Green Party councillors have raised concerns about cuts to opening times at Household Waste Centre across Bradford District and the lack of publicity.
From 31st October, centres will now open an hour later at 9am on a weekday and close at 16:45. On Saturdays the tips will – open at 9am and close at 3.45pm (Keighley opens at 8am and closes at 11.45am). On Sunday they will open at 10am and close at 3.45pm.
Councillor Caroline Whitaker raised concerns with the Waste Services department after Green Party councillors from across the district had been contacted by residents about the changes.
Councillor Whitaker, who represents Craven Ward on Bradford Council said:
“We are very disappointed that these changes have been brought in by without proper and clear notification. There has been no communication directly with Councillors or Bradford residents about these changes prior to them being introduced.
“Adding a note on the Bradford Council website is not enough. People are only going to see this if they actively go out of their way to look. There should have been a clear communication plan in place for this.
“We understand that the economic situation means Bradford Council needs to be making tough decisions about services, but this is not how you go about doing it. It is just another example of poor communication from Bradford Council.”
Councillor Celia Hickson (Tong Ward) is similarly concerned that changes to the opening hours will lead to an increase in fly-tipping, particularly in existing hot spots.
Highlighting data that showed that wards around some tips already had fly-tipping issues, Councillor Hickson said, “Taking a full hour off early morning sessions at Bradford’s busy tips and closing earlier is inevitably going to lead to an increase in people illegally dumping their waste.
“Areas around tips like Bowling Back Lane already have serious issues with fly-tipping and I’m concerned there could be an increase in illegal waste dumping linked to this in parts of my ward. Bradford Council really needs to be looking at ways to make using our tips easier for residents to use – not putting barriers in the way like changing opening hours on the quiet.
“If this is meant to save the Council money, we don’t think it will work, as any savings to the waste services budget will be offset by increases to the cost of removing illegal fly-tipping.”