Waste - the latest developments

My column in today’s Cornish Guardian revisits the topic of waste. It is as follows:

It is extremely good news that central government has awarded Cornwall Council the sum of £1.56 million to “encourage recycling and significantly increase the number and volume of materials to be recycled in an effort to divert waste from landfill.”

The funding will come from the Department for Communities and Local Government and it means that the Council will be able to introduce an enhanced kerbside service that will collect all forms of plastics (including yoghurt pots, tubs and trays).

I am sure this will be welcomed by everyone who is presently frustrated at the Council’s failure to collect certain plastics and the resultant confusion.

It has been estimated that this move will increase the amount of recycling collected each year by 9,000 tonnes. And there is evidence that such an improvement to the service would be likely to boost recycling in general.

The funding will also be used to support a new scheme to help residents recycle their food waste at home and there will be enhanced recycling at Household Waste and Recycling Centres. This will include the retrieval of materials such as metal and textiles from mattresses.

But while I positively welcome these new initiatives, I do feel they run somewhat counter to the decision of Cornwall Council’s Cabinet, earlier this month, to agree to push ahead with the construction of an over-sized incinerator at St Dennis.

The proposed plant would have an annual throughput of 240,000 tonnes but, at the present time, the extent of Cornwall’s residual domestic waste is 180,000 tonnes.

Enhancements to the recycling service will reduce that still further, leaving a massive void which SITA, the Council’s contractor, would need to fill with commercial or business waste.

Some people have even questioned whether SITA would be able to access such commercial waste from within Cornwall, because of the number of private waste firms that are operating locally and competing with each other to secure access to the waste materials.

The Cornwall Waste Forum has meanwhile published a report from consultants Eunomia on waste management in Cornwall.

The document is critical of Cornwall Council’s approach and claims that an alternative approach could generate “potential savings” of over £300m.

On behalf of a number of councillors from Mid Cornwall, Cllr Fred Greenslade has written to the leadership of the Council asking them to show “due diligence” and looks closely at the Eunomia report. The letter asks Cornwall Council to investigate the veracity of the “potential savings,” to substantiate or refute the findings of the report, and to consider if there is a more sustainable way forward.

Tax avoidance ...

My most recent article for the Cornish Guardian focused on the tax avoidance presently being practiced by large companies. It was as follows:

There is an understandable and widespread anger because a range of large global companies are paying little or no corporation tax on profits made in the United Kingdom.

According to an investigation by the news agency Reuters, US coffee giant Starbucks generated sales of £398 million in the UK last year but paid no corporation tax on their profits at all.

The study found that the company had reported losses in each of the last five years and therefore could justify paying no corporation tax. But their executives have also described their UK business as both "successful" and “profitable.”

The reality is that they have ensured they made “no profits" through payments to offshore companies also owned by Starbucks.

Reuters meanwhile found that Google managed sales of $4 billion in the UK but, despite having a profit margin of 33%, paid tax of just £3.4 million. Google avoids UK tax by steering sales through an Irish accounting unit.

Likewise, Amazon managed sales of over $5 billion but paid less than £1 million in tax. It avoids tax through an arrangement with an office based in Luxembourg.

I am pleased that company executives from Starbucks, Google and Amazon were recently dragged in front of the Public Accounts Committee to give evidence to MPs.

But at this session, and throughout the media, there has been one continuing refrain. Company after company has justified its actions by stating that what they were doing was "unquestionably legal.”

Maybe so, but I prefer to agree with the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee. She said she was “not accusing” the companies of acting illegally, but did accuse them of being “immoral.”

I welcome the fact that MPs are finally waking up to the fact that they need to "beef up action against tax avoidance” and to tackle the "systematic abuse" of the system by certain large firms.

But I also feel extremely angry that the Coalition has, in the recent past, found time to agree a tax cut for millionaires and to push the ridiculous notion of a “Pasty Tax,” but has so far done very little to tackle widespread tax avoidance by some large multinationals.

This Government does need to take action and to work with other European partners to change laws relating to taxation.

It is wrong that the “tax avoidance industry” can continue to limit revenues to the Treasury, reducing what can be spent on vital public services, while giving multinational companies an unfair advantage over smaller firms and businesses.

All companies should make a fair and proportionate contribution in terms of tax.

New MK officers and spokespersons

At the MK Conference held in Truro on Saturday, the following appointments were agreed:

Leader (and spokesperson on housing and planning) - Cllr Dick Cole, Fraddon

Deputy Leader (with responsibility for finance and spokesperson on economic matters) - Cllr Andrew Long, Callington

Deputy Leader (and spokesperson on constitutional affairs) - Cllr Phil Rendle, Penzance

Deputy Leader (and spokesperson on health) - Cllr Loveday Jenkin, Praze

Children, education and families spokesperson - Cllr Tamsin Williams, Penzance

Environmental protection spokesperson - Cllr Rod Toms, Summercourt

Global issues spokesperson - Cllr John Rowe, Camborne

Public services spokesperson - Cllr Stephen Richardson, Illogan

Social justice spokesperson - Cllr Stuart Cullimore, Camborne

Admin officer - Peter Dudley, Callestick

Social media officer - Rob Simmons, Penzance

Website officer - Niall Curry, Feock

The National Executive also includes representatives from each of the six constituency parties.

"Make 2013 the year that MK comes of age"

In my keynote speech to the MK Conference, I covered a range of areas including the failures of the Coalition Government, the values that underpin the policies of Mebyon Kernow, and how MK members could make the difference.

In one section, I condemned the policies of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition, as follows:

“Their crude austerity measures and deep cuts to the public purse pushed the UK back into recession – the first ‘double dip’ recession in decades.

“They have instituted regressive policies, which are impacting most on the less-well-off and the vulnerable.

“They have reinforced what is wrong in the UK – inequality, poverty, a lack of opportunity.

“They have cut benefits for the disabled and forced thousands into a position where they have to rely on foodbanks to survive from week to week.

“The Coalition has sacked police officers, teachers and health workers; and yet, at the same time, they have given tax cuts to millionaires, they have done little to tackle the tax avoidance of their corporate chums, and are continuing to waste millions on nuclear weapons.

“They are even promoting regional pay – so that a worker here in Cornwall, perhaps in the NHS, will get much less than a worker somewhere else for doing exactly the same job – disgracefully reinforcing Cornwall as the ‘low pay’ capital of the UK.”

I also appealed to the Conference to “make 2013 the year that MK comes of age.”  The relevant section of my speech was as follows:

“The political landscape is changing, people are increasingly seeing through the failed promises of the London parties.

“Ours is a party with a great history. Over the last sixty years, hundreds and hundreds of individuals have played an important part in building our movement.

“We owe all these people a great deal and we now have a wonderful opportunity.

“If all the years that went before and all the struggles of our members are to have real meaning, 2013 must be the year when we achieve a real step-change in our profile, make that key breakthrough and get more MK councillors elected than ever before.”

Cllr Stephen Richardson at the MK Conference

Cllr Stephen Richardson from Illogan meanwhile appealed to delegates to work hard to “win unitary seats across the whole length of Cornwall next May” and to offer “hope where London hawks fear.”

He said “It is our duty to inspire all the people of Cornwall. To say that none of us is as good as all of us.

“We have to create a vision where people like you and me, the passenger on the Bodmin bus, the schoolgirl in the Camborne classroom, the boy playing football in Callington, the woman working in the Truro office and the man walking his dog in Penwith – where all of us can make a difference by working together.

“Working together for a Cornwall that is run for the benefit of the people who live here.

“Run by people who live, study and work here and who know what the real challenges are and how best to meet them.”