Controversial proposals affecting East Sussex’s rubbish tips are set to go in front of a senior county councillor next week.
On Monday, February 24 Cllr Claire Dowling, East Sussex County Council’s lead member for transport and environment, will decide whether the authority moves ahead with proposals to introduce a booking system covering its 10 household waste recycling sites (HWRS) – including the nearest to Rye at Mountfield near Battle.
If introduced, the new system would require residents to book a half-hour timeslot — either online or by telephone — before using one of the sites. The council says the system would also allow it to charge non-East Sussex residents to use the facilities.
Officers say the change would save the council around £50,000 a year, discourage businesses and out-of-area visitors from using the service, and help prevent queuing problems currently present at some of the sites.
In a report to Cllr Dowling, a council spokesman said: “Booking a HWRS visit will require a little effort from residents to access a service that is currently freely available. If approved, a similar and easy to use booking system could be implemented for East Sussex HWRS during [the] financial year 2025/26.”
Around 50 percent of councils in England now operate some sort of booking system for their HWRS, including Kent. The proposals in East Sussex have proven highly controversial with some residents.
The council ran a public consultation on the proposals between October and December last year. This consultation received 5,992 responses, which the report to Cllr Dowling notes to be the highest number of responses ever submitted to a consultation run by the council’s communities, environment and transport department. The vast majority of these consultation responses (91 percent) were negative.
According to the report, most respondents raised concerns about the “inconvenience” of the change.
Despite the opposition, officers are recommending the changes still be approved. In making this recommendation, officers noted how attitudes reported by neighbouring authorities had changed over time.
In the report, a council spokesman said: “From the consultation results, the vast majority of those that responded do not want a booking system. However, the experience of neighbouring authorities who have introduced systems has been that some residents do not want the system to begin with, but then become accustomed to it.
“In June 2021, after implementing their scheme one year previously, Kent County Council asked 5,866 of their household waste site users how positive or negative would you feel about using the booking system in the future. 84.9 percent responded that they would be ‘extremely or quite positive’ about using one.”
Image Credits: Geograph https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Recycling_of_waste_oil_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1202969.jpg CC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/.
If the council introduce booking a slot it may be perceived as an obstructive act for residents needing to dispose of rubbish – consequently some may respond by simply dumping rubbish in laybys, field gateways, quiet country lanes. Consequently the council would bear the additional cost if clearing illegal dump-sites. Having said that no action has been taken to prevent the illegal dumping at the top of the Rye Harbour road (next to the horse yard). So whoever is mesmerised by the bright spark with this big idea, rather than looking clever and innovative, please focus on effective management rather than quick fixes. Try to assist residents rather than frustrating us, please.
It doesn’t help when the council charge silly amounts of money to take away mattresses etc etc and wonder why people dump stuff
Fly tipping is inexcusable, there is NO justification for doing it. It maddens me to see general rubbish and large household items dumped willy nilly.
In the case of a mattress, fold it in half and throw a ratchet strap around it. Even a deep king size folded in half will fit in the back of many cars with the rear seats down. Take it to the tip, even if it takes 2 minutes online to book a slot. If you’re on your own, you’ll very likely find one of the recycling attendants will help you unload, remove your ratchet strap and put it in the appropriate container.
If most people have replied and ask that the council do not change the system at the rubbish tip, why was a referendum asked for if its going to be ignored as it seems it might be.
What happens if you book your slot ,get stuck in the many roadworks and miss your allocated time slot,do you just go home,and try again,probably ok if you have a mobile and it can get a signal ,thats going to cost extra as well.
Hardly controversial proposals as the article reports 50% of councils operate this system. I used the HWRC in Tonbridge as my daughter lives there, booked weekday slot with no problem. At least you’re not turned away because of queues which is normally on weekend.