Agency board member and top lawyer, Professor Richard Macrory, revealed last
night that the Department had managed to find an underspend to transfer to the Agency to
use in 2002 which would pay for the increased workforce.
At the same as announcing the introduction of the larger force of regulators at the
Institute of Waste Management’s annual presidential dinner, the professor said that the Agency
wants to use the new directives “as a real opportunity to get the level of regulation right”
along with a “more proportionate regime for waste recovery facilities”.
The board member, who is professor of environmental law at University College
London, pointed to the landfill directive as the main challenge facing all involved in waste.
“The full implications of the landfill directive are now being recognised here but not by the
general public.”
The Agency would be stepping up the issuing of permits in the wake of EU
directives, said Professor Macrory. He estimated that under agreed community legislation
7,000 new waste permits would be needed including 2,000 for existing landfills by 2005.
There would also need to be 1,500 permits for waste recycling and pre treatment facilities
and in connection with the ELV directive 2,500 car dismantlers. The permits will be issued in
a regime similar to that currently in operation for Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control
(IPPC).
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