At Dorset Council’s Cabinet meeting on April 6th, officers will recommend members approve the funding of a new Household Recycling Centre (HRC, or “the tip”) for East Dorset.
Initially requiring £100k in the first year, the HRC is expected to cost around £7m, eventually replacing the current facility at Brook Road.
As the only Dorset Council-owned HRC in the east of Dorset, the Brook Road site is insufficient to fully cater for the residents in the area. To help alleviate the issues, financial arrangements have been made for residents to use HRCs in Nuffield, Millhams and Wilverley Road in the BCP area, and Somerley in Hampshire.
However, even with these arrangements, the HRC in Wimborne is unsuitable for the current level of visitors accessing the site. Traffic queues on the approach road cause nuisance to neighbouring businesses on the industrial estate and residents of the new housing development opposite the site.
The restricted size of the site stops us from using mechanical compaction of materials in containers, thereby reducing the capacity of certain materials in terms of weight when moving containers from the HRC to transfer facilities. The site is not split level, does not have the ability to recycle the range of materials more modern facilities can and there are limited facilities for effective re-use.
A new HRC for East Dorset – alongside a small-scale transfer building – would give waste services a much-needed boost, improving accessibility and being able to cope with an increasing number of visitors in the future. It would also reduce our need for cross-border arrangements with other authorities, which currently cost the Dorset taxpayer around £535k a year.
Cllr Jill Haynes, Dorset Council’s Portfolio Holder for Customer and Community Services, said:
“It’s well-known that the current HRC in Wimborne is no longer fit for purpose, so I’m very pleased that it is being recommended that funding is allocated to address the problem and give East Dorset residents the facilities they deserve. As an example of what can be accomplished, I suggest people have a look at the HRC parts of our Bridport site as well as our proposed plans for Blandford.
Waste services continue to be amongst the most important to Dorset residents and it is vital that we ensure everyone has access to decent facilities to dispose of items that can’t be collected at the kerbside. A new HRC in this part of the county will allow us to cope with rising visitor numbers and, most essentially, lead to even more materials being recycled and reused.”
I am excited about this development.
However, I strongly advise against referring to a recycling centre as “the tip”.
As we transition towards a zero-carbon economy, the circular economy will begin to ramp up. The two go hand in hand: circular economic best practice means minimal waste, meaning minimal waste products meaning reduced greenhouse gases.
Using language such as “the tip” and describing modern recycling services using conventional “waste services” terminology is erroneous. And does not serve civil society, local authorities, or persons working at such recycling centres that will be the solid foundation of our transition to a new way of life. Once called “waste products” should now be viewed as “resources”.
I hope these comments are helpful. 🙂
Thank you.
Thank you Francesca – the officers in our Contracts Team would certainly agree with your views on the terminology used and many a spirited debate has been had! The compromise – between accuracy and what our tax-paying residents understand – is to only refer to “the tip” as a secondary term when used alongside the more correct “Household Recycling Centre”/”HRC”. This is mainly for the benefit of those residents who have become accustomed to using the phrase “the tip” and may not fully understand that a HRC is the same thing – James
But where are you planning to put the new recycling facility. Brooke Road is very convenient for Wimborne/Colehill residents. If it is too far out of the town, there would be a reluctance to use it, by me especially.
We don’t know yet Linda. The location is the most important part of the programme and you make an good point about convenience. When we have a proposed site, we’ll let everyone know so they can give us their views – James
This is excellent news. The brook road site is far from ideal, but better than nothing. A difficult mission to find a new site that is convenient to all. I imagine there will be complaints wherever it is situated,but I do wish you succeess I have not used the site recently as we have been asked to only take dangerous material and I don’t have any of that
There may be problems with using tyhe word “Household” in “Household recycling centres” in thie tome of control of Covid. Next Monday, 29th March two “households” are being allowed to meet outside. Is there a threat that they may be recycled?
Only if the entire household is placed in a recycle bin 😉
My heart sank when you said that the new HRC will reduce reliance on the need for cross border arrangements. As a resident of Verwood I would not be travelling 30 mins to Wimborne with a car load or trailer load of rubbish to dispose of when somerley is 5 mins up the road. Most other Verwood residents would agree. It is also not good for carbon footprint to encourage longer car journeys to get to an HRC. Wherever you site an HRC in east dorset will not be convenient for all residents so the need for cross border arrangements will still be valid. We all pay council tax so why should only wimborne residents be given the advantage and it be deemed to be a drain on taxpayers money to fund cross border arrangements for other residents?
