District with low recycling rate gets ready for major overhaul

Harrogate Borough Council's waste collection service has been heavily criticised after it emerged that recycling rates in parts of the district are as low as 28 per cent – nine levels below the national target for 2010 – despite it being by far the most populous area in North Yorkshire with more than a quarter of the county's residents.

A petition of more than 1,000 names has been collected and is demanding an improved service and the council has been inundated with requests from worried residents requesting better waste collection.

The proposed changes, which will cost almost 3m and include adding plastic bottles and cardboard to kerbside collections, a weekly collection alternating between waste and recycling and replacing the black sack service – the last surviving one in North Yorkshire – with wheelie bins, have already been given Cabinet approval.

Now a scrutiny and overview panel is set to give a final report on the scheme in the next few weeks before the plans go before a specially arranged council meeting to be held shortly after Christmas. The Cabinet member for the environment, Coun Michael Harrison, said: "We need to bring Harrogate up to the level that we should be at – our recycling rates at the moment fall way short.

"In the long term we cannot continue to send the amount of waste to landfill that we currently do.

"It is a major overhaul and we are responding to residents' concerns.

"The debate has moved on hugely in terms of waste recycling, residents are demanding more rather than just being comfortable with putting stuff in a bin that is going to get dumped in a hole in the ground.

"It is up to the council to respond to that demand and change with these raised expectations."

The bill for dealing with the amount of waste that Harrogate currently dumps into landfill is picked up by taxpayers across the county as paying the landfill tax is the responsibility of North Yorkshire County Council.

Ahead of a planned development of a multi-million pound rubbish incinerator between York and Harrogate, angry residents have been demanding a much greater emphasis is placed on recycling in North Yorkshire – Ryedale is currently the best-performing district with a 52 per cent rate.

News that Harrogate is now striving to achieve a similar figure has been welcomed by campaigners. Grant Blakemore, of Harrogate Friends of the Earth, who organised the recent petition demanding change, said five of the six demands the organisation made were being met under the proposals.

Only a call to recycle food waste is still under consideration.

He said: "We are delighted so far, but still hope all our demands will be met.

"There has been a large groundswell from Harrogate residents dissatisfied at our recycling rates for a number of years when we have seen how badly the district has compared in North Yorkshire and in England.

"By signing our petition, the public is giving the council a clear message that they want to see significant improvements in recycling.

"We hope with this support they will make the right decision."

The council plans to borrow 1.3m to purchase bins and vehicles as part of the 2.8m project, but will face considerably lower day-to-day costs than with the current scheme, saving 160,000 annually by 2015/16.

Coun Harrison said that if the green light were to be given by councillors, the proposals will take two years to roll out across the district.

He also moved to assure residents that wheelie bins would not be imposed on residents living in unsuitable areas.