As he laid out the revised London Plan – published today to include further detail on London's recycling and waste management needs – Mr Livingstone said he was backing moves in Parliament to push for a single London waste authority.
– Ken Livingstone
Although secretary of state Ruth Kelly rejected Mr Livingstone's proposals for a single waste authority in the summer (see letsrecycle.com story), the Mayor is supporting an amendment in the GLA Bill in an attempt to get MPs' backing for the idea.
Mr Livingstone said: “Recycling rates need to double by 2020, and recycling facilities need to quadruple if London boroughs are to meet the new targets and avoid crippling EU fines. That's why I'm pressing for a London-wide waste authority to identify the facilities and new technology we need to get to grips with recycling.”
He commented: “A strategic waste authority is vitally important and so I will be supporting a detailed amendment to the Bill in the New Year”.
The Greater London Authority Bill is currently moving through Parliament to give the Mayor increased powers on planning for waste plants, as well as to set up a forum of London boroughs to set a strategic direction for London's waste management (see letsrecycle.com story).
Plan
Separately from the Bill, the revised London Plan published today lays out a more detailed view of the Mayor's ambitions for policy areas including waste management.
It forms an updated version of an original London Plan, which the mayor issued in 2004 to show how he would tackle his responsibilities over waste after he came to office.
Changes made to the Plan include more details on the need for boroughs to develop waste facilities. It suggests an extra 308 waste facilities are needed by 2020 – including 199 materials recycling facilities, 57 in-vessel composting sites, 16 mechanical biological treatment plants, 25 anaerobic digestion facilities and 11 gasification or pyrolysis plants – to manage anticipated waste arisings of 13 million tonnes a year.
The plan states that local authorities will need to identify 14.3 hectares of land every year between 2005 and 2020 which is not currently used for waste management for the facilities– which will enable London to manage 85% of its waste by 2020.
It also promotes where new sites could be located, with particular emphasis on industrial sites in Bexley, Brent, Newham and Enfield, and favours the development of new technology plants over incineration.
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Mr Livingstone said: “Meeting London's new recycling targets will be a great challenge. London has the UK's worst waste management record, and we cannot go on simply dumping our rubbish outside of the capital.”
The Mayor's bid for a single London waste authority remains highly unpopular among the London boroughs, who believe a wide-ranging shake-up in waste responsibilities for the capital would hinder progress towards landfill targets set for 2010 and beyond (see letsrecycle.com story).
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