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By ROB PARSONS - August 3 2022
What do you do with your leftover food after dinner? Scrape it straight into the general waste with other domestic rubbish or into a separate bin so it can be recycled?
Apologies for the slightly personal question to start today's email but it's relevant as it looks like from as early as next year, local councils will be legally required to collect food waste separately and recycle all the waste that cannot be redistributed.
After the Environment Act was passed in 2021, local leaders across the North are now wrestling with having to change their practices and the extra cost that comes with that. In Sheffield, for example, it was announced this week that around 8,200 households will pilot a scheme where food waste is collected separately, starting on August 29.
Participating households will receive an outdoor food waste bin half the size of a blue bin plus an indoor five-litre kitchen caddy and a roll of 52 biodegradable liner bags, writes Local Democracy Reporter Molly Williams.
Plate scrapings, meat, fish, dairy products, rice, pasta and more can go into the caddy before transferring it to the outside bin for collection. It then gets collected and taken to anaerobic digestion facilities in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire to be recycled into bio-fuel and nutrient-rich fertiliser and soil enhancer for farming.
A similar scheme is being tried in Northumberland. Under the trial, 4,800 homes in Bedlington Central, Morpeth Stobhill, Morpeth North and Pegswood will be supplied with a “caddy” and bin liners for their kitchen and a small, sealed bin for their food waste to be emptied on a weekly basis.
Anecdotally it seems the picture varies across the North. In Leeds (where your Northern Agenda Editor lives) there are no separate food waste collections in most of the city and so food waste just goes into normal black bins. But in Salford and other parts of Greater Manchester it goes in with the garden waste as one of four different wheelie bins locals have to put out.
Currently around a third of black bin waste in Sheffield is food, according to the council. It is hoped that in reducing this carbon emissions will also fall.
Joe Otten, chair of the council's waste and street scene policy committee, said the trial will prepare the city before weekly food waste collections become compulsory under the Environment Act.
He said: “Food waste recycling is something I have been calling for for many years, with its potential to make a big difference to our greenhouse gas emissions and reduce our black bin waste. The trial will help us understand more about food waste collections locally and realise the scale of the benefits, both economically and environmentally."
Truss to be quizzed by red wall voters after pay U-turn
It's one of the occupational hazards of covering the fast-moving world of politics that sometimes a story you've written is out-of-date before anyone gets a chance to read it.
And so it was that just minutes after yesterday's Northern Agenda led on Liz Truss's plans to slash £8.8 billion from public sector pay outside London, the Tory leadership frontrunner had not just U-turned on the idea but denied she ever had it in the first place.
(The latter claim may be a little hard to sell given that, as this tweet by Robert Peston shows, she'd made the promise explicitly in her press release about Whitehall reforms.)
But Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner, writing for The Northern Agenda today, says the "fantasy plan [which] would have levelled down the pay of Northerners" shows why Leeds-educated Ms Truss isn't fit to be Prime Minister. Read the full piece at the bottom of this email.
Meanwhile the Foreign Secretary has agreed to take questions live from an audience in Leigh, Greater Manchester, a so-called 'red wall' seat. The People’s Forum With Liz Truss will be broadcast live on GB News at 5pm on August 10 and is due to last an hour.
'Buffer zone' plan to thwart anti-abortion protesters
For years, protestors have harrassed patients outside a Liverpool abortion clinic by branding them murderers, handing out plastic foetuses and impeding those attempting to enter the clinic and surrounding cars.
And now they could be prevented from staging demonstrations under new council powers, as Local Democracy Reporter David Humphreys writes. Liverpool Council is recommended to adopt a new public space protection order (PSPO) around the British Pregnancy Advice Service Merseyside clinic in Aigburth.
Since early 2020, the local authority and Merseyside Police have been investigating concerns about groups involved in protests and vigils outside the clinic in South Liverpool. It's had “numerous reports” about anti-social behaviour from those “expressing disapproval of people accessing abortion services.”
As a result, it is seeking to adopt a PSPO preventing any protests outside the clinic which would create a “buffer zone” around Parkfield Road, where it's based.
