Online booking for waste tip slots in Milton Keynes is coming soon, council vows

But a meeting yesterday (Tuesday) was told that an online booking system is coming to the rescue within days once techies at the council make sure it is able to cope with the rush.

Councillors paid tribute to their waste and recycling keyworkers, who have had to deal with 30 per cent more rubbish as residents have been staying at home.

The council’s Conservative spokesperson on waste services, Cllr Dan Gilbert (Loughton & Shenley) wanted to know what steps the Labour administration was taking to “get a grip on the situation.”

Speaking at a meeting of the cabinet on Tuesday he said: “The telephone system has been beset with huge problems, long waiting times, and consistently dropped calls.

“Despite us taking pride in being a digital first council, the administration is still testing the online booking,” he said.

Other nearby councils introduced an online booking service well before MK, he said.

Cllr Gilbert claimed that the issue is “in danger of being the most complained about council service” since a change in recycling sacks two years ago.

The council’s elected head of public realm, Cllr Emily Darlington said there had been delays on the phone, but it was the only way to get the service up and running quickly.

The sites reopened to the public on May 18 and Cllr Darlington praised residents for putting up with the delays.

“We know that other councils who went with an online booking system first almost all of them failed on the very first day, and that caused a huge amount of chaos,” she said.

She said that the council had been praised by the police for being the best council at managing the re-opening of tips.

But she added: “The worst thing would be to launch something that wasn’t ready.

“As soon as it’s ready it (online booking) will absolutely be launched, as soon as it is robust.”

Despite telephone waits recently of between eight and 45 minutes, and an unknown number of dropped calls, Cllr Darlington said there had still been 7,500 phone bookings.

“Some people think it’s less because there hasn’t been the queuing,” she added.

And she said the council had even received compliments from residents for allowing people to go in and out of the tips in 15 minutes.

But the Conservative group in a tweet this morning (Wednesday) said it was “disappointing that the Labour administration have not acted with urgency in this matter.”

They said they warned of problems with flytipping and growing demand on the system the longer it took to sort out.

The council has three household waste recycling centres, at Bleak Hall, New Bradwell and Newport Pagnell.

Details of how to book a slot are on the council’s website https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/waste-recycling/community-recycling-centres-tips