Oxfordshire County Council may ask the government to review its policy on providing household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) for free, depending on the outcome of a debate on Tuesday (8 September).

The motion for debate will be put forward by Kevin Bulmer, Councillor for Goring, who believes the council should charge residents to use the county’s seven HWRCs as an alternative to closures.

Oxfordshire County Council is currently considering whether to close up to four of its HWRCs to lower the £4.1 million annual cost of running the network of centres by around £350,000 each year.

Bulmer wishes to avoid this by charging residents to use the existing HWRCs, but legislation in the Civic Amenities Act 1967 and Environmental Protection Act (EPA) 1990 requires local authorities to provide free-to-use HWRCs for household waste.

This regulation was upheld in a government review of waste policy in 2011. The review stated: ‘The Government believes bin charging is counter-productive and would harm the local environment by fuelling fly-tipping. This includes ensuring that householders have access to civic amenity sites where they can deposit their waste and recycling free at the point of use.

‘The Government is committed to this important principle and is opposed to charging for the mainstream collection and disposal of waste from householders.’

Under the previous government, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) also introduced legislation in March this year, the Local Government (Prohibition of Charges for the Deposit of Household Waste at a Household Waste Recycling Centre) (England) Order 2015, which bans councils from charging at discretionary HWRCs not covered by the EPA. The DCLG said the move would prevent ‘backdoor’ charging.

Free access not an option says councillor

In his motion for debate at the council meeting on Tuesday, Bulmer will say: “The government is concerned… charges will inconvenience residents; increase fly-tipping and back-yard burning; and make recycling harder for people rather than its stated objective of making it easier. The government believes that residents should continue to have free access to household waste recycling centres in their local authority area.

“However, when the alternative to ‘free access’ becomes ‘no access’, this argument loses some of its impetus. In spite of the noted success of kerbside recycling in Oxfordshire, there are still a million-plus trips made to HWRCs in this county annually.

“Clearly, a nominal charge of a pound a time would generate far more revenue than the £350,000 savings target.

“This council calls upon the leader of the council to send a letter to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government requesting an urgent re-evaluation of the government’s stance, thereby to enable LAs to charge residents to use HWRCs, in order to prevent their closure.”

Local authorities take measures to cut HWRC costs

Oxfordshire would not be the first local authority in the UK to resort to closing HWRCs or limiting operating hours to save money.

In October last year, East Sussex County Council announced that three of its HWRCs would only open between Friday and Sunday in order to save the council around £250,000 a year.

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council also made changes to its HWRC opening hours in 2014, closing all four of its facilities for one day a week.

And in June this year, Wiltshire Council started closing seven of its 11 HWRCs for two days a week and reducing their opening hours. The move is expected to save the council £300,000 of the £30 million annual savings it states that it needs to make ‘over the next few years’.

Other authorities have considered charging residents for using the centres. Norfolk County Council, for example, proposed a £2 charge for residents using nine of the county’s HWRCs in March 2014, but this was criticised by MPs including former Resources Minister Dan Rogerson as it contravened the existing legislation.

In September last year, Cornwall Council started charging users of HWRCs that were disposing of ‘non-household waste’ – including tyres, rubble, asbestos and plasterboard. This is legal under the current legislation, as it is only waste from the household that must be provided for free, but last week the council reported that fly-tipping of the items now chargeable had increased by 156 per cent over the 11 months of the charge’s existence.

Read the government response to the previous discussion on HWRC fees.