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. If you have a booking system and there is not a problem you could end up with problems. I use the recycling centre in Irvine quite often and very rarely do I meet a queue at Bartonholm, our current system works and is not broken.”
Tony Gurney, Cabinet member for Green Environment and the Economy said: “As the committee will be well aware this project emulates several other schemes including those of our neighbouring authorities, residents see less queues, there is better customer experience and guaranteed entry with no delay. We are third in Scotland for recycling performance and that has not happened by keeping things the same but innovating to ensure we improve our performance.
“People are currently resorting to fly tipping if they can’t get in. Today we have a lot of scare stories which have no evidence whatsoever.
“We don’t want people making a long journey tuning up and not being able to get in.
“Guaranteed access is important to people who have a long and difficult journey especially those from Arran.”
In other areas it had been reported that 95 per cent of people were satisfied with the service and 97 per cent happy with the availability of the slots given.
“I hope I have allayed fear and proposals are evidence-based and meant to improve our recycling performance, “cllr Gurney added.
Thomas Reaney, Head of Neighbourhood Services revealed that 95 per cent of people had online facilities for booking.
He said large queues at Bartonholm put a lot of pressure on staff and CCTV footage had shown 186 cars between 10am and 5pm on Sunday, October 13.
Largs was a “dangerous” site and people were having to queue down to Haylie Brae which made traffic management difficult.
It was important to listen to staff and unions were 100 per cent behind the planned system.
He would be “disappointed” if it did not go forward.
There was a risk of violence and aggression towards staff under the current system and people currently tried to skip the queue. It was a “chaotic atmosphere” under the present system and five local authorities said tonnage had been reduced since the system came into force in their areas,
The committee agreed an amendment from cllr Eleanor Collier to go ahead with the scheme following support from Labour councillors John Bell and Donald Reid after cllrs Inglis and Matthew McLean had proposed referring the matter back to Cabinet.
Don’t miss the latest Ayrshire headlines –sign up to our free daily newsletter