First, to be absolutely clear, the agreement between Hounslow, Ealing and Richmond - all part of West London Waste AUthority - is that our centres accept domestic waste from residents in other authorities.There are often rumours that Townmead will not accept Hounslow waste but they are untrue, or at least if people are being told that the operatives are not following instructions. Confusion arises as Philippa (I think) suggests when residents are trying to dispose of waste that is chargeable, such as DIY 'leftovers'. These are not covered by councils' statutory duty and all (I think) councils charge for them. Normally these can be disposed via the trade waste side of the dump but some COVID restrictions still apply I think - will vary from site to site.We are likely to introduce the booking system (run by West London Waste) at the LBH facility Space Waye in early August. Trials at Abbey Road (in Brent) and later at Townmead are deemed successful. My understanding of the timing rules is that they are interpreted liberally assuming they can be without compromising people who turned up on time.There are a lot of FAQs for Space Waye here https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/info/20017/space_waye_re-use_and_recycling_centre/27/space_waye_reuse_and_recycling_centre_for_residents/2Note that mattresses are accepted but if you have 3 or more they will be chargeable.We will also pick up up to 5 items for £40 (recently reduced) under the Tidy Town service.We don't think closure of recycling centres had any impact on flytipping, which is mainly normal household refuse in black bags. From what I've seen so far, those who flytip will do so irrespective of the facilities available. The vast majority would not flytip for any reason.Finally, let me reiterate - whatever we can't recycle is disposed of by incineration to drive a small power station. Our residual waste is taken by train to the Severnside facility near Bristol, which I'm told is an extremely clean installation due to very sophisticated filtration.
Guy Lambert ● 2294d