Equality impact assessment (EIA) form: evidencing paying due regard to protected characteristics 

(Form updated October 2023) 

Review of Household Waste Recycling Centres

If you would like this information in another language or format such as Braille, large print or audio, please contact the Communications Unit on 01609 53 2013 or email communications@northyorks.gov.uk.

Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) are public documents.  EIAs accompanying reports going to County Councillors for decisions are published with the committee papers on our website and are available in hard copy at the relevant meeting.  To help people to find completed EIAs we also publish them in the Equality and Diversity section of our website.  This will help people to see for themselves how we have paid due regard in order to meet statutory requirements.  

Name of Directorate and Service Area	Environmental Services
Lead Officer and contact details	Peter Jeffreys - Head of Waste (Contracts)
Names and roles of other people involved in carrying out the EIA	Jenny Lowes–Service Improvement Officer Waste
How will you pay due regard? e.g. working group, individual officer	4509 ENV15 HWRC - Project Meeting
When did the due regard process start?	November 2023

Section 1. Please describe briefly what this EIA is about. (e.g. are you starting a new service, changing how you do something, stopping doing something?) The existing HWRC policy will remain unchanged. The proposal is to update how compliance with the current policy will be maintained and operate. This report presents information on access and the use of North Yorkshire’s HWRCs by non-residents of North Yorkshire and owners of large vehicles and recommends introducing a registration scheme for North Yorkshire residents and a limit of 12 visits per annum for owners of Commercial Like Vehicles (CLVs).

Section 2. Why is this being proposed? What are the aims? What does the authority hope to achieve by it? (e.g. to save money, meet increased demand, do things in a better way.) 

The council is seeking to deliver financial savings alongside an efficient and effective service as part of a transformation initiative. We would like to introduce a registration scheme for all North Yorkshire residents that use the Household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) and introduce a limit of 12 visits per annum for owners of commercial like vehicles (CLVs)

Section 3. What will change? What will be different for customers and/or staff?

Currently there are no restrictions on use of the HWRCs for those residents living outside of North Yorkshire. It is proposed that the use of the HWRCs is restricted to North Yorkshire residents only and all residents would need to register with the council prior to using HWRCs by providing their name, address, and vehicle registration number either online or by telephone.  On arrival at a HWRC a staff member would enter the vehicle registration number on their electronic device and the North Yorkshire resident would be admitted. No paper or electronic permits will be needed. A transitional period of 3 months will be allowed for those that have not registered. 

Currently residents with a CLV need to register online or by telephone to use the HWRCs, they can then access the HWRCs any number of times. To ensure commercial waste is not being deposited free of charge surreptitiously, owners of CLVs & trailers would be allowed up to 12 visits per annum. A registered CLV or trailer owner who has used the sites 12 times in 12 months would then be able to pay a commercial charge or would be directed to the nearest disposal facility. Charities currently register CLVs and would be advised of the new process. The number of visits made by a charity free of charge would be agreed on an individual, case by case basis to reflect the charitable activities undertaken and the support that can be offered by the council.   

Section 4. Involvement and consultation (What involvement and consultation has been done regarding the proposal and what are the results? What consultation will be needed and how will it be done?) 

A 12-week engagement exercise from November 2023 to January 2024 invited residents and stakeholders to submit their views on potential changes to HWRCs. The engagement exercise was popular securing over 3,000 submissions.  

The majority of respondents (69%) were in favour of restricting access to North Yorkshire residents, with similar support (71%) for charging out of county residents. The majority of respondents (60%) were in favour of limiting the number of occasions commercial like vehicles visit sites, with similar support (61%) for setting the limit at 12 visits per annum.  

Section 5. What impact will this proposal have on council budgets? Will it be cost neutral, have increased cost or reduce costs? 

  The financial objective is to achieve savings of £300,000. These savings contribute towards the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS).   

Financial modelling estimates a reduction in tonnage and disposal costs of £405,000, comprised of measures to address out of county users (£305,000) and limiting access to CLV owners (£100,000). A number of assumptions have been made, including the number of out of county visits made which is based on historic data, the average weight delivered per vehicle, and the effectiveness of the registration scheme considering staff availability, difficult & aggressive customers, hard/ soft implementation.

