The partnership between the county council and the councils of Stafford, Tamworth, Newcastle, Lichfield, Cannock Chase, Staffordshire Moorlands, South Staffordshire and East Staffordshire came under fire in a Commission report released last week.
The report described Staffordshire county council's waste management service as “fair”, but with “uncertain prospects for improvement”. The county has a low landfill rate – currently about 59% – with 24% of its waste being incinerated at the 200,000 tonne capacity Stoke on Trent facility run by MES Environmental. The municipal waste recycling rate for the county is currently 17%.
The council's statutory targets are for recycling and composting 18% by 2003-04 and 27% by 2005-06. On top of this, the council has a Local Public Service Agreement in place that requires it to recycle 24.75% of its household waste by 2004-05.
Inspectors said that Staffordshire county council cannot reach these targets without the help of the partnership, which was formed in early 2002. However, the report warned that within the partnership, “a culture of collaboration is lacking and remains a threat to progress”.
It said: “The group operates without any formal authority or memorandum of understanding, it has no budget or pooled resources and is reliant on encouragement, peer pressure and transparent performance reporting to motivate those councils for whom recycling has not been a priority. While this has had an effect, recent elections have resulted in significant change in the political membership and this, coupled with officer turnover, poses a potential risk to continued progress.”
Zero waste
Collectively, the partnership is developing an integrated municipal waste management strategy that calls for zero waste to landfill by the year 2020.
But inspectors warned that the partnership had not adopted their waste strategy yet, and that the poor relationship between members was affecting the awareness of recycling among the public as well as the development of markets for recyclables.
It said: “To date, there has been little co-ordination and collaboration amongst the Staffordshire councils in the development of (awareness) activities and the marketing of recyclable materials.”
The county council was also criticised for a lack of friendliness towards customers among staff and for making “very little effort” to encourage the re-use of materials. Although it provides containers for furniture at two of its 13 household waste recycling centres, there is no involvement with voluntary re-use groups and limited promotional and educational activities aimed only at the commercial sector.
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