What is the Truth behind the Closure of Local Waste and Recycling Centres?

On 24^th March, Northumberland County Council issued the following information:


 Please note, all Household Waste Recovery Centres are closed until further notice due to Government guidelines regarding coronavirus (COVID-19).

Household Waste Recovery Centres - Service Update

This information was last updated 24 March 2020.

In light of government advice to stay at home and avoid all but essential travel, our provider Suez has advised that all Household Waste Recovery Centres (HWRCs) will close until further notice, from 24th March 2020. We ask all our residents to store their unwanted items until we are able to open the sites again. Thank you.
This was then followed by a message issued on social media stating that Suez the company that runs Waste Recovery sites in Northumberland had decided to close its sites to protect their workforce.

The County Council followed up with this message on their web site:
Northumberland
The council said: “We are continuing to provide waste collection services to Northumberland residents, including kerbside collections, bulky waste collections. We will respond to advice from the government and Public Health England, and will keep residents informed of changes to our waste services.”
The Government issued the following

The government is encouraging councils to keep their HWRCs open to ensure that bulky waste can continue to be disposed of – but only if social distancing guidelines can be adhered to, which many authorities are struggling to guarantee. Fifteen days prior to the decision being taken to close the Centres across the County, 9^th April 2020 a document was issued into the public domain by Suez UK in it they explain how Social Distancing can be organised at Waste and Recycling Centres operated by them


file:///C:/Users/commu/Downloads/COVID19andHWRCOperations202048-3S.pdf
A poll conducted by Suez, which operates several of the North East’s tips on behalf of local authorities, found that not one of the 128 councils surveyed considers a trip to the tip to be an essential journey.
On 23^rd April Chronicle Live reported : Tips across the North East are set to stay shut during the coronavirus lockdown, despite beginning to re-open elsewhere in the UK. North East councils have confirmed that they have not changed their stance
Northumberland County Council said its closures and the suspension of its bulky waste removal service was “being kept under constant review, with the council looking at all options for helping residents”.
Social media is filling up with demands for skips to be placed at strategic places and in response it was reported by West based Councillors from the Administration that they have been instructed to discourage DIY, which is recognised as therapeutic in helping people overcome mental anguish.
With Northumberland County Council and the NHS being inseparable across the County, even sharing top officers across both structures surely discouraging DIY and not following Government guidelines nor their own contractors method statement for Social Distancing does seem like a lack of decent leadership, strategic thinking and truthfulness is rampant in Northumberland.