Advice over use of tip

The public are being urged to only visit Horsham’s tip at Hop Oast ‘if necessary’ and store their waste at home for a little longer after long queues formed on the A24.

The public are being urged to only visit Horsham’s tip ‘if necessary’ by West Sussex County Council.

Some residents have called for a booking system to relieve queuing traffic on the A24 at Hop Oast.

A council 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 advice has changed, and a visit to the Household Waste Recycling Site is now considered a ‘reasonable excuse’ to leave the home. The spokeswoman urged people to take a ‘measured approach’. The council is asking people to store materials for a bit time longer, rather than rushing to the sites, 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.”

She said things would be kept under review, but warned: “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.”