Plans to introduce a seven-day-a-week booking system at Crewe's tip look set to be scrapped, with a site redesign proposed.

Cheshire East introduced the unpopular system at its household waste centres for weekends and bank holidays to cope with extra visits following the controversial closure of the tips at Middlewich, Bollington, and Poynton in the summer of 2024.

In January, authority was delegated to the director of planning and environment to change Crewe to a seven-day-a week booking system on a trial basis following concerns about highway safety because of queuing traffic.

It was also proposed to remove the booking system at Knutsford and Alsager and monitor their usage.

But neither measure has been implemented because the decision was 'called in' for further scrutiny by Crewe councillor James Pratt (Conservative).

On Tuesday 28 July, speaking as a visiting member, Cllr Pratt called on the place overview and scrutiny committee to revisit the seven-day proposal for Crewe, arguing fly-tipping levels are overall still trending upwards since 2012 and there are accessibility concerns over booking if residents are not online.

"There does not seem to be substantial evidence of queuing on the highway that's been presented," he said.

"And the existing weekend booking system has already been shown to discourage use during the time when booking is necessary, so why expand something unpopular?"

Cllr Allen Gage (Willaston, non-grouped), who supported the call-in, said he had visited the Crewe site alone and with Cllr Pratt a number of times, including during rush hour, and not seen evidence of queues.

"We spoke informally to a few of the operatives there. They didn't have any concerns themselves," he said.

"It just seems bureaucracy for the sake of bureaucracy."

He asked the committee to advise the officers 'not to complicate the most basic service that a local ratepayer pays for, and to give advice to not expand the booking system to seven days'.

Cllr Russell Chadwick (Dane Valley, Conservative), said: "We've caused this issue, we've closed three tips.

"We've had an increase in population, we haven't changed our bin collection routes to take into account the additional housing."

Cllr Joy Bratherton (Crewe, Labour), said she and fellow councillor Ben Wye (Labour), had come up with some ideas for redesigning the Crewe site.

"It's going to cost money, but the way of solving the problem is so straightforward that I would like somebody to come and meet with me on-site and actually look at it with a view to costing it out, maybe for the future, or having a look how it could be done in a relatively simple way and a relatively quick way," she said.

"It just involves moving skips around a bit and a few markings on the road."

The committee agreed to recommend the seven-day proposal for Crewe isn't implemented 'with a view to officers meeting councillors with alternative recommendations' around possibly redesigning the site layout.

The committee also recommended removing the booking system at Knutsford and Alsager.

The committee can only offer advice to the decision-maker but portfolio holder David Jefferay (Wilmslow, Independent), did participate in the meeting and said he was happy to meet Cllr Bratherton and officers at the Crewe site.