In 2020 a similar buffer zone was adopted outside a Marie Stopes clinic in the Fallowfield area of Manchester, where staff and patients endured ‘intimidation and harassment’ from anti-abortion protesters for more than a decade.
Water - and money - drying up in England's first modern canal
Opening in 1757, it was the first modern canal and England's first of the industrial revolution, soon becoming busy with coal traffic for Liverpool.
The Sankey Canal - which eventually connected St Helens to the River Mersey at Spike Island in Widnes - closed in the 1960s but local campaigners are trying to restore it due to its historic importance.
There's a problem though, as water levels fell after the closure of Fiddler’s Ferry Power Station which had fed the canal with water. The change has harmed the fish and impacted angling clubs and boat owners.
A recent high-level meeting hosted by Halton MP Derek Twigg which included the Environment Agency and United Utilities has led to a 'workable solution' being found involving pumping water in from the River Mersey from a point close to the Fiddlers Ferry Marina, as Local Democracy Reporter Mark Smith writes.
But Halton Council leader Mike Wharton has warned that more funding may be needed. He said: “We have already identified £500,000 of funding for the canal but that will not do all of the works that are required, and we will have to explore all of the options with regards to external funding.”
'Of course landlords don't want to be regulated, when did they ever?'
A group of landlords has threatened legal action after City of York Council approved a landlord licensing scheme designed to boost standards in the city’s private rented sector.
The move extends the licensing scheme to HMOs (houses of multiple occupation) with fewer than five occupants across eight parts of the city, as Local Democracy Reporter Joe Cooper reports.
Executive member for housing and safer neighbourhoods Denise Craghill said it was “a really important step forwards in improving the standards of accommodation and the management of properties in the private rented sector in York”.
But Andy Simpson, chairman of York Residential Landlords Association, said he had been advised by housing law experts that the additional licensing is unlawful and they have a “strong case” for a legal challenge.
Mr Simpson, who is CEO of York-based Landlord Broadband, said there were concerns about the data the council gathered to justify its decision via its consultation, whether the council was using its existing powers effectively and the impact it could have on council-tax paying residents.
But Michael Pavlovic, whose Hull Road ward is one of those affected, urged the council’s executive “not to be cowed by vested interests”. “Of course landlords don’t want to be further regulated, when did they ever? But you need to hold firm and not succumb to threats of legal action.”
The Manchester university firm which could transform drug discovery
Set up with the aim of turning innovative ideas developed at the North's universities into the leading businesses of tomorrow - and to bridge the North-South divide on venture capital funding - Northern Gritstone has already raised more than £200m.
And this week the investment firm highlighted another example of the huge untapped potential of innovation in the North by revealing the latest firm it will help to grow.
University of Manchester spin-out Imperagen, a life sciences company developing the world’s fastest enzyme engineering platform, has secured a £3.5m seed round of investment led by Northern Gritstone and IQ Capital.
The firm's ambition is to initially target its novel enzyme products at the manufacture of complex drug molecules, with the longer-term aim of developing enzymes for applications ranging from laboratory tools to enzyme replacement therapies and drug delivery systems.
Specific enzyme biocatalysts can cut raw material and waste by 80% during product manufacture but enzymes must be reengineered for every new process, and currently this may take years. Delays to marketing a drug can result in millions of dollars of lost revenue per day.
Northern Gritstone CEO Duncan Johnson said Imperagen's technology has the potential to transform drug discovery. He added: “The company is an outstanding example of the innovative spinouts in life sciences currently emerging from universities in the North of England."
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Northern Stories
A series of globe sculptures are set to be installed across Leeds as part of an art exhibition dedicated to promoting racial justice and equality. ‘The World Reimagined’ will be on display at 10 locations across the city, between August 13 and October 31 as part of a tour that also includes the Liverpool City Region. The project, which will take the form of a trail, aims to educate about issues such as the slave trade and the contribution of black culture and music to modern Britain.
A new bridge is to be built over the River Irwell to replace one destroyed by floods almost seven years ago. The bridge, at Milltown Street in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, will be used by cyclists and pedestrians after planning permission was granted within the past week. An original bridge was badly damaged by high water levels in the River Irwell on Boxing Day, 2015. Meanwhile detailed images showing plans to regenerate Radcliffe town centre have been revealed by Bury council.
