Booking system for North Ayrshire recycling centres goes ahead despite protests

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Controversial plans passed by North Ayrshire Council Cabinet to introduce a booking system for their recycling centres have agreed by the Audit and Scrutiny Committee.A proposal to implement a digital Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) booking system at all sites was approved by Cabinet on October 1.The council operates three sites on the mainland (Irvine, Kilbirnie and Largs) and one on the Isle of Arran in Brodick.

The proposal had previously been presented to the Policy Advisory Panel on September 10 and members present were broadly satisfied with the proposal.Tory councillors Ronnie Stalker, Stewart Ferguson and Todd Ferguson called in the proposal, claiming it did not include a consultation or public engagement period and was not required as the Household Waste Recycling sites were not busy and did not need a booking system to be implemented.They claimed it would also lead to an increase in fly-tipping as many people will not use the system and so will dump rubbish in public areas.Labour councillors Nairn McDonald, Charles Currie and leader Joe Cullinane argued the current system wasn’t broken and changing to a digital booking system could result in an increase in fly-tipping and impact the council’s waste performance.Cllr Stalker said the plans had not gone out for members to discuss and there was no public consultation.He said: "The current system is not broken so why fix it?

I do not see discernible benefits to changing it, there are risks with this in terms of our waste performance. It is just going to encourage fly tipping."Constituents agreed the system did not change and we have to listen to them."Cllr Cullinane added: “Our waste service is better than South and East Ayrshire.