Wokingham to withdraw amenity waste service in February

Wokingham Borough Council has resolved to cease its amenity waste service from 1 February 2015, due to concerns over legality, costs, environmental impact and system abuse.

Currently, Wokingham residents can dispose of their waste either via the weekly kerbside collection service, at the two household waste and recycling centres (HWRCs) at Smallmead in Reading and Longshot Lane in Bracknell, or via one of Veolia Environmental Services’s (Wokingham’s waste contractor) refuse vehicles which visit sites across the borough on Saturdays. Bulky waste can also be arranged for kerbside collection.

Amenity service background

Established before the council entered into the re3 waste partnership with Reading and Bracknell Forest (1999)– and therefore before it was able to use their HWRCs – the £120,000 amenity service was set up to provide residents (especially those without personal transport) with a convenient way of disposing of waste.

However, with residents relying more and more on kerbside collections, the service (which is free-to-use in some areas and charged for in others) was deemed to be superfluous.

Further, during an assessment of the service, the council revealed that as all the waste collected (around 550 tonnes) goes straight to landfill without the ability to sort out recyclable materials, it was not only ‘negatively impacting on the environment’, but also costing the council money (through Landfill Tax) and was missing out on potential revenue from recouping valuable materials. There were further concerns that the service would go against the Waste Regulations’s requirement that recyclable waste is collected separately from other wastes by 1 January 2015.

It also found that around a quarter of the residents using the service arrived at the collection points by car, so were capable of driving to the HWRCs, where waste can be more thoroughly separated.

The council also voiced concerns over the fact that the amenity service was being abused by ‘more and more traders’, who were disposing of their commercial and industrial waste (some of which was hazardous) via the waste service, rather than paying to have it safely removed.

These issues, along with the fact that the council would have to pay additional costs to ‘address higher risks such as controlling traffic around vehicles’, meant that the service was ‘less financially viable’.

As such, the council reached the following conclusion: ‘We cannot continue to provide this service which fails so many health and safety, environmental and regulatory requirements, despite the benefits some residents have gained from it. We have a range of alternate services which we will ensure are given extensive and prominent awareness over the next few months.’

Amenity service is ‘over and above statutory responsibility’

Councillor Angus Ross, executive member for environment, said: “We recognise this is a service that is valued by a number of our residents but it’s a service that is over and above our statutory responsibility. The council can no longer afford such services.

“In addition, the vast majority of the rubbish collected from the amenity service goes straight to landfill, when quite a lot of it could and should be recycled. The more we send to landfill, the more it costs the council. But that’s not the only reason. It’s not environmentally friendly and we have a commitment as part of the re3 partnership to reduce, reuse and recycle and to meet national waste regulations.”

He added that the borough council will work to ensure that users of the service are advised of the change before the cessation of the service on 1 February.

This date was chosen to provide time to also allow any towns or parishes wishing to offer their own bespoke amenity service to find a willing contractor who can meet all waste regulation requirements.

Find out more about Wokingham Borough Council’s waste services.