HEALTH and safety concerns have been raised over newly-developed procedures at the Forthbank Recycling Centre in Alloa.

A risk assessment into the disposal of soil and rubble is to be carried out amid worries voiced by Clacks councillors last week.

The move follows a change to arrangements for the disposal of rubble at the household waste recycling centre during the pandemic.

Before the Covid-19 shut down, Clacks residents used to tip their waste into a large open skip.

Since the changes, soil and rubble is accepted in small quantities only in containers with visitors required to "safely manually handle these containers" – as outlined on the council's website.

The changes originally came about to improve health and safety around the site, where there have been near misses with heavy machinery operating close to the public.

Arrangements were also re-designed to soften the impact of contamination, such as asbestos being dumped in a large skip which is costly to deal with.

However at last Thursday's, November 4, Place Committee meeting, Cllr Craig Holden argued more should be done to ensure members of the public remain safe, having asked for a review of the arrangements earlier in August.

He said: "My opinion is that we have improved the safety for our staff, but what we have not done is improve safety for members of the public – in fact we have increased risk as far as I can see.

"I understand why the changes are better for us from a service perspective, what remains to be addressed now is whether or not the changes are appropriate and best from a service user perspective."

Cllr Holden believes there is more risk associated with people manually lifting containers and added the risk assessment should be taken seriously as he is "not prepared to put members of the public at risk with this particular practice".

In dialogue with a senior council officer, Cllr Holden did agree some risks have been reduced around heavy machinery but said there were now implications around lifting heavy items.

Cllr Jane McTaggart also said she heard from members of the public and paid contractors that the current system increases their risks and time on site.

Councillors agreed to keep the current arrangements, which are to be retained past Covid restrictions, on the condition that the risk assessment is carried out and brought back to a meeting.

Cllr Holden agreed that "in many ways" the current system is better, but there are still some concerns around specific practices, such as the manual lifting.

Council papers noted that general feedback at the site "has been excellent" and that there have been no official complaints regarding the soil and rubble disposal arrangements.