The offer of the TEEP template comes as local authorities face significant costs in hiring consultants to carry out assessments of their collections schemes ahead of the separate collection rules coming in from January 2015.
letsrecycle.com has been told by some local authorities that fees ranging from £5,000 for a basic consultation up to £12,000 in total for producing reports are being proposed by consultants.
And, one senior council officer said: “This is a complex picture which could change quite easily in the coming months and then we might have to pay out again for more advice.”
Other local authorities are following the Route Map which has been devised by local authority-linked recycling organisations themselves, with the support of the Waste & Resources Action Programme and the London Waste & Recycling Board.
Best practice
Kay Cocks, partnership officer for the Staffordshire Waste Partnership, said: “The Staffordshire template follows the Route Map which the Environment Agency have noted to be best practice.”
She explained that Staffordshire had developed the template to help its members better understand and meet the requirements of the new rules as well as keeping costs down.
Ms Cocks added: “Originally we had only thought that the template would be used within Staffordshire but we thought it might well be of use to other authorities so we are running some workshops about it with the support of LARAC and the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management.”
The template will be available to local authorities who attend a workshop, for a fee, about its use.
Information about the event notes: “The template aims to offer local authorities the opportunity to conduct their service assessments for legal compliance themselves, using a series of questions. In completing the template, the outcome will indicate the legal compliance of your service, and acts as a robust document for the enforcing body should your local authority be called into question.”
Workshops are to be held on 19 November 2014 at the Knutton Lane Depot in Newcastle-under-Lyme with discounts for local authority CIWM members.
More information is available at: Staffordshire template workshops
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