North-West Hampshire residents to be charged for using waste centre
People who live in Hampshire but use tip in Newbury will face new charge from next month
North Hampshire residents who use a household waste a recycling centre in west Berkshire will face charges from August.
Hampshire County Council has decided against building their own centre after investigating two sites in the Kingsclere area.
Number plate recognition technology will be used to use issue charges at the Newtown Road centre in Newbury for non-Berkshire residents.
Transitional Arrangement
Since 2016, a transitional arrangement has been in place which has permitted Hampshire residents to use West Berkshire’s facility free of charge at a cost of £175,000 per year to Hampshire County Council. In July 2020 it was recommended that the payments should cease in the light of the County Council’s budgetary pressures and ongoing need for efficiencies. The residents affected would still have free access to household waste recycling facilities in their home county - Hampshire County Council already provides a larger network of HWRCs than any other similar authority in the country.
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However, the decision was put on hold for 12 months, after Hampshire County Council and Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council jointly agreed (in July 2020) a further interim arrangement that enabled North Hampshire residents to continue to access the Newtown Road HWRC, whilst the County Council evaluated the feasibility of two sites, as possible long-term solutions for an HWRC in the north-west of Hampshire.
Earlier this year, West Berkshire Council notified Hampshire County Council that when the interim measure ends (31 July 2021) it proposed to introduce an entry fee to non-Berkshire residents (in the region of £7 per visit) - similar to that in place at Hampshire sites for non-Hampshire users – to permit north Hampshire residents to continue using the Newbury HWRC, at their own cost.
Minimal Disruption
To ensure there is minimal disruption to north Hampshire residents while West Berkshire’s new scheme is implemented, it is recommended that Hampshire County Council makes a small financial contribution – the amount to be finalised but not exceeding £20,000 - from its existing resources to West Berkshire Council to implement these new arrangements at the earliest opportunity.
The funding will support the installation of an automatic number plate recognition system at the Newtown Road HWRC to enable the charging scheme to be implemented. It is also proposed that this arrangement would be available to Hampshire residents at West Berkshire’s Padworth HWRC (near Aldermaston) in the future.
North Hampshire
The report, confirms that plans for a new Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) in north Hampshire will not be taken forward, after feasibility studies for both potential sites in the Kingsclere area concluded they are not suitable for development.
The County Council will continue to review HWRC service provision in the Basingstoke area, however, in the light of the expected future increases in housing and anticipated rise in the demand for waste recycling.