RESIDENTS wishing to dispose of their household waste at the Bracknell and Reading recycling centres will have to display a permit from July.
Under plans being implemented by re3, the company which runs the recycling centres, residents will have to prove that they live in the Wokingham, Bracknell or Reading areas to be allowed to use the facilities from July 1.
A charge is also being introduced for some non-household waste, such as soil, rubble, plasterboard and asbestos, at the Bracknell and Reading sites.
The changes have been prompted by West Berkshire Council giving notice that it intends to stop paying the re3 councils for waste delivered to re3 recycling centres by West Berkshire residents.
Bracknell Forest, Reading and Wokingham residents will still be able to leave their household waste for free at the Longshot Lane and Smallmead recycling centres, but will be required to display a permit in their windscreen in order to gain access.
Every household in the re3 area will be sent a recycling centre permit in the post. Alternative forms of ID will be accepted, but checking these documents will slow down access so residents are being asked to use their windscreen permit.
Wokingham Borough Council’s Executive Member for Environment Cllr Angus Ross said: “The decision to make these changes was thought about long and hard and taken in order to provide the most efficient, best value for money service to re3 residents. We’ve carried out research at other authorities around the country and similar changes appear to have worked well.”
Once the access change has been implemented, there may be scope to review the situation and assess whether re3 would be able to admit non-re3 area visitors by charging a fee for them to deposit their waste at the Bracknell and Reading recycling centres.
The Councils are also cracking down on companies who dump trade waste for free by requiring all residents using a commercial or commercial type vehicle to dispose of waste to apply for a permit before each visit from September.
Only re3 residents will be able to apply for a commercial vehicle permit. Commercial vehicles including flat-backs, tipper and long wheel base vans may not be eligible for the permit scheme and sign-written vehicles may not be allowed to deposit waste relating to that business.
The current system of allowing commercial vehicles access to the recycling centres during specific hours is open to abuse from traders passing off their van loads as household waste. The current system, where larger vehicles can gain access between 2pm and 4pm, can also worsen queuing during those times.
Existing height restriction bars will be replaced by raisable barriers at both sites and over-height time restrictions will come to an end. These measures will distribute visitor numbers more evenly over the course of the day and minimise queuing, and will allow residents with over-height vehicles to visit the recycling centres more conveniently.
Further details of how to apply for a trade permit – as well as the amount that will be charged for non-household waste – will become available nearer to the implementation date, currently scheduled for early September 2016.
For more information on the re3 recycling centres, please visit http://www.re3.org.uk.
