LGA promotes working together on waste

The report, 'Working Together on Waste', is the first publication from the Local Government Association's (LGA) Joint County/District Task Group, and the publication explained that waste was chosen as the first area of focus due to its “long history” of joint-working.

Explaining that, as a result of this, “there is already a lot of best practice that we can learn from”, the report outlines 12 case studies of how district and county councils have worked together on waste.

And, the Task Group, which brings together the management committee of the LGA's County Councils Network and the office holders of its District Sounding Group, explained why the 12 examples had been chosen.

“Working together, they have significantly increased recycling rates, made substantial savings, and secured large amounts of external funding,” it said.

“Many have put aside historical differences and have fostered trust by bringing members and officers together in joint committees and working groups,” it added.

The report explained that “joint working is one of the key mechanisms for delivering improved services more efficiently,” stating that this was “particularly true” for two-tier handling of waste.

With county councils handling waste treatment and disposal and waste and recycling collections being dealt with at a district council level, the report claimed there was “great scope for collaboration”.

And, it noted that: “Support has therefore been made available at national and regional level for counties and districts to work together more closely.”

Case studies

The 12 case studies detailed in the report include Project Integra in Hampshire, which has been responsible for the development of three Energy-from-Waste facilities in the county, and the Lancashire Waste Partnership, which has been heavily involved in procuring and developing a £2 billion PFI-funded waste treatment solution in the county (see letsrecycle.com story).

They also detail the achievements of Resource Cumbria, which is responsible for the county's collection, disposal and civic amenity sites, and Somerset Waste Partnership, which was originally established in 1992 and achieved a 50.9% recycling rate in 2007/08.

And, the report includes the Suffolk waste partnership, which was one of only two waste partnerships to be awarded Beacon status by the government in 2006, and Staffordshire's Joint Municipal Waste Strategy and PFI-funded waste treatment project, dubbed 'Project W2R'.

The other examples of joint-working offered as case studies within the report are: Oxfordshire Waste Partnership; the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Waste Partnership, RECAP; Essex's Waste Management Advisory Board; the Buckinghamshire Waste Partnership; Hertfordshire Waste Partnership; and, the Northamptonshire Waste Partnership.