New chair for LARAC as Doran joins Defra

The new look executive for the committee comes following the appointment of Andy Doran, who works in the policy unit at Surrey county council, to a senior position with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Mr Doran will join Defra’s waste and recycling team next month as head of local authority waste performance.
The change in chairmanship was approved at a recent meeting of the committee which also saw a new line-up for the LARAC executive.

Lee Marshall, newly elected chair of LARAC

Lee Marshall has responsibility for recycling as head of streetscene for Stratford on Avon district council as head of Streetscene – he was formerly a vice chair of LARAC.

Neil Ferris from North Lincolnshire replaces Mr Marshall as a vice chair with Durk Reyner of Welwyn Hatfield continuing as the other vhice chair. Joy Blizzard of Shropshire county council will look after LARAC communications.

Delighted

Mr Doran said that he was sorry to be leaving Larac but was delighted that Lee Marshall was taking on the chair. “I have worked with Lee over the last few years and he has the skills to take LARAC forward. With the vice chairs and executive, LARAC has a very strong team and I am looking forward to working with them in the future.”

In his new post, Mr Doran will be taking on part of the work of Ray Alderton who has had responsibility for the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS) within Defra. Mr Doran explained that his role is to “add capacity into Defra to help them in their work with local authorities to reach their targets. In my supporting role I will be tackling particular areas including the implementation of LATS within waste disposal authorities.”

Mr Doran, who has had a range of experience including work within the Local Government Association, the London borough of Hillingdon and Alcan, said that while LATS would mainly involve county councils and unitary authorities, the targets could not be achieved by these authorities alone. ““We will need joint working and the delivery of the targets is in the hands of everyone. If there are mechanisms in the way we will need to look at these.”

Lee Marshall said that LARAC “will miss Andy’s experience, knowledge and drive that has helped push the organisation forward a great distance in the last two years under his guidance.”

Career

Mr Marshall, 33, started his career with Woking borough council in Surrey where he became recycling and environment officer. He joined Grundon Waste Management in 1999 and then in 2001 moved to Coventry as client services officer. Last year he was appointed to his Stratford on Avon post and is the district link officer for the Warwickshire waste strategy.

“I hope to build on what LARAC has achieved,” Mr Marshall said. “Andy has taken us a long way forward in the last few years and I will be following policy of evolution rather than revolution.”

One project Mr Marshall is keen on is to develop a national waste facts dataset which can provide information across the country. “We are running some pilot work on this three regions at present.”