It follows a successful pilot period introduced at the HWRC in Carluke in 2022.

The reasons for trialling the booking system were to reduce waiting times, reduce queuing on adjacent roads, reduce incidents of abuse to staff and prevent residents from other local authority areas using the site.

During 2023/2024, more than 59,000 bookings were made with 98.6% of these bookings made online and the feedback from customers was overwhelmingly positive.

It was agreed at the Community and Enterprise Resources Committee that the booking system will now be extended to the other five Household Waste and Recycling Centres in South Lanarkshire – Blantyre, East Kilbride, Larkhall, Rutherglen and Strathaven.

The booking system will go live from Monday 12 August 2024.

Head of Facilities, Waste and Ground, Kevin Carr, said: “We believe that introducing the booking system at our other HWRCs will have the same positive impact that the trial period at Carluke has had.

“We are aware that during busy periods the congestion on roads around our centres can have a negative impact on local residents and businesses, and the new system should help alleviate that.

“We will continue to update residents about the changes ahead of the go live date of 12 August.”