A report by the Director of Technical Services provided the Cabinet with information relating to the Joint Recycling and Waste Management Strategy for Merseyside (JRWMS), formerly the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy (JMWMS) and associated complementary Wirral District Council Action Plan (DCAP).  The Merseyside and Halton Waste Partnership, with the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority MRWA being the lead authority, had developed the Strategy. The MRWA Board Members had ratified the Strategy on 18 November 2011 and were now seeking ratification from the Merseyside Councils.  This report represented part of the Council’s formal process for the ratification of the Strategy. 

The JRWMS and Wirral Council’s DCAP would become the Council’s strategic documents to support the delivery of the corporate goal “Minimising Waste by Encouraging Waste Reduction and Recycling”.

Members of the Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee had been kept up to date with the progress of the Strategy and the supporting public consultation exercise and had recently endorsed that the Strategy be referred to the Cabinet.

The report detailed the resolutions of the 26h September 2011 Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee and also provided Members with information relating to the context of the Strategy review, updating on  national policy as well as the outcomes that resulted in the Strategy’s key commitments, which would be delivered through Wirral Council’s District Action Plan.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the process that has been undertaken to develop the new Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy be endorsed;

(2)  subject to any comments they wish to submit on its contents, the Strategy and associated District Council Action Plan (DCAP) as it currently stands be approved and referred to Council for ratification;

(3)  the current work being carried out on the Environmental Streetscene Services Contract Review described in section 10.0 of the report be noted;

(4)  the further work that will be undertaken to update the DCAP in preparation for the European Waste Framework Directive requirement for Member States to produce a Waste Prevention Programme by 2013 be noted; and

(5)  it be requested that, following the ratification of the JRWMS, the Merseyside Waste Levy Payment Mechanism review be undertaken as soon as possible and the progress of this work be reported to an appropriate Cabinet meeting.