Kent County Councils (KCC) new online booking system for household waste sites has come online this week and is already unable to cope with demand. Households have been waiting to be able to get to their local waste site, as rubbish has been building up at home.
KCC announced last week that household waste sites would open, but residents would require an appointment, either made via telephone or online.
People trying to use the new website have found the online booking system overwhelmed and are unable to book a slot. For example, one person who posted this picture, found themselves number 17,754 in the queue. There is no indicator as to how long they would have to wait to get to the front of the queue. But they feared that even if they did manage to get to the front, they may not get an appointment slot for many months.
There are concerns that flytipping in Kent will continue, whilst people are unable to dispose of their waste. Kent has been hit heavily with flytipping and police have been unable to deal with the problem, as they spend their time tackling people eating sandwiches on the beaches.
There is hope that this initial surge will subside and KCC urge people to be patient and keep hold of their waste until a time that it can be disposed off. Sadly, 95% of Kent residents will follow the advice, but the other 5%, who do not care, will continue to dump their rubbish across Kent’s countryside.