The event, organised by letsrecycle.com event and supported by AmeyCespa, was entitled Teamwork: The efficient delivery of waste and recycling services. It identified the need for a more cooperative approach between councils as well as efficiency reviews if they are to achieve savings within their waste and recycling division.
The conference, which also involved LWaRB was attended by the commercial sector as well as local authorities and government organisations.
Efficiency
The conference heard that the Efficiencies Programme is the result of a joint project between LWaRB, London Councils and London waste authorities in a bid to deliver savings for local authorities through joint procurement opportunities and changing service delivery where needed.
Wayne Hubbard, chief operating officer of LWaRB, confirmed that the programme was now open for applications from interested London local authorities.
Mr Hubbard said: LWaRB will be working in partnership with Improvement and Efficiency South East (iESE), Local Partnerships and WRAP, and will act as the front door for London boroughs who wish to access help from these organisations.
The programme will be split into seven workstreams including: joint procurement; waste management service framework; reuse and recycling sites; efficiency reviews; service sharing; best practice tools; and model specifications and contracts.
Commenting on the efficiency reviews Mr Hubbard said: LWaRB will offer repayable grants to boroughs to fund efficiency reviews of waste related service. And, he revealed that LWaRB had appointed consultancy Eunomia to help develop the efficiency review process and deliver the reviews.
Mr Hubbard explained that councils would only pay back the grant from the programme to support change when the authority had achieved savings.
iESE
LWaRB will be working with iESE on its waste services framework. David Greenfield, director of waste resources at iESE, gave an update at the conference. He explained that the evaluation stage of the framework tender was now underway after receiving a very positive response (see letsrecycle.com story).
Mr Greenfield said: We have seen a good response from the industry. From our perspective companies are looking at this as something that will help them. This is about making the procurement process for both contractors and local authorities far more transparent and effective.
Mr Greenfield also said that iESE had authorities lined up to start the procurement process when the framework is launched in May 2012.
Authorities
The event also heard Councillor Clyde Loakes, cabinet member for the environment at Waltham Forest and LWaRB board member, highlight the differences across London in terms of policies and waste management.
Cllr Loakes said: We all know that waste is the third highest spend area and in these challenging times there is the need to identify savings and improve the service offered to our residents.
As a local politician first and foremost I know I dont get elected unless my streets are clean and my bins are emptied. These are crucial for a local councillor. Unless local politicians are at the forefront then we are not going to make some of these progressive steps forward
Mattresses are my particular passion. There are masses of mattresses being generated in London and there is not a single solution to pick up that area. There is definitely a need for a pan London approach to furniture.
London Councils
Alice Ellison, policy and project manager of environment and transport at London Councils, offered some insight into the Cutting waste not services report which highlighted five areas of potential focus for London boroughs.
These were: raising new revenue; joint procurement; contract review; shared services; and behavioural change approaches.
Ms Ellison said that huge achievements had already been made but manufacturers, residents and retailers needed to take more responsibility for what they produce.
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