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Published on Wednesday 02 December 2020

As part of BCP council’s ongoing commitment to align services across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, Cabinet is set to discuss recommendations to combine the operating policies from the council’s three Household Recycling Centres (HRCs) into one standard policy, to benefit residents and ensure consistency across the conurbation.

Currently, each HRC still has its own operating policy in place. These recommendations focus on creating an improved service for residents with clearer lines of communication by merging the differences in each policy including the van permit scheme, charity waste acceptance, chargeable waste and pedestrian access to the HRCs, into one single policy.

Christchurch charities will benefit from an extension to the Charity Permit Scheme to allow them to tip at either Millhams, Bournemouth or Nuffield, Poole as there is currently no facility to do so at Wilverley Road in Christchurch. This recognises and rewards the good work that charity shops do in preventing waste from going to landfill.

The van permit scheme will be under scrutiny with changes that bring Bournemouth and Poole in line with Christchurch, allowing a household up to three visits annually where they also own a car, as well as allowing householders whose only vehicle is a van up to six visits per year to the HRCs.

Currently there is no policy on allowing pedestrians to access the HRCs on foot. If agreed, these recommendations will allow residents to dispose of their rubbish on foot or by bicycle as long as they are accompanied by a member of staff on site, demonstrating the council’s commitment to sustainable travel and its climate emergency declaration.

Councillor Mark Anderson, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Environment, Cleansing and Waste commented:

"Aligning our waste services is an on-going project, not least because we need to consider the government’s waste strategy for 2023. These proposed policy merges are significant as they give us the opportunity to offer the same service across all three of our Household Recycling Centres, which is important for our residents.

"The council's commitment is to vibrant communities with outstanding quality of life and going forward, it will be the little changes like this that benefit our residents and help to achieve this goal."

Cabinet takes place on 17 December and can be watched live via the council’s YouTube channel here.

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