What a load of rubbish
There are many reasons why you might wish to hire a van; moving home, shifting large furniture from A to B, perhaps even to clear out a load of cumbersome toot that has been cluttering up your home, shed and/or garage for too long. Try taking that toot to a KCC tip and you will be in for a big surprise – and not a pleasant one. Hire vans are strictly forbidden by KCC and any other van must have a permit for a designated vehicle. So, how does the general public, the Kent County Council residents – and in particular the residents of Folkestone & Hythe District dispose of their oversized rubbish?
The whole permit process is lengthy and unwieldy. Permits take two to three weeks and are only available on-line through KCC. They are not available for you to fill in at the refuse site itself. Van drivers without a permit have been told that they can take their van outside of the refuse site boundary and transfer their rubbish into a non-commercial car to bypass the Vogon bureaucracy. You are not, however, able to park your van outside of the refuse site and walk items into the tip as pedestrians are forbidden.
Household waste recycling centres, or tip sites Kent
So, in short, you drive to a van hire centre, hire a van to clear out a load of toot, leave your car there, taking the van to your home and load it with oversized toot. You turn up at the tip and get turned away. This, we stress, is not the fault of the frontline refuse site employees. They are rightly following the mandate handed down to them by KCC – whether they disagree with it or not, they are doing what they have been instructed to do.
Now, a simple scour around the social media sites concerning our area yields umpteen daily ‘posts’ about fly-tipping and rubbish overspills. Has KCC’s unfathomable ban on Joe Public trying to clear away a bit of oversized rubbish from their home had a bearing on this? Well the figures, released in an FOI by Folkestone and Hythe District Council, reveal that incidents relating to fly-tipping has been reported a staggering 1512 times since January 2017. That’s more than twice a day every day between Jan 1st 2017 – 29th Sept 2018.
It is enough to make you wonder about that phrase “joined-up government” – what a sensible thing that would be, where the decisions made by KCC work harmoniously with F&HDC and do not impact negatively on the people of this district.
Joined up government? What a load of rubbish!
You can report incidences of fly-tipping ⇒ here
The Shepwayvox Team – Dissent is NOT a Crime
Remember that many of our SDC cllrs are also KCC cllrs too (Selwyn and Scarey et al)
This is due to the way in which commercial waste is regulated and the nature of the site you are referring to (i.e. household waste recycling centre). If you turn up in a van the default position is that you are assumed (rightly or wrongly) to be undertaking a commercial activity.
Even if this is not the case there are also limits on how much a non-commercial user can tip in one visit. If you hire a van it is possible that you exceed this limit.
The simplest solution is to undertake multiple smaller trips in a car. Not ideal I agree, but not a great hardship if you plan ahead.
Part of the flytipping problem may be caused by the issue you describe. However, the main cause is likely to be illegal waste carriers using commercial vehicles (and not disgruntled householders in a rental).
To my mind it all looks like local council tax payers, who contributed to the creation and running costs of the Recycling Centres via their council tax are heading to be double charged in the near future by KCC/SDC
I predict the Nasty Party excuses with be
(a) if you don’t use the Centre you don’t pay
(b) we haven’t got the funds to run the Centres because we’re in a big mess over Princes Parade/Otterpool Park/Pensand House etc.
And finally when fly tipping increases – who will pay for it’s removal to these centres from farms and other places?