Book a place or be turned away - Sunderland households reminded to get a slot to visit city's tip

Sunderland City Council has issued a reminder people must book a slot to visit the Beach Street Household Waste and Recycling Centre (HWRC) which relaunched last month after a seven-week lockdown due to the coronavirus.

The centre reopened Monday, May 11, with an appointment system to ensure social distancing, but as time has gone on, people have begun to turn up in the hope they can to ditch their waste without a booking.

The council has warned anyone who tries this will be turned away and asked to come back once they have been allocated a time.

Deputy leader and cabinet member for environment and transport, Councillor Michael Mordey, said: "We introduced the new booking system when the site reopened last month because we knew it would be busy and we wanted to avoid our residents having to queue for a long time.

“We also need to limit the number of cars on-site at any one time to maintain social distancing.

"The new booking system has been working really well, with smaller queues and many people saying they much prefer it to what we had before where you could just turn up.

“But we have noticed an increase in the last week or so in people just turning up without booking, so we want to remind everyone that they need to pre-book or risk being turned away."

Half-hour time slots are available between 8am and 7.30pm with only cars and car-derived vans and pick-ups allowed at this stage.

Due to the Sunderland Strategic Transport Corridor roadworks, visitors are asked to use Farringdon Row and queue at Beach Street at their booking time, with a proof of address on show.

The centre is now accepting bagged household waste, garden waste, cardboard and wood, including old furniture, small domestic appliances such as vacuum cleaners, toasters, microwaves, lawnmowers, TVs and small fridges.

No soil, rubble or plasterboard can be dumped at this time.

Appointments can be booked at www.sunderland.gov.uk/household-waste-centres.

Garden waste collections can be signed up to via www.sunderland.gov.uk/gardenwaste with the collection of up to six bulky items for £10 available at www.sunderland.gov.uk/bulky-waste.

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