North Hants residents lose access to council tip

NORTH Hampshire residents will lose their access to the tip on Newtown Road after Hampshire County Council (HCC) decided to cut its subsidies to West Berkshire Council (WBC).

In a meeting last Thursday, Hampshire county councillor Rob Humby accepted recommendations to terminate the annual £175,000 payment from HCC to WBC which allowed 5,000 Hampshire households to use the Newbury tip.

This means that from August 1, North Hampshire residents face a potential 30-mile round trip to their nearest Hampshire household waste recycling centre (HWRC) in Basingstoke or Andover.

There are now fears that an end to the arrangement will lead to a rise in fly-tipping in North Hampshire and that the decision undermines both HCC’s and WBC’s selfdeclared climate emergencies.

Despite repeated approaches by the Newbury Weekly News, Hampshire County Council couldn’t be reached for comment.

Prior to the meeting, HCC executive member for economy, transport and environment Mr Humby questioned the arrangement.

He said: “The cost of dealing with household waste and running our HWRC network is significant, and we need to look carefully at all our costs to ensure value for money for all of Hampshire’s council tax payers.

“We’ve analysed the costs of paying West Berkshire Council over the past years we’ve run this transitional permit scheme for a small group of residents in North I Continued on page 27