The latest consultation from Essex County Council is on recycling centres- you can find it here.
Review of Essex County Council’s Recycling Centre Service
Essex County Council currently spends about ?7m per year providing 21 Recycling Centres across the county for residents to dispose of their waste. Although some of these sites are modern, purpose built facilities many of the sites are old and small, starting life at a time when landfill was the only way we managed waste. However, the way in which waste is handled and these sites operate has changed in recent years, with an increasing need to separate many different materials. With this in mind a number of sites that we currently run may no longer be able to efficiently meet the needs of a modern Recycling Centre.
In addition to this, there have been many improvements to and an increase in the way that recyclable material is collected at the kerbside from households, which in turn, has resulted in fewer residents needing to take their recyclable material to the Recycling Centres. Due to the pressure from central government to make savings and to streamline services, Essex County Council is required to review and reshape the way services are delivered. With unprecedented savings of ?235m required over the next 3 years all our services need to be looked at in order to deliver these more effectively and efficiently. The authority is keen to ensure that it continues to provide the best recycling services for its residents within available resource; however maintaining existing levels of service may not be achievable. The purpose of this survey is to collect information from residents that use our Recycling Centres.
We will then use the feedback to help us develop a Recycling Centre service strategy, ensuring we target our resources on those services that users deem most important.
So is the bottom line that direct charges to residents will increase and charges(or income from green waste reduced)in relation to services provided by ECC to Rochford District Council will increase? Passing on costs from ECC to RDC is not a saving. It is just passing the buck down the line. Council Tax at ECC does not reduce pro-rata but Council Tax at RDC increases and the net effect to residents is an increase. If this is what is the likely outcome of another innocuous looking survey then start telling your County Councillor right now that ECC Council Tax must be reduced pro-rata for any increase at RDC.
Isn’t it about time that ECC paid RDC the £65K that ECC fails to cough up each year for verge cutting? That is 1% Council Tax at RDC. Another thing to engage your Councillor on !!
Presumably this is paving the way to the Michelin Farm development – prior to the Inspector’s report again…….another DONE DEAL presumably!!!!.
How much is spent removing items fly tipped? How much more would it be if recycling centres were shut or opening hours reduced? Potential own goal here?
It is important that Rochford DC residents respond to this consultation, given that I understand Southend-on-Sea BC is already charging (or proposes to increase charging to) Essex CC £25 per visit by those residents from the eastern part of RDC that are currently allowed by SBC to use the Stock Road, Southend facility of SBC, so avoiding the unsustainably long (up to 24 miles) round trip to the nearest ECC facility at Castle Road, Rayleigh. Given that SBC benefits from recycling tonnage RDC residents provide there to offset its costs, and especially as for many years SBC residents were allowed to use a free ECC facility (closed in the 1990’s as I recall)in Great Wakering, that is a wholly unreasonable amount (about 40% of the cost of hiring a 2 cu. yd. skip!) to charge ECC. RDC and ECC Members from the east of RDC have long fought to obtain that use of Stock Road or provision of another ECC facility more locally.
I have responded to this consultation. On a positive note I would like to say that the Castle Road recycling site is so well run. Everything is clearly marked as to what goes where, the staff there keep it very tidy, which can’t be easy when you are dealing with rubbish, and they are very helpful. Any time I have been uncertain as to where to put something, or needed a hand getting something heavy out of the car they have always been more than happy to give me a hand. The only drawback is that it is probably a bit on the small side now. I know it will probably be relocated at some time and I hope that the same high standards will apply at the new site wherever it happens to be.