Crowborough tip on Farningham Road: opening times, how to book a slot online or by phone, last entry, van days, the reuse shop, and Christmas closures.

Crowborough’s household waste recycling site, the tip on Farningham Road, is open 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 1pm on Saturday and Sunday. Those hours do not change with the seasons. You must book a slot before you go.

The quick answer

  • Hours: weekdays 9am to 5pm, weekends 9am to 1pm, all year
  • Booking is compulsory, online or by phone, up to two weeks ahead
  • Last car slot: 4.30pm on weekdays, 12.30pm at weekends
  • Vans on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays only
  • Half term (26 to 30 October): normal weekday hours, and every car slot that week, and up to 6 November, was still free on 24 October
  • The reuse shop keeps the tip’s hours and takes cash only
  • Last Christmas it closed on 25 and 26 December and 1 January, and shut at 1pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. The 2026 dates are not posted yet

All details below are from East Sussex County Council’s Crowborough site page and its booking calendar, checked on 8 October 2026. The county runs the tips; Wealden District Council runs the bin collections.

Where it is

Wealden Industrial Estate, Farningham Road, Crowborough TN6 2JR. Pedestrians and cyclists use a separate pedestrian entrance, and they need a booking too.

Crowborough tip booking: how slots work

Every visit to Crowborough tip needs a booking, made through the county’s booking system or on 0345 60 80 194. We read the Crowborough booking calendar on 8 October 2026. This is what it showed:

  • You book by vehicle type. Crowborough offers separate slots for a car, a van, a taxi, a pedestrian, a bicycle and a reuse shop visit. Pedestrian slots are 15 minutes; the rest are 30.
  • Weekdays have 16 car slots, from 9am to the last one at 4.30pm. Saturdays and Sundays have eight, from 9am to the last one at 12.30pm.
  • Van slots only appear on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The county says the system will not let you book a van on any other day, and that a van that arrives on a car booking is turned away.
  • Slots open two weeks ahead. On 8 October the calendar listed Thursday 22 October with no slots yet bookable.
  • There was no queue for slots. Every car slot from 8 to 21 October was still free when we looked, including the weekend mornings, so you can usually book on the day.

Read again on Saturday 17 October: one of the eight car slots that morning had gone and the rest were free, as was every car and van slot from Sunday 18 October through the half-term week, Monday 26 to Friday 30 October, all on normal hours (16 car slots a weekday, last one 4.30pm). Saturday 31 October showed its eight slots with none yet released, because the calendar opens two weeks ahead. Pedestrian slots run every 15 minutes, the last at 4.45pm on weekdays and 12.45pm at weekends.

Read again on Saturday 24 October: every car slot was free from that morning to Friday 6 November, the furthest the calendar had opened, including the whole half-term week and the weekend of 31 October and 1 November. Hours were normal throughout: 16 car slots each weekday to 4.30pm, eight each weekend morning to 12.30pm, and van slots on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays only. Saturday 7 November was listed but not yet released.

Bring the confirmation email or reference and proof you live in East Sussex. If you live outside the county the visit costs £8.75, paid by card on arrival, unless you are clearing waste for an East Sussex resident you are helping (booking and site rules).

Crowborough tip reuse shop: cash only, and book it

Crowborough has a reuse shop selling pre-loved secondhand items at low cost instead of throwing them away. The county’s reuse shops page, read on 17 October 2026, says:

  • Hours are the same as the tip’s: 9am to 5pm on weekdays, 9am to 1pm at weekends. The reuse shop slots in the booking calendar match, with the last at 4.30pm and 12.30pm.
  • Cash only. Crowborough’s shop does not take cards, and neither does its sale of Pro-Grow soil conditioner, the compost made from East Sussex garden and food waste. Hailsham, Maresfield and Newhaven take cash and card if that matters.
  • You still need a booking, even if you are only buying: choose “reuse shop visit” in the booking system and tell the staff when you arrive. A tip booking covers both.
  • No electricals. The reuse shops do not accept or sell electrical items. To buy or donate anything else, ask the site staff.
  • The money goes to the site manager and towards running the county’s recycling sites.

What you can take to Crowborough tip

The county’s Crowborough page, read on 8 October 2026, lists what the site accepts:

  • Recycling: cardboard, newspapers and magazines, glass bottles and jars, cans and tins, aluminium foil, aerosols, books, plastic bottles, printer cartridges and mobile phones
  • Bulky items: furniture, mattresses, carpet and underlay, scrap metal, and hard plastics such as storage boxes, garden furniture, wheelie bins, water butts and empty plant pots
  • Electricals: fridges and freezers, washing machines, TVs and monitors, small appliances, vapes, fluorescent tubes and energy saving bulbs
  • Garden waste and real Christmas trees
  • Hazardous bits in small amounts: household and car batteries, cooking oil, engine oil (up to 10 litres a visit), solvent and water-based paint, nitrous oxide bottles, labelled household chemicals, and one small domestic fire extinguisher per visit
  • Clothes and shoes (not bedding, duvets or pillows)
  • General household waste

DIY waste has a weekly free allowance, Monday to Sunday: two 50-litre bags of rubble or soil, and two bags or one 1800 by 900mm sheet of plasterboard. Each extra bag or sheet costs £6.50, card only. Crowborough is one of only four East Sussex tips that take plasterboard, with Eastbourne, Hastings and Newhaven. The county will turn you away if you try to spread DIY waste across different sites in the same week.

Crowborough does not take tyres or asbestos. Tyres go to Maresfield (or Eastbourne, Hastings, Lewes or Newhaven) at £2.70 each, up to four a month. Bonded asbestos goes to Heathfield (or Eastbourne, Hastings or Newhaven) at £8 a bag or sheet, double bagged and sealed or wrapped, up to six bags or four sheets a month.

