Recycling centres set to reopen next week with strict measures in place

May 12, 2020

The Borough’s two household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) will be reopened to the public next week (Monday 18 May), but only for essential visits and with strict social distancing measures in place to ensure visitors and staff are kept safe.

The two sites (Stock Road and Leigh Marshes) have been closed since Tuesday 24 March. However, the council has been working with partners and neighbouring local authorities over the past few weeks to plan a safe reopening of local sites. This was reinforced after the Government released guidance around the safe reopening of recycling centres on Tuesday 5 May.

The guidance states that residents should only visit the site if they are unable to safely store their waste at home, without it causing a risk to public health, or are unable to dispose of the waste through alternative options. These include using the online bulky waste portal, signing up to the weekly chargeable garden waste service or adding to your normal weekly collection.

The council is urging residents to be aware that although the centres will be reopening, there will be strict social distancing controls in place to keep all visitors and site staff safe. This will include restricting the number of vehicles allowed on site at any one time. Anyone seen to be ignoring these social distancing measures will be asked to leave the site immediately.

Please be aware that although there will be traffic management into the sites, there are likely to be long queues, so please only visit the site if your household waste really needs to go to the recycling centre right now. If it could be stored safely away at home, please do so.

For information on what can be disposed of in your weekly kerbside collection, please visit www.southend.gov.uk/wastecollection

Both sites will be opened for extended opening hours for the first two weeks and will be open from 7am – 6pm. Please note that council policies related to HWRCs will remain. For a temporary period, and to reflect the extended opening hours, commercial type vehicles can visit both sites between 11.30am and 5.00pm on Sunday 24 May and Sunday 31 May.

Any residents showing symptoms of COVID-19, self-isolating or shielding should not visit any recycling centre under any circumstances and should follow advice from Public Health England.

Cllr Carole Mulroney, cabinet member for environment and planning, said: “We are giving residents notice regarding the reopening of the centres as we want to ensure everyone carefully considers if the trip would be absolutely necessary. Please only visit a site if you are not be able to safely store waste at home, and if you do need to visit, please think about when you make that trip and view the site webcams before you set off.

“As always, our number one priority at this time is keeping our residents and staff safe, and to allow us to reopen the sites we will be implementing a number of measures that include strict social distancing and traffic management given the likely long queues to access the site. I therefore ask any potential visitors to the site to respect staff and other visitors. I would also ask residents to try and avoid visiting Two Tree Island during the first few days of opening to avoid unnecessary traffic in the area.

“It is absolutely vital that residents continue to follow Government and Public Health England advice around the Coronavirus pandemic, and with that I urge residents to only visit if it is absolutely necessary.”

Full information regarding the measures in place at the two sites, please visit www.southend.gov.uk/hwrc