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I wonder if the reactions above would be the same if it was any other council provided service? You can only use the leisure centre if you drive there? Or the forestry commission fencing off their land and saying you have to arrive by car or you won't be allowed to ride your bike on the trails?
"Councils have got it tough at the minute so let them indulge in pointless bureaucracy that blocks residents from using the services they've paid for through their council tax" is a pretty poor argument!
Edit: Presumably the council that thinks it's far too dangerous for bikes and cars to share the same space has provided a joined up network of fully segregated cycle tracks on its roads?
Good luck OP. I cant see how a bike is more at risk that someone wandering around the site with a plastic / metal based toy trying to decide which bin it goes in. Fight the power!
If there's one thing I've learned it's that councils and their various arms length organisations, community councils etc. are almost exclusively staffed by the sort of miopic muppets you wouldn't trust to run a bath.
By all means fight it and I hope you win but I fear you may be on a hiding to nothing.
I definitely read a news story recently about a guy who successfully campaigned to get access to his local tip by bike, but can't for the life of me find it now. It was somewhere down south/west country I think. Would be useful to find out to show precendent.
It's good to fight these things, if for no other reason than stupid bureaucracy needs to be scythed back like weeds before it strangles everything.
Random tip anecdote: some friends of mine packed their hatchback to the rafters with stuff for the tip when they were moving house. Drove to the tip to find they'd introduced a system where only odd numbered registrations could use it one day, even the next. Obviously they were on the wrong day, so they had to drive home, shift it all into a friend's car with the right registration and drive back 🙄
I definitely read a news story recently about a guy who successfully campaigned to get access to his local tip by bike, but can’t for the life of me find it now. It was somewhere down south/west country I think
That might have been our local chap I mentioned on the previous page (we're in Devon).
Imagine the hoops we had to jump through to be allowed to ride (5 loads of) this in:
OP you have my support. I get 12 trips a year to the tip because I drive a camper van so I have to hoard stuff. It’s so clearly not a commercial vehicle in appearance (windows right round, v5) but ‘the system‘ doesn’t allow for that. Soooo obvious why all the ditches and dogging spots are piled with domestic crap.
I ride my bike with a bob trailer to the council tip in Marple (Stockport), a couple of bin bags at a time (I have a nutter on my row of houses who I'd really like to not have another stand off with) once a week. Nobody has ever objected in the slightest. Are all local authority tips run by Virdor?
Fair play to him for being bothered to stand up to the tip jobsworths
It's like an Emmeline Pankhurst for the 21st Century.
Presumably the council that thinks it’s far too dangerous for bikes and cars to share the same space has provided a joined up network of fully segregated cycle tracks on its roads?
Excellent point
Don't let the idiots on here get you down OP - as a point of principle and common sense, tips need to be safely accessible to all users.
The increase in fly tipping - and the cost to the council's cleaning it up - is obviously linked to the barriers they put in that make using tips so hard, but they can't see that in their blinkered silos.
Agree with all of that, but in this case the OP has a car, could just use it and get on with his life.
Outrageous. This is a human rights issue after all.
It always bemuses me slightly that so many people take time out from what they're doing to demean other people's perfectly reasonable attempts to simply do something without a car.
@amedias - If you have any more information re: the petitioning of the council or contacts that might be useful I'd very much appreciate it. PM me if you'd rather not share publicly.
The OP really needs to wear a helmet cam and upload his discussions with the workers to YouTube. Shouting "tell me your name and employee number" in a shrill voice will get added views.
@Bez me too, but then I remember that a significant amount of posters here aren't actually cyclists 😃 (and/or are bell-ends) 😂
@amedias Sorry, I did scan through for other mentions of it but missed that. Sure I read an article on one of the cycling magazine websites, road.cc or cyclingweekly but can't see it. That's some tyre mountain BTW 😮
Fair play to him for being bothered to stand up to the tip jobsworths
It’s like an Emmeline Pankhurst for the 21st Century.
I'm glad someone came along to call out the OP for trying to be good person and having the audacity to discuss it in public. (Assuming you're being serious and I haven't missed a pun here!)
I had an argument with the tip with them saying I needed a commercial permit as I went in my camper van and also wanted my phone number which I refused as they would never call me. I wrote to my MP who contacted the tip and incredibly problem all solved no permit and no phone number required.
Just change the last 3 digits on your phone number Marin.
It always bemuses me slightly that so many people take time out from what they’re doing to demean other people’s perfectly reasonable attempts to simply do something without a car.
I am equally bemused as to why someone wouldn't just use the car they have in this case.
I think it is good for someone to do what they can without using a car (even if they still own and use a car) but if you have a car (and use it for other things) then just use it in this scenario and get on with your life.
If it is about starting a campaign to change the world so everyone is free to cycle to the tip that is a different thing I suppose.
I've only done one tip run by bike, with a dead parasol-folding pushchair on the back. I was expecting agro from the staff but mainly they wanted to talk to me about my cargobike. At the moment I think what happens will depend upon the member of staff you happen to get on the day, and how the rest of their day has gone.
Well done for challenging it; ignore the h8ers.
Worth getting in touch with your local Green Party, if they're active?
What are you guys taking to the tip that is too big for a wheelie bin but still doable on a cargo bike/ bike trailer?
Similarly the supermarket shoppers - I fill the boot of my admittedly modest hatchback on the weekly/biweekly shop.
If I didnt own a car, I'd have to do a series of smaller shops*, which is possible, but seems ridculous when I have an automobile. I usually do it on the way home from something else too, probably about half mile extra driven.
I'm a fan of practical green lifestyle choices, but this doesn't seem like one.
