ACCESS to Basingstoke’s household waste recycling centre (BHWRC) has been criticised by users and nearby businesses following a near-miss accident.

Steve Vaux, who lives in Sherfield Park, nearly collided with a vehicle from Basingstoke Skip Hire on Monday, May 9 after it appeared to be skipping queues along Wade Road in order to gain access to the company’s depot. 

For many years, users of BHWRC have often had to queue for up to 20 minutes in order to gain access to the site.

Mr Vaux managed to steer clear of the oncoming vehicle, but now he has called for change to the site’s layout.

“I have sympathy for those businesses who need to get to their depot, but something has to be done,” Mr Vaux said.

“I was getting rid of some garden waste and as I left I was confronted by this truck, coming within a couple yards of hitting it.

“I hope the council and police sort this problem out before it’s too late.”

Mick Mercer, managing director of Basingstoke Skip Hire, agreed with Mr Vaux and joined him in voicing his concern about the way in which people can get into the site during busy times.

Mr Mercer said: “As a company, all of our drivers are instructed only to overtake stationary traffic when safe to do so, as per the Highway Code.

“I know there has been many near misses with traffic leaving the site in to the path of overtaking vehicles, but again there is little one can do.

“We take road safety very seriously, to the extent we have had four-way cameras fitted to our vehicles to help us in any event that may arise.

“I know that all users of the Wade Road area find that the queuing traffic can be a problem at times and my view is to place double yellow lines on Wade Road to stop traffic queuing here.”

Hampshire County Council executive member for environment and transport, Councillor Rob Humby, said: “The BHWRC is located on a busy industrial estate, that also includes a commercial waste transfer station, and we know that at times it can get congested, particularly during fine weather, which often brings more people to the HWRCs.

“Staff on site work hard to manage the traffic as efficiently as possible, in order to minimise queuing, and we ask everyone using the HWRC to drive responsibly at all times.

“We will be issuing a reminder to all contractor vehicles servicing the HWRC that they should observe traffic rules and not attempt to avoid queues.”