'Recycling follies' letter from Highclere over waste wars

Letter sent to Theresa May's new Government

HIGHCLERE Parish Council has written to Theresa May’s new Government, calling the Hampshire/Berkshire cross- border waste wars “a serious breach of national policies”.

Hampshire County Council recently decided to withdraw £200,000 funding to West Berkshire Council, which helped pay for Hampshire residents to use West Berkshire’s Newtown Road recycling facility.

West Berkshire Council’s resulting permit scheme will leave people living in several Hampshire villages close to the facility with no option but to drive to a Hampshire waste recycling centre, the nearest of which is 15 miles away, at Wade Road in Basingstoke.

Among several North Hampshire parish councils protesting at the issue is Highclere.

Last week it sent an open letter entitled “The Recycling Follies” to the secretary of state, and on the eve of the formation of Mrs May’s new cabinet.

The letter was also copied to the satirical magazine Private Eye and to the MP for North West Hampshire, Kit Malthouse (Con).

It states the “squabble” between neighbouring local authorities was “about to create a serious breach of national policies and social injustice for many tax-payers”.

The letter explained that, from July 1, Bracknell Forest, Reading and Wokingham authorities had restricted access to their recycling centres to residents of their own boroughs – with West Berkshire Council swift to follow suit.

It went on to say that the move, involving administrative boundaries, was “very clearly against national policy that requires all local authorities to optimise reductions in landfill” and argued the bureaucracy would lead to a “significant reduction in recycling.

“Instead, residents will cram whatever they can into their household waste bins.

“There will also be an increase in fly-tipping.”

Highclere Parish Council argued that those people who did make the long journey would add to traffic congestion, increasing greenhouse gas emissions and pollution.

Resulting queues at the centres would discourage residents from recycling – including those who lived closest to them – and unchecked, the folly, triggered by a pressing need to slash budgets, could spread to the whole country.

Other North Hampshire parish councils furious at the decision to introduce a new permit scheme include Burghclere, a village located just a stone’s throw away from the Newtown Road recycling facility.

Hampshire county councillor Tom Thacker, (Con Whitchurch and Clere) has said he feared a resulting increase in fly-tipping throughout the rural North Hampshire area.