The last couple of weeks has seen the household waste site at Blackstock Road, in Gleadless Valley, become so busy that traffic has been queuing hundreds of yards up the slip road and along Blackstock Road. This is causing pollution from idling engines and serious danger from overtaking vehicles heading into oncoming traffic. Many people have contacted me asking for help and the local Tenants and Residents Association has started a petition calling for the problem to be dealt with.
I have spoken to the police, waste management and traffic enforcement officers in the council, and have finally been told about the impending “emergency measure” to paint double yellow lines on the road. Double yellow lines won’t have any effect on cars that are queuing, not parking.
We need the waste sites open, incidents of fly-tipping and garden fires shot up when they closed, however, this problem isn’t new and isn’t caused by the pandemic. This level of traffic is normal for Blackstock Road and the other household waste sites in Sheffield, largely situated in inappropriate residential areas.
The problem of high demand is not caused by the people of Sheffield wanting to responsibly dispose of their waste. It is caused by the expensive, impractical and failing waste management contract with Veolia.
Other cities of a similar size to Sheffield have more household waste sites and, unlike in our city, they are open full time; 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Doncaster has more sites than Sheffield despite being half its size!
It is about time the Labour-run council found the courage to admit that they are wrong about this contract, stop defending it and challenge Veolia to provide a service that works for Sheffield!
Paul Turpin
Green Party Councillor for Gleadless Valley Ward
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