Families with vans and pick-up trucks will be able to use West Lothian’s Community Recycling Centres on Saturdays from July.
Until now vans and pick-ups have been banned from visiting the five Community Recycling Centre (CRC) sites on the weekends - with bookable slots only available during the working day through the week.
Breich Valley Councillor Pauline Clark, SNP, pointed out in January that around 30 percent of vans sold are now used for non commercial purposes.
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She told a council meeting: “Many people now choose to use vans and pick‐ups as their main family mode of transport with no associated commercial use whatsoever. Many of these people work through the week and cannot utilise the booking system which restricts access to Monday to Friday, with no option to make a weekend booking.”
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The council’s operational services had enforced a ban because it was difficult to control the number of visits by van drivers, and weed out commercial operators using sites meant for household recycling. Vans carry a larger load of waste and the skips at recycling centres could fill up quickly forcing them to close. The five sites affected by the change are Oakbank, Livingston; Blackburn, Broxburn, Linlithgow and Whitburn.
The CRC sites are especially busy at weekends and during holiday times. There have been problems at Oakbank in Livingston with police having to attend to traffic congestion, with queuing cars stretching out onto the A71 and Lizzie Brice roundabout.
David Robertson, the council's recycling and waste manager, told this month's meeting of the Environment Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel (PDSP): ”We know that some van owners are genuine householders but we have strong anecdotal evidence that some are not and are passing themselves off as such.”
He said the new software currently being set up would allow the council to monitor the number of visits by each van.
He said: "At the moment we can’t. In the future if someone comes in with their fourth bathroom suite we can challenge them, or it could be rubble or garden rubbish.”
Van owners can book slots between 11am and noon on Saturdays during the July trial. Drivers will have to provide proof of West Lothian residency and will be allowed up to 10 visits a year.
A report to the PDSP added: “Booking slots will be made available across all five sites for a total of 15 vehicles from 11am to midday on Saturdays.
“This will be actively monitored to ensure that there is no detrimental impact on other site users and site safety. It is not currently possible to allow visits on Sundays as this is likely to fill skips beyond capacity and there is no way of emptying skips on Sunday afternoons without employing additional drivers at excessive cost.”
Mr Robertson said the IT tracking system is already used by neighbouring councils including Edinburgh and, depending on the outcome of the trial, more slots could be introduced. Results of the trial will be reported to the new Environment and Sustainability PDSP in September.
“It’s more likely we’ll offer more slots than fewer,” said Mr Robertson.
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