Recycling centres will only be for use by county residents under proposals to prevent the issue of ‘waste tourism’.

Flintshire Council is planning to hand out permits to all households on the county’s “council tax register” as it looks to prevent outsiders using their recycling centres.

The council outlined the policy ahead of a meeting of the environment overview and scrutiny committee, which will be held on Friday.

Steve Jones, the council’s chief officer for Streetscene and transportation, said: “When deciding which HRC site to use, the public will naturally travel to the nearest facility to their home, some may even travel further to use a more modern user-friendly site.

“This leads to waste coming across borders from neighbouring authorities and this ‘waste tourism’ affects those sites nearest to county borders.

“In Flintshire’s case Greenfield and Sandycroft are affected by this as residents from Denbighshire and Cheshire living close to the border use these sites.”

Mr Jones said many local authorities, including Denbighshire Council, operate a resident-only scheme which allows only households registered on the Council Tax Register to use their sites.

He said: “The main advantage of a resident-only scheme is to ensure that only waste generated in a county is deposited at the sites and that the council is not paying for waste that is generated out of the county.

“From April 1 next year it is proposed that the council will operate a Flintshire Residents Only Permit scheme.

“Each household in Flintshire registered on the Council Tax Register will receive a permit that allows them access to use the council’s HRC’s.

”The permit will be issued with the annual council tax bill which is sent out each year in March and must be displayed by the resident when using the sites.

“Permits will be issued for domestic waste only and no trade waste will be allowed to using these permits.”

In a report released ahead of the meeting, Mr Jones also outlined changes being made to the waste collection rounds in the area.

New rounds have been designed, with new modern recycling vehicles that would allow a wider range of recycling materials to be collected at kerbside set to be introduced.

Mr Jones added that they were continuing with proposals to fine householders who continue to create too much waste. He said: “The majority of households in Flintshire use the recycling services offered to them but there is still a small minority who do not and these properties inevitably generate additional bags of waste which are left out on collection day and often become a target for animals or are blown about in the wind resulting in the waste spilling out onto the streets.

“Although we will continue to collect any side waste presented, those residents who choose to ignore the recycling services offered and repeatedly present side waste could be subject to enforcement action in the form of a fixed penalty notices under powers within the Environmental Protection Act.”