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Booking for Museums, Galleries, Recycling Centres etc

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PeterC

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My in laws live in Salisbury, so I have a copy of their council tax bill for this purpose. If I go to a Wiltshire tip, I'll be going with their rubbish ;)
Councils have claimed to operate this sort of system long before covid but staff simply didn't bother. My late mother's nearest tip was just over the county boundary in Essex and we were never challenged despite notices displayed at the entrance.

Bucks introduced checks with covid but the staff soon stopped asking for documents, as long as you know a local postcode you get in.
 

Kite159

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This is when the local councils will introduce ANPR cameras and a system where you have to register the vehicle you take in. Failure to do so will result in letters sent to the registered owner demanding money for breaching a contract.
 

adc82140

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I have my car legitimately registered at four tips. There is no limit, as long as you can justify that you're tipping on behalf of a resident.
 

TPO

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Our tip in normal times required ID with an address on which shows you live in the authority- you must show it at the gate or are refused entry. Same in the adjacent LA. All in place long before COVID.

With COVID it's easier as you must put in your full address when you book and state the car number-plate. The chap on the gate has a list of numberplates/times for the day and lets you in if it matches (you also must take proof of the booking- presumably in case of a problem with the daily print-out.

TPO
 

Kite159

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First time I've visited the dump on a Sunday since Covid hit (previous visits in the last few months when clearing out the house & gardening have been on weekdays). I had a booking for 12:00 - 12:30 and got to the local dump around 11:57 to hit a queue of 4 vehicles in front and 3 more vehicles joined behind (the rear vehicle fouling the roundabout). Come 12:00 the first vehicle went into the dump area and there was 2 vehicles unloading

Still all in my visits nobody has ever checked to see I had a booking, nor have I seen anybody with a clipboard marking off number plates. No idea if they have somehow linked the registration system with the ANPR cameras (need to register the car before hand to prove you live in the area it covers), but seems complete & utter pointless to carry on the system of having to book a 30 minute slot.

All those 30 minute slots do is bundle up the demand so the first 5 minutes at the start of the time slot is busy before quietening down before starting all over again with another bunch of vehicles. In my eyes the only days booking is probably needed is summer weekends where people want to get rid of garden waste, or at least change the system from being 30 minute slots to being an hour or 2 hour slots to spread the demand.
 

DelayRepay

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All those 30 minute slots do is bundle up the demand so the first 5 minutes at the start of the time slot is busy before quietening down before starting all over again with another bunch of vehicles. In my eyes the only days booking is probably needed is summer weekends where people want to get rid of garden waste, or at least change the system from being 30 minute slots to being an hour or 2 hour slots to spread the demand.

My tip is the same. When the bookings were originally introduced, the council said it was to manage demand (because they had been closed during most of Lockdown 1) and to enable social distancing. Now they say they are to stop people from outside the area, and businesses, from using the tips - but in my view they could do that without restricting people to specific times. They claim it is successful because less waste is being deposited, therefore they must have prevented non-residents and businesses from using the tip. But at the same time, our bin collections are regularly running 1 - 2 days behind due to an increase in the amount of waste, and fly tipping has increased.

I have a lot of big cardboard boxes in my garage from a furniture delivery. In the olden days, I would have chucked them in the car next time I was going near the tip. In these days of booking it's too complicated, so I've cut them all up into small pieces so that they'll fit in a recycling bag and the bin men will have more waste to take away from my house next week (our recycling goes in plastic bags and, unlike some areas, there is no limit on the volume we can put out for collection).
 

Yew

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They claim it is successful because less waste is being deposited, therefore they must have prevented non-residents and businesses from using the tip.
This seems a short sighted approach, as I imagine elsewhere their residents will be using another districts facilities.
 

35B

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My tip is the same. When the bookings were originally introduced, the council said it was to manage demand (because they had been closed during most of Lockdown 1) and to enable social distancing. Now they say they are to stop people from outside the area, and businesses, from using the tips - but in my view they could do that without restricting people to specific times. They claim it is successful because less waste is being deposited, therefore they must have prevented non-residents and businesses from using the tip. But at the same time, our bin collections are regularly running 1 - 2 days behind due to an increase in the amount of waste, and fly tipping has increased.

