Reporting Back: Greater Manchester Scrutiny

Last week the regular meeting of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority Corporate Issues Scrutiny Committee was able to meet with the Mayor of Greater Manchester to scrutinise his work to date around the Covid response. The Committee is made up of Councillors from throughout Greater Manchester and Bury’s rep this year is our local councillor Tim Pickstone. Tim reports:

This meeting focussed on two main issues:

Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority Budget Issues
The Committee received an update on budget issues for the Waste Disposal Authority for the current year, and also looking forwards to financial challenges around waste disposal in years to come.

The main challenge this year has been the impact of Covid on how much rubbish we produce.

(these figures are in ‘000s)

Essentially, lockdown, together with schools being closed and working from home has meant a significant increase in the amount of waste that we put in our bins at home, particularly residual (grey bins) and co-mingled (blue bins). Interestingly despite all the ‘internet shopping’ deliveries people seem to have been having, the amount of cardboard we recycle is down this year.

The result on the Waste Disposal Authority is overspending this year and will need to take around £20 million from its reserves to balance the books.

Looking forwards to 2021-22 onwards, the Waste Disposal Authority will need around £160-£170 million each year in total from the nine Councils that make up the WDA. There are risks around Brexit, particularly if this changes the ‘market’ for recycled materials (ie if it is more difficult for us to export recycled materials abroad). In addition the Government is currently consulting on potential major policy changes which might mean the way our bins are collected is changed (ie perhaps more bins, perhaps more frequently). If this happened it would have major financial consequences on waste disposal costs. Hopefully Government would cover these costs, but never quite seems to be what happens in reality.

Greater Manchester Mayor, Covid Response
The Mayor outlined some of the challenges experienced at a Greater Manchester level through Covid, and the current development of a ‘Living with Covid’ plan to guide the work of Greater Manchester over coming months.

He explained that other policy areas are being progressed:consultation on the clear air zone, minimum licensing standards, GMSF now being taken through the ten Councils.

He said that we would be aware of the disagreements discussions with the Government over recent weeks. A lot of the things that were being demanded by Greater Manchester when we were put into Tier 3 have now been delivered for the whole country in the second lockdown.

£60 million (£20 per head) is being received from Government and discussions are taking place to work out how best to spend this money, including thinking about sectors of the economy which are really missing out from other support.

Peak pressure 

We discussed how it looked as though there might be a decrease and levelling off in Covid cases in Greater Manchester, but it will be a challenging month ahead. There are discussions with Government on mass testing.

Members asked questions on:
– homelessness
– the music economy in Greater Manchester
– transport (particularly whether the current tram pricing structure worked for people who worked from home some days a week)
– support for the airport and travel industries.

I asked a question about town centres, which had been a key policy area for the Mayor before Covid, and how he expected this policy to change given the massive challenges that many town centres were facing with small businesses leaving the high street.

The papers for the meeting are here:
https://democracy.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=216&MId=4042&Ver=4

You can watch a video of the meeting here:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YTEyODAzMjEtMGNlMC00MzdhLTk1NTAtMGRhZTkzZTQ3YWU4%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22e8d8036a-b5f9-4f3f-9d36-d7cd740299bb%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22967f3f39-e2ff-4b86-aaa2-4791ec3951ce%22%2c%22IsBroadcastMeeting%22%3atrue%7d

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