PLANS to charge some residents for using Hampshire tips have been approved and will be implemented this year.

Non-Hampshire residents who would want to use the county’s Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC) will be charged £5 from April 1.

Charges will not apply for Dorset Council residents, following an agreement between Dorset Council and Hampshire County Council.

The service will remain free for all Hampshire residents but they will have to register as the new system will be controlled by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR).

County bosses said Hampshire residents who have not registered will be asked to do so once they arrive to the recycling centre and will be supported should they not have WiFi to register online.

The charges will be implemented from April 1 and residents will time until March 31 to register.

From 1 April to May 31 there will be a period “of flexible enforcement”, the county council said,  to allow residents to sign up to the system with full enforcement planned for June 1. 

Cllr Rob Humby, executive member for economy, transport and environment at the county council approved the move on Tuesday afternoon.

He said the £5 charge will be brought in to offset the £500,000 annual cost of dealing with waste from non-Hampshire residents visiting sites in the county.

He said the move is fair to Hampshire residents and non-Hampshire residents, especially those who live near the county’s borders.

“We do have a situation where residents who live outside Hampshire are using our sites and it costs Hampshire taxpayers about half a million pounds. So we have decided that that wasn’t fair on Hampshire residents,” he said.

Cllr Humby also added: “We worked very hard to negotiate with our neighbouring authorities to have a consistent charge right across the region but we weren’t able to achieve that and many other adjoining authorities decided not to let any other residents but their own use their sites. We felt that this was unfair on  Hampshire residents and non-Hampshire residents who might have to drive miles to use the site.”

Meanwhile, a draft proposal has been agreed between Hampshire County Council and Dorset Council. This sees a “straightforward split” of the full costs of operating Somerley HWRC.

“This would enable the costs associated with Dorset residents to be covered and ensure continued access to the site for them”, an official report states.

More than 150,000 Hampshire residents’ vehicles have already been registered online.