Plans for a public consultation on making a trial booking system at selected Recycling Centres permanent has been confirmed by West Sussex County Council.
Since April 2021, a pilot booking system – Book to Recycle – has been in operation at six of the eleven Recycling Centres in West Sussex to manage demand at peak periods and reduce queuing vehicles.
Since the trial began over 300,000 bookings have been made for recycling slots at Bognor Regis, Crawley, Horsham, Littlehampton, Shoreham-by-Sea and Worthing Recycling Centres.
West Sussex County Council has claimed that Book to Recycle has greatly reduced waiting times, cut congestion and minimised traffic disruption. They say that the reduction in queuing vehicles has improved air quality for neighbours and lowered carbon emissions. In addition, the County Council has also confirmed that the Book to Recycle trail will be extended to include Burgess Hill Recycling Centre, both decisions are subject to formal approval by Thursday October 14, 2021.
A survey for Book to Recycle found that 79% of respondents want the system to be made permanent.
Deborah Urquhart, West Sussex County Council Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change said: “The changes are designed to make it easier for people to use our Recycling Centres – and we’ve already seen that the booking system does just that.”
When asked for details of where the consultation could be found, a council spokesperson said “the consultation date has yet to be announced – that should happen in the next few weeks.”
