New ESA chairman to lobby government

Mr Riddle, who is the chief executive of Cory Environmental, told attendees at the ESA annual lunch in central London that he would be encouraging the government to provide more guidance on a whole raft of legislation. “We should be looking for the government to take positive steps, not just the negative steps we have been seeing up until now,” he said.

Duties
As chairman of the ESA, the trade association for the waste management industry, Mr Riddle's main duties will be coordinating ESA policies and helping the executive to define, express and promote its policies.

He said of his new role: “I'm looking forward to the year ahead, and to tackling some of the key issues on the waste agenda. At the fore is making real progress in meeting European-led targets and seeking much greater clarity on planning decision making to ensure the facilities are put in place to meet these targets.”

Mr Riddle agreed with guest speaker Digby Jones, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, that the UK planning system was a major obstacle to waste industry innovation. Mr Jones said: “We have a planning system that makes it so difficult for the waste management industry to do what they're asked.”

Incentives
In a well-received speech, Mr Jones argued that the government should provide positive incentives to business to encourage better use of resources. “We cannot afford to get bogged down in complying with cumbersome legislation, so we need either legislation that helps or deregulation. And we need regulation from Brussels to be consistently applied throughout the EU,” he said.

Mr Jones also said a good reputation for corporate social responsibility could bring economic rewards for businesses.

“People like working for companies with good reputation and more and more people like buying goods and services from companies that show they care. Taking positive action in this area will help companies capitalise on many of the opportunities, many of them wealth-creating, for sustainable development,” he said.