An Audit Commission best value inspection report recently reviewed the council's waste management service and said that it was a good two star service and suggested that it is likely to improve. The Commission recommended that the waste management service now be held up as an example of best practice.
John Owen, director of Highways, Transport and Property, said: “Of the councils in Wales reviewed so far, we are one of only two which received two stars. However, ours was the only review which recorded a score of two stars and likely to improve. The Audit Commission's report commended Powys County
Council's performance as an example of national best practice.”
Powys had a recycling rate of 14% last year and expects to hit 20% this year, which means that it is likely to reach its government target of 25% by 2003/04. Mr Owen said: “Recycling is set to exceed 10,500 tonnes or 20% of all waste this year. This means that recycling performance has doubled since 2000.”
On track
During 2000/01, kerbside recycling was introduced in the north Powys towns of Newtown and Welshpool and kerbside recycling schemes now cover 11,000 households, or one fifth of the county's households. The council is on track to meet its target of providing this service to 25% of households by 2003.
The high recycling rate is a result of revolutionary “adopt-a-site” scheme which has seen 60 community groups set up recycling schemes. Under the initiative, community groups manage bring sites on behalf of the council. The council supplies the site and recycling containers, pays groups 20 for each tonne of waste they recycle and arranges the contracts for the containers to be emptied. The scheme is popular because the groups look after the sites and promote them. The council benefits because use of the sites has increased dramatically and the payments are used to benefit the local community. The Welshpool civic amenity site, for example, has a recycling rate of 83.6%.
Partnerships are also being set up through the development of eight new recycling sites financed and run by the private sector. In return for setting up the sites the council pays the private sector partners a gate fee of 40 to 45 per tonne for wastes taken at the site. The contracts specify a minimum recycling rate of 60% but the sites are achieving around 80% of household bulky items at a cost below council run civic amenity site costs.
Chairman of Housing, Environmental Health and Trading Standards Committee, Councillor Betty Rae Watkins, said: “I must congratulate all of the staff who have worked so hard to make this scheme a success and I must say thank you to the local people who are also making this project such a success.”
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