ONYX Environmental Group's new £13 million material recovery facility (MRF) has come under fire over rubbish which is escaping from delivery vehicles and from the site to litter the roadside verges and surrounding countryside. But, project director John Collis has assured, the company is working hard to address these issues. And it is operating a "two strikes and you're out" system for drivers who cross the central reservation rather than using the Bentley underpass when accessing the A31 site from the Alton direction. It is a hard line but one which local councillor David O'Donnell (Holybourne and Froyle) believes is positive and shows that the intention of the company is to keep any litter and delivery problems under control. Having received a rising number of complaints, not just from people concerned over the route some delivery vehicles are taking into the site, but also about the amount of rubbish building up along the roadside verges and on the site itself,visible from the train, Mr O'Donnell decided to take the matter in hand. Located at the former cold store site on the A31 at Froyle, the MRF operates from 6 am to 11 pm each day and employs a staff of 48, spread over two shifts. Using cutting-edge technology to process just short of 300 tonnes of material a day, the MRF currently receives some 36 HGV vehicles a day, equating to 72 lorries movements entering or leaving the A31. "It is a great facility which employs a lot of local people but it does have an issue with litter blowing about and also escaping from vehicles," said Mr O'Donnell, who last week met John Collis on site to talk through how matters could be improved. Following the meeting, Mr Collis has confirmed his company's decision to install fine metal catchment fencing inside the perimeter fence around the site and to keep the four large doors at the front of the facility closed other than for vehicle access. He also confirmed that the company is to stop using "flip-top" vehicles for transporting recyclable materials away from the site because debris was obviously escaping from the top. However, where rubbish is escaping from refuse collection vehicles delivering to the site it was down to incorrect positioning of the churning mechanism and this was the responsibility of the operators who would be told to "get it right". This, he hoped, would improve the situation along the A31 from the Chawton sliproad to Froyle - an area pinpointed as particularly bad by local resident, Lorina Gilbert, who last week counted more than 90 pieces of plastic caught up in the hedges and trees along the verge. "It was awful - the recycling lorries cannot be tying down their loads. As a conservationist, not only do I care about the appearance of the area, but I fear for the wildlife who might get caught up in all this plastic," she said. Aware of the problem, Mr Collis said that Onyx employees had spent last Saturday cleaning up the hard shoulder in a north-easterly direction along the A31 and that, weather permitting, they would be out again this Saturday cleaning up in the opposite direction. However, the central reservation could not be touched without Hampshire County Council making the necessary arrangements to close off the outer carriageways to protect the workers from passing traffic - a problem Mr O'Donnell is tackling via the county highways department. Mr Collis has also assured local residents that although the site is currently lit around the clock, that is set to change. The MRF currently operates for 16 hours a day Monday to Friday so it doesn't need to be lit on a 24-hour basis. At night the lights are soon to be replaced by an infrared surveillance system. On the serious subject of access, Mr Collis said that the site was operated under a strict set of rules and that any driver caught performing a U-turn across the central reservation on the A31, rather than using the Bentley underpass, would receive one warning. If he did it a second time he would be excluded from the site. Conscious of the accident record on this stretch of the A31, Mr Collis explained that the company had approached the safety issue in a number of ways. Every regular driver was issued with a handbook detailing how he was to approach and leave the site. There were signs on the road itself directing traffic approaching from the Alton direction to the Bentley sliproad, and there was a large route plan located inside the MRF by the weighbridge. But, he stressed, people needed to let the company know if drivers were abusing the system. "If any member of the public sees one of our vehicles performing a U-turn they should tell us so that we can deal with the matter," said Mr Collis. He has asked people to note down the time, date and, if possible, the registration number and/or name on the side of the vehicle, so they can identify the culprit. Mr Collis is adamant, however: "The Alton MRF is fundamental to recycling in Hampshire and I urge residents to keep supporting it." In the meantime, David O'Donnell, as the local councillor, intends monitoring the situation and will return to the site in two months time to measure the company's progress.
