Shropshire Council says it receives very few complaints about its recycling centres – six months after it made a U-turn over making people to book.
Last November, the previous Conservative administration decided to trial a system in which anyone wanting to use its five centres had to book a slot in advance.
This, the council said, was to reduce the number of people from outside the county using the service, therefore reducing costs.
Between November and January, the authority said that general waste to tips had reduced by 892 tonnes (or 28 per cent) compared to the same period the previous year.
At the same time the council reported a rise in abuse of staff at Oswestry and Whitchurch's recycling centres.
However, the scheme proved controversial with many people not liking the initiative. The Liberal Democrats, then the main opposition party, launched a petition to scrap the system, which received 6,000 signatures.
The party’s argument was it added a “layer of bureaucracy” and there had been reports of increased fly-tipping since the system was introduced.
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On February 12, Shropshire Council made a dramatic U-turn, meaning that car users no longer had to book in advance to go to the tip.
Anyone using a van or trailer would still have to book in advance though, and could be asked to provide proof of ID to show they live in Shropshire.
Shropshire Council says that, following the changes, it no longer has data for car visits, and without checking the address of every visitor it’s not possible to say how many are from outside the county.
However, since the start of 2025, the number of vans/trailers booking to visit a recycling centre has averaged at just over 3,000 a month.
“We receive very few complaints about the recycling centres,” said a Shropshire Council spokesperson.
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