We have to ‘click before we tip’ now.

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Anyone else’s council introduced this?

We can’t just turn up at the tip now, all has to be booked in. I hate that absolutely nothing in spontaneous anymore. It’s ridiculous.

How long before they’ll add a fee?!

Christmas and new year slots to book at our tip are like golddust. But otherwise ours are ok

We have to pre-register our car registration number to stop people from neighbouring counties using the facilities. They have plate recognition cameras on the gate and turn people away if they aren't "local". We still have to queue at busy times though.

Ours changed during Covid too and never went back. It’s a pain having to schedule everything, I agree

Our council is introducing this later this year.
As long as they block out times when the skips are being replaced with empty ones I don't mind.
Used to piss me off when they regularly did this work either within the 1st hour of opening or in the last hour before closing meaning you were sat for 30 mins whilst they closed off the area

In reality, it's fine. It's a short form to fill in and I can normally get the next slot within 15 minutes.

It has, as predicted, led to a rise in flytipping though.

Ours doesn't do this, BUT they CHARGE you for everything you put in, per item/per kg of a bag, only exceptions is what is allowed in your household general waste bin. There is a webcam to see if it's busy before you go. But normally it's fine, we avoid peak times.

My last place had the booking system, could only go once per every 8 days, was really hard to get slots, only allowed 10mins to unload. Pain in the ass.

I hate the booking system, but hate the charging system more, we already pay a ridiculous amount in council tax, why the fuck should we have to pay extra to use the recycling centre??

Our Council has done this for a few years now and it's absolutely brilliant. No more waiting a a queue of cars. Straight in, tip and straight out again. I love it.

I have never been to the tip but I agree - I hate booking things including restaurants, visitor attractions etc.
I understand the logical reasoning for booking things (and I do book when needed). It's probably some psychological block of mine that I don't like it.

Had to book at ours since Covid. It's a pain if you have more than a car load to take as you need 2 appointments. The biggest annoyance is that you have to reverse into the angled parking bays. This means people drive beyond the space then stick their reversing lights on and everyone else has to either reverse back out of the way or just wait.... If you have an older hatchback without reversing cameras or sensors it can be quite tricky if the boot is full plus the massive SUVs which take up more than their allocated space...

Our council started doing this 2 or 3 years ago. Chiefly a cost cutting exercise as I understand it: They cut hours that they are open, so they are not all open every day. However, they have tried to ensure that one that is open is closest to one that is closed on any particular day.

You also have to give your car reg when booking and give your postcode. This is I believe, to ensure that you really do live in the Council's area.

It isn't much of a problem for us, as we can usually get a slot the day we want, we have a shed we can temporarily to put a lot of stuff for a day or two and we are retired, so can go whenever. One of the recycling places is less than 2 miles away and the other less than 5 so it's fine

Not so for those who live in flats, small homes with little storage room anywhere and /or no garden space available. No car available/don't drive or those who work full time, who find it much more difficult to get a slot at weekends.

Ours brought this in during Covid too. I’ve been once in 20 years, it’s not an issue that I’ve found to be too detrimental to me 🤣
my mum however is constantly complaining about it - I’ve suggested buying less stuff 😜 she didn’t like that…

I’m amazed fly tipping hasn’t gone through the roof

YANBU.

I absolutely hate this booking everything culture.

And more annoyingly is the slot culture! Whyyyyy! I am paying for an all day ticket at x so I will turn up when I bleeding want.

And for a tip. No wonder there’s fly tipping everywhere. Everything in life is just being made so boring and hard work

My current council makes us book. My previous did not. So annoying.

Ours is the same. You select a one hour time slot, register your car, and on the morning of the tip run you get an email or text to give you a 15min entry slot between the hours you chose at the time of booking. You can't take a van either which is annoying.

Yes, and for the most part it works well. You don't end up sitting in a huge queue, and if you get there a little before or after your allotted time they just let you in.
It literally takes minutes, and if you're certain that there will not be a queue because it's midweek, then there will be no issue booking a slot. It's literally about a minute to do it.

Ours has had a booking system since Covid. As the nearest one is on a county border, there used to be lots of users who can't book in now without an address from the correct council, so it's much less busy anyway. It's a bit of a pain if you're having a clearout and don't own a big car, because the restrictions are on the number of visits rather than the amount brought in, but you adjust.

What happens to people who don't have online access or don't know how to do things online like some elderly people for instance? Can they book by phone instead?

Yes it's better, less queuing. Can book an hour or two before the same day. It's no big deal.

Yes, same here. No long queues now, works much better,

Another council doing it since covid

dh loves it, he thinks its much better to book

Or you will only be allowed 2 trips a year!

It has!

Of course before the changes the council claimed that it wouldn't 🙄

ours introduced prebooking and charging (charge a flat rate per year and you can go maybe 6? times). I don’t think it comes as any surprise that fly tipping has become a problem in our area.