From 1 April, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council and Essex County will restrict access to their Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) to residents only.

Currently, Essex County Council (ECC) and unitary authority Southend-on-Sea (SoS) Borough Council have an ‘arrangement’, whereby residents from Rochford District can recycle their waste at SoS’s HWRC on Stock Road.

Likewise, residents of Southend-on-Sea had also been able to access ECC’s HWRCs.

However, due to a ‘significant increase’ in the number non-residents using the services, from 1 April, SoS and ECC will begin enforcing resident checks to ensure that only those paying council tax to the relevant authority will be allowed to enter the sites.

As such, anyone requiring access to the HWRCs will need to show proof of residence by showing HWRC operatives either a driving licence or Council Tax bill.

This will reportedly help both councils save money.

In a statement, a spokesperson for ECC said: “Although residency restrictions have always applied to the use of the ECC facilities it has rarely been necessary to enforce these as historic usage by those not residing within the Essex County Council area has generally been low.

“However over the last year there has been a significant increase in the number of users of the service that do not reside in the Essex County Council area, placing a financial and operational burden on this site which is no longer sustainable. As there is no mechanism to recover the additional cost to the ECC taxpayer of non-residents wishing to access this service, it has been necessary to implement these changes and direct current users from the Southend area to one of the two facilities provided for them by Southend BC [Stock Road and Leigh Marshes].”

Due to the change in arrangements, ECC will no longer continue ‘funding access’ for Rochford District residents to use the Southend’s Stock Road facility, and is instead urging them to use ECC’s HWRC in Rayleigh.

Commercial waste pilot

In related news, ECC is urging traders to participate in a pilot scheme that allows trade waste to be disposed of at two of the county’s HWRCs.

Businesses are usually prohibited from using ECC’s HWRCs to dispose of trade waste (such building work carried out on a domestic property), as they are only meant to be used by householders.

However, under a pilot scheme that has been running at the recycling centres in Saffron Walden and Springwood Drive, Braintree since 20 January, traders can dispose of their waste in a ‘pay-as-you-throw system’.

Traders who wish to use the service will be charged a fee (ranging from £10 to £140) depending on the size of their vehicle and the type of waste they wish to dispose of, which can be paid over the phone when they visit the centre.

Users will then be issued with a waste transfer note (Duty of Care) and staff will be on hand to provide ‘support, advice and guidance on how traders can better manage their waste and comply with relevant waste legislation’.

County Councillor Roger Walters, Cabinet Member for Waste & Recycling commented: “The purpose of this pilot scheme is to determine whether there is demand for trade waste facilities at our recycling centres. This would be of value to local businesses while removing the costs to the county council for disposing of commercial waste. We would urge local traders to take advantage of this trial, and we would appreciate their feedback on the scheme.”

The results of the trial will determine whether the County Council seeks to develop a trade waste disposal service countywide.

The service is available during opening hours Monday to Friday and will run until 11 April.

Find out more about the trade waste pilot.