essex county council to continue with funding access to the Southend, Stock Road facility.

Southend HWRC

As a result of the changes, from April 1 2014, residents of Rochford, Great Wakering, Little Wakering, Ashingdon, Hawkwell, Foulness, Stambridge, Canewdon, Paglesham and Barling who have previously been able to use the Stock Road recycling centre in Southend will no longer be permitted access to the facility, according to Essex county council.

Instead, residents in these areas are being advised to use the closest county council HWRCs such as at nearby Rayleigh, close to Rochford, or South Woodham Ferrers near Chelmsford.

Southend-on-Sea borough councils team leader for waste management, Imran Kazalbash, said: Essex county council has reviewed its position and decided to terminate its agreement with Southend-on-Sea borough council, which allowed some residents in areas of Rochford district to access Southends site at Stock Road. There was no direct charge to the residents.

The agreement we had with Essex county council allowed us to charge for Essex residents for using our household waste recycling centres. This was between 20,000 and 30,000 covering visits for all non-Southend residents last financial year.

Veolia

Essex county councils 21 HWRCs are operated by Veolia Environmental Services under a 115 million, eight-year contract signed in May 2013. Running the HWRCs costs the council an estimated 6.4 million each year.

However, the county council is currently consulting residents over the future of its HWRCs as it is seeking to make savings of more than 235 million over the next three years. The survey put out to residents suggested that some of the countys HWRCs could potentially be under the threat of closure (see letsrecycle.com story).