One of four joint waste disposal authorities in London, the Authority has denounced the Mayor's bid to take over responsibility for waste disposal and planning across Greater London.
– Cllr Timothy Coleridge, WRWA
It says the Mayor's plans would create a “new tier of bureaucracy” that would lead to extra costs for Londoners.
The warning came in the WRWA's official response to the government's review of London government, for which the public consultation ended last week.
The Authority, which represents the four boroughs of Lambeth, Hammersmith & Fulham, Wandsworth and the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, said required improvements in London's recycling could be achieved more cost-effectively by improving co-ordination between existing authorities.
And, the WRWA dismissed the Mayor's claim that London requires 330 new recycling and composting facilities.
“Distraction”
WRWA chairman Cllr Timothy Coleridge said: “The real issues facing London are how we can recycle more and how we can find new methods of disposal to replace landfill. The last thing we need is the costly distraction of another bureaucracy.”
“The Mayor's vision of hundreds of extra waste facilities across the capital is unworkable. He could end up adding over 135 to the average council tax bill if he got his way. Rather than lobbying for a single authority he should be making his existing organisation more efficient and getting behind the national waste strategy,” Cllr Coleridge said.
Assurance has already come from the Mayor of London that his proposed single waste authority would be “fair and equitable” for the boroughs (see letsrecycle.com story).
Belvedere
The WRWA is currently awaiting a decision from the Secretary of State for Industry over a proposal to build a new incinerator to take waste from its four boroughs. The incinerator is proposed for a site in East London, at Belvedere in the borough of Bexley – and has not received the support of the London Mayor.
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Cllr Coleridge, who is a councillor for Kensington & Chelsea, said: “Now that the government has made it clear that they support energy extraction from waste through safe incineration, we hope the Mayor will drop his long-standing opposition to our plans for a new electricity-producing plant at Belvedere.
“It is his dogmatic approach and reliance on unproven technology that will drive up waste disposal costs for Londoners,” Cllr Coleridge said.
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