Impact of tip cutbacks 'horrendous', say users

Tip visitors in Bradford have called for a review of waste recycling centres, saying cutbacks have left residents with long queues and increased concerns about fly-tipping.

Bradford Council decision makers will be quizzed about the state of the district's civic tips at a meeting later.

It comes two-and-a-half years after a major shakeup of services, with several tips closed and reduced hours at others, as part of a raft of cost-cutting measures.

Some residents say the situation has left them dealing with "horrendous" queues of up to two hours to get in to some sites, while others worry it could be fuelling a rise in fly-tipping.

At Keighley Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) on a warm weekday lunchtime, about 15 cars at a time were waiting to enter the site.

One visitor, Khaliq Hussain, said waits of up to an hour-and-a-half had become common, while his friend Sadman Chowdhury recalled queuing for as long as two hours "all the way down the road" on busy days.

Frustrated by the wait, they eventually parked outside the site and tried carrying bags of rubbish in on foot, but were stopped by staff and told to return to their vehicle and rejoin the queue.

Chowdhury said the queues could be "massive" at times and the local tip was busier than it used to be.

"If everybody comes here, you'll be queuing day and night," he said.

Both men urged Bradford Council to reconsider opening the closed tips as they thought it would mean "less queues for everybody".

Meanwhile Blair and Lynne Rogers popped by to drop off some garden waste, and said visits had increased in the warmer weather.

They drove 25 minutes from Haworth, as their previous nearest tip was one of the three closed in 2024.

Lynne said people were now waiting "twice as long" to get into a tip.

And she believed there was a link between less tip access and more fly-tipping.

"Some people just can't be bothered to come to the tip because it's so long to wait," she said.

Blair suggested separate lanes for commercial and household waste would improve a "badly designed" system at Keighley in particular.

Another couple, who asked not to be named, described the queues as "horrendous".

They too suggested reopening some of the closed sites and improving the traffic flow through the Keighley site with an expanded site and a better one-way system.

Bradford Council first voted to close three recycling centres - Ford Hill in Queensbury, Golden Butts in Ilkley and Sugden End in Cross Roads - in 2024, with an estimated saving of about £1m a year.

The move was part of an emergency savings plan but the then Labour-run authority insisted all residents would still have one nearby recycling centre.

Keighley councillor Dawn Thewlis, of Reform UK, said residents were "fed up of long queuing times at Keighley Household Waste Recycling Centre following the previous administration's decision to close Sugden End HWRC on Halifax Road, which is also believed to be contributing to a surge in fly-tipping in the local area".

She urged the Reform UK-led current administration to "review the operation of HWRCs across the district, including opportunities for improving access and to address fly-tipping".

Conservative group leader Rebecca Poulsen also asked the council's current leadership when the decision was taken to stop opening the Keighley and Bowling Back Lane centres on bank holidays.

A spokesman for Bradford Council declined to comment ahead of the meeting, where the questions to the executive will be addressed.

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