The everlasting month of January has finally come to an end, but not before I had chaired my first LARAC Webinar on tackling fire risks in the waste stream, if you missed this webinar, or any of the previous ones, they are available to all members free on our website.
Along with London Representative, Cindy Gardener, I attended the Veolia Sustainable Futures event at Millwall's football stadium which included a site visit to the Southwark Integrated Waste Management Facility. It was great to see and hear about all the excellent work Veolia are delivering with their local authority partners.
I also held my first LARAC Executive quarterly meeting as Chair. Each year, we have two in-person meetings and two online, I must give thanks to the team behind the scenes at LARAC for all the hard work in bringing these meetings and papers together.
Planning for the LARAC 2026 conferences in the UK, Wales and Scotland was on the agenda too, a first for me at this early stage. It was exciting to see all the planned speakers and topics taking shape. I can’t wait to bring these events to our members over the next nine months.
Sadly, Robert Lewis, our LARAC Wales representative, has had to step down from his role due to work commitments. We are all sorry to see Rob go and extremely grateful for all his hard work in Wales since joining the Executive. In the interim Kevin Bayliss (Monmouthshire Council) who is currently Rob’s buddy has stepped in as Wales Regional Representative. A formal nomination and election for a new representative will take place in September 2026.
Back in my day job, the emergency response ended in early February, and I attended the Biogas to Grid and Carbon Capture Seminar to speak about converting the West Sussex Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) facility into an Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant. I was then finally able to take some well-earned annual leave and have a bit of a break.
The biggest surprise of the month was receiving a phone call from my wife asking me why I had received a letter from Buckingham Palace. Much to her surprise and mine along with a colleague, I was invited to St James's Palace to a reception hosted by the King and Queen to recognise the contributions of those who work in local and regional government.
So, on a wet Tuesday evening, we made our way to the Palace to enter what I can only describe as one of the most amazing settings I have ever seen. I, along with many others, was able to greet the King and shake his hand. I was also fortunate enough to be able to enter the Throne room. This is an occasion I will never forget, likely a once in a lifetime event and I feel very honoured to if been provided with the opportunity.
