Southend's two household waste recycling centres will be re-opened to the public next week.

The tips will only be open for "essential" visits and strict social distancing measures will be in place. 

The two sites, in Stock Road and Leigh Marshes, have been closed since March 24.

However, Southend Council has been working with neighbouring local authorities over the past few weeks to plan a safe reopening of local sites.

The sites will re-open on Monday. 

 

New Government guidance says people can now visit recycling centres but only if they are unable to safely store their waste at home, without it causing a risk to public health, or are unable to dispose of the waste through alternative options.

These include using the online bulky waste portal, signing up to the weekly chargeable garden waste service or adding to the normal weekly collection.

What to expect

Strickt measures will be put in place to make sure customers and staff remain safe.

This will include restricting the number of vehicles allowed on site at any one time.

Anyone seen to be ignoring these social distancing measures will be asked to leave the site immediately.

Although there will be traffic management into the sites, there are likely to be long queues, so bosses are urging people to only visit the sites if your household waste really needs to go to the recycling centre right now.

If it can be stored safely at home, people should do so. 

Both sites will be opened for extended opening hours for the first two weeks. They will be open between 7am and 6pm.

And for a temporary period, and to reflect the extended opening hours, commercial type vehicles can visit both sites between 11.30am and 5.00pm on Sunday 24 May and Sunday 31 May.

Carole Mulroney, cabinet member for environment and planning, said: “We are giving residents notice regarding the reopening of the centres as we want to ensure everyone carefully considers if the trip would be absolutely necessary.

"Please only visit a site if you are not be able to safely store waste at home, and if you do need to visit, please think about when you make that trip and view the site webcams before you set off.

“As always, our number one priority at this time is keeping our residents and staff safe, and to allow us to reopen the sites we will be implementing a number of measures that include strict social distancing and traffic management given the likely long queues to access the site.

"I therefore ask any potential visitors to the site to respect staff and other visitors. I would also ask residents to try and avoid visiting Two Tree Island during the first few days of opening to avoid unnecessary traffic in the area.

“It is absolutely vital that residents continue to follow Government and Public Health England advice around the Coronavirus pandemic, and with that I urge residents to only visit if it is absolutely necessary.”

For full information on the measures in place at the two sites, click here.