Mayor's recycling scheme creates mess for London boroughs - Tuffrey

11.43.00am GMT Mon 17th Mar 2008

London Assembly Liberal Democrats today criticised the Mayor's announcement to set up a £24 million waste and recycling programme with the London Development Agency. His proposals rival the new Government-funded London Waste and Recycling Board, which will perform many of the same functions.

As part of the Mayor's proposals, £24 million will be put into the project over four years, compared to £60 million over three years that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Government Office for London, have pledged for the London Waste and Recycling Board.

It was initially intended, under the Greater London Authority Act 2007, that the Mayor would chair the London Waste and Recycling Board and contribute £6 million from the GLA's budget. Ken Livingstone's refusal to chair the Board is connected to his failed bid for a single London Waste Authority.

Commenting on the Mayor's choice to rival the existing public sector organisation, Environment Spokesman for the London Assembly Liberal Democrats, Mike Tuffrey, said:

"London desperately needs a co-ordinated effort to manage the capital's waste. Instead, the Mayor's latest plans will lead to double-spending on two projects with the same objectives, at the expense of the taxpayer.

"The Waste and Recycling Board would deliver, if the Mayor was willing to cooperate with London boroughs. The Mayor's refusal to work alongside boroughs will make the challenges of increasing recycling and reducing landfill waste even harder.

"The Mayor has left local councils to 'clean up their own mess' by excluding them from his new plans. This is another example of the Mayor insisting that things are done his way or not at all."

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Note to editor:

1. The London Development Agency's press release on the waste initiative can be found at http://www.lda.gov.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.2546