Rubbish tip booking system to be reviewed

A booking system for rubbish tips is set to be reviewed after some users said they were left feeling "dissatisfied and excluded".

East Sussex County Council (ESCC) unanimously agreed on a motion calling for a scrutiny review to examine the system at its 10 Household Waste Recycling Sites (HWRS), the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The motion, brought forward by councillors Kathryn Field and Stephen Holt, may lead to the cabinet "discontinuing" the system, introduced only in November last year.

Field said: "The issue is not with the way the service is working for users; it is the people it is excluding from the service, who don't use it."

She suggested reverting "to the system that worked so well".

Other councillors agreed with her, mentioning concerns around effectiveness, the system's unpopularity and the fact it was perceived to have resulted in an increase in fly-tipping.

However, council officers argued that the system had reduced waste volume processed by council tips by a greater amount than they initially expected, stating that £579,683 could be saved if they kept the system for the rest of the year.

Holt disputed these figures, saying: "This council's own figures shows an increase of nearly 20 tonnes over the six-month period.

"That is a rise of over eight per cent … it is actually the weight of five mature African elephants."

There was broader support for an in-depth review of the system through the council's place scrutiny committee.

Councillor Julia Hilton put forward an amendment to the motion to make this happen, which was was accepted by Field, who said it achieved the same goal as the original motion.

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