An Angus green waste recycling centre may be about to see a surge in traffic, as Broughty Ferry residents are blooming angry at losing their own.
The Baldovie centre is no longer taking garden waste, forcing residents to take a 15-mile round trip to dispose of it at the only other site they pay for with their council tax.
But the Riverside site may be a journey too far, says community council chairman George Ferguson. He says it’s much more likely Ferry folk will be tempted to take the far shorter drive to Angus Council’s site at Monifieth.
The problem has grown from Dundee City Council cutting £316,000 from its recycling budget.
The Marchbanks site has been closed, and now all bulky waste must go to Baldovie and all garden waste to Riverside.
Monifieth councillor and Angus SNP administration member Rob Murray said: “I think some Broughty Ferry people have been taking their garden waste to the Monifieth site for some time, and we don’t ask people where they come from.”
He continued: “If we see an increase in volume and this becomes a problem we will need to look at the situation.”
SNP environment convener Craig Melville said for years all garden waste has ended up being reprocessed at Riverside, while all bulky materials have gone to Baldovie for sorting.
The council provides brown recycling bins to households for small quantities of garden waste but the bins are frequently swamped in the growing season, and some make regular car trips to Baldovie.
They can no longer do that, and Mr Ferguson said the new measure is “time-consuming, expensive and must increase traffic pollution.”
He added: “I do wonder if people here will still make that trip, or if they’ll just nip along to the Monifieth skips instead.”
Conservative ward councillor Derek Scott, who has been contacted by a number of constituents about the issue, said: “I think this decision was ridiculous. Rather than face a journey across the city I suspect many will find other ways of disposing of their garden waste such as in their general waste bin or, of much greater concern, burn it.”
He has called on the administration to rethink the measure.