West Sussex County Council has launched a six-week consultation today to seek views on whether a booking system at selected Recycling Centres should be made permanent.
A trial booking system – Book to Recycle – has been in place at Bognor Regis, Crawley, Horsham, Littlehampton, Shoreham-by-Sea and Worthing Recycling Centres (RCs) since April 2021.
The scheme has greatly reduced waiting times and disruption at peak periods to residents, businesses, and the highway network – which suffered because of traffic tailbacks and queuing vehicles.
A consultation has now been launched on the proposal to operate the booking system on a permanent basis at the six trial sites and extend to include Burgess Hill Recycling Centre.
Prior to the scheme, it was not uncommon to have vehicles waiting to enter some Recycling Centres for 45 minutes and sometimes this was extended to 90 minutes during peak periods.
The system has proved popular with over 420,000 customers booking a recycling slot in advance since the trails began.
Deborah Urquhart, West Sussex County Council Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change said: “We’re always looking for ways to improve services at Recycling Centres to make it easier to do the right thing with waste.
“Feedback so far tells us that customers love being able to recycle without enduring a long delay at busy periods. We want to ensure residents have their say on the proposals – including the finer detail – and tell us exactly what they think.
“I urge as many people as possible to respond to the consultation and let us know if the scheme should be made permanent.”
Residents are allowed a total of five trips each calendar month. Currently, slots are available up to 14 days in advance but must be booked by the day before.
You can take part in the Book to Recycle consultation and share your views by visiting www.westsussex.gov.uk/recyclingcentrebooking
The deadline for members of the public to respond is 21 December 2021.
