South Gloucestershire: Council defends recycling centre booking system plans

The recycling centre in Little Stoke would be one of the centres to introduce a booking system

A council leader has defended plans to introduce a booking system at their recycling centres.

The South Gloucestershire Council plan would affect sites in Thornbury, Yate, Mangotsfield and Little Stoke.

The new requirements means people will not be able to bring more than 100 litres of waste more than fours times in four weeks without being charged.

Councillor Claire Young said: "We have to keep track of waste by law with new requirements from the government."

She told BBC Radio Bristol's John Darvall: "This system could benefit people."

"Bristol and Bath and North East Somerset both use a booking system for their recycling sites and there's less queuing at busy times.

"We are doing an engagement process on how we do it and are asking for people's views."

Fly-tipping

The current system uses automatic number plate recognition which scans the vehicle to see if people are a resident of South Gloucestershire.

Ms Young said this system 'wouldn't work' and they had to look 'all options'.

"That isn't sufficient to keep track of what we're being required to do as we can't see what's in people's boots," she explained.

"People have said to me that fly-tipping will increase with the new system but quite often that's not the case.

"A recent DEFRA report that shows that fly-tipping doesn't increase with new implementation of booking systems."

The consultation on the plans is open for public comments until 1 April 2024.