'Frustration' as people turned away from busy tips

The county council has apologised to people left "frustrated" at being unable to dump their rubbish at tips in Nottinghamshire as they are too full.

In recent weeks there have been reports of residents being unable to use recycling centres across the county, with some saying they have been turned away multiple times.

Nottinghamshire County Council said warm weather over the Easter break had led to "exceptional demands" and the problems had been made worse by a fire at a waste transfer station.

The authority and contractor Veolia apologised to customers but said they had kept the centres open, even if some specific skips were full, by putting on extra staff and drivers.

Nottinghamshire County Council runs several tips, including sites in Mansfield, Giltbrook, Hucknall and Beeston.

Dan Hunt told the BBC he went to his local recycling centre in Retford on bank holiday Monday last week to dispose of household waste.

The 39-year-old said he queued for about 30 minutes but when he got to the front, he was told the household waste skip was full and to come back the next day.

He did this but was again told it was full and to come back later.

Hunt said he decided against doing this after seeing other people reporting on Facebook it was still full.

Since then he has not been able to try again due to work and family commitments.

"Obviously fuel at the minute's not cheap," he said. "It's a massive inconvenience really.

"There's a massive queue and then no-one walking down the queue saying, we're not taking general waste, but they're not doing that. It's frustrating."

Bert Bingham, cabinet member for transport and environment at Nottinghamshire County Council, said: "The recent spell of warm, dry weather following the wettest March in over 40 years has meant many residents have started to tackle their spring cleaning, leading to exceptional demand at our sites.

"We are now replacing more than 100 full skips per day across our 12 centres – a substantial increase compared to the 60 per day this time last year."

He said a fire at the waste transfer station in Worksop last year was still causing disruption because some vehicles were having to travel further.

He said people should consider "delaying their visit for a few days where possible, until demand settles and we have had the chance to clear more skips".

"Our contractor, Veolia, has brought in significant additional resources and continues to source extra vehicles and drivers to meet this demand," he added.

"Rest assured, we are working to resolve the backlog and restore normal service as soon as possible."

Veolia also apologised, saying Easter and the better weather had led to a "significant increase" in demand.

A spokesperson said: "This increased volume has affected how quickly containers need to be replaced, leading to short delays as the process of replacing a container can take up to 20 minutes.

"Our dedicated drivers and site teams are working hard to keep sites running smoothly day-in, day-out."

Follow BBC Nottingham on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.