Appendix 3

Lead Member for Transport and Environment, February 2025

Proposed implementation of a booking system at Household Waste Recycling Sites

Equality Impact Analysis Template

Title of Project/Service/Policy	Household Waste Recycling Sites (HWRS) – booking system
Team/Department	Waste Team
Directorate	Communities, Economy and Transport
Provide a comprehensive description of your proposal including its Purpose and Scope	Waste is managed in the county across the two tiers of local government. The District and Borough Councils are the Waste Collection Authorities (WCAs) who arrange for waste and recycling to be collected from residents. East Sussex County Council (ESCC) is a Waste Disposal Authority (WDA) and provides sites for the WCAs and residents to deliver waste and recycling to. ESCC is responsible for providing Household Waste Recycling Sites (HWRSs) which residents use to dispose of their household waste. The network of ten sites in East Sussex is a popular service with residents. The sites receive over 1 million visits per year and handle about a quarter of the total waste that East Sussex residents produce. The sites also recycle compost or reuse almost 60% of the materials that are brought to them by residents and provide containers for up to 36 different materials. Our sites are busy and have been getting busier. Between March 2023 and April 2024, we served over 1.2m visits. So far this year we’ve seen 6.8% increase in site visits across all locations compared to 2023/24.  Maresfield has seen the biggest increase in site visits with an increase of 18.8%.  We think a booking system will help some site-specific issues. For example, our site at Eastbourne has a problem where a small number of visitors insist on parking illegally outside the site before it opens, so they can be first in. This blocks the highway and causes difficulties for our neighbours. We think a booking system would remove the motive for this kind of behaviour and improve the current situation Around 50% of Councils in England now operate some sort of booking system for their HWRS, including West Sussex, Hampshire, Kent and West Berkshire. Where booking systems have been implemented at neighbouring authorities, users’ feedback has been broadly similar: most users like the benefits of the scheme and say they would prefer to keep it. Councils that started using booking systems a few years ago have been able to improve the user experience which later adopters are now able to utilise from day one including options such as: the ability to book visits on the same day improved bookings via website, mobile applications and telephone the ability to visit multiple times in one day to help with busy times, e.g. moving house We would want to include these convenient options as standard if we introduced a booking system. When we have looked at how other Councils across the country are approaching how customers access HWRSs, it is clear that many see the benefits of using a booking system and wish to continue operating one or consider the introduction of one in the future.

Initial assessment of whether your project requires an EqIA

When answering these questions, please keep in mind all legally protected equality characteristics (sex/gender, gender reassignment, religion or belief, age, disability, ethnicity/race, sexual orientation, marriage/civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity) of the people actually or potentially receiving and benefiting from the services or the policy.  

In particular consider whether there are any potential equality related barriers that people may experience when getting to know about, accessing or receiving the service or the policy to be introduced or changed.      

Discuss the results of your Equality assessment with the Equality Lead for your department and agree whether improvements or changes need to be made to any aspect of your Project.

	Question	Yes	No	Don’t Know
1	Is there evidence of different needs, experiences, issues or priorities on the basis of the equality characteristics (listed below) in relation to the service or policy/strategy area?	✔
2	Are there any proposed changes in the service/policy that may affect how services are run and/or used or the ways the policy will impact different groups?	✔
3	Are there any proposed changes in the service/policy that may affect service-users/staff/residents directly?	✔
4	Is there potential for, or evidence that, the service/policy may adversely affect inclusiveness or harm good relations between different groups of people?		✔
5	Is there any potential for, or evidence that any part of the service/aspects of the policy could have a direct or indirect discriminatory effect on service-users/staff/residents ?		✔
6	Is there any stakeholder (Council staff, residents, trade unions, service-users, VCSE organisations) concerned about actual, potential, or perceived discrimination/unequal treatment  in the service or the Policy on the basis of the equality characteristics set out above that may lead to taking legal action against the Council?		✔
7	Is there any evidence or indication of higher or lower uptake of the service by, or the impact of the policy on, people who share the equality characteristics set out above?		✔

If you have answered “YES” or “DON’T KNOW” to any of the questions above, then the completion of an EqIA is necessary.

The need for an EqIA will depend on:

· How many questions you have answered “yes”, or “don’t know” to;

· The likelihood of the Council facing legal action in relation to the effects of service or the policy may have on groups sharing protected characteristics; and

· The likelihood of adverse publicity and reputational damage for the Council.

Low risk	Medium risk	High risk
X

1. Update on previous EqIAs and outcomes of previous actions (if applicable)

What actions did you plan last time? (List them from the previous EqIA)	What improved as a result? What outcomes have these actions achieved?	What further actions do you need to take? (add these to the Action Plan below)
New proposal – no previous EqIA available

2. Review of information, equality analysis and potential actions

Consider the actual or potential impact of your project (service, or policy) against each of the equality characteristics.

