Council bans people from outside Hertfordshire using the county's recycling centres

Hertfordshire County Council has announced that people who live outside of Hertfordshire will no longer be able to use its recycling centres.

All 16 centres in the council area will only be available to people who live in the county.

A ‘grace period’ which the local authority says will last for several weeks has now started. Hertfordshire County Council wants to ensure that as many centre users as possible are made aware of the change first.

This will enable other councils time to adapt to a potential increase in demand for their centres.

The council advises that most nearby authorities already have a similar policy, to the new order announced in Hertfordshire yesterday (20 March).

At a cabinet meeting councillors agreed to the change in centre usage rules due to an increase in costs. Councillors heard that the costs of service provision were rapidly increasing and the proportion of non-Hertfordshire residents using sites in the county was in excess of 20 per cent. It is believed that the number of people from outside of Hertfordshire that were using the recycling sites was increasing.

Councillor Simon Aries said: “The decision taken is the start of the process, and we will now take steps as resources allow to implement this policy across our recycling centres.

“Like many other council-run services, our recycling centres are experiencing additional costs and it is only prudent that we look at all possible forms of mitigation for Hertfordshire taxpayers who are currently paying for waste arising outside of Hertfordshire. We anticipate that once the changes have bedded-in, restricting non-resident access will mean less traffic through our centres leading to an improved experience for our residents.

“Resident only policies are commonplace across the region and country, with many of our nearest neighbours having had this policy in place for some time. We will now invite all neighbouring councils to dialogue on the potential reciprocal use of centres across borders.”

Residents are asked to bring appropriate clothing and footwear when heading to their nearest waste centre and the council advises people should only bring amounts of waste that they can comfortably carry.