Derbyshire council introduces waste centre charges to dispose of tyres and asbsetos

The Conservative-led council – which is already busy implementing numerous countywide saving plans to set a balanced budget for the 2024/25 financial year – previously agreed at a Cabinet meeting to introduce new measures at its household waste recycling centres.

These included reducing opening hours, a trial scheme to allow small businesses to pay to use two of the recycling centres, and its plans to introduce new charges to dispose of tyres and asbestos are due to be introduced from Thursday, August 1.

Cllr Carolyn Renwick, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Environment, said: “We’re constantly looking for ways to make the services we provide more efficient and effective.

“Having listened to the views of residents, we believe these changes strike the right balance between continuing to provide a good quality service for residents and making savings.”

Residents will soon be charged £4 per tyre for up to a maximum of four domestic car or van tyres, and they will be charged £6 per sheet of asbestos up to a maximum of two sheets excluding trade waste.

Those disposing of tyres or asbestos will be able to pay by card only and the newly introduced charges will not apply to bicycle tyres.

Site users are also being asked to double-bag asbestos before taking it to a recycling centre and visits for this purpose will be limited to one visit with no return.

The council has stated that the changes are part of a series of measures to help make the service more efficient and effective and to help save money.

Derbyshire County Council is not required to accept tyres and asbestos at its recycling centres but has done so previously at no charge and the council claims if it was to stop doing so altogether it could reduce running costs by up to £69,000 a year.

The council considered making the changes to Derbyshire’s household waste recycling centres after a 32 per cent increase in the amount of waste collected at the sites since 2017 and 2018 was recorded which has risen to 85,000 tonnes a year, costing an extra £700,000 to £800,000 in annual disposal and recycling costs.

New waste centre opening hours are also being introduced from October 1 and include continuing to operate the recycling centres seven-days-a-week but reducing the hours by two each day at times when they are typically less busy.

They will run 9.30am to 5pm each day except at Buxton where the current hours of 8.30am to 6pm will remain due to different contractual arrangements at that site.

Plans are also underway to introduce a trade-waste trial scheme in the coming months to allow registered small businesses and sole traders to pay to use two of the recycling centres to dispose of business waste outside of the hours the centres are open to the public.

If the trial at the two centres in Bolsover and Ashbourne is successful the council has stated that it may roll this out across the county at a later date.

Plans are also underway to introduce a permit scheme for residents to use the sites but the date for introducing this scheme is also yet to be confirmed.

Cabinet members also previously approved plans to spend up to £200,000 to install an Automatic Number Plate Recognition System at its waste sites which will not only identify vehicle interlopers from outside Derbyshire using the county’s waste sites but would also allow them to be charged.

A 12-week public consultation, which included 2,876 responses, was carried out before the latest waste site changes were agreed and 90per cent of respondents said they would prefer a small charge rather than the sites not accepting tyres and asbestos at all.

The council runs nine recycling centres across the county for Derbyshire residents and these sites currently accept household waste only and are currently open seven-days-a-week from 8.30am to 6pm, except on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

These include Chesterfield, Bolsover, Loscoe, Northwood at Darley Dale, Waterswallows near Buxton, Ilkeston, Glossop, Ashbourne, and Bretby.

The council has stated that like many authorities it has been struggling financially due to reduced Government funding, the financial impact from the Covid-19 pandemic, high inflation rates, rising costs, the cost of living crisis, and a growing demand on services.

To add to its recent financial pressures, the council previously announced in July, 2023, that it had agreed to pay out a £56.93m share of a total £93.5m pay out with Derby City Council to Resource Recovery Solutions’ waste management team’s administrators to resolve a dispute after the local authorities had terminated a contract with the waste management team to manage a waste facility in Sinfin, Derby.

It also confirmed last month that plans to finally fix and operate the temporarily closed Derby and Derbyshire waste treatment facility, in Sinfin, have been put on hold because the county and city councils are ‘formally in dispute’ over the plans and costs of the waste site project.