The government has said the answer might be for community groups to have nine regional co-ordinators that would mean councils won't have to deal with many small groups in order to work more closely with the sector.
The suggestion came in a letter written to various community recycling stakeholders this week, asking for comments on a proposed 4 million fund to bolster the voluntary sector in waste activities.
Defra is concerned that the community recycling sector has been hit by the loss of Landfill Tax Credit Scheme money after the Scheme was revised last year. And, the government is worried that the sector is being hit by local authorities signing large-scale integrated waste contracts for high volumes, which mainly go to private sector waste management companies.
Defra's Sally Moss warned: “The activities of the community waste sector are being squeezed out by an increasing shift in local authority behaviour driven by the challenging targets of the EU Landfill Directive and recycling targets for household waste.”
As a response, ministers have said the best course of action will be to encourage closer working between the community sector and local authorities or private businesses.
Regional co-ordination
This could be helped by greater regional co-ordination among community recyclers, it said, inferring that it wanted to see other areas following the example of community recyclers in London. There, community groups have co-ordination through the London Community Recycling Network.
The consultation paper said: “In order to better assist local authorities to deliver their waste strategies, it has been suggested that the community sector could benefit from greater coherence and support at regional level, exploiting opportunities for consortium approaches with other community groups or with local businesses, greater sources of funding, and a regional voice for the sector feeding into local, regional and national policy-making.”
Fund
The 4 million fund for community recycling is to be part of a Community Sector Support Programme, which in turn will form part of Defra's Waste Implementation Programme.
The two-year fund would most likely be split with 1.5 million available in the remainder of 2004/05, and 2.5 million available in 2005/06. The money could be focussed on certain waste materials, on innovative or exemplar projects, targeted business support. Another possibility is that it could be used as seed money for groups to use towards gaining larger grants from bodies such as the European social fund.
The consultation on the Community Sector Support Programme seeks views from the sector by September 3, 2004. More information is available on the Defra website.
Subscribe for free