New Blackburn recycling centre in limbo after LGR
A pause in the creation of a new household waste recycling centre for people in Blackburn has left the project in limbo, following a major U-turn by the UK Government.
A pause in the creation of a new household waste recycling centre for people in Blackburn has left the project in limbo, following a major U-turn by the UK Government.
This is because, initially, Blackburn with Darwen Council had decided to delay the £7.7m project at Goose House Lane in Darwen until the new Pennine Lancashire authority took its place as the body responsible for waste collection and disposal.
That ‘pause’ would have allowed the new authority to make its own determinations about the new recycling centre, without having its hands tied by the then-abolished Blackburn with Darwen executive.
But when Secretary of State for Housing, Communities, and Local Government Angela Rayner stood up in the House of Commons on Tuesday and revealed that long-planned reforms to councils across the country were themselves ‘paused’, she also effectively put the Goose House Lane project on ice.
This is despite a large public response in favour of the major investment into improving waste services in the borough, with almost 1500 residents responding to the council’s consultation to have their say.
The consultation showed that there was ‘significant approval’ for functional upgrades to existing waste services, including better accessibility, parking, and the creation of a large reuse shop.
There was also support for a new recycling centre to replace the two that presently serve the borough, but this proposal also sparked concern about where it would be located and whether increasing the distance that some may have to travel would cause an increase in fly tipping.
The Goose House Lane recycling centre would have solved a number of issues at the council’s current tips on George Street West in Blackburn and Spring Vale Road in Darwen, which were inherited from the county council in 1998 when the borough became a unitary authority.
This includes requiring each tip to be closed while skips are changed over and asking residents to haul their waste up steps to dispose of it. Goose House Lane was set to be split-level, making it easier to change skips and allowing people to get rid of their waste from ground level.
In addition to being within a 15 minute drive of most borough residents, it was also forecast to save the authority up to £600,000 per year.
But while Blackburn with Darwen Council said that public feedback clearly showed the priorities of residents, planned council reforms meant it was no long there ‘immediate strategic direction.’
In a report written before the Government’s surprise U-turn on Local Government Reorganisation, the council explained that starting a project that the new authority would finish carried significant risk
The report states: “The new Unitary council will inherit the waste collection and disposal responsibilities for a much wider geographical footprint. It is essential to allow the new authority to assess the need for waste and recycling sites across this expanded area.
“Developing a site now without understanding the broader regional strategy could result in redundant investments or facilities that do not align with the future service delivery models of the new unitary borough. Pausing the development ensures that capital is protected and future infrastructure serves the best interests of the entire footprint of the new Unitary authority.”
At a meeting of the council’s executive board on Thursday night the executive member for environment and resident services, Cllr Jim Casey, sardonically explained what the Government’s U-turn meant for the project
He said: “As a lot of you know the household recycling centre is on pause, the predominant decision on that is down to the local government reorganisation, which has now become a local government reorganisation pause.
“So I’d probably say it’s more relevant now that we pause the recycling centre until we understand the pause in the local government reorganisation pause – although that is a lot of pauses.”
The leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, Cllr Phil Riley, added that the project would have gone some way towards preventing Lancashire’s various lower tier authorities from trucking their waste across the county to be disposed of.
Under the proposed Pennine Lancashire council, waste collection and disposal services in East Lancashire would all be overseen by one body, while at present this is split between the county council, Blackburn with Darwen, and the region’s four lower tier district authorities.
Cllr Riley said: “There was an absolutely genuine view that, if there were to be a Pennine authority, then this would be an opportunity to break some of that nonsense up.”
With ministers setting no date for when the planned local government reorganisation process will begin again, the Goose House Lane project is now on an indefinite pause.