Long queues at Hazel Court Recycling Centre in York

Last week, people contacted The Press to claim that traffic was queuing for as long as an hour at Hazel Court Recycling Centre, off James Street, in the Foss Islands area of York.

While traffic was moving slowly in James Street, cars were at a standstill in Hazel Court. Staff at the site said the longest waits were closer to 35 minutes rather than an hour.

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The queues come after City of York Council rolled out a new charge for garden waste green bin collections in York earlier this month – a service that had previously been free. 

Local shop owner Dominic Shortle, who owns Fully Furnished in James Street, said: “The situation seems to becoming worse, week in week out, especially now with the summer here and the green bin charges that have been introduced. 

“Not only myself but other businesses in the area of James Street have been heavily affected as people obviously are finding it very difficult to get down James Street to access businesses. After speaking to businesses in the area, they are all up in arms.

“I have had numerous telephone conversations with people calling me from other businesses expressing their concerns also. This madness is to the detriment of my business and other businesses in the area.

Dominic Shortle, who owns Fully Furnished on James Street (Image: Harry Booth)

“I think the situation here has got so out of hand. People’s patience is short and I believe if the situation is not sorted, there will be a very serious accident, as people are overtaking on the wrong side of the road and using the path to get round the traffic.”

Hazel Court reduced its opening hours earlier this year with the current opening times being 8.30am to 5pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and 8.30am to 4pm on Sundays. The centre is closed on Wednesdays.

Ben Grabham, head of environmental services at City of York Council, said the council understood that some people had been concerned by recent changes to garden waste collections and opening hours at Hazel Court.

He said:  “Nobody wants to wait in a hot car for any period of time and we know at busier times this is hard to avoid.

“We do monitor visitor numbers throughout the day, and we know from previous data that visitor numbers change significantly at different times for multiple reasons. From previous years we’ve seen that attendance is seasonal – dryer weather and holiday periods tend to mean more visitors to Hazel Court.

Queues at Hazel Court (Image: Newsquest)

“We know that increased visitors to Hazel Court was a concern that was raised when the Garden Waste Subscription Scheme was introduced, but from the data we have there hasn’t been a big change in numbers between before and after this was introduced. We can also see that Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays have roughly the same number of visitors, with peaks and troughs in the numbers throughout the day.

“To help maintain traffic flows into nearby businesses we have recently proactively introduced a queuing system at Hazel Court, to try and minimise the impact that queues can have on the surrounding areas.

“Whilst it can be frustrating to have to wait, there are some steps that visitors can take to help make the process quicker for everyone. If you pre-sort your waste before your visit you make the trip quicker for yourself and everyone else waiting, and where possible we’d advise you to visit at quieter times, most days this is between 4pm and 6pm.”

He added he wanted to thank the council’s teams who “have been working incredibly hard to keep up with demand during busy periods”. 

Councillor Paula Widdowson, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for environment and climate change, speaking last week, said: “The chaotic scenes at Hazel Court today are shocking, but not surprising. Queues are reportedly taking up to an hour to get through, and many residents just giving up.

“This is the direct result of Labour’s decision to impose a deeply unpopular Green Bin Tax, tell people that they can dispose of their green waste at Hazel Court, and then cut the opening hours to it.

“Liberal Democrats have consistently warned Labour’s council bosses about this and they simply have not listened. It’s time for them to scrap the Green Bin Tax and reopen our recycling centres.”