The Town Civic Amenity Site (Town Dump)
The site is currently situated on land owned by the Town Council and leased to Worcester County Council who in turn let it to Severn Waste who run the facility.
The Town Council (or rather the Council Tax payers) have to pay full business rates on the site, estimated at more than £300, but only receive £1 a year in rent from Worcester County Council.
The site which attract scores of complaints each year, mainly due to the difficult access and steep stairs, was due to be replaced years ago. When Severn Trent took over Worcestershire's waste contract they had to put aside a considerable sum of money to find a new site and create a modern facility.
Although lip service has been given to this over the years, no real attempt has been made to move the project forward.
Hopefully this will now happen in 2012, and a modern facility can be created, which will allow easier and safer access and allow for much more recycling. Most of the materials "dumped" in the skip at the moment such as wood, metal, bricks, concrete etc go to landfill whereas they could be recycled.
Once the facility has been moved, the resulting space can be turned back into parking spaces.
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18 comments:
Good news!
Yes, but can we have our £300 a year back?
The business rates have to be paid for the full site whether its for car parking or skips. This is one of the reasons the Town Council are considering charging.
Normally tenants pay rates, not landlords - how come the people running the rubbish dump don't pay the rates?
Anyway rubbish dump, rates are charged on a different basis, not the same as a car park - did someone forget to tell the valuation office about the change of use?
But why does the council let it for so little?
It's been rented on a "peppercorn" rent for years and no one has challenged it. I've been grumbling about it for several years.
Severn Waste have factored into their contract the cost of building and running a new facility.
I haven't found out what Severn having been paying WCC for this "temporary" site.
Thankfully now the Town Cllrs are being presented with much fuller accounts and budgets they are asking questions. WCC couldn't provide a copy of the "peppercorn" rental agreement, so this year they have been invoiced with a much larger figure (whether they pay it remains to be seen), but if nothing else it has help concentrate the minds about the move (or that might have been entirely coincidental).
Click above for my Jan 2009 article.
If WCC rented it off Tenbury council for a pound, then rented it out to the rubbish company, possibly at a profit, but WCC can't find a lease and neither WCC nor the rubbish company seems to have registered it with the valuation office as a rubbish site, hence haven't paid rates on it, could there be a windfall ahead (say the last seven years proper rent) for Tenbury Council?
The decision should be welcomed on a number of levels. I would hope that Severn Waste should now provide a more extensive facility, increasing the recycling options. Instead of a rebate form WCC/Severn Waste we should insist that they are responsible for "making good" all of the areas they have been using - to include resurfacing the areas of carpark used for the waiting lorries.
The council needs to be belatedly congratulated for getting to grips with this and suggesting that the "White elephant" that is the business park be put to use - in turn saving MHDC some money - or at least generating some for them. Unfortunatley this is a classic example of a "corporate" riding rough shod over the well meaning Council who are at times out of their depth when commercial/contractual agreements are made. - (anyone know of any other instances?)
When it comes to increasing parking in Tenbury - would it be a silly suggestion to suggest that as part of the "Public Realm works" planned for Teme St we do away with the bus stops on both sides of the road outside the Regal and instead have "all" the buses stop at the swimming pool - a suitable shelter could be provided for inclement weather. In light of the reduction in bus services it seems a waste of real estate to maintain them on the Main St.
Not sure I agree about the Bus Stops. The majority of buses don't go via the Swimming pool. The plan is to move the North bound stop further towards the bridge. There is a possibility that the number of buses serving Tenbury might increase over the next couple of years.
A much larger challenge is how to stop bay blocking by shopkeepers and the residents in the over shop flats. All day parking by some has a far greater effect on people stopping for a few minutes to do top up shopping.
I am not convinced that moving the bus stop closer to the bridge is a good idea - adding congestion to an already "busy" area seems like madness.
Bus routes can be very easily changed....
As for the extra buses - where from - who will be funding these? I would be surprised if either WCC or MHDC will be laying them on or contributing - and we shouldn't count on any speculative promises included within a planning application.....
I can't see too many people very happy at the idea of traipsing all the way to the Swimming pool to catch a bus, especially if carrying shopping.
There are plans for more buses and if that is linked to a planning application it would be more than a speculative promise.
If anything the swimming pool is equidistant from both the bridge and the round market (the limits of the town's shopping)...therefore, by definition pretty central.....
it make sense to keep the bus stops in teme st the 758 worcester bus comes through the town from bromyard road on route to worcester how will the bus get round the crow corner over kyre bridge to the swimming pool rugby fan 72
Enter car park via the entrance by the libary, exit via The Crow route....
how can the 758 go through there
are you joking
Swimming pool not a good idea for a bus terminus as the bus bays are often full of parked cars.
Not much point having a bus shelter by the cinema as people can stand under the canopy on wet days.
The bus bays should double up as loading/unloading bays - at present delvery vehicles aren't allowed to use them
And what is wrong with just improving the steps and facility at its present location - Do Bromyard Rd residents get to comment on its location at the business park ?
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