Just a quick note on Boris’ announcement that he is going to chair the London Waste and Recycling Board. It should be pointed out that the £60m they’re shouting about is to be spread over the course of 3 years, so we’re only talking £20m a year. Not a huge point, but worth being aware of.
Also, in the press release they claim that “The former Mayor refused an offer to Chair this Board.” Two points about this, gleaned from lwarb.co.uk (you have to give them an email address to access the whole site). First, the role requires 4 days a month of work. Given that Boris seems keen to spend at large parts of his mayorship on holiday (see previous post), losing another 4 days would cut his time spent actually mayoring to dangerously low levels. Second, since the job description of Chair of the Board includes the requirement to maintain “open dialogue” with the Mayor anyway, having the Mayor actually chair the thingdoesn’t necessarily add all that much value. So there’s no real reason to chide Ken for refusing to run it.
And I’d like clarification on the following sentence from the press release:
In addition, the Mayor now aims to direct up to £24 million of London Development Agency funds, being used to improve waste management in the capital, to complement the work of the Board.
It seems to me like the natural reading of this is that £24m which is currently being used to improve waste management is going to be directed to complement the work of the Board. That work is, largely, to improve waste management. In that case, the £24m isn’t going to be spent any differently. An alternative reading is that £24m will be redirected to being used to improve waste management, and this will complement the Board’s work. But if that’s the case, where is the money coming from?
Can someone clarify?
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