Residents’ recycling blow
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East Hampshire, allowing them to access West Berkshire Council’s HWRC in Newbury, at no cost to themselves.
“But the costs involved mean that effectively every household in Hampshire is subsidising this arrangement.
“We need to carefully consider if it is the right thing to do to continue to subsidise a service for residents in one part of the county at the expense of everyone else.”
West Berkshire executive member for the environment Steve Ardagh-Walter said the situation was a great shame and hoped that an agreement could still be reached.
He said: “First of all I want to emphasise that this is a regrettable situation.
“We really are not central to it though, unfortunately it seems that Hampshire County Council and potentially Basingstoke and Deane need to resolve it themselves.
“We do, as is common practice, offer neighbouring authorities access to our recycling centres and up to the end of this month this has been an arrangement with Hampshire based on the costs of running the site and the number of Hampshire residents who use it.
“We really can’t deviate from that without being unfair to West Berkshire residents who would otherwise be subsidising.
“From our side it’s simple.
These are expensive facilities to run – we currently spend around £17m annually on our recycling and waste disposal services for West Berkshire residents. We’ll have to manage the lost £175,000. “We’d love to come to an agreement with Basingstoke and Deane and/or Hampshire, but really we’re a bit stymied until there’s resolution at the border.” Mr Ardagh-Walter said that if no agreement was reached, he hoped a pay-as-you-go or permit system could be implemented for Hampshire residents, but that there was currently nothing in place. On the effects of the situation on the environment, Mr Ardagh-Walter added:
“Again, I hugely regret it. It’s a sad consequence that the arrangements couldn’t be made to carry this on.”
The development is the latest in a long-running dispute between the councils. In September 2016, HCC withdrew its £200,000 a year funding which allowed residents living in Hampshire to use West Berkshire facilities. Four months later, Hampshire paid West Berkshire £175,000 to allow Basingstoke and Deane residents living close to the tip to continue using the site for 12 months. Households affected include 1,510 in Kingsclere, East Woodhay (1,169), Highclere (627), Ashford Hill with Headley (544), Burghclere (470) and Ecchinswell, Sydmonton and Bishops Green (469).