Protected characteristics groups under the Equality Act 2010	What do you know? Summary of data about your service-users and/or staff	What do people tell you? Summary of service-user and/or staff feedback	What does this mean? Impacts identified from data and feedback (actual and potential)	What can you do? All potential actions to: · advance equality of opportunity, · eliminate discrimination, and · foster good relations
Age	From our 2022 HWRS Customer Satisfaction Survey, 54% of site users are aged 45-74 years of age. 15% of users are 75+ Under 16’s are prohibited from using sites due to Health & Safety concerns.	From our 2022 HWRS Customer Satisfaction Survey 96.4% were either ‘Very Satisfied’ or ‘Fairly Satisfied’ with their overall experience of using a HWRS within our network.	A booking system will require residents to actively make a booking via some sort of telecommunications technology – smartphone, PC, laptop, landline telephone. We want to avoid digital exclusion Whereas just 9% of mobile phone users aged 55 to 64 years used a smartphone in 2012, this number rose to over 90 percent by 2023. 71% of 65’s and over now also use a smartphone Smartphone usage UK As of 2018, 85% of households had a landline. This has declined from a peak of 95% between 1998-2000 when fixed-line telephony started losing customers as consumers are now making telephone calls in their homes using mobile phones instead of telephones. For period April 2020 to March 2021 90% of private households in the UK had a home computer (PC or laptop) Office for National Statistics	Booking system applications are typically available 24/7 allowing residents to make bookings at any time of day via smartphones, PCs and laptops. For those unable to access the internet, we will look to utilise telephone capabilities so residents can call to make a booking.
Disability	From our 2022 HWRS Customer Satisfaction Survey, 13.2% consider themselves to have a disability	(see left)	Research by RiDC (Research Institute for Disabled Consumers) shows that over a quarter of disabled people are unable to use smartphone and tablet apps (applications) People with disabilities account for a disproportionately large number of internet non-users and are more likely to report lower levels of confidence	For those unable to access the internet, we will look to utilise telephone capabilities so residents can call to make a booking.
Gender reassignment	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified
Pregnancy and maternity	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified
Race/ethnicity Including migrants, refugees and asylum seekers	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified
Religion or belief	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified
Sex/Gender	In a 2022 Customer Satisfaction survey of HWRS users, 54.6% identified as female whilst 43.7% identified as male	(see left)	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified
Sexual orientation	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified
Marriage and civil partnership	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified
Impacts on community cohesion	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified

Additional categories

(identified locally as potentially causing / worsening inequality)

Characteristic	What do you know?	What do people tell you?	What does this mean?	What can you do?
Rurality	From a 2022 HWRS Customer Satisfaction Survey, 80.8% of users; journey to the site was between 5 and 25mins	(see left)	There is no nationally recognised steer on the acceptable level of HWRS provision and continue to cite the National Assessment of Civic Amenity Sites (NACAS)  recommendations for minimum levels of HWRC provision. The NACAS recommendation suggests a maximum driving time to a site for the great majority of residents of 20 minutes in urban areas, and 30 minutes in rural areas	Continue to aim to maintain or improve our current level of HWRS provision across East Sussex A booking system provides an increased level of assuredness that residents will be able to access a site especially if they live in a more rural area and have, perhaps, a longer journey to their site.
Carers	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified	No actual or potential impact identified
Other groups that may be differently affected (including but not only: homeless people, substance users, care leavers)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Assessment of overall impacts and any further recommendations - include assessment of cumulative impacts (where a change in one service/policy/project may have an impact on another)
This change to the service is intended to – and likely to – reduce queues on and around the household waste site network. However, we do not want to introduce an element of digital exclusion. The ability to book a visit via a smartphone, pc or laptop is one of the scheme’s popular elements where it has been introduced elsewhere. However, we recognise that HWRS site users cover a wide demographic including this groups that do not use smartphones, pc or laptops. However, by having an ability to book a visit via telephone, this ensures those groups are not excluded from making bookings.

3. List detailed data and/or community feedback that informed your EqIA

Source and type of data (e.g. research, or direct engagement (interviews), responses to questionnaires, etc.)	Date	Gaps in data	Actions to fill these gaps: who else do you need to engage with? (add these to the Action Plan below, with a timeframe)
2022 Household Waste Site Customer Satisfaction Survey	2022	Survey asked approx. 1,000 respondents	We will continue to monitor the responses to our customer satisfaction surveys and feedback from representative groups.
2016 Household Waste Site Customer Satisfaction Survey	2016	Survey asked approx. 1,000 respondents	We will continue to monitor the responses to our customer satisfaction surveys and feedback from representative groups.

4.         Prioritised Action Plan

NB: These actions must now be transferred to service or business plans and monitored to ensure they achieve the outcomes identified.

Impact identified and group(s) affected	Action planned	Expected outcome	Measure of success	Timeframe
Age	Booking methods included to avoid digital exclusion	That any booking system has accessible methods of booking visits	That all residents are able to book visits should they wish to use the service	In place for the launch of any booking scheme should ESCC determine to proceed
Disability	Booking methods included to avoid digital exclusion	That any booking system has accessible methods of booking visits	That all residents are able to book visits should they wish to use the service	In place for the launch of any booking scheme should ESCC determine to proceed
(Add more rows as needed)