Lib Dems on NLWA reinstate nappy subsidy

Liberal Democrat and Labour members of the North London Waste Authority have reinstated a subsidy for reusable or “real” nappies that was controversially scrapped by the Conservatives last September.

The Tories had previously provoked outrage by ramming through a series of provocative measures at the authority’s September meeting when several Labour members were absent and most Liberal Democrat councillors were at their party’s annual conference in Brighton.

The NLWA – the waste disposal authority for the seven north London boroughs – is made up of five Tories, five Labour members and four Lib Dems. The Tory Chair – Cllr Brian Coleman of Barnet – owes his position to the support of the Lib Dem group. That support has now been withdrawn and the Labour and Lib Dem groups have begun working together.

Cllr Coleman is known to be stepping down from the NLWA in May. His actions lost him support and wasted a lot of authority time. He’s clearly standing down because he knows that he’ll never be supported as Chair by the Lib Dem group again. We now are entering the most important phase of the NLWA’s history – we have to procure millions of pounds worth of new recycling and waste processing facilities. There is no room for political games.

As well as scrapping the nappy subsidy Cllr Coleman had proposed the payment of recycling credits to companies like Tesco, a measure that Lib Dems and Labour had rejected earlier in the year. He had also tried to close the North London Recycling Forum – a body where councillors, officers and businesses meet to discuss how to improve recycling techniques – by withdrawing its NLWA grant. That grant has now been reinstated by the Lib Dem and Labour groups.

The next NLWA meeting, in April, will discuss who should be eligible for recycling credits which the authority pays for recycling that it would not have done. Labour want the credits only to go to non-profit making groups. The Lib Dems want to include profit-making companies where recycling is their primary trading purpose. The Tories want credits to be paid to any private company that recycles.

Tesco probably produce more waste than any other company in Britain. The government should be forcing them to minimise their waste footprint and to recycle. It should not be up to public authorities like the NLWA to pay Tesco to recycle.