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Councillors and committees

Agenda item

HWRC Vehicle Permit Scheme Review

Presentation

Minutes:

It was reported that over the last few months the Partnership team has been leading an evaluation of the Household Waste and Recycling Centre (HWRC) vehicle permit schemes in order to harmonise site access arrangements across the partnership area.

 

There are four HWRC’s across the partnership area, each of which is managed on behalf of the partnership by external contractors. The sites are made up of a number of different skips for different materials, they are open seven days per week except Christmas.  HWRC’s can be used by any resident of the same local authority area, as there is no pedestrian access a vehicle must be used to dispose of any waste.

 

Previously vehicle permit schemes were introduced to restrict opportunities for inappropriate and potentially illegal access for the disposal of non-household waste or very large volumes of waste. Those residents using cars with trailers, vans, vehicles with a flat bed loading space of 4x4 vehicles with solid rear panels, must apply for a permit for their specific vehicle in order to gain access to the site. Vehicles such as live agricultural vehicles, vans with trailers and box vans are banned from sites due to their size and the type of waste they would likely be transporting. Across the partnership the vehicle permit schemes have basically corresponding criteria except some minor inconsistencies around vehicle height, length and weight.

 

It was noted that HWRC’s are only licensed to accept household waste, commercial waste cannot be disposed of as it needs to be managed within the correct legal framework. In Gateshead and Sunderland vehicle length was selected as a key restriction due to health and safety issues and traffic movement, as well as the suspected misuse of HWRC’s by traders and commercial businesses. However it was reported that there has been an increase in complaints regarding site access restrictions, this is because many of the new style pick-ups are as common as everyday estate cars but are often over the five metre maximum length limit and therefore are not allowed to access sites. In South Tyneside instead of vehicle length restriction, vans and larger vehicles are subject to a maximum gross vehicle weight limit of three and a half tonnes. It was pointed out however that this is difficult to enforce and essentially allows any type of van, regardless of their size, to enter the site.

 

In terms of the 2016/17 permit scheme statistics only 158 applications were refused in Gateshead; 25% of which was because they were identified as trade waste and 69% because the vehicle was over 5 metres long. 1,233 were refused in South Tyneside, 53% of these were because too many permits had already been issued that month, 43% because the vehicle had previously been used by another resident and 5% because they were suspected trade waste.  In Sunderland the number of permits refused was 346, 66% because they were trade waste, 24% because the vehicle was over 5 metres and 7% because excessive amounts of waste were trying to be disposed.  It was acknowledged that these figures do not include telephone applications where, once a restriction is breached, the application process is terminated immediately and the details are not recorded.  It was also reported that generally residents apply for more permits than they actually need. For example, in Gateshead, 18,499 permits were issued online but only 7,976 were presented at an HWRC, similarly 3,207 permits were posted but only 1,186 were used. 442 permits were printed by the Council for collection from the Civic Centre and only 205 were used. It was noted that in Sunderland only 60% of the permits issued were presented on site.  Issuing more permits than are needed costs the Councils more in administering the permit scheme.

 

In reviewing the existing vehicle permit schemes gives an opportunity to harmonise access arrangements and maximise the benefits of using HWRC’s for as many residents as possible, whilst ensuring that trade users’ access to sites is restricted. This will also support the joint approach to the procurement of a new partnership wide HWRC contract in 2020.

 

The review recommended two changes to the existing HWRC vehicle permit schemes; the first being the introduction of a maximum annual limit of 12 permits per year (most other local authorities already restrict the number of permits). The statistics show that it would seem reasonable to implement and would only impact on a relatively small number of genuine service users and will significantly restrict commercial users disposing of their trade waste free of charge.  The restriction will also encourage service users to only apply for the number of permits they actually need. Any unused permits will not be able to be carried forward to the next year. It was acknowledged that there are still some issues to be ironed out to ensure effective operation, for example customer services will need to cross-reference the named resident against the vehicle and the household from which the application is being made, this is to ensure traders are not asking others to apply for permits on their behalf. Consideration is also being given to whether all 12 permits should be issued in a single application and whether the annual period should relate to a calendar / financial year or a 12 month period from the date of application.

 

It was noted that the review also proposes to increase vehicle length limit across the partnership to a maximum of 5.5 metres. This will mean only minor changes will be needed to the Gateshead and Sunderland HWRC services, although South Tyneside will be changing from vehicle weight to vehicle length, which will mean some vehicles currently able to apply for a permit will be prevented from continuing to do so.

 

It was confirmed that any actual costs savings are too difficult to quantify as there is no direct tonnage information available to analyse the exact amount of trade waste that is being disposed of.  It was reported that the review of the vehicle permit scheme will ultimately restrict commercial users from disposing of trade waste illegally at the Council’s expense and this will therefore improve the service for genuine service users by reducing queuing traffic and shortening the time that people are spending on site.

 

During the review discussions were held with Suez as the HWRC provider for Gateshead and Sunderland, as South Tyneside’s provider changed during the review to Remondis JBT discussions around the service change will need to be held. The two current proposals are considered as ‘quick wins’ in terms of the HWRC service but they do require significant back office work by colleagues outside of the partnership team, for example customer service front line staff and the software that manages online applications. It was noted that this will need to be underpinned by a coordinated communications campaign across the partnership area in advance of the introduction of the changes.

 

RESOLVED    -           That Joint Executive Committee noted the information

presented.

 

 

 

 

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