Cheshire East is changing its booking system for tips because the closure of three sites has resulted in long queues at others causing a 'significant traffic hazard' on main roads.

The existing HWRC (household waste recycling centre) booking system operates at weekends only and was introduced in August 2024 as part of mitigations associated with 'emergency' closures of the tips at Poynton, Bollington and Middlewich.

The council says the purpose of the weekend booking system was to manage the use of the four remaining HWRCs at Crewe, Macclesfield, Knutsford and Alsager during busy times, which was historically weekends.

But residents are now using the tips more at the beginning of the week to avoid the booking system and this has led to long queues, particularly at Macclesfield and Crewe, causing traffic dangers – something residents warned the council about as long ago as September 2024.

Cheshire East has now acknowledged this.

A report to next week's meeting of the environment and communities committee states: "The queues at the HWRCs during the early part of the week often transcend the site boundaries meaning that residents are queuing on the public highway.

"This causes a significant road traffic hazard, especially at the Macclesfield site where the entrance to the site is situated on the main public highway located on the brow of a hill, and at the Crewe site where the access road also serves a major industrial employment site."

Crewe HWRC is off the busy Middlewich Road (Credit: Google Maps)

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On Thursday the committee will be asked to give the go-ahead for alterations to be made to the booking system 'to account for health and safety and traffic congestion issues at HWRCs'.

The council was warned of the dangers, particularly at Macclesfield, 16 months ago.

As reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service at the time, on the day the environment and communities committee controversially voted to close the tips at Poynton, Bollington and Middlewich permanently, residents were already warning that Macclesfield tip was struggling to cope following the emergency closure of the three sites.

Poynton town councillor Laurence Clarke told the meeting the closures had led to 'more traffic on the roads, with big queues outside Macclesfield tip on Congleton Road'.

And there were numerous reports on social media at the time of queues stretching as far back as the Flower Pot junction in Macclesfield.

The environment and communities committee meeting takes place at 10.30am on Thursday, January 29, at Macclesfield Town Hall.