*Including having to buy smaller packs of some things, with more packaging per unit...
What are you guys taking to the tip that is too big for a wheelie bin but still doable on a cargo bike/ bike trailer?
"The Tip" is actually a recycling centre. Separate out your metals, hard plastics, wood, etc and it can all be recycled at the tip.
I think it is good for someone to do what they can without using a car (even if they still own and use a car) but if you have a car (and use it for other things) then just use it in this scenario and get on with your life.
Do you not think that the OP might have considered that option, though?
It seems a little redundant for multiple people to say nothing mire than “give in and do what they want regardless of whether it’s reasonable or has any impact on anyone outside of this thread”.
We don’t collectively make much progress by just accepting daft restrictions just because we happen to own a car, so it seems odd to actually advocate not making progress.
Good on you op
If you can't go to the tip on your bike and don't have a car or any friends who have one, call the council and arrange a domestic collection, they are circa £15 for 3 items.
If you bitch and whine enough then you may get them to collect FOC.
What are you guys taking to the tip that is too big for a wheelie bin but still doable on a cargo bike/ bike trailer?
In my case, a broken pushchair.
Similarly the supermarket shoppers – I fill the boot of my admittedly modest hatchback on the weekly/biweekly shop.
Some people do a monthly shop for bulky/heavy stuff and use the car, then weekly shops for fresh by bike.
If I didnt own a car, I’d have to do a series of smaller shops*, which is possible, but seems ridculous when I have an automobile. I usually do it on the way home from something else too, probably about half mile extra driven.
I don't drive, but my wife does. If we weren't paying for her car we could afford a taxi for occasional larger shops - walk there, taxi back.
I’m a fan of practical green lifestyle choices, but this doesn’t seem like one.
Seems perfectly sensible to me.
If you can’t go to the tip on your bike and don’t have a car or any friends who have one, call the council and arrange a domestic collection, they are circa £15 for 3 items.
Or take it by bike.
What are you guys taking to the tip that is too big for a wheelie bin but still doable on a cargo bike/ bike trailer?
It's not just size, it's also about getting rid of stuff in the right place. For example, I've currently got 5 litres of old engine oil I need to get rid off. Its not very bulky or heavy but I'm going to go to the tip and put it in the oil disposal tank rather than put it in my wheelie bin.
I agree with the OP.
This is an issue of sustainability and equitable services.
The access to recycling centres being 'restricted' to car-owning (ergo pretty wealthy) and driving public is an issue. If the OP wants to use a more sustainable transport to support more sustainable recycling services then the site should work to make that happen.
I do think at our local place H&S concerns are valid - the access road is shared by all sorts of bin trucks and wagons, the ramp up and sorting areas are poorly designed. That said, everyone is out of cars anyway and mixing with moving cars so bikes shouldn't be too much of an issue.
I will skip over our recycling centre being located a way out of town...
This of course is all separate to the 'I have a van / camper / right / business hiding' issue.
Just a thought, How about asking some of the people in the (usually huge) queue outside the tip if they would mind chucking your bags of rubbish in their car and taking it in for you. I'm sure they wouldn't mind, the tip near me always seems to be full of people who look like they are actually enjoying the experience (although to be fair during lockdown I would have taken any outing as a plus!) 🙂
Yep, good luck OP.
That might have been our local chap I mentioned on the previous page (we’re in Devon).Imagine the hoops we had to jump through to be allowed to ride (5 loads of) this in:
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Jebus. Just imagine the H&S hi-vis clipboard council bod with that one-
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How about asking some of the people in the (usually huge) queue outside the tip if they would mind chucking your bags of rubbish in their car and taking it in for you.
Now there's a man who hasnt' been to tip during the Covid situation. You have to book it. There are no queues. In fact it's empty most of the time.
[edit] erm, except for the crazy rally driver cyclist killer types that are whizzing round the place blindfolded. Natch
Do you not think that the OP might have considered that option, though?
Nope, otherwise would have just done it rather than sticking to some self governed arbitrary distance about what trip should be made by car or not and meanwhile still having the waste in their possession.
Yes, great to question it and try and do something about it but likely to have that waste sat there for a while in the mean time
Just shows, as always, we all have different approaches to life. I tend to take the quick and simple approach, especially when it is staring me in the face...
No Drac I don’t change the numbers I just refuse to give it out when it’s either totally unnecessary or an information gathering exercise.
I tend to take the quick and simple approach, especially when it is staring me in the face…
I’m not sure you do, though 😉 The quick and simple approach to this thread would have been to leave the discussion of how to change things (which is where it started) to rumble along, rather than to spend time answering a question that was never asked.
Anyway, enough of this diversion…
Our tips are back to normal service and have been for a month or so.
If I was the OP, I'd probably have used the car to get rid of the rubbish by now, but I'd like to think I would have taken up the issue to try and get it put right for others in the future.
@mattoutandabout that's exactly the same issue we have, top of a massive hill on a narrow A road with plenty of blind bends you would never want to cycle up (though some do). Guess that's why the nice bits of town are nice and the not so nice bits are full of rotting crap waiting to be uplifted at 25 quid a pop (for 5 items, extra being a fiver each). We still have a scrap metal man here so I suppose that's something.
Guess that’s why the nice bits of town are nice and the not so nice bits are full of rotting crap waiting to be uplifted at 25 quid a pop (for 5 items, extra being a fiver each). We still have a scrap metal man here so I suppose that’s something.
It is exactly this. When I have had tenants leave the flat, disposing of things without a car is a real problem. I volunteer one run as a nice landlord, it keeps our garden clean of junk. When you look at it though, recycling centres are a rich, male and car-driven process..