Worcestershire County Council is to survey district councils as part of a potential move to creating a joint waste authority with Herefordshire County Council.

The decision was made at a meeting of Worcestershire County Council’s Cabinet on Thursday (16 April), in which it was revealed that the cost of dealing with municipal waste in the two counties amounted to £57 million per annum and that the figure was increasing.

According to a scrutiny report on the matter, presented by Councillor Ken Pollock, Leader of the Scrutiny Task Group, a joint waste authority could lead to ‘considerable savings’ (largely through an integrated waste service).

The report reads: ‘Creation of a joint waste authority would enable a more unified waste minimisation and recycling campaign and would result in potential savings, but these are likely to vary amongst partners and a robust business case would be needed to assess exactly what those savings might be.’

Pollock pointed to the example of Somerset Waste Partnership, which has saved £1.57 million per annum since combining the waste service of its six partner councils in 2007.

As such, Pollock suggested that an audit into deducing the extent of the savings was ‘essential’.

Agreement needed from all districts

Anthony Blagg, Cabinet Member for the Environment, welcomed the recommendation of the report, and was hopeful that Worcestershire’s ‘close working relationship’ with the districts and Herefordshire County Council could be utilised.

But he stated that full support of all district councils was needed, as any plan would have to be implemented by all of them for ‘economy of scale’. Previously, five of the six Herefordshire councils declined to join discussion into an integrated waste service, citing fears of the ‘loss of sovereignty over waste collection services’.

If agreement amongst the districts could be gained however, applications would be made to fund an audit into the possible financial benefits of an integrated service. This funding would likely come from the West Midlands Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership and the Local Government Association.

Despite the agreement to take the proposal forward, Adrian Hardman, Leader of the Council and with responsibility for finance, warned that it would be a ‘slow-burning project’ due to the contractual arrangements and variety of services among the district councils.

Chance of a cohesive service good for taxpayer

Speaking at the cabinet meeting, Marcus Hart, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, said: “We should take this to next stage and talk to our district partners across the county.

“If there is a way for us to provide a joined up, cohesive and efficient service to the taxpayer at time when local governments are increasingly under pressure to make further savings, that indeed is a good thing.”

Peter McDonald, councillor for Beacon, disagreed with the decision, calling waste collection “one of the most successful and satisfactory services across the county”.

He said: “I am really concerned that we have so many services cut to the bone in this county, [and] that this cabinet should be seeking money from the government to carry out an audit to further look into something that nobody wants.”

Pollock countered that when considering the savings that have been achieved in Somerset “it’s not foolish to spend a very small amount of seed money to see how you might be able to save something of a similar order, and that would be a good way of husbanding [the council’s] scarce resources”

Find out more about the proposals for a joint waste authority and integrated waste service.