NEWS FROM THE REGIONS

EASTERN REGION

Unfortunately funding for the Resource Saver programme, which matches unwanted business waste to the community sector, will no longer be supported by the East of England Development Agency from 1 September 2008 and therefore all activity will cease at the end of this month.   It was intended originally to carry on with the programme after August but there has been a change in government strategy, and business waste related projects have been significantly cut from the government's original funding plans.

Heidi wants to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support and collaboration on this very successful project.   It has been highly successful and has had many achievements for the community sector in the past two years.

The Cambridge office will also be closing at the end of August; but you will still be able to contact Heidi for general information regarding the community waste sector in the East of England.

New address and contact details:

Heidi Seary
17 Nether End
Great Dalby
Leicestershire
LE14 2EY

Contact: Heidi Seary heidi@crn.org.uk   07966 450426

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NORTH WEST

The North West has a new networking website - www.nwcwn.org.uk . This is an information and interactive forum for members of CRN, CCN and FRN. Ian is currently registering all NW members on the website giving them access to the discussion forum, topics can be posted on matters of concern or for passing on information that may be useful to other North West Members.

The information used in this process is that contained in the NW Directory www.crn.org.uk/cwnnw/directory/   so just a reminder to everyone to check their details and convey any changes to Ian as soon as possible.

Contact: Ian Scott ian@crn.org.uk 0161 273 6976

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SOUTH WEST

The national regional programme funded by Defra came to an end this year and there has been a great deal of work on finding continuation funding for the work that has been going on in the South West over the past two and a half years. At this stage it is necessary to cut back on the services organisations receive whilst this search continues. The CRN UK will be providing a peer exchange email address to allow SW CWN members to share information directly with other groups within the region.

The Community Waste Network South West steering group will continue to meet and feed back important information to this peer network.

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YORKSHIRE AND HUMBER

Although this is traditionally a quiet time, there has been lots of activity in Yorkshire & the Humber around national and regional support work. REconomy continues to seek out organisations with opportunities to develop new projects and strengthen their position in the sector. In this region, there are proposals being worked up with a view to re-negotiating council agreements, extending kerbside recycling, investigating the prospects of building material reuse and setting up reuse activities on a newly expanding site.  

August has also seen Recycling Action Yorkshire re-inventing itself as 'Resource Efficiency Yorkshire' with a re-focus on the whole waste hierarchy. The newly launched agency is calling for tenders and projects on a wide variety of innovative and wide- reaching themes, including support for social enterprises.

Kerbside Calderdale is continuing to collect dry recyclable materials from households and businesses in the West Yorkshire Borough, despite coming to the end of its contract with Calderdale Council. Hopes that Sita the contractor for the unitary authority, would agree a workable sub-contract with the social enterprise have so far been disappointed, though Kerbside have been buoyed by a very supportive public and the possibility that negotiations might be restarted if some political pressure is brought to bear. Watch this space.

Contact: Paul Forrest paulf@crn.org.uk