It was great to see so many LARAC members at the LARAC Conference last week. Whilst I get the chance to be able to chat with some of you I don’t get as much opportunity as I would like as I am busy liaising with EMG about the management of the event. We also have an Executive meeting the day before and a session with the LARAC Scholars, so it is a full on three days for me.
With the Resource and Waste Strategy in England due it felt like there was a sense of anticipation but also a little of treading water while we wait to find out what it contains. Will it be the biggest shake up in waste policy since the Environmental Protection Act 1990 or will it be an anti-climax? Those of you who were in the conference hall will have heard me say a short piece about the policy work that LARAC does on your behalf. It is so important for local authorities to be heard otherwise the chances of things changing for the better, of more funds flowing in or producer responsibility truly meaning that are going to be diminished. However, we realise that aspect of LARACs work might not be as visible as a great conference at a low price, so we wanted to remind everyone that the membership fee does a lot more for members than simply an annual conference.
It was great to see some really good examples of how local authorities are working hard to deliver services in new and different ways so that budgets can be balanced. I am sure that like me many of you greeted the headlines that austerity is over, from comments at another conference, with more than hint of disbelief. That sort of statement will not help us when we still must look at possible cuts because local authority budgets are still being reduced. So, to see how you are changing services, lifting communications and still rising to the budget challenges is impressive and heart-warming.
Hopefully next year’s conference programme will be packed with presentations on how the new strategy is changing our world for the better. We think we have the structure about right, start high level and sometimes left field, come down into some nuts and bolts, back out for the debate and then case studies to round off day one. The workshops on day two are the chance to tailor your conference experience and the feedback I heard from them was every positive too.
Hopefully you cannot see it, but a lot of hard work goes into making the LARAC Conference happen. We want it to be a success for several reasons. As always if you have things you feel could be improved then please let me know, we think it is a good event, but we also want to make it better if we can.
NB: By the end of the week, all delegates should receive a link to the presentations and the gallery of photos of the event. We will get the presentations up on our website, very shortly afterwards.
