19.05.23 – Trade Permits for Waste and Recycling Centres, Improved support for Children with SEND
Written by Hitmix Local News on 19 May 2023
Changes to the disposal of trade and bulky waste are to be introduced at Staffordshire’s Household Waste Recycling Centres to help curb queues for residents. Members of the county council’s Cabinet approved the introduction of permits for van/trailers at their meeting on Wednesday
The changes follow public consultation and now require Staffordshire residents with vans or trailers to apply for permits, which will allow them to make 12 visits per year to the sites. Staffordshire residents with cars will still be able to use the sites freely.
The 14 HWRCs are well used by Staffordshire residents with around 1.6 million visits a year. Only 20,000 are recorded as trade.
Simon Tagg, Cabinet Member for Environment, Infrastructure and Climate Change at Staffordshire County Council said: “We are committed to providing an efficient and effective HWRC network for Staffordshire residents.
“The changes will help address the issue of queuing on HWRC sites due to trade waste vehicles taking space and considerable time to offload waste.
“We have listened to what people had to say and believe permits for residents with vans or trailers and only accepting trade waste within Staffordshire will be the best way to make sure households can dispose of their waste quickly and efficiently.
“There will be no change to Staffordshire residents disposing of waste in cars. Disposal of non-chargeable items will remain the same for both residents requiring and not requiring permits.”
Simon Tagg
Staffordshire County Council continues to invest in and improve its HWRCs and the changes are in line with many other local authorities that surround Staffordshire.
People can find out more about Staffordshire’s Household Waste Recycling Centres here.
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Proposals to improve support for children with special educational needs and disabilities are open to consultation.
Developed after 12 months of talks with parents and carers, as well as representatives from Staffordshire’s schools, health and social care experts, the proposals look to provide proactive early intervention and increasing capacity to educate children with SEND in mainstream schools.
If accepted the new way of providing support is scheduled to be in place across the county by September 2024.
In Staffordshire 21,000 children currently require SEN support, or have an Education, Health and Care Plan, an increase of 29 per cent in five years.
At the same time, the number of county pupils attending special schools is higher than the national average, with only 27 per cent of children with SEND attending a mainstream school, compared to 40.5 per cent nationally.
The new strategy being consulted aims to develop proactive early intervention and additional support across all the county’s mainstream schools.
The consultation will be open until July 5th, 2023. People can participate in the consultation by giving feedback online or in face-to-face sessions.
Details can be found at: www.staffordshire.gov.uk/SENDConsultation2023
