HAVING a live feed of the queues outside of Basingstoke's Household Waste Recycling Centre would have discouraged people from going if the site was already busy, according to the Liberal Democrat group leader on Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council.

Cllr Gavin James (Eastrop) has said that the "starting point" of the traffic chaos caused after tips across the county reopened was the decision to close them for six weeks "at the busiest time of year when even more people are at home", which was "contrary to government advice and was wrong".

Meanwhile, the county council have come under criticism for not better managing the reopening of the tips, which has caused queues longer than two hours outside the Wade Road site almost every day since they reopened on May 11.

Some suggestions proposed by residents include an online booking system and an alternate day system.

However, Cllr James says that he was told that a booking system was "not feasible".

"I have already asked about whether a booking system should be in place, as they do in West Berkshire, however I am advised that was not feasible in Hampshire.

"I would have liked to see some sort of online feed of the queue. I am sure many would have not bothered if they knew the wait was so long, however once you have loaded your car and got there it is too late.

"The starting point is if you close the tip for six weeks at the busiest time of year when even more people are at home, you are going to create a problem," Cllr James continued.

"That initial decision was contrary to government advice and was wrong.

"We have no choice but to live with this Tory error."

It comes as HCC extended the opening hours of HWRCs across the county as of this weekend.

From Saturday (May 23), tips were able to open until 6pm, a two-hour extension on the initial hours of 10am-4pm.

However, HCC are still calling on residents to only visit the tips if not doing so would pose a risk to injury or illness.

Cllr Rob Humby, deputy leader, said: "I would ask people to consider if they really do need to take their waste to an HWRC at this time.

"We have seen significant traffic queues in the last two weeks since the HWRCs reopened, which have impacted on local people trying to get to work as well as having a detrimental impact on the ability of businesses nearby to get back up and running."

This sentiment was echoed by Cllr James, who said: "Given the queues, I would encourage people who are able to store rubbish in a safe way to do so.

"The re-opening was for those people that don’t have large gardens or garages, especially those living in apartments where a build up of rubbish can lead to fire hazards or blocking fire exits. Or contaminated waste that could risk public health if left for two weeks.

"Most importantly, however frustrating the queue, however annoyed people are about alternate weekly collection or stopping the garden waste collections service, please do not take this out on the staff at the tip, they are doing the best they can in the circumstances, they deserve our thanks."