Businesses pen letter over traffic at Hazel Court tip, York

As reported by The Press in August, traffic has been facing long queues to enter Hazel Court Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC), off James Street, with cars sometimes at a standstill. 

Thirteen businesses in Hazel Court and Yorvale Business Park have now signed an open letter to City of York Council raising their concerns about the impact of the queues on their businesses.

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Dustin Hone, who owns DNA Gym in Yorvale Business Park and spoke on behalf of the letter writers, said:  “It’s a nightmare. They’ve just made it worse – I understand what they’re trying to do, but it’s just gotten worse.

"There’s traffic going both ways, and that road is the only way into the business park. Before, when there was queuing, people could whizz up to the side to the business park but now that’s impossible.

“Tuesdays and Thursdays are the worst - Thursday morning is the worst by far, it doubles up.  It’ll be full on Hazel Court, up to Yorvale and back down, then past the entrance to Morrisons on James Street.

Queueing traffic out onto James Street (Image: Provided)

Dustin said he opened his business in March and was finding it difficult to grow and establish himself in the city when access to his gym was blocked.

He added: “Mainly for me, it’s my members and clients – they’ll be 20 minutes late and they’ll say that they’ve been outside for 30 minutes trying to get in.

"We’re very fresh and trying to grow the best we can - it’s almost impossible now that people can’t get there.”

In the joint letter to the council, Dustin and his fellow business owners suggested the idea of a booking system, similar to during the pandemic, to ensure that queuing could be kept to a minimum and there could be "an effective remedy to this chaos". 

However, they claim the booking system suggestion was not acknowledged in the reply from the council, adding that the authority had simply said that traffic management was in place.

A no queuing sign at Hazel Court (Image: Provided)

Dustin said: “I was just so annoyed that the council clearly didn’t even read my letter.

"We went through all this effort – every single business signed the letter - and they didn’t even read it. I’ve already spoken with the head of environmental services and it was just a copy and paste in a different colour.

"I’ve already made a formal complaint as an individual, now I’m making it as a business and trying to represent all the businesses in the area. If it [the tip] was a private business, it would be shut down – the police would be there.”

Queues on Hazel Court (Image: Provided)

The queues at the tip come after the council rolled out a new charge for garden waste green bin collections in York - a service that had previously been free. 

However, council chiefs have said there has not been a big change in numbers visiting the tip since the green bin charges came in.

Ben Grabham, head of environmental services at City of York Council, said: “We know that some of the recent changes to garden waste collections and opening hours may have concerned some residents and businesses, and we thank everyone for their patience as there can be ‘peaks’ in traffic at Hazel Court.

“We do monitor visitor numbers throughout the day and know from this data that visitor numbers change significantly at different times for multiple reasons. In previous years, we’ve seen that attendance is seasonal, with good weather and holiday periods resulting in more visitors to Hazel Court.

“We also know that increased visitors to Hazel Court was a concern raised when the Garden Waste Subscription Scheme was introduced. However, the data we have collected indicates that there has been a reduction in the number of visits to Hazel Court over the last three weeks compared to the same period last year.

“Whilst it can be frustrating to have to wait, there are some steps that visitors can take to help make the process quicker for everyone. If you pre-sort your waste before your visit, you make the trip quicker for yourself and everyone else, and where possible we’d advise you to visit at quieter times, often between 4pm-6pm.

“There is another HWRC at Towthorpe, which can be used by residents only, and we thank our teams who have been working incredibly hard to keep up with demand during busy periods.”