I have three questions at tonight's Council meeting.
Members of the public and my fellow councillors can ask the Mayor and
Cabinet questions about our portfolios and as well as a written reply get the
opportunity to put an oral supplementary.
Tonight I have one question from a member of the public and two from
councillors; this is the one from the member of the public:
Question
"What
support has the council provided to ensure local businesses in the borough
are aware of their responsibilities under the WEEE (Waste Electronic and Electrical
Equipment) directive?"
Reply
The council has
not to date provided information on the WEEE directive to businesses, but once
the Directive is clarified in respect to the clearing house process it will
consider providing a leaflet if Central Government do not undertake significant
publicity.
I’ve
had a bit more research done in case I get a supplementary on this one and it
turns out that we’d not be able to send out any information as yet as the
directive hasn’t been authorised and “transposed” by DEFRA.
My
colleagues have asked the following:
Question
What was the capital outlay cost of
the doorstep recycling extension and what are the ongoing costs? Are
these funded entirely through a grant? If so, what happens if/when the
grant ends? Where can residents of Lewisham borough go to recycle their
plastic bottles and are there any plans to extend this service?
Reply
The expansion of the service cost
£185K, which was funded by the London Recycling Fund. The fund provided
£60K for capital items, recycling containers and £125K for bulking and
transportation of recycling materials.
There is no funding identified at
present for this service other than the non-ring fenced DEFRA Waste Efficiency
Grant of £764K in 2006/07 and £746K 2007/08, which is yet to be apportioned.
Residents can take plastic bottles
to the Landmann
Way
CA Site or place them in the estate recycling scheme bins. We will start
rolling out the collection of plastic bottles from the doorstep in the coming
year.
Question
Will the Council work with Goldsmiths College to ensure all students in halls of residence
have easily accessible recycling facilities on the premises?
Reply
Recycling banks have been provided outside
the college. Discussions are taking place with Goldsmith and a local art group
to encourage increased recycling at the bring site which is by the halls of
residence and at the college.
We’ll
see what additional questions these points raise if any.
Update: The member of the public wasn't there to ask a further question
and the councillor who asked about the cost of the new recycling initiatives
seemed content with the answer she got. However, the last question did
raise a further point. My questioner wanted to be sure that we weren't
giving Goldsmiths students a worse deal than people who live on Lewisham
housing estates and I was able to assure him that this hadn't been the
intention and that what we'd been doing was to give them exactly the same
opportunity to recycle as tenants.
cllr_andrew.brown@lewisham.gov.uk
Cllr Andrew Brown
