Joy Blizzard takes charge at LARAC

The move is being seen as “temporary”, and has been forced because Mr Marshall has left his job as head of street scene at Stratford-upon-Avon council and is therefore not eligible for membership of LARAC's executive.

Mr Marshall is understood to be taking on a new role at Powys county council – the best council for recycling in Wales during 2004/05.

Until Mr Marshall formally starts at Powys, Ms Blizzard has taken on the role of chair of LARAC, which represents the views of more than 430 recycling officers throughout the UK.

Waste initiative officer for Shropshire county council, Joy Blizzard told letsrecycle.com today that she hoped and expected her new role at LARAC to be on a temporary basis.

Temporary
“The appointment is at this time temporary and we hope to see Lee Marshall back as chairman once he has secured a post within the local authority sector,” Ms Blizzard explained, adding that LARAC could not continue without a chairman. “There is always so much going on in waste,” she explained.

There will be a LARAC meeting in April, at which the decision on whether to reinstate Mr Marshall into the Executive will be taken.

Mr Marshall had been chair of LARAC for almost one year, having replaced Andy Doran who had moved to Defra. Mr Doran is now set to move to aluminium recycling company Novelis in April.

LARAC has also taken the opportunity to make further changes with Pendle borough council's waste management coordinator, Carole Taylor, joining Durk Reyner as vice chairman. Ms Blizzard said that Ms Taylor would be “excellent” in the role as she was very experienced within the LARAC executive.