Last Sunday, I had a few old household items that had no other use left, other than to be recycled. Therefore, for the first time in maybe three or four years, I needed to visit Crawley’s Household Waste Recycling Centre. This was my first time since the booking system came in, so I was interested to see what my new experience was like.
At about 3pm I looked online and saw many slots available from 3.30pm onwards. It took only a couple of minutes to book and the email confirmation came immediately. On this warm sunny day, there were no queues on the A23 to get into County Oak, no queues within County Oak stopping customers getting to the stores and no queue going into the recycling centre - I drove straight in.
Once inside, there was no queuing for unloading bays. It was peaceful with a steady usage. People didn’t feel rushed and were being guided by the helpful staff so that they could unload their items in the best places to ensure the maximum rate of recycling. I suspect that under the previous system that often saw very busy periods, that more items were just being dumped into the main section rather than time being taken to maximise the recycling of items.
My experience was effortless and wholly positive, a truly massive improvement on previous visits under the chaotic ‘free-for-all’ system which also saw staff facing abuse. When the trial was announced in 2020 before becoming permanent, we saw local Labour politicians protesting and campaigning, including the-now new leader of Crawley Borough Council, to stop West Sussex County Council’s common sense move. Labour falsely claimed it would lead to more fly-tipping, but no evidence has ever been produced to prove such a link.
Time usually finds people out. None of us are right all of the time, but some people consistently get it wrong more than others, and that should be remembered when their latest claims are being made, while the rest of us are getting on and making the right decisions to improve services for Crawley residents.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group
10th August 2022
