20 July 2020
WODC have announced that they are closing the recycling facility at the Guildenford car park in Burford. This is expected to take effect this week.
They sent the following message to Burford Town Council:
During the COVID-19 pandemic the councils community recycling centres have remained open but they have come under significant pressure. Large amounts of material have been fly-tipped at sites across the district including trade waste (which should be paid for by businesses) and items that place staff and the public at risk like asbestos and chemicals. This is certainly the case at the site in the Guildenford car park which I visited yesterday afternoon with Cllr Derek Cotterill, in his capacity as the District Councillor for Burford, and Cllr Norman MacRae, in his capacity as the Cabinet Member for the Environment at WODC.
We know that the site is used 24/7 and this can cause nuisance to local residents and the pictures below illustrate the condition we found the site yesterday and speak for themselves. The councils contractors are clearing the site three times a week but as you can see from the images the site is being abused and my understanding is this has been the case for many years despite the fact that we reviewed information signage a few years ago.
The sites were introduced 15+ years ago, prior to the kerbside (household) recycling service and this was enhanced two years ago with the introduction of large blue lid wheelie bins. All of the materials that can be recycled at the bring site can be collected by the kerbside (household) recycling service including textiles (which can be put into a carrier bag next to residents recycling wheelie bin) and small electrical items which can be placed in the black recycling box that is used for glass. Details are contained on the WODC website - https://www.westoxon.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/what-to-put-in-your-bin/recycling-blue-lidded-bin-and-black-box/ In addition, residents can order more black boxes or a larger recycling bin if they regularly need them by calling 01993861000 or requesting them on the council website - https://www.westoxon.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/request-bins-and-recycling-containers/
In the case of Burford there are two community recycling centres. In addition to the one in the car park, there is one at the garden centre. This facility is well used and suffers significantly less abuse, probably because it is not open overnight. We believe there is capacity in the garden centre site to take legitimate materials from the car park site.
The council has asked me to review the current service which I have started and report to the Cabinet later in the year. A number of parish councils (Eynsham and Clanfield) have already asked for the bring sites in their community to be removed and this has been done successfully in Eynsham (without any additional fly-tipping) and is scheduled to be done later this month in Clanfield. As part of this review I am going to remove the bring site in the car park in Burford. If the conclusion of the review is to replace it we will of course do this. The benefit of doing this is we expect to reduce the level of fly-tipping and illegal use over the summer, particularly trade waste and dangerous items in a public place, visually it will improve the area for visitors to the town during the peak visitor period, and we will be able to replace the site with addition parking spaces to support the local economy.
I am going to instruct our contractors to remove the bring site next week and then we will clean the area and new lines will be painted.
