Moves to introduce a booking system for East Sussex’s rubbish tips sparked one of the biggest response to a council consultation – the vast majority of which was against the plans.
Almost 6,000 people took part in East Sussex County Council’s consultation on plans to require residents to book a half-hour slot to access its ten tips, with 91 per cent opposing.
But despite the opposition, officers are recommending the changes still be approved.
The council says the system, which would also allow it to charge non-East Sussex residents, would save the council around £50,000 per year, discourage businesses and out-of-area visitors from using the service and help prevent queuing problems currently present at some of the sites.
The plans are now due to go before Cllr Claire Dowling, the council’s lead member for transport and environment, next Monday (February 24).
In a report to Cllr Dowling, a council spokesman said: “Booking a household waste recycling site (HWRS) visit will require a little effort from residents to access a service that is currently freely available.
“Around 50 per cent of councils in England now operate some sort of booking system for their HWRS, including West Sussex, Hampshire, Kent and West Berkshire.
“Information received from these councils suggests they work well, residents can make bookings and use the service easily, and they are broadly satisfied with the service.
“If approved, a similar and easy to use booking system could be implemented for East Sussex HWRS during [the] financial year 2025/26.”
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.
According to the report, most respondents raised concerns about the “inconvenience” of the change.
The council also received a 2,276-signature petition opposing the changes. This petition, set up by the Lewes Liberal Democrats, 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.
In a January press release issued about the petition, Carolyn Lambert, Liberal Democrat county councillor for Seaford South, said: “The introduction of a booking system risks creating unnecessary barriers to proper waste disposal.
“We’ve heard from residents across East Sussex who are worried this will complicate their lives and lead to an increase in fly-tipping.
“This is a clear message from the community: we want to keep waste disposal simple, efficient, and accessible for everyone.”
In making their 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 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 are 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.
