People urged to only visit Horsham tip ‘if necessary’

West Sussex County Council issued a statement after residents called for a booking system to relieve queuing traffic on the A24 at Hop Oast.

A spokeswoman said: “When we initially reopened, government advice was to only visit sites if the journey was essential, and that residents should only bring items that were causing a risk of injury or harm to health.

“Therefore at the time we did not deem it necessary to implement a booking system.”

But this advice has now changed, and a visit to the Household Waste Recycling Site is now considered a ‘reasonable excuse’ to leave the home, she added.

The spokeswoman said: “We would ask residents to continue to take a measured approach and to only visit sites if necessary, or to put off their journey until the sites are less busy.

“As this is the first week that the sites have been accepting an increased range of materials it is natural that there may be some issues.”

The council is asking people to continue to store materials for a short time longer, rather than rushing to the sites on the first few days of reopening, if the visit is ‘not strictly necessary’.

She added: “Site staff already need to manage queues and non-acceptable waste streams, adding another factor such as a booking scheme to this could cause further delays and potentially cause more unhappy residents venting at the frontline staff.

“However West Sussex County Council continue to keep our approach under review, and this may result in a change to the current system of operation.

“Prior to the closure of the sites the staff trying to enforce social distancing measures experienced very high levels of both verbal and physical abuse, which we do not wish to see again.”

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