'Feedback has been positive!' Shropshire Council defends recycling centre booking and peeling green bin stickers

The change meant that householders could no longer just turn up to the council tips in Bridgnorth, Craven Arms, Oswestry, Shrewsbury and Whitchurch but now needed to book in advance.

Bookings for cars, vans and trailers can be made online via the Shropshire Council website – or by phone by calling the council’s customer services team.

Slots of 15 minutes will be available for cars, with 30-minute slots (or 60 minutes at weekends) available for vans/trailers.

The council said the change will lead to a “significant increase in recycling and help smooth demand throughout the day, reducing congestion and queuing and making the sites safer”.

Earlier this week, we reported on the experiences of residents after they wrote to the Shropshire Star and took to social media - many of whom were critical of the new system.

At a meeting of Shropshire Council's Cabinet this Wednesday, questions over the booking system were raised by a member of the public, Mr David Andrew, who called it "problematic".

Mr Andrew asked: "The booking of visits to the recycling centres has already been problematic, with the phone not being promptly answered, if at all, and the online booking system breaking down. What is being done to improve this situation? Will Shropshire Council accept that the introduction of booking has been a failure and abandon it?"

Councillor Ian Nellins responded to the question, and stated that feedback regarding the system had generally "been positive".

He said: "Average wait time on waste HRC and voice queue since the new booking system went live is 11 mins and 38 seconds.

"We try our best to answer our calls as quickly as possible, however, as many topics are extremely delicate: it's not just bins that the call centre deal with - such as the death of a relative or reporting abuse. These can increase other customers' wait times.

"Our aim is to treat all our customers as individuals and work through their issues as professionally and efficiently as we can, but this does result in longer wait times than we would like at certain times of the day and week. Since the launch of the booking system the CSC have made 85 bookings for customers.

"Residents can also go into any council-run library and the staff there can help them with the booking system."

Mr Andrew also raised the issue of green bin stickers with the cabinet.

The roll-out of the council's new garden waste subscription service faced delays last month, after the supplier "failed to produce the garden bin stickers to the required and requested specification".

There were complaints that some people who had subscribed to the £56-a-year service had not received their stickers, along with reports from some residents that the stickers were quickly peeling off.

David Andrew asked the cabinet: "When the green refuse bin stickers were ordered, why, before they were sent out, was there no process in place to check that the quality of what was produced was fully up to the specified standard?"

Councillor Nellins said the "short timescale" had meant the council had used the MiPermit system which was already in place and "has been used successfully for several years".

He said: "They were confident that they could deliver the stickers to both our required timescale and to the specifications we provided and there had been no issues with them previously.

"Once the system went live it was clear that the number of subscribers was causing their supply some issues and whilst we requested samples for several weeks these were not provided and, as we had no alternative at that time, the roll-out of stickers started on October 2. However, by October 3, we had been inundated with complaints that the stickers were falling off the bins and by October 4, officers had stopped the roll-out and a new supplier had been secured."

Councillor Nellins also confirmed that there had been "no cost" incurred by the council for the first batch of stickers.