EA aims to beat cuts through partnership working

The Environment Agency intends to overcome cuts to its operational budget by forming more working partnerships with local authorities and volunteer groups, the regulatory body announced today (November 24).

 

We want to be able to continue our core work on limited resources and we can do this through partnerships

 
Lord Chris Smith, chairman, Environment Agency 

Environment Agency representatives at its ninth annual conference in central London also outlined the work it had done to clampdown on environmental crime. Although it was also claimed that local authorities, businesses and public sector organisations need to be vigilant over where their waste is heading.

Keynote speaker, Lord Chris Smith, chairman of the Agency, said that the regulatory body would be looking to “pool resources” with local authorities and public sector organisations to continue to carry out its functions on a “constrained” budget.

He said: “On the one hand we have the needs of the environment and the pressures of a changing climate making ever more demands on how we work. And, on the other hand, we know we will have fewer resources with which to meet these demands. We have to meet and meet them we must and meet them we will.”

The sentiment of forming more working partnerships echoes statements made by the Waste & Resources Action Programme at its annual conference earlier this month in response to financial constraints placed on the organisation in the wake of the Comprehensive Spending Review (see letsrecycle.com story).

Tension

Lord Smith also said that the organisation would need to “achieve more with less” in reference to the anticipating reduction in staff at the Environment Agency, as part of Defra plans to remove between 5,000 and 8,000 posts across its department and arms-length bodies (see letsrecycle.com story).

“We want to be able to continue our core work on limited resources and we can do this through partnerships. It is an approach that many companies in the world of business are already taking,” he added.

The atmosphere at the conference was somewhat strained following comments made by chair Roger Harriban about Lord Smith's ability to criticise government policy on environment. Environment secretary Caroline Spelman, who also spoke at the event, was non-plussed by the BBC environment analyst's remarks regarding the former Labour MP.

Crime

Also at the conference, Dr Paul Leinster, chief executive of the Environment Agency, highlighted the work that the regulatory body has undertaken to tackle illegal waste activity – although he suggested that there was still more to be done both by the EA and the generators of waste in the first instance.

Dr Leinster stated that for every ten legal waste sites in operation in England and Wales that there would be another operating illegally. He pointed out that, between April 2008 and March 2010, that the EA had successfully closed down over 2,000 sites, however, he said he believes a further 1,900 illegal sites opened up in the same period.

“We'll continue to take a zero-waste approach to illegal waste sites. We have stopped activities on 2,000 sites in the last two years, but continue to work with the police and other agencies to gather intelligence and target these operations.”

He added: “Producers of waste; business, public sector organisations, local authorities and householders all have a role to play by making sure their waste goes only to legitimate and licensed waste management operators.”

Dr Leinster praised the on-going work of the quality protocols project, which it is carrying out in conjunction with WRAP. He said that the first 12 materials given quality protocols- which helps identify when waste of materials are no longer classed as waste – could help provide £1 billion in “business opportunities” to the economy by 2026.

Furthermore, Dr Leinster drew attention to the forthcoming Environment Agency publication on businesses' environmental performance. The report offers a review of the efforts of industry in both England and Wales and grades businesses on an A-to-E scale.

It claims that the majority of businesses are performing well on environmental issues, with 55% achieving an ‘A' standard, with nearly 90% of companies achieving either an ‘A' or a ‘B' standard. It emerged within the figures that waste sites were culpable for the most serious pollution incidents, causing around 50% of all serious incidents.