Issue - meetings

The Assistant Chief Executive outlined the procedure for the fifth occasion where the Council had a Haringey Debate.

The opposition spokesperson – Councillor Solomon gave an introduction of the debate on the issue of waste and waste disposal and where the Council currently is with disposal and techniques, what is likely to happen with waste disposal in the future, and what the options are for solving any associated problems.

Councillor Solomon introduced Dr Andrew Tubb – from the University of the West of England.  

Dr Tubb addressed the meeting and stated that one of the disadvantages of a 25-year contract was that you would be unable to take advantage of emerging technologies, and would be tied into what was in place when the contract was issued. It was not possible to predict what would happen in the next 25 years, and long term contracts were unable to take this into account. The level of risk associated with such a contract would depend on the estimates that had been made regarding anticipated waste amounts for the duration of the contract. Dr Tubb provided information on different waste technologies and their value for money, and indicated that MBT ranked among the lowest for value for money delivered. There were many factors which contributed to the level of waste generated, and the trend for a reduction in waste was likely to continue and even accelerate. It was possible, with the right technologies, to divert 95% of waste from landfill – these solutions were all open to the Council.

Following this the Mayor announced that there would be 45 minutes for debating, with a maximum of 3 minutes speaking time for each speaker.

A 45 minute debate then took place.

In response to a question from Cllr Stanton regarding how the assertions made in his presentation could be tested, Dr Tubb advised that a full life cycle analysis of the various options was the only way to really test them, but that this might be difficult to undertake without assistance from external expertise.

Cllr Erskine highlighted that there were a number of ways in which people could individually reduce the level of waste they produce, by choosing to buy products with less packaging, by buying less, by reusing and by repairing. People could always look back at the supply chain of products, and ask companies what they were doing to make their products more recyclable.

Cllr Wilson stated that it was important to bring people with you when introducing changes, and that to this end, consultation was essential. This had not happened when the fortnightly waste collection was rolled out; there should have been a specific pilot, with feedback taken into account and lessons learnt from. As a consequence, work by scrutiny indicated that 40% of residents were not satisfied with the new arrangements. There was a need to recognise that a one size fits all approach was not appropriate across the whole borough, and this had led to issues, which could  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51