Skip hire firm boss cuts back operations by 90 per cent amid costs rise

A WASTE and recycling company has had to scale back its operations due to rising costs.

R Hazell Recycling Waste, part of construction business Hazell and Jefferies in Whitchurch Hill, has had to reduce its skip hire service by 90 per cent.

The company, which has a yard in Rumbolds Pit, Ewelme, has been in operation for 20 years and in that time has delivered more than 120,000 skips.

Owner Richard Hazell, 82, has said tipping costs have increased 1,000 per cent since operations began and there was a further rise of £22 per tonne from April 1.

He also said that since April 2022 new rules meant that they could only use white diesel in their plant machinery instead of red, which is more costly.

Mr Hazell said the company had tried to absorb the cost of this but in three years this had cost the business more than £400,000.

He added that the Government’s decision to increase the employer national insurance contributions had increased costs by £30,000 a year for the skip hire business alone.

Mr Hazell told the Henley Standard: “I am sad about it because I’ve enjoyed it over the years. We started off with just having one skip lorry and it was quite an adventure but I’m afraid things have changed over the years.

“It’s very disappointing and upsetting because I’ve had to lose some of my employees as well.”

Mr Hazell operates Hazell and Jefferies alongside his wife and two sons, Jack and Billy.

The business provides environmentally friendly skip hire in Henley, Oxford, Abingdon, Didcot, Wallingford and the surrounding regions.

He said: “The decision from the Labour government put another nail in the coffin. I have sent off a letter to my customers to say thank you for your loyalty over all these years, which I do appreciate. I’ve got to cut it down to a minimum.

“I think it’s not just my business. A lot of other companies are going to feel the pinch as well because not only did they put up the national insurance for the staff, they have made us use white diesel from red diesel.

“The red diesel was half the cost of the white and the cost to tip the waste in the landfill is dramatically higher and they’ve put a massive tax on it.”

Mr Hazell said that competition from other skip businesses has made operating more difficult.

He said: “More skip people have come along over the last few years, which doesn’t help.”

Mr Hazell added that restrictions put in place by Oxfordshire County Council to restrict vehicle movements at its waste transfer site had also affected his business.

It came after Mr Hazell applied for a new certificate of lawful existing use or development, which had previously been granted in 2002. The council wrote a report which said that the use of the site had intensified since then with no enforcement action taken.

Then in November last year the council said an updated certificate should be approved, if no more than 50 vehicles exit or enter the site each day.

In March 2022, Hazell & Jefferies was forced to abandon a charitable fundraising drive following complaints. It had been donating £5 from each skip hire to Cancer Research UK.

It had placed 11 specially painted pink skips on roadside verges around South Oxfordshire to help promote the month-long initiative.

But it was criticised by Freddie van Mierlo, the then Watlington county councillor, now Henley MP.

He wrote to Hazell & Jefferies to complain, saying the skips “predominantly” advertised the company’s services and had encouraged fly-tipping.

Chris Stanley, general manager of the company, said he couldn’t understand the opposition but the company ended the initiative early. Mr Stanley and Mr Hazell agreed to top up the amount raised to £5,000, which they had hoped to raise from the outset.