I am in full agreement with Councillor Chris Taylor in his opposition to the proposed introduction of an appointment system for the Household Recycling Centre (HRC), as expressed in your Journal dated July 23.
Why, I ask myself, should the County Council interfere when something is working perfectly well? My partner and I have lived in Salisbury for 2 and a half years.
We have used the Salisbury recycling centre many times and are delighted to find it so easy and quick to use and to be run by such helpful people. Occasionally, at the busiest of times, we have had to wait in a queue for a few minutes but never with any inconvenience.
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By contrast, in our previous location, where a booking system operated, the whole procedure took longer and we had to delay our trip until a slot was booked. Getting an appointment required time on a computer to complete a detailed questionnaire about proposed HRC location (there being several), name of dumper, home address, car number, type of rubbish and more.
If such a system is introduced here it will not only add another layer of bureaucracy (with its attendant cost to the tax payers) but it will also create delays. It is proposed to allocate 30 minute slots but hardly anyone takes 30 minutes to off-load his or her rubbish.
Thus if a dump takes only 10 minutes then 20 minutes will be ‘lost’ when it could be filled by other users. In particular, here in Salisbury there are two levels to the HRC, so, by allocating one slot per user to use one level then the other level is out of use and, in any case, many users need both levels per visit.
Further, by allocating 30 minute slots the system automatically limits the number of slots (or users) in a day. As present, there is no limit to the number of users in a day other than the waiting time.
Finally, a booking regime will eliminate the much valued chance of an impromptu visit.
This is a bad proposal that will not improve on the present arrangements.
Philippa Turner
Salisbury
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