Letter: Waste - ‘Orwellian nightmare’ arrangements must be reviewed

The present and increasing epidemic of ‘fly-tipping’ will never subside unless and until there is a very significant and radical change in the West Lindsey District Council waste removal policies.

The recent, and openly brazen, ‘two-finger’ dumping of rubbish on the MR Festival Hall car park is final proof, if that was needed, that the present regulations are ineffectual and totally inadequate in providing any incentives and deterrents in the campaign to stop this antisocial and costly blight on the landscape.

Quoting from your recent waste disposal report:

‘On Sunday and Monday, residents can take black bagged (general waste), plasterboard, plastics, mattresses, scrap metal, waste electricals, (such as washing machines, TVs, light bulbs etc.,), batteries, household chemicals, mineral and cooking oils, gas cylinders, sofas, carpets and clothing.

On Mondays residents can also take carpets and sofas (but not Sunday’s).

On Tuesday and Friday and Saturday garden waste (green), paper and cardboard, glass, wood, soil, hard-core’.

One has to marvel as to who thought this dystopian nonsense up.

Therefore, if waste falls into a number of different categories and needs to be carried in a trailer it is wholly possible that three visits within one week (except Wednesdays) would be needed to dispose of everything, and yet visits are only limited to one per week!

But beware, only on Mondays and Fridays can these be allowed in if they are in a trailer and only in a 6x4 trailer to a height of two feet. (To my eternal embarrassment I mistakenly booked on a ‘non-trailer’ day so was denied admission as was the fellow in front of me who had his trailer measured and was found to be 6 inches too big. To compound this lunacy, I was then told I could to load all my waste sacks into the back of my hatchback and then take it in.

What-ever robot thought of this ‘Orwellian nightmare’ should immediately apply for the post of scriptwriter to ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’ or to replace M Barnier in the Brexit negotiations. One also has to wonder if some of these items can only be deposited if there is an ‘r’ in the month or if it is the ‘vernal equinox’!

Therefore, and seriously, an urgent need of appraisal of the present stultifying and ineffectual situation is imperative.

Firstly: the draconian and unnecessarily bureaucratic regulations covering the opening and use of the local, Gallamore Lane, tip must be reviewed. The present arrangements, closing at 16.00, shut one day per week and with only ‘two trailer days’ (of which neither is Saturday or Sunday) actively dissuades anyone who is at work or otherwise engaged within those times. We are also told that the restrictions are because of the need for ‘social distancing’ but the ‘bins are at least 16 feet apart and the employees are scrupulous in keeping their distances.

Consequently I would propose a) The facility is open seven days a week;

b) Hours extended from at least 08.00 to 19.00;

c) Trailers allowed every day and with an increase in size.

In addition, the booking system should be scrapped. No doubt this would mean queues at the start, but the situation would soon revert back to normal.

Secondly: charges for the removal of bulk items should be scrapped. (At £32, to remove a fridge freezer from a household it’s a lot easier and cheaper not to have to wait in and pay but load it onto a trailer and dump it somewhere on the Wolds at 3am in the morning!). Any loss of revenue could be recouped by a small and general addition to the council tax precept. This would mean the costs would be spread across the whole community and, although there would undoubtedly be some people who would resent such a charge because they are not the ones who fly-tip, it is in everyone’s overall interest that the unsightly blight on our roadsides and entrances to fields should be removed. (After all, a significant part of my own council tax goes towards schools and education but at 74 years old I have no use for such facilities!).

Thirdly: charges for the removal of commercial waste have got to be the main reason for the epidemic and should be subsumed into the Business Rate, again spreading the cost from specific and individual companies. (It costs £88.60 to collect said fridge-freezer from commercial premises –why this is £56.60 more than from a residence escapes me, and with a carcass removal charge of £2 per car tyre there is yet more incentive for the unscrupulous to dump illegally and pocket the charge, as they recently had the good grace to deposit over 100 on the Wolds road to Fotherby, thereby requiring a 15 mile detour to our destination.

From my , unfortunately, numerous observations the majority of commercial fly-tipping is of medium sized amounts that would fit on the back of a Transit Tipper and consequently it is reasonable to assume that the perpetrators are one or two man businesses with small profit margins and for whom the commercial disposal charges will represent a considerable part of their outgoing costs and potential earnings.

Most recently, whilst driving across the moor from Saxilby to North Carlton I came across a tipper load of building waste.

To remove such an eyesore would no doubt take at least three employees a considerable time, the use of a skip lorry and probably the hire of a JCB digger.

The cost of such an operation must run into hundreds of pounds and undoubtedly much more than the costs of any incentives to encourage the correct disposal of such rubbish.

Fourthly: it must be obvious the present facilities and provisions for the disposal of trade waste are wholly ineffectual and in the longer term, additional local facilities must be built to allow the removal of medium sized loads waste.

A £6 million pound leisure centre is all very well and a laudable extension to the improvement of the public’s health, in particular obesity, but the present lack of waste removal sites and policies that actively encourage the dishonest and devious to act in such a criminal way and which continue to encourage the present ‘epidemic’ represent another form of ‘health hazard.’

Cllr Bunney is quoted as thinking, and arrogantly dismissing, the problem that ‘There is a bit of flytipping going on’. A ‘bit’!

He obviously does not drive through his constituency and see the filth and rubbish that is very much more than ‘a bit’ .

Consequently, I urge West Lindsey Council and councillors to ‘get a grip’ on this escalating problem before they find that they are voted out to be replaced by others who just might have the common sense to do something about it.

Paul Strong

Claxby