Greater Manchester councils praised for waste services

Oldham metropolitan borough council and Bury metropolitan borough council were both given “good” two star ratings with “promising” prospects for improvement in Commission reports published last week.

Both councils' targets for recycling and composting household waste were 8% by 2003/04 and 20% by 2005/06. These targets were revised following a proposal by the Greater Manchester councils to pool performance standards for recycling and composting.

Greater Manchester Municipal Waste Management Strategy, which covers both areas, has set targets aiming to recycle and compost 50% of household waste in the Greater Manchester area by 2020.

Oldham
Oldham metropolitan borough council covers a population of 219,000, with a net budget for its waste management service in 2004/05 of 5.8 million. The council received its good rating despite missing its 2003/04 recycling target, only recycling 6% of its household waste.

The Audit Commission championed Oldham for its ambition and said it believes that the council will make improvements in the near future. It said: “The council has set measurable and challenging targets that address national and local priorities and are focused on users.”

The Audit Commission praised the council for focusing its energies on improving its missed bin collection record, satisfaction with refuse collections, recycling and cleanliness, the amount of waste collected and recycled, cost of waste collections and fly-tipping.

Commission inspectors said: “These targets and service standards are meaningful and relevant to customers and partners. Overall targets seek to improve outcomes.”

Bury
The Commission said Bury council holds waste management in “high regard,” setting out long term goals for improvement. Inspectors said: “Waste management is recognised as a council priority and has clear aims and annual targets for improvement up to 2006/07.”

Bury received particular praise for the household recycling and waste collection service it offers residents. Of the 78,000 households covered, the council is able to offer fortnightly paper recycling collections to 76,000. It also offers fortnightly collection of garden waste from 40,000 households and collection of bulky waste items. In 2003/04 Bury recycled or composted 9.3% of the waste it collected.

Inspectors also said Bury's waste management targets fit into national and regional plans well. The report said: “The council’s aims for waste management are clear, generally challenging and consistent with the national and Greater Manchester objectives for waste.”

However, Bury was taken to task for not tackling the levels of waste being generated by its households. The report said that although the council's targets in relation to recycling were challenging, they were “less challenging in relation to levels of waste collected.”