High Wycombe: Can people really fall in love with their local tip?

By Laurence Cawley

BBC News, Buckinghamshire

“The staff here are pleasant, polite and helpful,” says David Eggleton. “You even get celebrities who come here, so it must be good.”

The “here” to which Mr Eggleton refers is neither a luxury shop nor a posh restaurant.

It is High Wycombe’s household waste and recycling centre.

And Mr Eggleton, who runs ABC House Clearance, is far from alone in holding this particular civic amenity site in such high regard.

Named this year’s Civic Amenity Site of the Year by Let’s Recycle, a recent survey by Buckinghamshire Council found the 12-bay centre scored 100% in customer satisfaction. Why?

“It does everything well and ticks all of the boxes,” says Mr Eggleton. “I’m in the trade so I use a lot of tips and this one stands out above the rest of them.

“On one occasion actor David Jason was here getting rid of an old printer and everybody rushed over to him to get their pictures taken.

“They even help people if they see people struggling with things, it is a clean site and they work in all weathers. They couldn’t be more efficient.

“At other tips, they sometimes won’t take furniture if it has got fabric on it and so on – so they won’t take office chairs or headboards or the like.

“Here they take it all and what tips need to understand is that, if you do all types of waste, it will reduce the fly-tipping.”

Jackie Ward, chief executive at South Bucks Hospice, goes one step further than Mr Eggleton.

“I do love the recycling centre,” she says, “I think it is a really good site.

“I’ve lived in Wycombe all my life and this site has developed massively over the years. It is so efficient now and the staff are really lovely and helpful.”

Unusually for a household waste and recycling centre, the High Wycombe site has a hospice shop within its grounds.

Members of the public bring useable items they no longer need to be resold to raise money for the community hospice, which employs about 20 staff, sees about 600 patients each year and runs a lymphedema clinic.

The shop here is managed by Gary Pritchard.

“The stuff that people are ready to throw away can be unbelievable,” Mr Pritchard says.

More unusual items on display include a church pew complete with knee pads, a set of skis and an old (thankfully empty) military explosives box.

At the moment, the shop is seeing an influx of gardening items, including lawn mowers, furniture and pots.

“They come and go like hot cakes,” Mr Pritchard says. “We need these types of sites all over the country.”

Some wonder whether the reuse shop is almost too popular, with some visitors known to return up to three times a day and lay in wait for items to be delivered.

Mr Pritchard says he has occasionally has to ask such people to keep visits to a maximum of twice daily.

Brian Pearce is visiting the centre to drop off green waste and metal items and offer an old ammunition box to the hospice shop.

“It is easy to get to,” he says. “Twenty years ago we had problems with the recycling of green waste – it was awful, the whole area smelled terribly. They’ve sorted that, you can’t smell anything here now.

“The staff are very friendly and very good.”

Nobody the BBC spoke with at the site raised any criticisms or concerns about the operations here.

Such praise and attention, though welcome, leaves the site’s team leader and machine operator Matt Hodgson a little bemused.

“It is a good feeling,” he says in response to some of the compliments paid to him and his seven-strong team.

“We all get on and we’ve got a good team here.”

Mr Hodgson, who has worked at the centre for nearly 12 years, says putting on a smile can be a challenge at the centre’s busiest times and in the depths of winter.

But they are helped along, he says, by the various regulars – particularly tradespeople – who “are friendly and like to have a little chat”.

Is there a recipe for a “good” waste and recycling centre? Jilly Jordan, the council’s deputy cabinet member for environment, thinks there is.

“Waste and recycling centres used to be horrible places,” she says.

Making a good one, she says, starts with placement.

• In 2022, the High Wycombe site, managed by FCC Environment, diverted 114 tonnes of waste items to the hospice shop
• The most complained about issue in the recent customer survey, completed by 2,325 visitors, concerned road signs to the the county’s recycling centres – 2% said they were “not satisfied”
• Buckinghamshire’s 10 waste and recycling centres deal with about 43,000 tonnes of waste each year
• About 66% of all waste delivered at the High Wycombe centre was recycled last year

Set on the outskirts of High Wycombe, the centre is almost hidden by the tall trees that surround it on three sides. Despite being on the periphery, 66% of visitors say they can reach the centre within 10 minutes.

“The staff here are amazingly friendly and care about what they do,” says Ms Jordan. “There’s a rhythm here and it all just works.”

Asked whether she loves this particular centre, Ms Jordan’s political savvy comes into play.

“Maybe love is not quite the right word. We certainly take great pride in this centre.

“They have got it right here and this is an ideal place to come for anybody wanting to know how to get a job done and get it done well.”

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