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11 December 2006

CAIRNS LAUNCHES WASTE INFRASTRUCTURE TASK FORCE REPORT

Environment Minister David Cairns has welcomed the release of a report on procuring the waste infrastructure needed to comply with national and EU legislation on landfill and recycling targets.

The Minister said: "I am indebted to the Waste Infrastructure Task Force for compiling this report. I am also conscious that when ministers talk about forthcoming legislation, or task forces, or infrastructures, it can sometimes seem a bit dull. It can sound as though these things are not really connected to our daily lives.

"In this case at least, nothing could be further from the truth. Controlling the waste we produce is becoming ever more important to us both as individuals and as a society. It has a crucial affect on our environment and on the quality of our lives. We must do something about it and this report will help in that process."

The Minister paid tribute to the close co-operation between central and local government that the report represented, and said that recommendations derived from consensus rather than confrontation were more likely to be successfully implemented than those that lacked key stakeholder support.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

  1. The Report can be viewed at www.doeni.gov.uk

  2. The Waste Infrastructure Task Force was established in April 2005 to consider and report on key stakeholders' views on how best to facilitate the delivery of the waste infrastructure required to enable Northern Ireland to meet national and European waste management targets.

  3. The Task Force is a partnership between central and local government. It comprises key stakeholders from relevant government departments, the Strategic Investment Board and local government, including waste officers, elected representatives and the Northern Ireland Local Government Association (NILGA). Its chairman is Mr Ian Maye, latterly Director of the Environmental Policy Division, Department of the Environment, and now Director of Local Government Reform, and the vice-chair is Councillor Patricia Lewsley, MLA.

  4. The Task Force engaged in an extensive process of consultation, with both local and central government. It studied and commissioned extensive research to inform its consideration of key issues, notably governance structures for waste management, waste management costs, and funding of waste management in the rest of GB.

  5. The key recommendations cover four related elements, long-term structural arrangements, short-term structural arrangements, funding the provision of waste infrastructure and assisting local government to fulfil its statutory obligations in respect of waste infrastructure procurement.

  6. The Waste Infrastructure Task Force considers implementation of its recommendations an essential element of the measures needed to advance Northern Ireland's capacity to play its full part in meeting our national obligations to dispose of waste in line with the principles of sustainable development. It advocates their full adoption.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1 Recommendation 1 - Long-Term Structural Arrangements

Given the pressures placed on the legislative timetable by the RPA, and the need to ensure that no option is excluded from full consideration, by time or other factors, the Task Force recommends the preparation of legislative proposals that allow for the creation of one or more waste disposal authorities within local government, facilitating the introduction of the preferred structure(s) once outstanding issues have been resolved in consultation with local government. We further recommend that the Department of the Environment (DOE) continues to work with key stakeholders to resolve issues identified by Task Force members.

4.4 Recommendation 2 - Short-Term Structural Arrangements

The Task Force recommends that the DOE encourages the Waste Management Groups to address the barriers to co-operation they have identified, and that it works with them to establish enhanced mechanisms for improving liaison between central and local government on issues such as data collection, research and funding. We also recommend that the Department takes steps to ensure that local government's interests are represented when other Departments propose actions which impinge on waste management issues.

5.3 Recommendation 3 - Location, Type and Cost of Infrastructure

The Task Force recommends that the Minister takes note of its ongoing work on Financial Modelling, and considers the implications of the findings of the Comparative Analysis of Waste Management Funding for the preparation of a full and detailed business case for central government support for waste infrastructure funding.

6.5 Recommendation 4

We recommend that the Minister endorses the establishment of the Programme Delivery Support Unit, and approves the prompt establishment of the Strategic Waste Board.

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