Cyclists banned from using local recycling centres

[cycle tramp]

H'mmm..... It appears that in some parts of England cyclists and walkers are prevented from using their local recycling centres....
....personally speaking this is rather sad. I've been dropping stuff at my local tip by bicfor the cle for the last ten years or so, and i find in quicker than using the car....
There is a moral obligation by the councils to allow access to the recycling centres by non motorised means, and this moral obligation should be found under their social inclusion policy (whereby all council services should be able to be accessed by as many people with differing needs as possible, including providing the same level of service regardless of whether they have private transport) the second moral obligation lies in the council's travel plan which should encourage more cycling and walking.
There is also the effeciency argument. When I visit my recycling centre by bike I'm not queuing outside, I'm not taking up any parking spaces in the recycling centre and my visit to the recycling takes place than ten minutes.
There's also the legal argument. Local councils have to provide recycling facilities under the refuse act 1978, which states that the recycling centre has to be placed in reasonable locations so the may be accessed in a reasonable manner.
With all this in mind should bicycling UK be campaigning to allow cycle and walking access to all recycling centres?

[landsurfer]

I'm banned from all our local re-cycling centres because our family people carrier is over 1.8 mtr high ( There's 5 of us ) .... work that out .... Cyclists are also banned from McDonalds Drive Throughs .... !!!

[Bez]

May be possible to challenge it under the DDA, since anyone with a disability that would prevent them driving is effectively denied access to the facility.

[pete75]

I'm banned from all our local re-cycling centres because our family people carrier is over 1.8 mtr high ( There's 5 of us ) .... work that out .... Cyclists are also banned from McDonalds Drive Throughs .... !!!

Ours has a place where you can take over height vehicles but you have to contact the staff first to be let in to it. You'd be ok but someone with a white Transit full of builders waste would be told to go away. They let me use it with a horse trailer full of rammel.

Is the Mcdonald's ban a bad thing or a good thing?

[NUKe]

If I was banned I would dump it in front of the entrance. This is ludicrous contact your local councillors and ask them to amend the situation. The bike and pedestrian one is just plain stupid. The mpv situation is one that was reversed here once enough of us complained.

[toontra]

My recycling centre does have cycle/pedestrian access but it's not well advertised or signposted (down an unmarked lane at the back of the building several hundred metres from the main entrance). You have to press a buzzer and wait to be let in and then put your stuff in a small trunk which is often full.

Makes you feel you're being a bit of a nuisance.

All bow to the mighty car.

[landsurfer]

If I was banned I would dump it in front of the entrance.

And the police would be round yours the same day as the cctv images would be passed on by the Council .... they will prosecute ...

[mjr]

If I was banned I would dump it in front of the entrance.

That would probably leave you open to prosecution for flytipping

Norfolk recycling centres allow cycling and walking into them, but I'd estimate about half are inconveniently-sited with unnecessarily poor connections to cycling and walking networks, often requiring use of busy roads with many HGVs on them, usually including the container-tippers that empty the recycling centres. The few I've seen in Suffolk seem similar.

[gaz]

I have yet to try either of the two local authority HWRCs by bike. Both have signs up prohibiting entry by pedestrians. I believe the rationale behind the decision is to stop commercial vehicles parking up outside and wheeling stuff onto the site in barrows.

[hemo]

My one must be one of the good ones, purposely built on new site some 10 years ago it has mutli bay use for about 20 vehicles to reverse in at a time, also at the top of the driving ramp there are pedestrian crossings from a pathway so foot and cycle are allowed access.

[MikeF]

I have yet to try either of the two local authority HWRCs by bike. Both have signs up prohibiting entry by pedestrians. I believe the rationale behind the decision is to stop commercial vehicles parking up outside and wheeling stuff onto the site in barrows.

That may be the reasoning. Our nearest one doesn't seem to allow cycle or pedestrian access. When I took some recycling there by cycle I was very politely stopped at the gate and was asked to hand over the "stuff" for recycling. Although I was a bit "miffed" I couldn't cycle in and deposit it myself I couldn't actually complain as recycling wasn't refused.

[NUKe]

If I was banned I would dump it in front of the entrance.

That would probably leave you open to prosecution for flytipping

Nr.

My intention would be to make a point, so would face prosecution if necessary. Not just to get rid of the stuff.

[landsurfer]

If I was banned I would dump it in front of the entrance.

That would probably leave you open to prosecution for flytipping

Nr.

My intention would be to make a point, so would face prosecution if necessary. Not just to get rid of the stuff.

You need to pick your fights .......

[thirdcrank]

Around here, we had the extra complication of the abolition of the short-lived West Yorkshire County Council which had been the refuse disposal authority. We have the silly situation of lots of households near a site but not being authorised to use it because it's in another metropolitan district. I live in Leeds just over a mile from one in Kirklees. None of the three nearest sites in Leeds are within the sort of distance you might want to take a larger item by using, say a BoB Yak, especially taking into account hills en route. However, in adition to things like bottle banks, we do have council receptacles (I don't know the right name) which will take smaller stuff of the sort you might move easily without a car.

[Bonefishblues]

That would probably leave you open to prosecution for flytipping

Nr.

My intention would be to make a point, so would face prosecution if necessary. Not just to get rid of the stuff.

You need to pick your fights .......

...and think about how it might look in the media, perhaps.