It proved a very difficult start. The booking system, which is hosted by Medway Council (with whom we have worked closely on the reopening plans) struggled to cope with demand in the hours after it opened at 11 am. By 1.30 the web page had already had 99,178 views! Our Contact Point, which is able to make bookings had received 2,376 calls by the same time. Unacceptably, users experienced long waits and sometimes were moved back in the queue or even lost their slot after a long time on the system.
It is not wholly clear what the underlying problem was; volumes were certainly high, but testing had been carried out under the assumption that they could or would be. Action was taken to stabilise and improve the system during the afternoon, and this appears to have improved matters. I have had feedback from others who, like myself, tried the system later in the day and were able to get into the booking form very quickly (in about three minutes in my case at around 7:30). Hopefully this improvement will be sustained tomorrow, when new slots will be released, and beyond, but we will of course be tracking this very carefully tomorrow morning and taking further action if needed.
Environment Cabinet Member Susan Carey will be visiting one of the sites tomorrow morning to see the preparations for Friday's opening, and will be talking about this on Radio Kent at around 11:30.
The KCC website includes a reminder that trips should only be made if the waste cannot be stored safely at home, as well as the details of the rules and requirements for a visit to a Centre.
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