//He got there a little early, no one in there, but he still had to wait outside until the appointed time. That seems really daft to me.//
It’s not daft, Naomi. It’s insane. But then if it’s run by a Local Authority, it’s par for the course. Common sense does not enter into it “it’s the rules.”
I have a tip less than a mile from where I live. But I cannot use it. I live close to the border of my LA and the tip is in the neighbouring area. So I have to travel around eight miles to “my” tip. It hasn’t crossed the minds of the LAs concerned that for every one like me who would prefer to cross into a “foreign” area to dump his rubbish there will almost certainly be residents of that foreign area who would prefer to cross out to their nearest one. But that’s local government for you.
Many tips have congestion problems and have had for some time. If those problems were so severe, why did it take the Covid pandemic to force them into tackling them?