Highland Council to get tough with sole trader dumpers
A waste boss has warned that Highland Council would be vulnerable to prosecution if staff turned a blind eye to sole traders dumping rubbish at its recycling centres.
The local authority has agreed to run a pilot assessing how it can identify and stop firms trying to deposit commercial waste.
Councillors have also banned any household refuse – which has arisen as part of a commercial operation, like a house clearance - being left at its depots.
By law, firms must pay for disposing their own waste but some can try to flout the rules at the 21 Highland recycling centres by using unmarked vans on arrival.
But senior opposition councillor Alasdair Rhind was concerned the inspection system was going to become tougher and called for some leniency to be shown to small firms, particularly sole traders.
Councillor Rhind said for example a gardener might be wishing to dispose of trimmings from an elderly woman’s hedge but would be turned away leaving the OAP having to get rid of it herself.
"It is going to be more vigorous, I don’t see there is any need for that," he said. "I think there has got to be flexibility on this."
But Colin Clark, the council’s head of waste management, said staff would be pragmatic but could not break the law in allowing illegal rubbish to be dumped.
"Waste is heavily regulated, commercial waste operators are regulated every inch of the way," he said. "Their waste is their responsibilty, not the council’s responsibilty. We have to be careful in what we do, all of our recycling centres operate under a licence. If we break the conditions of the licence we leave ourselves open to the possibility of prosecution from SEPA.
"Our staff don’t operate in a vacuum, they are to a person, pragmatic, they know their communities. Latitude is applied when they met people at the gate but let’s remember the commercial people, they are taking their stuff to centres free of charge and are placing a burden on the Council Tax payer."
The pilot programme at Alness’ recycling centre which investigate several ways in which to combat the deposit of commercial waste.