Section 6. How will this proposal affect people with protected characteristics?	No impact	Make things better	Make things worse	Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.
Age	x			No impact on age.  Residents will be able to register online or by telephone.
Disability	x			No impact on disability.  Residents will be able to register online or by telephone.  For disabled residents that use a CLV as their main vehicle these proposed restrictions will not apply and disabled residents will be able to use the HWRCs unlimited as other North Yorkshire residents.
Sex	x			No impact on sex.
Race	x			No impact on race.
Gender reassignment	x			No impact on gender reassignment.
Sexual orientation	x			No impact on sexual orientation.
Religion or belief	x			No impact on religion or belief.
Pregnancy or maternity	x			No impact on pregnancy or maternity
Marriage or civil partnership	x			No impact on marriage or civil partnership

Section 7. How will this proposal affect people who…	No impact	Make things better	Make things worse	Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.
..live in a rural area?	x			No impact on rural area.
…have a low income?	x			No impact on low income
…are carers (unpaid family or friend)?	x			No impact on carers. For carers outside of North Yorkshire taking items into the HWRC on behalf of North Yorkshire family/friend’s residents they will be able to register with the North Yorkshire resident’s address.
….. are from the Armed Forces Community	x			No impact on the Armed forces community

Section 8. Geographic impact – Please detail where the impact will be (please tick all that apply)
North Yorkshire wide	x
Craven
Hambleton
Harrogate
Richmondshire
Ryedale
Scarborough
Selby
If you have ticked one or more areas, will specific town(s)/village(s) be particularly impacted? If so, please specify below.
The proposal will affect all of North Yorkshire. Those residents that use the Stokesley HWRC are already used to registering to use the HWRC, although these residents will need to register again to use the new IT system which would be used throughout North Yorkshire.

Section 9. Will the proposal affect anyone more because of a combination of protected characteristics? (e.g. older women or young gay men) State what you think the effect may be and why, providing evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.

The proposal should not affect anyone because of a combination of protected characteristics.   Noone has had to register previously - because the requirement to register is imposed on all residents, we do not consider there is a specific impact on those with protected characteristics and by enabling different options for registration we are seeking to keep any impact to a minimum.

Section 10. Next steps to address the anticipated impact. Select one of the following options and explain why this has been chosen. (Remember: we have an anticipatory duty to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people can access services and work for us)	Tick option chosen
1. No adverse impact - no major change needed to the proposal. There is no potential for discrimination or adverse impact identified.	x
2. Adverse impact - adjust the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We will change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, or we will achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people.
3. Adverse impact - continue the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We cannot change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, nor can we achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people. (There must be compelling reasons for continuing with proposals which will have the most adverse impacts. Get advice from Legal Services)
4. Actual or potential unlawful discrimination - stop and remove the proposal – The EIA identifies actual or potential unlawful discrimination. It must be stopped.
Explanation of why option has been chosen. (Include any advice given by Legal Services.)   We recognise that the proposal of registration may be an inconvenience to all residents compared to the current policy. But there should be no potential for discrimination if this is implemented as registered disabled residents will be excluded from the limitations if their CLV is their main vehicle.

Section 11. If the proposal is to be implemented, how will you find out how it is really affecting people? (How will you monitor and review the changes?) 

· We will be able to monitor the number of times CLVs use the sites through ANPR data. 

· Customer service calls / emails 

· Yorwaste interactions with residents at the HWRCs 

Section 12. Action plan. List any actions you need to take which have been identified in this EIA, including post implementation review to find out how the outcomes have been achieved in practice and what impacts there have actually been on people with protected characteristics.
Action	Lead	By when	Progress	Monitoring arrangements
CLVs - disabled vehicle access allowance	Contracts Manager (Waste)	At the start to by-pass the system	To be confirmed with IT solution	Check with IT solution.

Section 13. Summary Summarise the findings of your EIA, including impacts, recommendation in relation to addressing impacts, including any legal advice, and next steps. This summary should be used as part of the report to the decision maker. 

All residents who use a HWRC would be required to register to use a HWRC, those residents that use a CLV would be limited to 12 visits per year (unless a registered disabled vehicle).  

The proposed changes hope to achieve improvements to the service in the longer-term savings of £300,000. 

Although an initial inconvenience to all residents, once the simple registration has been completed there should be no further issues. As well as the savings made from stopping out of county users disposing of their waste and commercial waste traders disposing their waste as household waste, residents may also have a better experience at sites where queuing is an issue due to a reduction in overall visits. 

Section 14. Sign off section

 This full EIA was completed by: 

Name: Jenny Lowes

Job title: Service Improvement Officer

Directorate: Environment

Signature: J Lowes 

Completion date: 06 August 2025

Authorised by relevant Assistant Director (signature):  Michael Leah

Date:  14 August 2025