Council opens up 100 extra booking slots at tip to meet demand
An extra 100 booking slots for residents to access a tip in the Dudley borough have been added for weekends to meet demand, chiefs have said.
Bosses at Dudley Council said the slots – 50 on Saturdays and 50 on Sundays – will help increase capacity at the Stourbridge tip on Birmingham Street.
The move comes after the authority increased weekday opening hours until 6pm over the summer but found there was an uptake of less than 40 per cent.
And by returning some of the weekday opening hours to their standard times, the authority has been able to provide extra slots at the weekend to meet demand.
Meanwhile the late night opening at the tip has been moved from Thursday to Monday, with the overall number of weekly slots available totalling almost 4,700.
The new times will be Monday from 8am to 6pm and Tuesday to Friday from 8am to 4pm. Weekend opening times will remain the same at between 8am to 4pm.
Changes took effect from August 1 and will run until September 30 and will be monitored to see if any further improvements can be made.
Councillor Shaz Saleem, cabinet member for highways and public realm, said: "This is about making the best use of the tip and meeting customer demand.
"We know most people want to use the tip at the weekend so we’ve created an extra 50 slots per day. We’ve also brought the late night opening forward to a Monday so that people who can’t get to us over the weekend can head over to us after work on a Monday after they’ve had a weekend clear-out, rather than having to wait until a Thursday.
"People can continue to book their appointments online, and also cancel an unwanted appointment, freeing up space for someone else to attend and stop wasted appointments."
People can book a slot online or by calling Dudley Council Plus.