Opening hours

Day Crowborough
Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm
Saturday 9am to 1pm
Sunday 9am to 1pm

The county’s page for Crowborough carries no summer or winter range. The other three tips in Wealden do: they publish summer hours from 1 April to 30 September and shorter winter hours from 1 October to 31 March.

Christmas and New Year

The county posts festive hours on each site page as “special dates”, and it had not posted 2026’s when we checked. Last year’s, from the Crowborough page as archived in November 2025:

Day Christmas 2025 hours
Christmas Eve, Wednesday 24 December 9am to 1pm
Christmas Day, Thursday 25 December Closed
Boxing Day, Friday 26 December Closed
New Year’s Eve, Wednesday 31 December 9am to 1pm
New Year’s Day, Thursday 1 January Closed

This year the bank holidays are Friday 25 December, Monday 28 December (the substitute for Boxing Day) and Friday 1 January 2027. We will add the county’s 2026 hours when it publishes them.

Real Christmas trees are accepted at the Crowborough site. Wealden also says you can cut a tree up and put it in your garden waste bin.

The other tips near Crowborough this winter

From 1 October to 31 March, according to the county’s site pages:

Site Monday to Friday Saturday Sunday
Crowborough 9am to 5pm 9am to 1pm 9am to 1pm
Maresfield 8am to 4pm 8am to 4pm 9am to 4pm
Heathfield 8am to 4pm 8am to 4pm 9am to 4pm
Hailsham 8am to 4pm 9am to 1pm 9am to 1pm

So on a winter Saturday afternoon, Maresfield and Heathfield are the only two open, until 4pm. Last Christmas all three kept the same pattern as Crowborough: closed on 25 and 26 December and 1 January, open 8am to 1pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

Crowborough tip booking online: the rules

Booking became compulsory at every East Sussex tip on 24 November 2025. From the county’s booking and site rules:

  • book online, or call 0345 60 80 194 (Monday to Thursday 8.30am to 5pm, Friday 8.30am to 4.30pm)
  • slots open two weeks ahead, and you can book on the day if one is free
  • most slots are 30 minutes and you can arrive any time within yours
  • each booking covers one visit, with no limit on how many you make
  • bring the booking confirmation and proof you live in East Sussex, such as a photocard driving licence or this year’s council tax bill
  • you need a booking to visit the reuse shop too; a tip booking covers both
  • cancel if you cannot go: the county says it may restrict people who repeatedly book and do not turn up

Changing or cancelling a Crowborough tip booking

The county’s site rules, read on 24 October 2026, cover what happens after you book:

  • To change the time or cancel, use the link in your confirmation email. If you booked by phone, call 0345 60 80 194 to change it instead.
  • To change the vehicle, you need an online account; account holders can do it from the same email link. Otherwise cancel and book again, because a van that turns up on a car booking is sent away.
  • An account is optional. It saves typing your details each time, and the county deletes it if you do not use it for 18 months.
  • Container swaps can hold you at the gate. Nobody is allowed on site while staff change a skip; your booking stays valid and you can tip as soon as they finish, even if your slot has passed.
  • The county can cancel on you, in rare cases, if a site has to shut for an operational incident or extreme weather. It says it will contact you to rebook.
  • If you live outside East Sussex, pick the non-resident option when you book. The £8.75 is paid by card at the gate.

What counts as proof you live in East Sussex: one of a photocard or paper driving licence, this year’s council tax bill, a utility bill or bank or credit card statement under a year old, a tenancy agreement, a DWP or HMRC letter under a year old, an East Sussex older person’s bus pass, or a Blue Badge. Crowborough households pay council tax to Wealden, one of the five districts that count.

Vans, trailers and charges

  • vans only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays
  • a 2 metre height limit and trailers up to 1.8 metres long
  • the site is free for East Sussex residents
  • rubble, soil and plasterboard: up to two 50-litre bags a week free, then £6.50 per extra bag or sheet

Our Crowborough bin collection days page has the charges and the list of what Crowborough does not take, such as tyres and asbestos.

FAQs

Do I need to book Crowborough tip?

Yes. Every visit needs a booking, online through East Sussex County Council’s booking system or on 0345 60 80 194, including on foot or by bike. Slots open two weeks ahead and you can book on the day if one is free.

What is the last slot at Crowborough tip?

4.30pm on weekdays and 12.30pm on Saturdays and Sundays, for a site that closes at 5pm and 1pm.

Can I take a van to Crowborough tip?

Only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, booked as a van. The height limit is 2 metres and trailers can be up to 1.8 metres long.

Does Crowborough tip take tyres or plasterboard?

Plasterboard yes, with a free weekly allowance and £6.50 for each extra bag or sheet. Tyres no: the nearest tip that takes them is Maresfield.

Is Crowborough tip open in half term?

Yes, on its usual hours: 9am to 5pm Monday 26 to Friday 30 October, with the last car slot at 4.30pm. When we read the booking calendar on 17 October every car slot that week was still free.

Can I pay by card at the Crowborough tip reuse shop?

No. The county lists Crowborough’s reuse shop and its Pro-Grow soil conditioner sales as cash only. Charges for extra DIY waste and the £8.75 non-resident fee are a separate matter and are paid by card.

Can I change or cancel my Crowborough tip booking?

Yes, through the link in your confirmation email; phone bookings are changed on 0345 60 80 194. Changing the vehicle on a booking needs an online account, so without one, cancel and rebook. The county asks you to cancel slots you cannot use, and may restrict repeat no-shows.

Is Crowborough tip open on Sunday?

Yes, 9am to 1pm. Sunday is part of its normal weekly hours all year, and the last slot is 12.30pm.

Also on Crowborough Today

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