Andy Doran elected chair of Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee

Mr Doran takes over in the role from Janet Westmoreland, of Kirklees metropolitan borough council, who remains on the LARAC executive as training officer.

Andy Doran, chair of LARAC

Commenting on his appointment, Mr Doran thanked Ms Westmoreland for her hard work and enthusiasm during her tenure of the position.

He said: “I'm very appreciative of the work of the previous chair, Janet has carried out some important work during her year in the position. I'm very pleased that Janet has chosen to stay on the executive, applying her expertise and long-standing interest in training issues for recycling officers.”

Mr Doran, executive assistant to the leader at Surrey county council, was formerly the vice chair in charge of policy on LARAC's executive, and has been involved in a number of high-level discussions with government, local authorities and business on various aspects of waste and recycling, from used tyre disposal regulations to packaging waste recovery and waste funding issues.

Changes
Speaking to letsrecycle.com, Mr Doran said that despite LARAC's important work over the past few years, he was looking to the executive forward with possible changes in structure to push forward local authorities' recycling agenda.

“We've been through a lot of change recently, but I hope to produce a development in the next year or so to bring the organisation fully up to speed with a modern, forward-looking approach. I think we're doing well, but we can do better and by supporting all the executives in doing that, as well as involving other organisations such as the Local Government Association, the Composting Association and the Chartered Institute of Wastes Mangement among others, we can build on our success.”

Lee Marshall from Coventry city council takes over from Mr Doran as vice chair, and Welwyn Hatfield's Durk Reyner was re-elected to his position as the other vice chair.

The LARAC executive has its next meeting in April, by which time Mr Doran hopes to have in place some of the structural changes needed.

“We are looking to provide a structure that involves members of the executive fully,” he said.