Issue - meetings

To hear from North London Waste Authority representatives on accountability and governance.

The Chair welcomed Councillor Meehan, David Beadle – Managing Director, NLWA – and Tom Hemming – Waste Strategy Manager.

The Chair asked Councillor Meehan to explain some of the background of the NLWA – what is was, who it was responsible to and how it was scrutinised.

Councillor Meehan explained that the NLWA was a public authority which had been set up in its’ own right following the implementation of The Waste Regulation and Disposal (Authorities) Order 1985.  Under this Act, each Local Authority appointed two elected Members to sit on the Board.  When sitting on the NLWA Board, members were a representative of the NLWA and not the Local Authority.  The Board as a whole makes the decisions.  These decisions were made in public (apart from sensitive decisions, i.e. procurement), but there was no scrutiny function.

David Beadle added that at the time of setting up the NLWA, 5 other statutory joint waste authorities were also set up.  There were links with officers at each borough and a partnership board with technical officers to work through the procurement side of things.  Although the decisions were made by the NLWA, a lot of these decisions were presented to Local Authorities, and Members would have the opportunity to discuss and scrutinise these.

Councillor McNamara commented that thought needed to go into how OSC could constructively contribute.  He made reference to a piece of work undertaken by the Environment & Housing Scrutiny Panel on waste and recycling where panel members had spoken with Bexley – a unitary waste disposal authority where Councillors had a role in scrutinising the waste function.  He stated that it was important to speak to other waste authorities to get a sense of how they carried out a scrutiny role.

Councillor McNamara also referred to the The Waste Regulation and Disposal (Authorities) Order 1985 and questioned whether this had been superseded by the Local Government Act 2000 which set out the scrutiny arrangements for public organisations.  He added that this did not mean that the NLWA did not work, or that they way it worked was wrong but that there needed to be some exploration into the scrutiny function of the organisation.

In response to Councillor McNamara, Councillor Meehan stated that it would be simplistic to say that Haringey were not aware of issues or decisions of NLWA.  There was a close working relationship between the boroughs and the officers within the NLWA, and decisions were not taken without discussions with the boroughs.  With regards to amendments to legislation, there was no decision taken to scrutinise waste authorities.

Stephen Lawrence-Orumwense – Assistant Head of Legal Services – advised that the creation of the NLWA predated the Local Government Act 2000, and the scrutiny function arose from the LGA 2000.  If members wished to change the process then representations would have to be made to Parliament or the Secretary of State.

Councillor Rice invited Councillor Solomon to ask questions:

Did Haringey Council go out to tender before it appointed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 196