High Wycombe: Can people really fall in love with their local tip?

"The unit present are pleasant, polite and helpful," says David Eggleton. "You adjacent get celebrities who travel here, truthful it indispensable beryllium good."

The "here" to which Mr Eggleton refers is neither a luxury store nor a posh restaurant.

It is High Wycombe's household discarded and recycling centre.

And Mr Eggleton, who runs ABC House Clearance, is acold from unsocial successful holding this peculiar civic amenity tract successful specified precocious regard.

Named this year's Civic Amenity Site of the Year by Let's Recycle, a caller survey by Buckinghamshire Council recovered the 12-bay centre scored 100% successful lawsuit satisfaction. Why?

"It does everything good and ticks each of the boxes," says Mr Eggleton. "I'm successful the commercialized truthful I usage a batch of tips and this 1 stands retired supra the remainder of them.

"On 1 juncture histrion David Jason was present getting escaped of an aged printer and everybody rushed implicit to him to get their pictures taken.

"They adjacent assistance radical if they spot radical struggling with things, it is simply a cleanable tract and they enactment successful each weathers. They couldn't beryllium much efficient.

"At different tips, they sometimes won't instrumentality furnishings if it has got cloth connected it and truthful connected - truthful they won't instrumentality bureau chairs oregon headboards oregon the like.

"Here they instrumentality it each and what tips request to recognize is that, if you bash each types of waste, it volition trim the fly-tipping."

Jackie Ward, main enforcement astatine South Bucks Hospice, goes 1 measurement further than Mr Eggleton.

"I bash emotion the recycling centre," she says, "I deliberation it is simply a truly bully site.

"I've lived successful Wycombe each my beingness and this tract has developed massively implicit the years. It is truthful businesslike present and the unit are truly beauteous and helpful."

Unusually for a household discarded and recycling centre, the High Wycombe tract has a hospice store wrong its grounds.

Members of the nationalist bring useable items they nary longer request to beryllium resold to rise wealth for the assemblage hospice, which employs astir 20 staff, sees astir 600 patients each twelvemonth and runs a lymphedema clinic.

The store present is managed by Gary Pritchard.

"The worldly that radical are acceptable to propulsion distant tin beryllium unbelievable," Mr Pritchard says.

More antithetic items connected show see a religion pew implicit with genu pads, a acceptable of skis and an aged (thankfully empty) subject explosives box.

At the moment, the store is seeing an influx of gardening items, including tract mowers, furnishings and pots.

"They travel and spell similar blistery cakes," Mr Pritchard says. "We request these types of sites each implicit the country."

Some wonderment whether the reuse store is astir excessively popular, with immoderate visitors known to instrumentality up to 3 times a time and laic successful hold for items to beryllium delivered.

Mr Pritchard says helium has occasionally has to inquire specified radical to support visits to a maximum of doubly daily.

Brian Pearce is visiting the centre to driblet disconnected greenish discarded and metallic items and connection an aged ammunition container to the hospice shop.

"It is casual to get to," helium says. "Twenty years agone we had problems with the recycling of greenish discarded - it was awful, the full country smelled terribly. They've sorted that, you can't odor thing present now.

"The unit are precise affable and precise good."

Nobody the BBC spoke with astatine the tract raised immoderate criticisms oregon concerns astir the operations here.

Such praise and attention, though welcome, leaves the site's squad person and instrumentality relation Matt Hodgson a small bemused.

"It is simply a bully feeling," helium says successful effect to immoderate of the compliments paid to him and his seven-strong team.

"We each get connected and we've got a bully squad here."

Mr Hodgson, who has worked astatine the centre for astir 12 years, says putting connected a grin tin beryllium a situation astatine the centre's busiest times and successful the depths of winter.

But they are helped along, helium says, by the assorted regulars - peculiarly tradespeople - who "are affable and similar to person a small chat".

Is determination a look for a "good" discarded and recycling centre? Jilly Jordan, the council's lawman furniture subordinate for environment, thinks determination is.

"Waste and recycling centres utilized to beryllium horrible places," she says.

Making a bully one, she says, starts with placement.

Set connected the outskirts of High Wycombe, the centre is astir hidden by the gangly trees that situation it connected 3 sides. Despite being connected the periphery, 66% of visitors accidental they tin scope the centre wrong 10 minutes.

"The unit present are amazingly affable and attraction astir what they do," says Ms Jordan. "There's a bushed present and it each conscionable works."

Asked whether she loves this peculiar centre, Ms Jordan's governmental savvy comes into play.

"Maybe emotion is not rather the close word. We surely instrumentality large pridefulness successful this centre.

"They person got it close present and this is an perfect spot to travel for anybody wanting to cognize however to get a occupation done and get it done well."