Derbyshire tips will have their opening hours reduced, accept fewer types of waste, have charges for non-residents and be monitored by number plate recognition cameras under new plans.
The new plan from Derbyshire County Council aims to cut costs, boost income and reduce the amount of asbestos and tyres it has to process.
It currently provides nine household waste and recycling centres across the county in Ashbourne, Bolsover, Buxton, Chesterfield, Glossop, Ilkeston, Loscoe, Newhall and Darley Dale.
Eight of these are operated by HW Martin and one by Suez Recycling and Recovery UK Ltd, in total processing 85,000 tonnes of waste and recycling each year.
The council says the amount of waste processed at these sites has increased by a third in recent years, between 2018 and 2022.
Glossop and Ashbourne have seen the amount of waste they process double in that period, (107 and 98 per cent respectively) with Newhall seeing its waste processed increase by 50 per cent.
It says its sites received 2.5 times the amount of waste per person when compared with waste collected at Derby City Council’s facility at Raynesway.
The only significant difference, a county council report says, is that Derby requires people visiting the tip to book before coming and to provide proof of residency in the city. Derbyshire residents can also use the Raynesway tip.
As a result, the council will be consulting on potentially restricting use of its tips to Derbyshire residents and charging for residents from other areas seeking to use the facilities. Derby residents would continue to be able to use Derbyshire facilities without a fee.
Changes could be on the way for Derby’s booking system but leadership have indicated it would still remain, but could be made more flexible, with residents currently restricted to 12 booked slots a year.
County council officials say Derbyshire’s tips see seven times the amount of asbestos and tyres brought for processing than Derby – when this is broken down per person – with Staffordshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire either charging for these collections or not accepting them.
Processing a higher level of asbestos and tyres cost the county council up to £800,000 a year, which a report says is “in effect, a subsidy paid by Derbyshire to private businesses and surrounding councils”.
County council budget plans aim to save £230,000 by restricting access to Derbyshire tips to residents only, in line with Derby city.
It also aims to save £370,000 by introducing a range of new measures at the nine tips.
This would include a registration scheme allowing small traders to use Derbyshire’s tips, due to them not producing enough waste to be able to use private facilities, but at a cost – with no trade waste currently permitted.
The registration scheme would require weighbridges to be installed at up to three of the county’s tips, with traders to be charged based on the volume of material they are disposing of.
Alongside this, an automatic number plate recognition system would be set up at the council’s tips to log the details of vehicles entering and leaving the sites, with all vehicles having to register to gain access.
These options could save up to £1.8 million over seven years, the council says, if it goes with the camera scheme, the small traders scheme and vehicle registration.
Choices which bring in fewer savings are a QR code scanning system, the camera system on its own, and the cameras along with barriers and additional enforcement.
The price for small traders to use the tips is being weighed up to ensure the council’s costs are covered but also to ensure the fee is not too high to deter the safe and legal processing of waste – instead of potential fly-tipping – and potential harm to their businesses.
A public consultation will take place on the proposed measures for the small traders scheme and weighbridge sites – which could be limited to only a select number of sites.
However, the camera system is due to be rolled out as soon as possible and has been “identified as the most efficient method of controlling access to sites with or without the introduction of a small traders’ scheme”.
The council says it seeks to stop collecting asbestos and tyres at its nine facilities, saying it is not required to do so and “the majority of neighbouring authorities either charge for accepting these materials or do not accept them at all”.
It says there are nationally-operated services that collect and dispose of tyres at around £6 per tyre and the council is currently providing a free service, bankrolled by taxpayers, for businesses to use as an alternative.
The council says: “Six of the nine waste disposal authorities directly bordering Derbyshire do not accept car tyres at their HWRCs and a seventh – Staffordshire – accept tyres for a charge of £4 per tyre. Only Greater Manchester and Kirklees accept domestic tyres without charge.”
It says household waste tips that accept asbestos only do so in small quantities, to cater for people carrying out small works on their homes instead of construction companies disposing of large amounts.
The county council has a policy to only accept asbestos once a year per household but does not have a booking system or a recording process to monitor this, making it “difficult” to enforce.
Other neighbouring sites either require a booking, restrict asbestos to a two-hour disposal window or limit the number of tips it can be processed at, including charges for either £10 a sheet, up to 25kg or six disposals a year.
Meanwhile, the council currently has its tips open every day of the year from 8.30am until 6pm, apart from Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day – totalling 66.5 hours a week.
It found that most councils of the same level close their tips for two or more days per week, with most reducing hours in the winter months, and no other council operates its tips seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year – with the average open 50.6 hours a week.
Some councils extend their tip hours in peak seasons and alternate which tips are closed to retain availability.
Derbyshire would look to either reduce the number of hours or days the centres are open with a focus on peak hours.
Both the asbestos and tyre collections and changes to hours would require public consultation, the council says, with savings of up to £600,000.
Finally, the council would look to adopt new Government policies on DIY waste which can be disposed of at Derbyshire’s tips.
This would limit the amount of construction waste residents can take to the sites to up to two 50-litre rubble bags (or one bulky or fitted item no larger than two metres by 75cm by 70cm, the approximate size of a bathtub or shower screen) and only allows residents to dispose of construction waste up to four times over a four-week period.
