'
Well disposed' is the Audit Commission's national report into one of the biggest, most urgent, and most costly challenges facing English councils: waste disposal.
The report says that thanks in part to ongoing efforts by people and councils to generate less waste and recycle more, the UK is on track to meet European Union Landfill Directive targets to reduce the amount of waste that gets dumped in landfill by 2013.
However, the report finds that councils could face fines totalling millions of pounds in the longer term unless they deliver planned waste treatment facilities and keep up the pressure to reduce, reuse and recycle. The report concludes that councils must continue to act quickly and cleverly if they are to avoid these substantial fines, and waste disposal arrangements that don’t enable them to meet their financial and environmental objectives.
We have developed two practical tools to help encourage a wider understanding of waste issues among council staff and members. The first is a slidepack to provide an introduction and overview of the subject to those who are new to it and the second is a guide for scrutiny committees. We would very much value your comments on the scrutiny guide and will update our guidance in light of suggestions for improvement based on councils' own experiences of scrutinising waste procurement projects. Please send your comments on the guide, and the report and other materials to nationalstudies@audit-commission.gov.uk.