Cars to be allowed access to majority of Aberdeenshire household recycling centres without booking
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Aberdeenshire Council will allow cars to visit all household recycling centres except for Inverurie and Westhill without booking from Monday, January 8.
A permit system for vans and trailers will be reintroduced across all household recycling centres in January to stop trade waste entering the sites.
Due to high demand at Alford, Fraserburgh, Huntly, Insch, Laurencekirk, Portsoy, Turriff, and Westhill household recycling centres, pedestrian access will be reintroduced.
Pedestrians, bicycles, and bikes with trailers will be allowed safe access without the presence of other vehicles at these sites from noon to 12.30pm each day from Monday, January 8.
At Inverurie, the booking system will remain as vehicles queuing for the site have historically become a police traffic issue during busy periods.
Similarly, at the busy Westhill household recycling centre, removing the booking system would lead to traffic congestion near the site.
There is also concern, due to the site’s proximity to the city, that removing the booking system would lead to increased visits from Aberdeen City householders.
The booking system at Aberdeenshire’s household recycling centres was first introduced as a traffic management tool and as a protective measure for customers and staff when centres opened after the covid lockdown in March 2020.
Between November 2022 and July of 2023, the council trialled various methods of access to its household recycling centres and evaluated the usage of the sites as well as the feedback provided by members of the public.
The new arrangements, which come into effect on January 8, directly reflect the conclusions of the trial and the feedback provided.
The results of the trial were considered at Aberdeenshire Council’s infrastructure services committee where the decision was made to drop the booking system for cars at all sites except for Inverurie and Westhill recycling centres.
Councillor Alan Turner, chair of the council’s Infrastructure Services Committee (ISC), said: “Considering the feedback throughout the trial, this will be a popular result for the avid recyclers among us.
"Over the last year, I received several comments from Kincardine & Mearns residents, and I would like to say that I am particularly delighted about the new arrangements being introduced in the K&M area.
“Regardless of whether residents of Aberdeenshire need to book or not, I’d encourage everyone who wishes to visit a household recycling centre to continue to check the website for opening times.
"There are occasions where we must close a site at short notice and a quick visit to our web pages will save people a wasted trip in the few instances where we must make an unexpected closure.”
Councillor Isobel Davidson, ISC vice-chair, said: "It is a great result considering the popularity of the option in the feedback.
"We hope that Inverurie and Westhill residents will appreciate the reasoning behind the booking system remaining at their local household recycling centres.
“It was fascinating to see that, throughout the trial, people made fewer trips but with more deposited on each occasion."
The decision to retain booking at Inveruire and Westhill was not unanimous however with Garioch's Glen Reid commenting: "This is better than the trial situation, but really isn’t fair to those residents in Westhill and Inverurie who will see the rest of Aberdeenshire not being required to book, but they will still have to.
"I know many residents in my ward, who use Inverurie HRC, do not want the booking system and are confused as to why their depot has it and others don’t.
“It seems that almost all councillors are in agreement with removing the booking system in their area, as their constituents don’t want it, but may be against it being removed for the benefit of constituents who use Inverurie and Westhill.
"Behaviour has changed since covid, and we are deciding to treat Inverurie and Westhill differently from the rest of Aberdeenshire based on experience from three or four years ago."
Visit aberdeenshire.gov.uk/RecyclingCentres to check household recycling centre opening
days and times.
A benchmarking exercise carried out in September showed that within the 32 Scottish local authorities, 24 have a booking system in place at household recycling centres, either for all vehicles or for trade type vehicles only.
The booking system will now be used to implement the permit system that was approved by committee before covid.
This permit system for the booking of vans and trailers, along with the limit of 24 visits per year, will be a control measure to keep trade waste out of household recycling centres while still allowing households with these vehicles to access the sites.
