Booking for Wiltshire recycling centres to be introduced

The decision to role out booking at four of Wiltshire Council's ten recycling centres was taken by the Liberal Democrat-led Cabinet during a four-hour debate on Tuesday (December 9).

The system will be trialled at Melksham, Devizes, Salisbury, and Stanton St Quintin near Malmesbury.

The council is also closing two recycling centres - at Purton and Compton Bassett, near Calne - at the end of July next year.

It wants to open a new recycling centre at Royal Wootton Bassett - but that is unlikely to be operational until the end of 2028.

Booking is, in part, an attempt by the administration to avoid queues at Stanton St Quintin after the facilities at Purton and Compton Bassett close.

The council says a booking system will "help reduce queues, cut emissions, and make visits easier and quicker for everyone, especially at sites where residents have told us congestion can be a significant problem and are causing safety issues on the highways."

A wide-ranging waste management programme - including the trial of a booking system - was unanimously rubber-stamped by cabinet members.

But Conservatives - who, when they ran the council, introduced recycling centre booking in July 2020, when centres reopened after Covid, and scrapped the scheme a year later - opposed the move.

Conservative leader Richard Clewer said: "One of the first things I did as leader was scrap the booking system because it discriminates against working people.

"All the slots get booked up by people who are able to book more easily, who are retired, and you try to get a weekend slot if you're working - it's hopeless.

"And I heard that time and again on the doorstep in the run-up to the 2021 election.

"we're being told it's being done to reduce traffic congestion but I do not see one reference in this report to congestion or the amount of people queueing.

"So we are going to bring in a booking system to solve problems that we've not quantified."

The meeting heard that the cost of introducing a booking system would be around £75,000 - which had caused concern among members of the finance and procurement select committee, who also pointed out that no indication of ongoing costs had been provided.

After the meeting, Bridget Wayman, Conservative spokesman for the environment said: "There is clear evidence that when the booking system was used during Covid-19 it rapidly became clear that it discriminated against working people with weekend slots booking up very quickly.

"Sadly, it is just another bureaucratic hoop for residents to jump through to dispose of their recycling - provided they’re computer savvy, of course!"