Councils are lining up a June re-opening of local skip sites after months in lockdown.
Amidst continuing reports of increased fly-tipping across Courier country, local authority body Cosla has drawn up proposals working towards a phased re-opening of recycling centres and are pushing the Scottish Government to give the plan the go-ahead.
But council bosses have said the re-opening of the gates will have to be carefully managed to avoid potential coronavirus risks in what is anticipated will be a significant surge of traffic towards local facilities.
Queues of several hours have been witnessed at re-opened recycling centres south of the border.
The Scottish Government has said no definite decision on a re-opening date has been made.
The June 1 plan emerged from a meeting to gauge the mood of leaders of the country’s 32 local authorities after skip sites were closed early in the pandemic.
Cosla says the need for “careful planning” around the return of the facilities is a key reason behind the 2-3 week lead-in time given to the Scottish Government for a signing-off of the idea
The physical distancing of staff and customers, other health and safety requirements and Health and traffic management have been identified as key areas in the re-opening of sites.
Police are already being consulted over the potential traffic issues around recycling centres.
A skip site in a medium-sized council area can generate around 12,000 journeys in an average week and council waste bosses expect that figure to show a significant spike for some time after the gates are unlocked.
Forfar Conservative councillor Braden Davy said: “If local officials, local councillors and local people think our recycling centres can open safely and observe social distancing, it is wrong that we are being banned from doing so by government in the central belt.
“Councils need to be allowed to our job and protect our rural areas, our roads, and our local communities from fly-tipping. We’re ready to do that, the SNP need to allow us to do it”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “As the First Minister indicated on May 10, we are looking at this issue but as yet no decision has been taken.
“We are working closely with Cosla and local authorities and will provide a further update on those discussions in the near future.”
