What this consultation is about
We’re facing budget pressures like never before.
Central Government cuts and other pressures mean that, just like councils up and down the country, we have some difficult decisions to make about the future of the services we provide. By 2018, our budget will be a third lower than in 2010.
We’re doing all we can to keep services running while our budgets are cut back year-on-year and we’re protecting frontline services and vulnerable people as much as possible. But the size of the cuts mean we have no choice about scaling back most of the services we provide.
Dealing with Derbyshire’s waste costs us £37m each year and we need to cut this by £4m by April 2019.
We’ll continue to encourage people to reduce the amount of waste they produce and recycle and compost more to help cut costs. We’ll also need to change the way we run our nine household waste recycling centres and we expect the proposals outlined to contribute towards the £4m cuts.
Summary of proposed changes
The law says we must provide Derbyshire residents with a place to take their household waste free of charge. We do not have to accept non-household waste, business waste or waste from outside Derbyshire.
There are three changes we’re proposing to make to the services we currently provide at our centres.
Proposal one
Only allow people to use our centres if they live in Derbyshire (excluding Derby City) to make sure we’re not picking up the cost of dealing with waste from outside the county. This could, for example, mean asking you to show proof of your address – such as a photo card driving licence – when you arrive or asking you to apply for a permit to use our sites. This would be expected to save up to £100,000 - £200,000 a year.
Proposal two
Ask vans, trailers and pickups used for personal use (not business use) to apply for a free permit to use our centres. This would help prevent business waste being left at our sites. This would be expected to save up to £40,000 a year.
Proposal three
Charge people for bringing non-household waste to our sites such as soil, bricks and rubble. Last year we accepted around 8,000 tonnes of this waste. If we stopped accepting or introduced a charge for this waste it’s expected we would save up to £160,000 per year.
The proposals are for our nine recycling centres at:
- Ashbourne
- Bolsover
- Bretby (Newhall)
- Buxton (Waterswallows)
- Chesterfield (Stonegravels)
- Glossop
- Ilkeston
- Loscoe
- Northwood (Darley Dale).
The recycling centre at Raynesway in Derby is run by Derby City Council and is not included in this consultation.
We asked for your views on the proposals. A report was presented to Cabinet, 10 January 2017, agenda item 7.