Scarborough Council has paid more than £8,500 to private consultancies tasked with investigating complaints made against councillors. The fees paid since December to consultancy firms hired to support and lead investigations into complaints lodged against councillors were revealed through a Freedom of Information request submitted by Local Democracy Reporter Anttoni James Numminen. A total of £7,800 was paid to BHC Consultancy to lead investigations for 15 cases.
The infamous Holmfield Hum – a noise which has plagued some residents of Halifax for some years – remains a mystery and may have more than one source. The noise, heard by some residents of Holmfield but not others, has badly affected the health of those who can, and the findings of a recent report into the issue will be released to complainants in the next few weeks, Calderdale councillors heard. They've been told that despite efforts made to hear and detect the source since the matter was first reported, all reasonable lines of inquiry have been exhausted.
A new village of up to 3,800 homes will be built between York and Selby under the latest plans issued by Selby District Council. The village, to be known as Heronby, was chosen as one of the three options for a major new settlement in the district as part of the new Local Plan. The Local Plan is a vision for the future of the district until 2040 which includes “well-designed high-quality places to live with well-paid employment opportunities, an attractive rural environment and lower carbon emissions”, according to a council report.
Approval has been given for Cumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner’s bid to take control of the fire service. PCC Peter McCall submitted a bid to the Home Office to take over governance of Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service earlier this year. Cumbria County Council had responsibility for the fire service but is set to be abolished in April 2023 with the existing city and borough councils, making way for two new unitary authorities of Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness.
Opinion
by Angela Rayner
Truss's pay U-turn shows why she's not fit to be PM
The past 24 hours have shown a glimpse of Liz Truss’ true colours beneath the varnish of her campaign.
Just hours after pledging to slash £8.8 billion off the pay of 5.7 million public sector workers - nurses, teachers, police officers and our armed forces - cutting their salaries by an average of £1,500 a year, she has tried to cover her tracks.
Her fantasy plan would have levelled down the pay of Northerners, worsening the divide which already exists - a hit of £4.5 billion to the regional economy of the North.
It shows the Tories' commitment to levelling up is now dead on arrival. Instead, it is levelling down for everyone outside the M25.
Although her campaign claims she has been misrepresented, it’s clear this is not only what she said but what she really believes. She’s only sorry she's been found out. The truth is that Liz Truss has advocated this ludicrous policy as far back as 2018 when she was a Minister sitting in the Treasury.
This Tory pretender is a lightweight liability who has lingered in this Cabinet for nearly a decade in which the Conservatives have allowed Britain to sleepwalk into a cost-of-living crisis.
Just five years ago she was already plotting to hit workers with a ‘big stick’ on pay. This is who she is - through and through.
Liz Truss is so out of touch with ordinary people she’s living on another planet. Her shifty plan to slash the pay of frontline workers everywhere besides London in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis was not only full of holes, it shows her true agenda and her real priorities.
The wannabe Prime Minister is stuck in the past, fighting old battles and preparing a race to the bottom on pay and rights at work, not a better future for the British people. This whole debacle shows why she’s not fit to be Prime Minister.
Her opponent Rishi Sunak was the Chancellor who presided over the Tory cost of living crisis. His credibility is shot to pieces. His only action so far has been to belatedly nick Labour’s windfall tax after months of claiming it was a bad idea.
Liz Truss voted for every one of his 15 tax rises. Both Sunak and Truss were frontbenchers when the Tories sold off the UK’s gas storage facilities – they are collectively responsible for the cost-of-living crisis to which they have inflicted. Neither are fit to govern.
As senior members of the Cabinet who backed Boris Johnson to the bitter end, both parroted the lies, denials and distortions of the last year. Whichever one of these continuity candidates wins, one thing is clear: the more time we give the Tories, the more damage they will do. Only Labour can provide the fresh start the country needs.
Angela Rayner is deputy leader of the Labour Party and MP for Ashton-under-Lyne