I have a lot of big cardboard boxes in my garage from a furniture delivery. In the olden days, I would have chucked them in the car next time I was going near the tip. In these days of booking it's too complicated, so I've cut them all up into small pieces so that they'll fit in a recycling bag and the bin men will have more waste to take away from my house next week (our recycling goes in plastic bags and, unlike some areas, there is no limit on the volume we can put out for collection).
I used to live somewhere that insisted on proof of address for using the tip. I'd have bitten their hands off for a booking system rather than the queuing that I had to endure - for myself, and because of the impact it had on the traffic.
 

DelayRepay

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I used to live somewhere that insisted on proof of address for using the tip. I'd have bitten their hands off for a booking system rather than the queuing that I had to endure - for myself, and because of the impact it had on the traffic.

In theory we have always been required to provide proof of address. In practice I have never been asked. I've also never really faced long queues, but I did used to try to go at what I thought would be less busy times (e.g. avoiding summer weekends).

The online booking system doesn't really seem to mitigate the risk of our-of-area residents using the tip. It asks for your address, but you could probably get away with giving someone else's address, with or without their permission.
 

317 forever

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I had to pre-book my time slot and pay upfront ready for my visit to the Beatles Story Museum this weekend.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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Our tip in normal times required ID with an address on which shows you live in the authority- you must show it at the gate or are refused entry. Same in the adjacent LA. All in place long before COVID.

With COVID it's easier as you must put in your full address when you book and state the car number-plate. The chap on the gate has a list of numberplates/times for the day and lets you in if it matches (you also must take proof of the booking- presumably in case of a problem with the daily print-out.
I live near a county border, about equidistant from two recycling centres, but in different counties.
Our official tip is itself a tip, with crude methods of queuing and dumping stuff, and you are forced to book slots in advance online, and prove local residence.
They also have surly jobsworths running the place.
Meanwhile the "foreign" tip is modern, friendly, does not have a booking system, and doesn't check residence.
It's also en route to everywhere we need to go, as opposed to being in the "wrong" direction.
They did have residence checks when they reopened after lockdown, but soon gave up.

I never understood the residence rule, as I would expect them to be incentivised by volume of recycling rather than where it came from.
On top of that, both local authorities used to be combined for shared services like recycling, and it didn't matter where you took your stuff.
I think it's time for more local government mergers to avoid this sort of nonsense.
 

Kite159

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never understood the residence rule, as I would expect them to be incentivised by volume of recycling rather than where it came from.

Most likely it's the cost of getting rid of the household waste, the rubbish which goes to landfill rather than being recycled or composted.

I cut the hedge yesterday evening, when looking online last night the next date which has availability of the last time slots of the day (5:30 - 6:00) was Thursday. Before Covid I would have gone to the dump tonight to get rid of the cuttings before the rain comes.
 

Bikeman78

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I never understood the residence rule,
Totally agree. Most people will drive to the nearest tip. If that happens to be in a different local authority, who cares? What difference does it make? Better than people dumping their rubbish out in the countryside.
 

Ianno87

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Totally agree. Most people will drive to the nearest tip. If that happens to be in a different local authority, who cares? What difference does it make? Better than people dumping their rubbish out in the countryside.

Presumably it largely evens out anyway, for every person heading to Tip B from Area A, there'll be a corresponding person heading to Tip A from Area B. I'm not aware of any "honeypot" tips!

Only other thought is that heading to a "foreign" Tip may technically be deemed flytipping.
 

py_megapixel

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Presumably it largely evens out anyway, for every person heading to Tip B from Area A, there'll be a corresponding person heading to Tip A from Area B. I'm not aware of any "honeypot" tips!

Only other thought is that heading to a "foreign" Tip may technically be deemed flytipping.
Of course, the problem is that it only takes one council to start checking residence to upset this whole balance, because as soon as council A introduces residence checks, tip B starts having to deal with more waste (because they're dealing with 100% of area B's waste given it's no longer allowed in area A, plus the same amount of waste brought in from A as before). So they have to introduce residence checks too to mitigate this.
 

