Wade Road tip opens 9am to 4pm from 1 October, shuts 1pm to 1.30pm and closes on 25 and 26 December and 1 January. You must book, and vans need a £20 permit.

Basingstoke’s tip is the Household Waste Recycling Centre on Wade Road, RG24 8PL, and it switches to winter hours on Thursday 1 October 2026: 9am to 4pm, seven days a week, closed for half an hour from 1pm to 1.30pm. You cannot just turn up. Every visit needs an appointment booked online in advance, and a van, pick-up or trailer also needs a permit. The site is run by Hampshire County Council, not the borough, and everything below is from the county’s Basingstoke HWRC page, checked on 25 September 2026.

The quick answer

  • 1 October to 28 February: 9am to 4pm, every day, closed 1pm to 1.30pm.
  • Closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day: in 2026/27 that is Friday 25 December, Saturday 26 December and Friday 1 January.
  • Book before you go, online through Hampshire’s booking system. A car is free; a van, pick-up or trailer needs a £20 permit.

Opening hours through the year

Period Hours
1 October to 28 February 9am to 4pm
1 March to 31 March 9am to 5pm
1 April to 30 September 9am to 6pm
Every day, all year Closed 1pm to 1.30pm
Closed all day Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day

Those three are the only closed days the county lists. On its own wording the site should be open on Sunday 27 and Monday 28 December, the bank holiday, but book early: the days between Christmas and New Year are when everyone clears out packaging. The phone number for the site is 01256 352984.

Booking and permits

Every visit to every Hampshire recycling centre needs an appointment, and when you book you give the address the waste comes from. Visiting twice in a day counts as two visits.

Vans, pick-ups and trailers need a digital permit from the county’s van and trailer permit page. It costs £20, covers one vehicle for 12 visits or 12 months, whichever comes first, and a household can have at most two a year, so 24 visits. You book in the same vehicle you arrive in and the system recognises the registration. Paper trailer permits issued before 24 February 2026 still work until used up or expired; show them on arrival. Paper van permits have been converted to digital automatically. Trade waste is not allowed.

DIY waste: the free allowance and what you pay after it

Rubble, soil, plasterboard and cement-bonded asbestos are free only up to a household allowance, set out on the county’s DIY and chargeable waste page:

  • Allowance: up to eight 50-litre rubble sacks or four single items per household in any four weeks. A part sack counts as a whole one. You must declare DIY waste when you book.
  • Over the allowance: rubble and soil £3 a sack or £3 an item; plasterboard £6 a sack or £10 a sheet; cement-bonded asbestos £12 a sheet. Oversized items are always charged.
  • Work done by a tradesperson cannot count against your allowance.

Basingstoke is one of only five Hampshire centres that take asbestos, with Andover, Efford, Netley and Portsmouth. Separate tiles from plasterboard before you go.

What Wade Road takes, and what it turns away

It takes cardboard, carpets, mattresses, bedding, baths, wood (treated and untreated), garden waste, electricals, batteries, car batteries, light bulbs, mobile phones, printer cartridges and vapes. Real Christmas trees go in the green waste container.

Four things to know before you load the car:

  • Fridges and freezers are not guaranteed. The county warns that a national shortage of recycling capacity means sites “may be required to refuse them once storage capacity is reached”, and you may be sent to another centre.
  • Tyres are not accepted. Take them to a garage or tyre centre.
  • Old railway sleepers are not accepted, because they count as hazardous waste wood.
  • Animal waste is limited to two bin bags per household per day.

Christmas at the tip

The tip closes on 25 and 26 December and 1 January, and it is the place for the extra cardboard, broken lights and the real tree once the holiday is over. Kerbside collections move over Christmas too: see our Christmas bin collections page, and bin collection days for the fortnightly changes that start on 12 October.

Still to be confirmed

  • Hampshire has not published any change to the Christmas hours beyond the three closed days. We will check again in early December.

Driving there? Check roadworks and travel before you set off, and parking in Basingstoke if you are heading into town after.