Hertfordshire County Council has introduced a new permit scheme for householders wishing to use their vans, trailers or pick-up trucks to dispose of household waste at the county’s 17 household waste recycling centres (HWRCs).

Brought into effect earlier this year, the permit aims to save the council money by ‘reducing the misuse’ of HWRCs. Specifically, the council is looking to crack down on the amount of trade and commercial waste being dumped at the sites, as the disposal of this waste should be paid for by businesses rather than taxpayers.

Van permit details

Residents wishing to use their vans, trailers or trucks to dispose of household waste are now required to apply for the free permit, which allows them to dump a van-load of household waste or recycling once per month over the course of a year. This permit (which comes in the form of a letter) must be signed by a member of site staff on entry to the HWRC.

However, householders that use all 12 visits before the 12-month period has lapsed may be able to apply for a new permit, at the discretion of the council’s waste management contractor AmeyCespa (Amey).

Anyone visiting HWRCs in a hired or borrowed van may not necessarily need to apply for a permit, but will need to produce proof that the vehicle is a short-term hire (or has been borrowed). Staff will then make a record of the visit to ensure that the system is not abused.

Householders that borrow or hire vans on a regular basis to dispose of household waste will need to apply for a permit.

Speaking of the scheme, Terry Douris, Cabinet Member for Waste Management, said: “The permits are free of charge for Hertfordshire residents. The only way to control the misuse of the centres is to monitor all vans, trailers and pickup trucks that use the sites, as it is not always easy to identify vehicles being used for commercial purposes.

Other changes to HWRCs

The permit scheme is one of several changes that Amey has made to help the council save money over the next few years.

Due to ‘further significant reductions in national funding and increasing demand for key services’, the county council is looking to save £150 million across the borough over the next four years, whilst protecting ‘essential services’.

As such, Amey will be implementing the following changes to save approximately £6 million over the next eight years:

• reducing opening at all HWRCs from seven days a week to five days a week (except Buntingford, which will open every day but on reduced hours);
• opening more reuse shops at HWRCs to sell on unwanted, ‘good-quality’ items (and reduce the amount of waste created);
• establishing an education scheme with schools to raise awareness of the benefits of recycling;
• engaging further with local charities and not-for-profit companies on reuse activities;
• introducing a pilot trade waste scheme for small businesses; and
• introducing new ways of monitoring customer satisfaction to determine if any other changes/improvements can be made to the service in future.

Paul Greenwell, Managing Director for Waste Treatment Services at Amey, said: “Making these changes allows us to continue to offer a quality service to residents which focuses on further improving the facilities provided to our customers in Hertfordshire.

“In the coming months, we will be expanding the reuse offering at our sites and will also be piloting a trade waste scheme for small businesses to be located near one of our sites.”

Local authorities in England are increasingly looking to pulling back on their HWRC access, with Leicestershire County Council and Dorset Waste Partnership both recently launching consultations on proposals to charge some users for visiting the HWRCs, and restricting the opening hours of the sites, amongst other changes. The moves come at the same time as the Department for Communities and Local Government is seeking to implement new laws that would make it illegal for councils to charge residents to use HWRCs.

Find out more about the changes to Hertfordshire County Council’s waste offering.