Walking into tip rule is 'idiotic'

5:14pm Friday 9th May 2008

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HEALTH and safety rules stopped a Kidderminster couple from walking through the gate of the Hoobrook household waste tip carrying four bags of rubbish.

Retired railway signal designer, Richard Rathbone, 62, described the regulation as "idiotic" and blasted so-called health and safety precautions for reaching "ludicrous levels".

He and his wife, Barbara, 68, of Turton Street, parked their car and walked to the tip because a hold-up was causing traffic to queue but were told by a tip employee they could not walk through the gate, even though they could walk freely around the site after they had driven in.

Mr Rathbone had to go back for his car, drive to the gate, pick up his wife, load the bags and drive through the gate to deposit his garden waste and Tetra Pak drinks cartons.

"We could walk up to the gate, we could around on the other side of the gate, but we could not walk the two steps through the gate. It just struck us as being a total nonsense."

A Worcestershire County Council spokesman said: "It is county council policy not to allow people to enter the waste sites on foot.

"There are health and safety issues surrounding this that mean people cannot walk though the gates with their rubbish into the waste sites.

"The county council takes people's safety very seriously and policies are put into place to protect them from harm."