Climate change impact assessment                                                                                                                      

The purpose of this assessment is to help us understand the likely impacts of our decisions on the environment of North Yorkshire and on our aspiration to achieve net carbon neutrality by 2030, or as close to that date as possible. The intention is to mitigate negative effects and identify projects which will have positive effects.

This document should be completed in consultation with the supporting guidance. The final document will be published as part of the decision making process and should be written in Plain English.

If you have any additional queries which are not covered by the guidance please email climatechange@northyorks.gov.uk

Version 2: amended 11 August 2021

Title of proposal	Review of Household Waste Recycling Centres
Brief description of proposal	Implementation of a registration scheme that limits free use of North Yorkshire Household Waste and Recycling Centres to North Yorkshire residents and allows owners of commercial-like vehicles and large trailers up to 12 visits per annum free of charge to Household Waste Recycling Centres
Directorate	Environment
Service area	Waste Contracts
Lead officer	Peter Jeffreys
Names and roles of other people involved in carrying out the impact assessment	Tracey Flint – Service Improvement Officer (Waste)
Date impact assessment started	05/08/2025

Options appraisal

Were any other options considered in trying to achieve the aim of this project? If so, please give brief details and explain why alternative options were not progressed.

A number of options and different approaches have been looked at to ensure that North Yorkshire’s network of HWRCs is available to residents in its area free of charge and to maintain reasonable access to owners of CLVs and trailers. These include 

• do nothing – does not address out of county use or excess waste from CLVs. 

• request proof of residency via a utility/ council tax bill - is not a robust or long-term solution and does not address excess waste from CLVs. 

• implement a booking system - allocation of specific time slots to visitors does manage traffic volumes and queuing times. However, the desired benefits can be delivered through a registration scheme which does not determine when visits are made. 

• introduce a permit scheme – a paper or electronic permit scheme is an effective way to regulate visits. However, the desired benefits can be delivered through a registration scheme which does not require presentation of a permit and is simply based on the vehicle registration number. 

• Automatic number plate recognition – ANPR technology is deployed by the operator at HWRCs which could, in time displace the need for site staff to manually enter the vehicle registration number into a handheld device. Whilst ANPR technology accurately captures details on highways, HWRCs rarely afford the field of vision where cameras work at their best. The current ANPR technology is not reliable enough to build a system around, and site staff would need to be alerted when a visitor arrives who has exceeded their 12 visits per year. ANPR will be kept under review and could be implemented at a later date. 

• introduce a registration scheme (the proposal). 

CLV = Commercial Like Vehicles

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

Reduce costs - 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).

How will this proposal impact on the environment? N.B. There may be short term negative impact and longer term positive impact. Please include all potential impacts over the lifetime of a project and provide an explanation.		Positive impact (Place a X in the box below where relevant)	No impact (Place a X in the box below where relevant)	Negative impact (Place a X in the box below where relevant)	Explain why will it have this effect and over what timescale? Where possible/relevant please include: · Changes over and above business as usual · Evidence or measurement of effect · Figures for CO2e · Links to relevant documents	Explain how you plan to mitigate any negative impacts.	Explain how you plan to improve any positive outcomes as far as possible.
Minimise greenhouse gas emissions e.g. reducing emissions from travel, increasing energy efficiencies etc.	Emissions from travel	x			By restricting the use of our HWRC to North Yorkshire residents we will prevent people from out of the county using the sites.  At present this accounts for 17% of household waste deposits.  Preventing out of county residents will reduce the number of vehicles coming into NY to use the sites and also reduce the tonnages at the sites therefore less bulk haulage emissions.  In addition we will be limiting the number of times CLV can visit the sites to 12 annual visits, this should see a reduction of 36,000 visits to the sites, again this will reduce transport emissions to the sites and as these vehicles often carry large payloads and volumes we should see a reduction in waste for onward processing. Once implement there will be an immediate reduction in CLV’s and residents from out of county visiting the sites.		Initially we are likely to continue to see out of county residents visiting the sites, but as the messaging becomes more embedded these visits will decrease.  The registration and enforcement process will be reviewed regularly to ensure we are maximising the potential to reduce out of county visits and commercial waste.
	Emissions from construction		x
	Emissions from running of buildings		x
	Emissions from data storage		x
	Other		x
Minimise waste: Reduce, reuse, recycle and compost e.g. reducing use of single use plastic		x			Due to a high influx of non-residents from the Middlesbrough and Stockton-Tees areas, a resident only permit scheme was put in place in 2016 at Stokesley HWRC, and successfully reduced the tonnage throughput by 22%.  This was at one site, the proposal is to implement the registration scheme to 20 HWRC’s across the county.		Although the scheme will only reduce waste in NY and not necessary prevent the waste being produced.  There is the potential for those inconvenienced by the proposal ie out of out of county residents or traders to look at the waste they are producing and consider how that could be reduced once their free options for disposal have been removed.
Reduce water consumption			x
Minimise pollution (including air, land, water, light and noise)			x
Ensure resilience to the effects of climate change e.g. reducing flood risk, mitigating effects of drier, hotter summers			x
Enhance conservation and wildlife			x
Safeguard the distinctive characteristics, features and special qualities of North Yorkshire’s landscape			x		The perception that preventing access or charging out of county residents will lead to fly tipping is not supported by evidence. Stokesley HWRC currently operates a permit scheme for North Yorkshire resident access and levies a charge to out of County residents. Similar concerns were raised when the scheme was implemented in 2016, however in reality there was no evidence of sustained or widespread fly tipping. Likewise, a report conducted by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) concluded that a ‘Comparison of fly-tipping rates does not show that those local authorities that have introduced charges for some HWRC waste have higher fly-tipping rates than those without charges.’	We will continue to monitor and report on flytipping statistics to DEFRA and look for any correlation to the implementation of the scheme.
Other (please state below)			x

Are there any recognised good practice environmental standards in relation to this proposal? If so, please detail how this proposal meets those standards.

Benchmarking with 37 local authorities shows that 87% regulate access by CLVs either through permits or advanced booking systems, with the most common limit being 12 annual visits.  Legislation (Section 51, Environmental Protection Act 1990) requires Waste Disposal Authorities to “arrange for places to be provided at which persons resident in its area may deposit their household waste” and that “each place is available for the deposit of waste free of charge by persons resident in the area”. Most neighbouring local authorities provide their HWRC networks for their own residents and seek to restrict access to North Yorkshire and other ‘out of area’ residents.

Summary Summarise the findings of your impact assessment, including impacts, the 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.

The implementation of the registration system will have a positive environmental impact by significantly reducing (approx. 17%) the number of vehicles from out of the county to deposit waste at our HWRC’s free of charge. This has already been evidence at Stokesley HWRC where waste tonnages were reduced by 22%.  In addition to this by limiting the number of CLV using the sites to 12 visits per vehicle per year we will be reducing the quantity of what is likely to be commercial waste taken to the sites free of charge. 

We will continue to promote the waste reduction and recycling message at our HWRC’s through information boards, our website and events.

Sign off section

This climate change impact assessment was completed by:

Name	Tracey Flint
Job title	Service Improvement Officer (Waste)
Service area	Service Development
Directorate	Environment
Signature	T Flint
Completion date	06/08/25

Authorised by relevant Assistant Director (signature): Michael Leah

Date: 14 August 2025

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).

Many thanks