SIGNS informing people to book appointments before visiting recycling depots in Teesdale have been removed after county officers confirmed they were put out by mistake.
A number of residents expressed concern about signs going up at centres at Middleton-in-Teesdale and Stainton Grove stating that visits will be by appointment only in the near future.
While county officers have confirmed they are looking at implementing a new booking system in the future to alleviate queues, its still some way from being finalised.
Head of environment for Durham County Council Oliver Sherratt said: “The signs rather jumped the gun and have been removed, as they were put out in error by the traffic management company thinking they were being helpful by giving advance notice.
“Whilst we are investigating a booking system to alleviate the frustrations from many users faced with long queues, and reduce the cost of traffic management, we want to carefully assess these measures, learning from other councils, especially against the roadmap which in June may well ease social distancing requirements.
“Please be assured that we won’t be doing anything pending this work, and if it is to go ahead all councillors as well as media will be given a comprehensive explanation of the system and how long it might last and how it would work,” he said.
John Shannon, Durham County Council’s strategic waste manager, added: “We are in the early stages of developing an appointment-based system for our household waste recycling centres, whereby residents will be able to book a time slot to visit their chosen site.
“We hope this will help to improve the process for our customers. We will provide further updates once the system is developed.”
