We’re at the height of summer and the great LARAC tour of Britain has continued in full force through rain, shine and humidity.
As I write this, the temperature has settled down to a pleasant 20 degrees, and having personally managed to get burnt in both Greece and Grantham within the space of a fortnight, I’m certainly not complaining. For this month’s blog I’m going to speak about the positive work we’ve seen throughout the month and avoid mentioning either the Prime Minister or the World Cup – wish me luck!
At the start of June, we held our Scotland Conference in Glasgow where it was very much not the 35 degrees the month would end up throwing our way! None-the-less, a really great and well attended event with interesting and varying speakers. It was also fantastic to catch-up with some of our local authority members from north of the border in person. Next stop, Wales, at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, on 7 July.
The DEFRA Change Networks have also continued this month with a great event at the town hall in Burton-upon-Trent for authorities across the Midlands. It’s been fascinating so far to see the differences in the impact of policy changes, particularly Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and Simpler Recycling, on local authorities across the country, and how different solutions and opportunities sit depending on regional variation, infrastructure and demographics. Further free events are due to take place in Wealden (South East), Taunton (South West), Kensington (London), and Peterborough (East). As a Lincoln City fan, I’ll try not to let the fact the latter event is being held at Peterborough United’s football stadium put a downer on the day!
Jokes aside, these Change Networks are a fantastic opportunity for authorities to find out more about the plans from DEFRA and DESNZ, as well as to highlight challenges, concerns and opportunities directly to the Government for feedback to ministers ahead of the upcoming ETS and Simpler Recycling milestones. If you can make it to one, we highly recommend you do so! Registration links for each upcoming event can be found here.
Among these events, I will be Chairing a session at letsrecycle’s National Civic Amenity Site (NCAS) event at another football ground, this time in Walsall, on 16 July. It’s not too late to book a ticket (and LARAC members get a 10% discount by using code LARAC10 at checkout). I hope to see some of you there!
Not to be forgotten are the consultations! Whilst things have shifted towards implementation, there are still consultations out there. WRAP and PackUK have both published consultations on Resources & Waste Sector Net Zero Transition Plan and the proposed approach to calculate LA payments in year 3 of pEPR, respectively. LARAC is unlikely to respond to these directly but would encourage members to respond as individual authorities to provide appropriate and council-specific data and positions. LARAC has also submitted its responses to the HSE consultation on proposals for The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 and DAERA’s consultation From Waste to Worth: Northern Ireland Waste Prevention Programme.
So, even with the four governments shortly heading towards their summer recesses, we don’t expect the policy work to stop. Let’s keep the momentum going!
