As some Halebank BID businesses have raised concerns about moving onto Pickering Road, we arranged a site visit to Veolia’s Bidston site on 12 July.
Unfortunately, Veolia don’t currently have a site as small as the Halebank site, however, despite Bidston being twice the size of the Halebank site it was thought that it would give us an idea of what to expect, as other than the size difference we were informed that it is a similar site.
Prior to the tour of the site, we had a lengthy meeting with Paul Jones as Business Manager at Bidston and Mark Higham Operations Manager from the Ditton Road Widnes Depot. The main concern for businesses seems to be the increase of heavy good vehicles entering and leaving the estate and Mark kindly clarified the vehicle movements as follows:- ” The current fleet of vehicles at Widnes are 5 x 26tn GW vehicles, 2 x 26tn Recycling vehicles, 5 x 32tn Roll On Roll Off vehicles, 2 x 18tn Skip vehicles, 2 x 32tn Front End Loaders 1 x 26tn Food Waste vehicle & 1 x Glass vehicle, so in total 18 vehicles visiting site daily to tip their waste. In addition to that there could be up to 7 x articulated vehicles to remove the waste and take to Wales. Staff vehicles will be in the region of 4 to 6 vehicles”.
Vehicles delivery waste are staggered and most will be between the hours of 12:30-3:30pm. It takes no more than 16 minutes to deliver, and leave again via the weigh bridge. All waste comes in under cover, it is then unloaded and removed within 48 hours. Mark confirmed that there are no plans to store waste beyond the 48 hours.
Other concerns raised have been in relation to the smell and problems the site may cause in relation to pests. Halebank Industrial Estate is close to Pickering Pastures Nature Park and, therefore, there are restrictions on how pests can be dealt with. It wasn’t particularly a warm day when we visited, however, other than a few seagulls on the roof there wasn’t many flying about and we didn’t experience any flies buzzing about even stood in the waste unit. Veolia have their own Pest Management Plan and also have bird scarers. All waste is turned around quickly so they are confident that there shouldn’t be any issues in relation to pests. The roller doors are open during operational hours and closed of an evening, therefore, for the waste left over night there is a deodorant and fly killer agent used.
The BID receives a quarterly report of pest activity from Pest Solutions and, therefore, we will be able to monitor and establish any increase in pests.
The Pickering Road site is to be used for commercial waste only rather than general waste. It is likely that there will be some food contamination, however, this will be removed. This site is to be used solely for delivery of waste via Veolia vehicles only and will not be used for the general public. However, Veolia could collect on behalf of any customer and we’re aware that they currently work with Liverpool BID.
Another concern for some, is the noise and Paul confirmed that the loudest piece of equipment is the digger than moves the waste. We also requested to witness and film a vehicle on the weigh bridge, so see if this caused any noise and was reassured that the weigh bridge didn’t appear to make any noise over the sound of the vehicle on it.
There is still six months of construction required at Pickering Road site and recruitment of 4-8 people. Therefore, it’s unlikely that Veolia will be operating from the Pickering Road site this year. If anyone has any questions about Veolia, please let us know and we will try and get an answer from Veolia on your behalf.