Sorry,am I a bit dim? Where is it going to be built?
It hasn’t been decided yet Carol. When the funding has been agreed, we’ll look at potential sites.
Siting is clearly a concern to residents, given the traffic and lorry flows it will create. How much say will residents have?
We’re likely to have a full consultation before we confirm the site – we did this recently with Blandford. But please bear in mind that the current traffic issues we have around Brook Road are one of the main reasons we’re looking to build a replacement site, so traffic flow will be a huge consideration.
Where can I find out what Dorset Council does with all our waste?
In my opinion it’s time Supermarkets reduced the amount of waste our daily food is put into…. A disgrace
Check out http://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/where-waste-goes
Do residents of East Dorset ( Verwoerd / Woodlands) have to make a booking to use Somerley HRC.
At the moment they do, yes – although this is free of charge.
Great question Cllr Holmes.
We desperately need to have a recycling centre to deliver environmental excellence and fulfill our commitment to recycling and taking contol of our own area. The big question is where?
Carol is correct to refer to herself as a bit dim. I just query the use of the word “bit” – the corect word is “very”. As a West Moors Town Councillor, she was not right to clear from the pavement a board outside a Station Road café when the local post office/supermarket has no less than three outside its premises! But, then, WMTC is a law unto itself holding illegal meetings!
Clearly the existing site is “convenient” for residents of Wimborne (as commented above), but “East Dorset” isn’t just Wimborne. From a layman’s perspective surely something between Wimborne and Ferndown, as the two most populated areas, would be sensible? Possibly near or part of one of the industrial estates, to avoid residential areas?
My question … will we East Dorset residents still have access to the BCP Millhams facility? I will confess a vested interest, as that is less than a mile away from me, so both convenient and less of an environmental impact in getting there.
I appreciate what is said about funding being approved first before finding a suitable site. Doubtless there will be public enquiries when sites are named for consideration. Has any time limit been put on the whole process from start to finish (i.e. opening date)?
Sorry for this irritatingly vague response John, but the timeframe is dependent on the site we choose so we can’t state an opening date until we know where we’re going to put it and have an idea of how much work would need to be done – James
Hope the system at the new centre will be the method used in some HRCs, the drive-up style. It would be so much safer to ‘drop over’ refuse than climb narrow stairs that tend to be slippery in wet weather. Definitely quicker as well, as lorries could access full skips from the other side of the skips.
Take the Ferndown Industrial Estate exit from the A31 and you quickly arrive at an unnecessary roundabout. It only joins two roads so it doesn’t need to be there. But if a third road was created that became the entrance to the new recycling centre it would make complete sense. And it’s a sensible location between Wimborne, Ferndown, West Moors and the St Leonards, St Ives and Ashley Heath areaa.
If you want to terminate the arrangement re Millhams, you need an alternative site in Ferndown. Wareham and Swanage both have their own centres, so why not Ferndown, which is much larger than both?
We haven’t decided where this new site would go Graham – just because it is replacing the Wimborne facility doesn’t necessarily mean the new one would be based there too.
I thought the new site was going to be built in Horton Road as part of the trading estate, we had a major “consultation” on this last year and residents in Ashley Heath complained bitterly during the “consultation”, but to no avail.
We haven’t chosen a new site for the HRC Dee, although this site was referred to within the Waste Local Plan consultation to identify potential sites.
I live on the border of East Dorset and Hampshire and there is no way we would drive all the way to Bridport or Blandford to a recycling centre.
We’re not suggesting that Susan – this is about building a HRC in East Dorset so you don’t have to travel further. The references to Bridport and Blandford are just so people can see what a modern site looks like and we’d be looking to put in the east of the county.
Let ‘s not “Beat about the Bush” on this one. I believe the Council already know where they intend to site the new HRC. The Trading Estate on the Horton Road.
We can categorically state that no decision has been made on any site for the new HRC.
If you want an excellent model, try visiting St Helier, Jersey, a first class site, clean & tidy, well managed, closely supervised & effective segregation, less than 10 miles from ALL users , followed by significant recycling on and off island.
Between them, Ferndown, West Moors, the Saints, Three Cross and Verwood lack any suitable “tip” so put one near these please