Horsham man condemns ‘ridiculous’ tip rules which mean he cannot dump his rubbish

Mike Barraclough said he was trying to dispose of a load of rubbish in his 3.1 tonne LDV Convoy Low Top – his only vehicle which is for personal use.

He added that his van was turned away from Horsham tip for being too tall – despite it being under the 2.2m limit.

The IT worker said he was sent to Burgess Hill where he was told the van is over West Sussex County Council’s vehicle weight limit of 3 tonnes.

But Mike, 31, said that vans up to 3.5 tonnes can be driven on a regular licence and called on the council to raise the weight limit to be in line with the DVLA.

He added: “It just seems a bit ridiculous.

“Why does West Sussex County Council penalise residents with personal vans, which they drive on a regular licence, between the 3000-3500 weight category, and render them unable to use these services?

“What should we do? Fly tip? Pay the council yet another charge on top of our council tax to come and collect the large waste from our homes, despite being more than capable of getting it to a tip ourselves?

“Surely the council should bring the weight restriction inline with the DVLA categorisation.”

Mike, who described himself as a ‘very annoyed’ resident said East Sussex County Council has a 3.5 tonne limit, in line with the DVLA, and urged West Sussex County Council to increase their weight limit.

A spokeswoman for West Sussex County Council said: “The potential for commercial trade waste abuse at our Household Waste Recycling Sites (HWRS) has always been a concern and with the increasing costs of waste disposal, we have a duty to ensure our sites are only used for our residents to dispose of their own household waste.

“As the site owner and provider, we have put policies in place in order to be able to control commercial waste abuse.

“As well as a gross vehicle weight restriction of 3.00 tonnes, these policies include:

• Proof of residence scheme

• Permit Scheme for all commercial type vehicles and trailers

• Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) Data which is monitored and analysed

• Enforcement Officer employed

“We appreciate there a small minority of residents whose only vehicle may be over this weight restriction and apologise for the inconvenience this policy may cause. We will look into this but cannot commit to changing the policy at this time.

“We would like to take this opportunity to remind residents that fly-tipping is illegal, and anyone caught is liable to prosecution by their local authority.

“Residents have a number of options available to them to dispose of waste legally including hiring a skip, paying a registered waste carrier, or using the local District an Borough Council’s bulky waste service.”