one user booked nearly 250 visits in a year.<\/a><\/p>\nThe local authority in Dumfries and Galloway said it highlighted “potential misuse” of the facilities by commercial operators.<\/p>\n
They are now weighing up proposals to limit the number of trips any individual can make.<\/p>\n
BBC News website readers have been giving their opinions on whether or not that would be a good idea.<\/p>\n
Julia Cox from Castle Douglas was one of a number of people who feared the move could have consequences for the countryside.<\/p>\n
“The number of visits shouldn’t be capped, the rubbish would be fly-tipped incurring far more cost,” she said.<\/p>\n
“There is obviously a need for a tip for commercial waste and most commercial users would be willing to pay a reasonable price to use such a facility.”<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763998211_867_grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Billy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ca7ad040-c466-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp.webp\")
Billy McCrorie<\/p>\n
The council has a network of recycling centres across the region<\/p>\n
Karen Sutherland of Lockerbie – one of the sites where many of the visits were booked – said the idea was “rubbish”.<\/p>\n
“I use Lockerbie tip, it is never busy – rarely more than two vehicles,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Plus it’s not open every day – having to book is a nuisance.<\/p>\n
“I either book in advance in anticipation of cutting the lawn or end up with bags of garden waste fermenting for days until l can grab a spot.”<\/p>\n
Charge for recycling visits<\/p>\n
However, Graham Black of Moffat, said he would not be against some kind of limit.<\/p>\n
“I use the Beattock site perhaps 12 times a year,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Yes there should be a cap of perhaps 30 – but I think it may be difficult to enforce.”<\/p>\n
Karen Armstrong of Dumfries suggested it might be a way of generating funds for the local authority.<\/p>\n
“Potholes, blocked road drains, lack of litter bins are all issues they ‘can’t afford’ to address while businesses are making money and costing council thousands,” she said.<\/p>\n
“They could allow 12 free uses a year and over that apply a fee or charge businesses a higher rate per visit if it is a business-related dump.<\/p>\n
“This could raise much-needed funds for other things.”<\/p>\n
![\"Richard](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/56a94770-c469-11f0-a2f9-638897c00bc9.jpg.webp.webp\")
Richard Sutcliffe<\/p>\n
A review of council recycling centres for household waste is being carried out<\/p>\n
Another Dumfriesshire resident, Iain Murray, said his visit numbers fluctuated.<\/p>\n
“It all depends on the time of year,” he said.<\/p>\n
“With a medium-sized car and a moderately-sized garden taking non-compostable waste such as tree cuttings and hedge trimmings could involve two visits in a day.<\/p>\n
“But averaged over a year it is probably about 26 times in a year.”<\/p>\n
Looking from outside the region, Owen McMillan from Renfrewshire suggested that a relatively high cap might be the answer.<\/p>\n
“We need to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater,” he warned.<\/p>\n
“It may be reasonable to limit the maximum number of visits to an average figure of say once per week – 50 – per year.<\/p>\n
“This would address the extreme use cases and not unnecessarily restrict people in general.”<\/p>\n
A council statement said it planned a review of its HWRCs and Zero Waste Parks.<\/p>\n
It said that although it currently had no restrictions it was clear the sites were for household waste only.<\/p>\n
It said it would benchmark against other local authorities and also establish the average number of visits it would expect an individual to make.<\/p>\n
The council added that the customer highlighted in the report visited with an estate car and trailer – sometimes three or more times a day.<\/p>\n
“A typical household does not generate this volume of waste, which strongly suggests the material was from a commercial operation,” it said.<\/p>\n
“This behaviour undermines the intended purpose of HWRCs, which is to support household waste disposal.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giancarlo RinaldiSouth Scotland reporter Getty Images The council in Dumfries and Galloway is considering limiting the number of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-151370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/cf574480-c3c2-11f0-ae46-bd64331f0fd4.jpg.webp.webp\")
Getty Images<\/p>\n