'Accident waiting to happen': Chron readers slam ‘chaotic’, ‘nonsense’, and ‘crazy’ new rules at busy Northampton tip

From April 1, 2025, West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) entered a new contract with FCC Waste Services – better known as FCC Environment – to manage the six recycling centres across the unitary area. The contract will run until 2040.

The new arrangement means Sixfields, Ecton Lane, Daventry, Towcester, and Brixworth Household Recycling Centres will open from 10am to 4pm, seven days a week.

One key operational change has been brought in at the Sixfields site, where vehicles now reverse into bays to enhance safety measures.

Visitors to the Sixfields Household Recycling Centre have recently shared their “horrific” experiences, claiming the site is ‘dangerously mismanaged’.

Pictures emerging from the site over the Bank Holiday weekend (Saturday, April 20) – along with users' accounts – suggest the new contract has not got off to a smooth start.

At the time of publication there were 274 comments left on the Chron’s Facebook post on the Bank Holiday weekend chaos, with the overwhelming majority negative except for a handful of positive comments praising the new set up and pointing out that the ‘council cannot win’.

WNC has said that ‘service improvements, finer weather and a stretch of bank holidays’ has meant that the tips are dealing with ‘busier-than-usual conditions’ across West Northamptonshire with a record 67,000 visitors in April.

Here’s the pick of the bunch which help explain what’s happening at the site:

Judy Sansom said: “I honestly can’t agree with WNC. The old system and company running Sixfields had it well sorted. I entered the tip [over the weekend]. It was chaotic with every skip overflowing; the platforms at the top of the two ramps open were even full of rubbish. Skips at the back were overflowing too. I couldn’t see anywhere for green garden recycling and the usual separate areas for paint, oil, textiles etc. had disappeared. Bring back the old system and indeed the old company who ran the site really well.”

Palden Dorje said: “The opening hours don't make sense. If you work normal office hours during the week, you can't access the tips, as their hours are 10am – 4pm, so there is more use concentrated over the hours at the weekend, which are also shorter. It's crazy and just a nonsense. Someone didn't think this through, did they? They’re just focused on being open seven days a week.”

Tracey Fitzgerald said: “I agree. The carnage this new system has created is crazy. The team there have no time to segregate the full containers so people just dump what they have wherever they can. I used to like going to the tip. It was clean and efficiently run. Now it is just an accident waiting to happen.”

Oonagh Hollowell said: “I understand that the 4pm – 6pm time used to be very busy. Surely closing at 4pm every day doesn’t make sense and was bound to make weekends busier?"

Sean Dodds commented: “They have just made a complete shambles trying to fix something that wasn't broken. The pictures prove it isn't working. Suck up some humble pie and put it back to how it was.”

Ashley Bulmer wrote: “Told the council this was not going to work a month ago! Teething problems, they said. Well, still not fit for purpose. What's the excuse going to be now? HSE need to sort this out before someone is injured.”

Adam Crew-Gee wrote: “I have been to the Sixfields tip several times in the last few days. The parking was great but now is a joke. Why, when you had 30 – 40 spaces, would you then reduce this to half the capacity?"

John Lambert wrote: “The change in the layout at Sixfields is a nightmare for organising cars and people. The old layout was much safer and there was less cross-movement of people as they moved from one set of skips to the others. A disaster, and it will lead to accidents and customer frustration.”

Mitt Letts wrote: “I went there recently. The parking bays are dangerous and badly organised. The skips are so full and there is rubbish everywhere. It was much better before this new company took over.”

Cathy Cadden commented: “The new system in both Ecton and Sixfields is absolute carnage. The old three-lane system worked very well. This reversing-in is deadly, with bays offset at bad angles and not enough walkway to the skips behind them – and people who are not used to reversing full cars using only wing mirrors. Someone is going to be killed at this rate. I saw a lady nearly run over last week.”

David Boyes said: “Slightly unrelated, but the number of people who haven’t sussed out that you walk up the wider part of the ramp and back down the narrow part – does my nut in.”

Following the new opening hours, WNC said there has been a 20 per cent increase in visitors meaning ‘more visitors are choosing to visit sites on weekdays instead of weekends’.

Some comments praised the new set up with Claire C saying: “I went Monday bank holiday morning. It was quiet, calm and staff were lovely and really helpful.

"Definitely not the experience described in the article.”

Olivia M said: “So they moaned that the tips were not open 7 days per week. Now they moan because they are. The council cannot win.”

The council stressed that despite the operational changes the centre are managed by ‘the same, experienced staff who have been running them for over 15 years in highly-controlled work zones, with strict health and safety rules and processes.’

Responding, a WNC spokesman said: “As part of the new HWRCs contract, we will explore all kinds of systems and processes in the future to see if any of them can make the service more efficient and further improve the experience for residents.”

On the new parking system, WNC says: “The changes reduce the distance from the bays to the waste and recycling containers, further improving safety for visitors and helping to keep our sites cleaner.”

An FCC Environment spokesperson said: “FCC Environment took over operations of the Household Waste Recycling Centres earlier this month and since that time the sites have been extremely busy, both in terms of visitor numbers and the volume of materials being brought in.

“We would like to reassure our visitors that we take Health and Safety extremely seriously as a business and that all proper practice and procedures are followed, even at the busiest times.

“We would ask the public to bear with us as the Bank Holiday rush calms and operations get back to normal.”