Community leaders continue calls for replacement tip

Ted Peskett, local democracy reporter

Community leaders are still calling for a replacement tip, more than 5 years after a previous site was closed without real replacement.

Wedal Road Recycling Centre, near Roath Park, closed in 2018 after Cardiff Council decided to sell the site to Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.

Hopes

There were hopes an alternative site would eventually be found and for a while, the council set up a temporary recycling centre at the former tax office in Llanishen.

However, the local authority said recently that both of its existing recycling centres, Lamby Way and Bessemer Close, are operating below capacity and these facilities need to be fully utilised before a new one can be opened.

Conservative Cardiff Council ward member for Rhiwbina, Cllr Jayne Cowan, said: “I absolutely believe that a tip is really needed in Cardiff North.

“Local residents often ask about the latest position as a cabinet member at the time said that a replacement would be open and operational before Wedal closed. Sadly this did not happen.

“Residents in Cardiff North pay huge amounts of council tax and they do not receive the services they deserve. I hope the cabinet reflect on this and announce a new site in Cardiff North soon.”

Duped

Liberal Democrat ward member for Penylan, Cllr Rodney Berman, said: “We opposed the closure strongly when it happened and we have subsequently campaigned to no avail for a replacement facility for the north of Cardiff.

“The public were duped at the last election into thinking Labour would introduce a series of temporary ‘pop-up’ sites to replace Wedal Road, but that soon became a broken promise after the first of those closed and was never replaced.

“The reality is that the alternative sites are too far away for many residents and the people in the north of the city have been treated with contempt by the Labour-run council.

“The Wedal Road site should certainly be replaced but, like many residents, I have given up hope that this Labour-run council will ever do that.”

Options

Cardiff Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC), also known as the Lamby Way recycling centre, is in Rumney and Bessemer Close HWRC is on the other side of the city in Grangetown.

Councillors for Gabalfa, another ward where residents benefited from Wedal Road Recycling Centre, said people who need to dispose of household waste are faced with much longer journeys.

In a joint statement, both Liberal Democrat members for the ward, Cllr Ashley Wood and Cllr Rhys Taylor, said: “It’s increasingly clear that Labour-run Cardiff council has lost control of waste services in the city. They are either oblivious to the state of our communities or just don’t care.

“Labour’s closure of Wedal Road tip left residents in the north of Cardiff with longer journeys along congested roads.

“This also followed Labour introducing charges for bulky waste collections, all making it more difficult for residents to dispose of their waste.

“Years later, it is evident their promise of a replacement in the north of Cardiff was just a convenient Labour lie for the 2017 local election campaign.

Nonsense

Labour leader of Cardiff Council, Huw Thomas, said: “This is laughable nonsense from the Liberal Democrats, whose record when in power left Cardiff with the dirtiest streets in Wales.

“Let’s not forget that fly-tipping incidents peaked at over 26,000 a year under the last Lib Dem administration in Cardiff, but have been consistently well below 10,000 under Labour.

“Wedal Road was closed primarily because congestion on that road was causing delays to ambulances travelling to the Heath Hospital.

“Funding remains in place to deliver a new HWRC in North Cardiff, subject to identifying a suitable site.

“However, for now, there remains considerable capacity within the city’s existing HWRC sites.”

The Liberal Democrats led the council between 2004 and 2012. Stats Wales data shows during this period, levels of fly-tipping were at their highest in Cardiff in 2007-08 at 26,537 recorded incidents.

Stats Wales data also shows this was the highest level of recorded incidents of fly-tipping in Cardiff from 2006 to 2023. The number of recorded incidents in the local authority area for 2022-23 was 7,044.

Disappointed

Labour Cardiff Council ward member for Llanishen, Cllr Garry Hunt, said he was disappointed when the Wedal Road HWRC closed.

He said: “I wasn’t on the council when the decision was taken and I would have preferred it if another site in North Cardiff had been identified before it closed.

“However, I was aware of the operational problems surrounding the site and I was aware of the paucity of available alternative sites in the north of the city.

“I would hope that there could be a recycling centre in north Cardiff but, as the council say, current budgetary restraints make this unlikely in the short term, and lack of council owned land that is appropriate for this potential use continues to be an obstruction.

“In the meantime, I continue to support and use the existing recycling facilities and services available and strive to helping the city meet its recycling targets.”

Fellow Labour ward member for Llanishen, Cllr Bethan Proctor, said it is also important re-use is promoted as a practice. Cllr Proctor co-founded a eco group which is working to bring a Repair Cafe to Llanishen.

She said: “I know that there will inevitably be items that residents need to take to recycling centres, but our ambition should be to consume consciously and consume less.

“Where we do consume, we should try to re-use, and I hope the repair cafe will help in supporting this ambition.”

Difficulties

A Cardiff Council spokesperson said: “The site where Wedal Road Recycling Centre was located was sold to Cardiff and Vale Health Board in June 2018 for £400,000.

“The recycling centre was closed due to various operational difficulties.

“It was too small to accommodate the range of recycling facilities we offer, and the site had to close frequently to remove skips full of waste or recycling, which often caused significant traffic problems on Allensbank Road, posing a danger to road users and pedestrians.

“Since its closure, the council has invested significantly in our two current recycling facilities at Lamby Way and Bessemer Close, both of which are still operating well below capacity.

“It is crucial that we fully utilise these existing facilities before opening another recycling centre in the city, especially given current budget constraints.

“We are also making recycling more accessible in our communities by allowing people to visit their local hub to recycle smaller electrical materials.

“As legislation around recycling continues to improve, placing the onus on businesses that produce waste rather than on councils to manage it, more items will be able to be collected from the kerbside, as we have seen recently with coffee pods and Tetra Paks.

“Working with residents, we hope to further increase the city’s recycling rate as we strive to maintain our record as one of the best recycling cities in the world.”