Controversial East Sussex Rubbish Tip Plans To Be Decided On Next Week

Controversial proposals affecting East Sussex’s rubbish tips are set to go in front of a senior county councillor next week.

On Monday (February 24), Cllr Claire Dowling, East Sussex County Council’s lead member for transport and environment, is set to decide whether the authority moves ahead with proposals to introduce a booking system covering its 10 Household Waste Recycling Sites (HWRS).

If introduced, the new system would require residents to book a half-hour timeslot — either online or by telephone — before using one of the sites. The council says the system would also allow it to charge non-East Sussex residents to use the facilities.

Officers say the change would save the council around £50,000 per year, discourage businesses and out-of-area visitors from using the service and help prevent queuing problems currently present at some of the sites.

In a report to Cllr Dowling, a council spokesman said:

“Booking a HWRS visit will require a little effort from residents to access a service that is currently freely available.

“Around 50 per cent of councils in England now operate some sort of booking system for their HWRS, including West Sussex, Hampshire, Kent and West Berkshire. Information received from these councils suggests they work well, residents can make bookings and use the service easily, and they are broadly satisfied with the service.

“If approved, a similar and easy to use booking system could be implemented for East Sussex HWRS during [the] financial year 2025/26.”

But the proposals have proven to be highly controversial with residents.

The council ran a public consultation on the proposals between October and December last year. This consultation received 5,992 responses, which the report to Cllr Dowling notes to be the highest number of responses ever submitted to a consultation run by the council’s Communities, Environment and Transport department. The vast majority of these consultation responses (91 per cent) were negative.

According to the report, most respondents raised concerns about the “inconvenience” of the change.

The council also received a 2,276-signature petition opposing the changes. This petition, set up by the Lewes Liberal Democrats, argued the changes were “unnecessary” and risked “making waste disposal more complex and less accessible.” The petition also argued the change could result in an increase in fly-tipping.

In a January press release issued about the petition, Carolyn Lambert, Liberal Democrat county councillor for Seaford South, said:

“The introduction of a booking system risks creating unnecessary barriers to proper waste disposal. We’ve heard from residents across East Sussex who are worried this will complicate their lives and lead to an increase in fly-tipping.

“This is a clear message from the community: we want to keep waste disposal simple, efficient, and accessible for everyone.”

Despite the opposition, officers are recommending the changes still be approved. In making this recommendation, officers noted how attitudes reported by neighbouring authorities had changed over time.

In the report, a council spokesman said:

“From the consultation results, the vast majority of those that responded do not want a booking system. However, the experience of neighbouring authorities who have introduced systems has been that some residents do not want the system to begin with, but then become accustomed to it.

“In June 2021, after implementing their scheme one year previously, Kent County Council asked 5,866 of their household waste site users how positive or negative would you feel about using the booking system in the future. 84.9 per cent responded that they would be ‘extremely or quite positive’ about using one.”

The report goes on to note the results of a similar consultation run by West Sussex County Council in November 2021 after it introduced a booking system in April of the same year. While the precise figures are not quoted in the report to Cllr Dowling, papers published by West Sussex County Council report how 3,863 out of 7,374 respondents (62 per cent) either agreed or strongly agreed that the booking system should be maintained.