35B

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Totally agree. Most people will drive to the nearest tip. If that happens to be in a different local authority, who cares? What difference does it make? Better than people dumping their rubbish out in the countryside.
Councils have to pay landfill tax, so it's not unreasonable for them to seek to limit what they spend their council tax on.
 

kristiang85

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I've thought for a while that this country's issues with fly tipping are in the main due to the councils seemingly making it unnecessarily tricky to dump waste in official tips. It's something I'd gladly see put under national control.
 

Yew

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I've thought for a while that this country's issues with fly tipping are in the main due to the councils seemingly making it unnecessarily tricky to dump waste in official tips. It's something I'd gladly see put under national control.
Indeed, keep a count for of what’s happening if necessary, but there does seem to be a tendency to make it more difficult for people to do the right thing, which in counterproductive if you ask me.
 

Bikeman78

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Councils have to pay landfill tax, so it's not unreasonable for them to seek to limit what they spend their council tax on.
As per post #75, it will most likely average out. If it doesn't then the tips aren't in the right places. Do we really want people to driver further to dump their rubbish in the "correct" tip? As I mentioned, anything that makes doing the right thing harder will encourage fly tipping. Where I live it went off the scale during the first lockdown. How much does that cost the taxpayer to clear up?
 

DelayRepay

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I've thought for a while that this country's issues with fly tipping are in the main due to the councils seemingly making it unnecessarily tricky to dump waste in official tips. It's something I'd gladly see put under national control.
I do agree. Even before we had this booking nonsense, it wasn't always easy to dispose of waste. I remember when I lived in Hertfordshire, they closed the tips for a few days of each week to reduce costs.

I don't condone fly tipping but the waste is going to get disposed of one way or another. If the tip is too difficult, then the waste will end up on the side of a country lane, or being stuffed in domestic bins causing backlogs for the bin emptying schedule, or being burnt causing pollution.
 

35B

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As per post #75, it will most likely average out. If it doesn't then the tips aren't in the right places. Do we really want people to driver further to dump their rubbish in the "correct" tip? As I mentioned, anything that makes doing the right thing harder will encourage fly tipping. Where I live it went off the scale during the first lockdown. How much does that cost the taxpayer to clear up?
I agree with the need to make legal waste disposal straightforward, for the reasons you give. But when council services are under severe funding pressure, I'm not going to criticise councils for trying to ensure the money goes where it's needed. I write as someone living near to a county boundary, where the catchment areas don't reflect county or District Council boundaries.
I've thought for a while that this country's issues with fly tipping are in the main due to the councils seemingly making it unnecessarily tricky to dump waste in official tips. It's something I'd gladly see put under national control.
I remain to be convinced that this would improve matters. Locally implemented and influenced policies would instead be set in Whitehall, with greater cost pressure. Beware what you ask for.
 

adc82140

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Wiltshire used to be "honeypot" tips, because you can dump pretty much what you like at no cost, including things like plasterboard and rubble. They are now semi enforcing residency, which requires this resident of Hampshire to carry round a copy of a council tax bill that belongs to someone from Wiltshire. I disposed of a whole patio last year over a period of 3 days.
 

DelayRepay

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I agree with the need to make legal waste disposal straightforward, for the reasons you give. But when council services are under severe funding pressure, I'm not going to criticise councils for trying to ensure the money goes where it's needed. I write as someone living near to a county boundary, where the catchment areas don't reflect county or District Council boundaries.

I won't criticise councils for trying to reduce their costs either. I know the pressure they are under.

What I will criticise my local council for is not considering the whole picture. Are the savings generated by making it difficult for people to dispose of waste at the tip, more than the increased costs of having to deal with more waste through the bin collections? And the cost clearing more fly tipping?

In some cases I suspect they are saving money on one internal budget line but increasing costs on another.

I just looked on my council's website. It says: Sites are open for essential visits only, to dispose of harmful waste that cannot be stored at home safely. And you have to agree that your visit is 'essential' when you complete the booking form. What on earth is that all about?
 

Cowley

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Thanks for your contributions everyone, we’re winding this thread up along with a couple of others this evening as things have moved on somewhat.
Over and out. ;)
 
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