Agreed by the NAWDO membership at its AGM last year, the constitutional change means that partnerships of any council managing waste disposal functions – including two-tier and unitary authority areas – can now become members in their own right.
This will enable the estimated 57 waste partnerships nationally to join the existing NAWDO members from 87 authorities – including London boroughs, county councils and metropolitan and unitary authorities – which could significantly expand the organisation’s membership.
In addition, the updated constitution allows for the formation of a NAWDO Partnerships Forum should the membership support this move in future, the organisation said.
According to NAWDO chair and head of waste at Suffolk county council, Steve Palfrey, the move “recognises that the types of partnerships have changed in recent years and the NAWDO membership wishes to embrace those changes”.
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Speaking to letsrecycle.com, Mr Palfrey said that local authorities were now working together more and that NAWDO was seeking to provide partnerships with an opportunity to come together to share best practice.
He said: “We recognise that the financial climate dictates that local authorities are changing their arrangements and there are a lot more partnerships arrangements going on. So we didn’t want to exclude these organisations or limit the membership of NAWDO to just the county councils or unitary authorities in areas where those partnerships are.”
LARAC
Mr Palfrey also indicated that NAWDO – a network for senior waste managers with statutory responsibility for waste disposal – is seeking to work more closely with the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC), whose membership is open to recycling officers from all UK local authorities.
He said: “I think NAWDO and LARAC certainly are keen to increase the amount of work that we do together as organisations. I have had a number of meetings with Andrew Bird (LARAC chair) to discuss ways that we might work together, avoid duplication and pool our resources a bit.”
Following the AGM on September 8 2014, NAWDO’s policy and advisory committee has set the standard annual membership at £100 to partnerships joining from this 2015.
Kent Resource Partnership
The first partnership to be accepted as a member in its own right using the new provisions is the Kent Resource Partnership (KRP).
KRP manager Paul Vanston, said: “NAWDO is one of the most valuable local authority groupings that exists in our area of work. It makes complete sense for the KRP to continue our relationship and support of NAWDO by becoming a member in our own right, in addition to the existing membership of Kent county council.”
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