Changes to the disposal of trade and bulky waste look set to be made at Staffordshire’s Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC) to help curb queues for residents.
Members of the county council’s Cabinet are recommended to approve the introduction of permits for van/trailers when they meet on May 17th.
The proposed changes follow a public consultation and will require Staffordshire residents with vans or trailers to apply for permits, which will allow them to make 12 visits per year to the sites. Staffordshire residents with cars will still be able to use the sites freely.
The 14 HWRC centres are well used by Staffordshire residents with around 1.6 million visits a year. Only 20,000 are recorded as trade.
Simon Tagg, Cabinet Member for Environment, Infrastructure and Climate Change at Staffordshire County Council said: “We are committed to providing an efficient and effective HWRC network for Staffordshire residents.
“The proposed changes aim to address the issue of queuing on HWRC sites due to trade waste vehicles taking space and considerable time to offload waste.
“We have listened to what people had to say and believe permits for residents with vans or trailers and only accepting trade waste within Staffordshire will be the best to make sure households can dispose of their waste quickly and efficiently. There will be no change to Staffordshire residents disposing of waste in cars and disposal of non-chargeable items will remain the same for both residents requiring and not requiring permits.”
The changes are in line with many other local authorities that surround Staffordshire.
