Minister asks local authorities to run tip

Ramsey Commissioners will run the site until April

The Infrastructure Minister has written to northern local authorities asking them to take over operations of a Manx tip.

The Northern Civic Amenity Site (NCAS) was handed back to the Department of Infrastructure (DoI) in April and has been operated by Ramsey Commissioners.

However, Ramsey Commissioners notified the department that it would not continue operations past April which is when the contract comes to an end.

The site, formerly run by a board of representatives from northern local authorities, was facing closure amid a £67,000 funding gap after Bride Commissioners withdrew from the facility.

'Not responsible'

Ramsey Commissioners has operated the site on behalf of its fellow northern authorities Ballaugh, Lezayre, Garff, Andreas, Jurby, and Bride since 2017.

Infrastructure Minister, Michelle Haywood, said she had sent out letters to the northern local authorities to ask if any would run the site, and if none came forward, it would go through a procurement process.

She said the department did not have the staff to manage the facility and "get it fully up and running, including the re-use shed."

"I would rather the local authorities got together and agreed how they were going to run it and fund the site," she said.

However, although she said she would prefer that the department was not involved at all, it was "not responsible to leave that whole slice of the island without any access to an amenity site."

"We were hoping that Ramsey would carry on running the site and that is not what they want to do, so we need to find some alternative way of running it," she said.

She confirmed the department is paying £50,000 to fill the gap left in the site's finances.

Clerk of Ramsey Commissioners Derek Flint said the local authority would "continue to work with the Department of Infrastructure on the provision of waste services in the north."