Issue - meetings

[Report of the Assistant Director for  Environment and Community Safety. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Environment]. Cabinet to consider the Inter Authority Agreement (IAA) between the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) and its seven constituent boroughs, which will establish a legally binding agreement to underpin future long term waste disposal/treatment arrangements and to ensure that costs are minimised, and allocated between boroughs on an equitable basis.

The Leader introduced the report which proposed agreement of the Inter Authority Agreement. This proposal had been put forward to all 7 constituent boroughs and would allow them to pay an equal and proportionate cost for waste and recycling. This agreement was needed before the end of January 2016 to allow the menu pricing to begin from April 2016 as per the previous Cabinet and Cabinet Member Signing decisions.

RESOLVED

1.    To approve the appended IAA and grant approval for the legal document to be signed by the Chief Operating Officer, such signing to be upon confirmation that all parties have made like resolutions;

2.    To agree to apportion the levy from 2016/17 onwards until the parties unanimously agree otherwise in accordance with the menu pricing mechanism (which forms part of the attached IAA);

3.    To agree delegated authority for the Chief Operating Officer to approve any minor amendments to the finalised legal document before signing.

Reasons for decision

The IAA will formalise the existing governance arrangements and procedures for considering matters as they relate to the NLWA/borough interface.  The detailed case for entering into the IAA is contained in the previous Cabinet and Cabinet Member Signing reports that have been approved up to 2012.

It is worth noting that where the revised IAA differs from the previously agreed document, this is predominantly in respect to the removal of certain obligations on the boroughs that had been deemed necessary to mirror the proposed NLWA contracts.  Their removal serves to de-risk the agreement in key areas, in particular the commitment to guaranteed minimum tonnages for specific waste streams, against which any contractual liabilities would have been allocated to boroughs.

Further details of the key changes since the IAA was agreed in-principle in 2011, as well as the main responsibilities placed on the parties to the IAA under the revised text, and a summary of the rationale for the menu pricing system are contained in Appendix B.

Alternative options considered

The Council is not obligated to sign up to an IAA.  In the absence of an IAA the constituent boroughs and NLWA would remain subject to the non-binding and less formal arrangements that currently govern the NLWA/borough interface, other than where specified by statute (i.e. the levy, NLWA power of direction).

The case for formalising the NLWA/borough interface has been outlined in detail in the previous Cabinet reports.  Most significantly, not agreeing an IAA will mean retaining the current levying system, which is based on the statutory default (with limited agreed changes) and is recognised by all parties as being unfit for purpose.