Fly tipping is blamed on Raynesway booking system
LABOUR LEADER SAYS DUMPING INCIDENTS HAVE GONE UP BY 46%
DERBY’S Labour group claims that the city council’s booking system at the Raynesway tip is causing incidents of fly tipping to “rocket” and this is having a “massive impact” on recycling figures.
Labour leader Councillor Baggy Shanker says he has been given figures by the city council, which show that compared to figures in June 2019, there was a 46% increase in the number of reported fly tipping incidents.
At the same time, there was a 75.6% decrease in the tonnage of waste taken to the Raynesway Household Waste and Recycling site.
But the city council has hit back, defending the booking system, saying it stops traders tipping waste, and, while conceding that fly tipping incidents have increased, says they are not as high as some areas of the East Midlands.
Councillor Baggy Shanker, leader of the Labour group, has attacked the Conservative-led council’s plan to make booking a permanent feature of in-person waste disposal at the Raynesway site – capped at 12 visits a year.
Booking was introduced following the ending of the first lockdown in mid-May, amid fears that people would flock to the site after refuse collections had been disrupted and in the process, cause traffic chaos on the industrial estate site as a result.
The city council is set to approve the new system after a report going to the city council cabinet meeting today said that it would be enough visits for people and would stop traders illegally using the site.
It will also prevent people from outside Derbyshire from taking rubbish to the site.
The report said that since the site reopened following the initial lockdown in March, most people only visited once during the period from June to September.
It adds: “By limiting visits, customers will only book when they intend on visiting and this will help spread visits across the year, allowing fair access for all.
“Discouraging businesses and traders from using the centre will free up site capacity and booking slots for household recycling and disposal use.”
The report also notes that the new measures would save the council about £150,000 a year.
But Mr Shanker said: “At a time when the city council should be on the side of hard-pressed Derby residents the Tory-led council are introducing more red tape and making it near impossible to use Raynesway.
“With Christmas just around the corner, Derby City Council should be working with local residents to ensure they can easily and safely get rid of household waste.
“Derby residents are being restricted to 12 visits a year and if you need to make two trips to the tip, you will need to book two slots, possibly months apart.
“Despite calls to work together for the sake of the city, the Tories are ploughing on making it harder to use Raynesway, embroiling the process in red tape.
“I will call on the council cabinet member, Councillor Jonathan Smale, to carry out a full survey and look at alternative methods for working at the site at the council cabinet meeting this week.
“This is an example of the Covid-19 pandemic being used as an excuse to permanently reduce service and make cuts.”
Mr Shanker says he has been given figures by the city council which show that in May 2020 there were 657 incidents of fly tipping reported in Derby, compared to 504 in May 2019.
This increased to 774 in June this year, compared to 414 in 2019 and there was a further 741 cases reported in July 2020, which was more than the 524 in July 2019.
At the same time, the documents show that tonnages of waste at the tip were drastically reduced this year. In June 2019, there was 1,781.36 tonnes compared to 432.89 tonnes
in June this year. This went up to 706.25 in July this year, which was way below the 2,063.79 in July 2019.
The report also contains data which shows there were 37,965 bookings made to visit the centre between mid-May through to the end of September.
Of these, 24% – more than 9,000 customers – did not show up and in one example, a person booked 27 times and failed to turn up for 24 of the slots.
The most prolific site users booked 45 and 43 slots over the same 138day period.
Not only did they fail to turn up for 12 and five bookings respectively, but one booked using a property development and lettings company.
The site is not licensed to accept trade waste and the changes are expected to help operator HW Martin, on behalf of the city council and Renewi, to run the site.
Councillor Jonathan Smale, cabinet member for communities, neighbourhoods and Streetpride,
said: “Fly tipping has increased and our data shows that in Derby fly tipping increased 21% between April and September this year, compared to the same time period last year.
“Other areas in the East Midlands region have seen increases of over 30%, with an average of 21% across the East Midlands.
“This has remained stable through the measures we have put in place at Raynesway to protect residents and staff from the risks of coronavirus.
“To enable residents to continue to dispose of their waste in a sustainable and responsible way, additional kerbside collections for bulky waste have been delivered throughout the pandemic.
“Additionally, between April and September this year, teams removed 78% of fly tips pro-actively, which involved our teams clearing waste whilst carrying out their usual work and before it had been reported to us.
“Fly tipping is a crime and it is unfair to assume that residents would resort to criminal behaviour due to changes put in place to keep them safe.
“The council takes environmental crime seriously and investigates fly tipping where it takes place in the city.”
Mr Smale said that the volume of waste processed at Raynesway has reduced, but added: “It’s important to remember that the site was closed between March and May of this year, which are typically some of the busiest months for the site as residents have spring cleans.
“We have also increased messaging that encourages residents to consider other options such as repairing, upcycling, selling or donating items before booking a visit to Raynesway and worked hard to ensure that free brown bin collections for garden waste could continue throughout the pandemic, thereby reducing reliance on disposal at Raynesway.
“The proposals that have been submitted to cabinet are primarily designed to prevent businesses and traders illegally using the site and to prevent misuse that we’ve seen by a small number of residents.
“There are a number of councils across the country who are using booking systems and already have limits in place for the number of visits a household can make.
“Since the site re-opened in May, we’ve had a lot of support for the booking system from residents who have used it.”
The new measures will be discussed at the cabinet meeting today, which will be held virtually on YouTube from 4pm.
The Tory-led council are introducing more red tape and making it near impossible to use Raynesway Baggy Shanker