Archive for category: News

The Council wants to continue improving these services and ensure they align with Government proposals to change waste policies nationally, so it has developed a Resources and Waste Strategy that sets out its long-term vision.

Following a public consultation held over the summer, which saw over 3000 responses, the strategy has been tailored to further improve the alignment with our communities’ priorities and values. This feedback and the updated strategy were presented to cabinet this week.

The strategy consists of a set of 10 principles, these principles will guide the development of the Council’s waste services over the next 15 years – informing decision making enabling WNC to create sustainable waste and street cleaning services.

Cllr Phil Larratt, Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport, Highways and Waste at WNC:

“I would like to thank all residents who provided feedback on our waste strategy. We are grateful for the response to our public consultation and for resident’s input on the waste strategy, this has helped inform the strategy so that it can best suit the needs of people living in West Northants.

“As current waste arrangements expire, we have an exciting opportunity to develop a fair, consistent, harmonised and sustainable waste service for the future that delivers value-for-money and meets the needs of all our residents and businesses.”

As the existing current waste arrangements come to an end, the Council will create a harmonised and sustainable service covering all of West Northamptonshire. This service will see a prioritisation of waste reduction, reuse and recycling to minimise the environmental impact of waste. In order for WNC to achieve its recycling targets, and also reduce the cost of waste services, West Northamptonshire residents will be empowered to be ‘responsible consumers’ through an increased emphasis on education and awareness of sustainability.

HypnoCat, the Recycle Your Electricals pink fluffy cat, will be hypnotising residents to recycle their electricals and he will appear in social media advertising across Northampton.

The project will encourage residents to recycle small domestic electrical items, including toasters, kettles, sandwich makers, hairdryers, irons and other items alongside their household collections.  Small items of waste electrical equipment, which will fit inside a carrier bag should be placed on top of your domestic waste bin as follows:

• Daventry area residents: on top of the black general waste bin
• Northampton area residents: on top of the blue-lidded recycling bin
• South Northamptonshire area residents: on top of either bin
• Residents can recycle their single-use vapes at Household Waste Recycling Centres or return them to where they purchased them from. Please do not place them with your household waste collection.

This is one of over 40 UK projects funded by Material Focus, the not for profit organisation leading the Recycle Your Electricals campaign who have provided £20,000 worth of funding.  This will lead the way in West Northamptonshire, joining other projects around the country in making it easier for 10 million UK residents to recycle their electricals.

The aim of the nationwide Electricals Recycling Fund is to significantly reduce e-waste and its environmental impact by making it easier for consumers to recycle their electricals. The projects that have been funded by Material Focus include a variety of recycling methods, from kerbside collections to more drop-off points in schools, community centres, and bring banks. Overall there will be over 400 new collection points plus kerbside collections for 5.5 million UK residents.

Recycle Your Electricals research has shown that 80% of consumers believe recycling is a good thing, and many of us already recycle things like paper and plastic. Research has also shown that most of us have unwanted electricals we want to get rid of, even if it’s just a drawer of cables – millions of      electrical items are hoarded in UK homes. And yet 39% of people bin electricals rather than recycle them because they think it’s simply too hard to recycle. The aim of these projects is to overcome these issues by making it easier to recycle electricals.

Cllr Phil Larratt, Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport, Highways and Waste, said: “With technology evolving at such a fast pace these days, older electrical and electronic items are often made redundant, so waste electrical and electronic equipment is the UK’s fastest growing waste stream.

“While they might have been replaced by the latest model, many of these items contain valuable plastics and metals which can be recycled.   The good news is that it couldn’t be easier to recycle these items via your kerbside collection service. Using the service not only helps the environment, but it also reduces the risk of fires in our bin trucks and waste facilities.”

“We are thrilled to support the new project from West Northamptonshire Council that addresses the pressing issue of e-waste.” said Scott Butler, Executive Director of Material Focus. “By investing in improved collection and drop-off services and we are taking a significant step towards creating a more sustainable future by making it easier for 10 million more people to recycle their electricals.” More information about recycling electrical items and batteries can be found at www.westnorthants.gov.uk/weeerecycle and www.recycleyourelectricals.org.uk

The Council is aiming to publish a cohesive clean air strategy as early as possible next year and already working with partners to develop effective local actions. Measures will include using nearly £300,000 of Defra grant funding to assess the health, economic and social impacts of  extending the existing smoke control areas in West Northamptonshire, progressing a pilot project with local schools to promote active travel and reduce car idling and improving traffic management systems to reduce pollution levels linked to idling traffic.

At the meeting councillors also recognised West Northamptonshire Council have already made several commitments to deliver clean air, including signing up to the UK100 Net Zero Pledge in 2022, committing to be ‘Clean and Green’ in the corporate plan, and inheriting Northampton Borough Council’s Northampton Low Emission Strategy (NLES) until 2025.

Councillor David Smith, Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Engagement and Regulatory Services said: “Although air quality levels in our area generally fall within Government limits, we know it is a matter of concern for our residents and that more work needs to be done improve them.

“A range of actions are being planned towards improving air quality across West Northants and the unanimous support shown by councillors at last night’s meeting demonstrates the widespread commitment and support to achieving this.”

Community Safety Officers visited Northampton Railway Station working with staff and the general public to raise awareness around child exploitation; spotting the signs and how to report it.

The team also visited banks and independent phone shops distributing over 1,200 business cards and leaflets which detailed common locations to spot child exploitation and how to approach potential victims.

Young people can be exploited anywhere. These are some of the common signs:

• Children travelling alone, especially if this is in school hours, late at night or on a regular basis. If they are being criminally exploited, they may be sent significant distances and may be missing from home
• They may be lost or appear as though they are in unfamiliar surroundings
• They may appear anxious, frightened, or angry, but they may also appear disruptive or aggressive – a common response to trauma
• They could be in possession of multiple phones
• They might appear under the control or instruction of others, including people who are older than them and do not appear to be family members
• You may see them with large amounts of cash
• Signs of a child being at risk online, could include them talking about older or new friends they have met online, talking about gifts, money or in game credits they have received online, receiving large numbers of calls or messages, being worried about being away from their phone and having a new phone or more than one phone

Cllr David Smith, Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Engagement and Regulatory Services:

“It’s great to see the strong partnership between West Northamptonshire Council and Northamptonshire police during National County Lines Intensification Week. Public spaces such as bus and train stations, service stations and shopping centres are all places where victims of child exploitation are most visible.

“By working together to raise awareness and equipping our communities to recognise the signs of child exploitation, we can create a safer environment for our children and young people and stop this abuse from happening.”

Detective Inspector Carrie Powers, from the Serious and Organised Crime Team, said: “I’m pleased with the positive results we’ve seen during this intensification week.

“Illegal drugs cause an enormous amount of harm in our communities. We want to get rid of the criminals running these drug gangs and provide help to those exploited by them, as well as educating young people about how to spot and avoid getting caught up in County Lines activity.

“Northamptonshire Police is committed to tackling county lines and safeguarding vulnerable people.

“I want to thank all the officers and staff who were involved in this intensification week and in particular, the Home Office for supporting our activity by providing funding.”

More information around child exploitation and how to report it can be found on the Children’s’ Society website. If you are concerned about a child and think it’s an emergency, dial 999 or if it’s not an emergency call 101.