By Huw Oxburgh, BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporter
Proposals to introduce a booking system at East Sussex rubbish tips have been approved by a senior county councillor.
The proposals were agreed by Cllr Claire Dowling, East Sussex County Council’s lead member for transport and environment, on Monday (February 24).
The decision is despite huge resistance from residents: of nearly 6,000 responses to a consultation, 90% were opposed to the change.
The new system will require residents to book a half-hour timeslot — online or by phone — for the county’s ten Household Waste Recycling Sites (HWRS).
The council says the change is expected to save around £50,000 per year, reduce queuing and discourage both non-East Sussex residents (who would pay a fee) and businesses from using the service.
But the proposals proved highly controversial with residents, according to a public consultation between October and December last year.
The consultation received 5,992 responses, which a report to Cllr Dowling noted 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 responses (91 per cent) were negative.
According to the report, most respondents raised concerns about the “inconvenience” of the change.
The council had also received a petition opposing the changes, set up by the Lewes Liberal Democrats. The petition argued the changes were “unnecessary” and risked “making waste disposal more complex and less accessible.” The petition also argued the change could result in an increase in fly-tipping.
The report to Cllr Dowling said the petition had been signed by 2,276 people at the time it was submitted to the council, although a Liberal Democrat spokesman said the petition had gathered more than 3,500 signatures by the time of the meeting.
“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.”
east sussex county council spokesman
Despite the opposition, officers had recommended approval saying the booking system would reduce the authority’s funding gap.
The report also pointed to attitudes reported by neighbouring authorities, which have already introduced similar arrangements.
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 per cent responded that they would be ‘extremely or quite positive’ about using one.”
The report goes on to note the results of a similar consultation run by West Sussex County Council in November 2021 after it introduced a booking system in April of the same year.
While the precise figures were not quoted in the report to Cllr Dowling, papers published by West Sussex County Council report how 3,863 out of 7,374 respondents (62 per cent) either agreed or strongly agreed that the booking system should be maintained.
:: Main image / Google Streetview
