Consultation
10.In 2005, the Department established a Waste Infrastructure Task Force – a partnership between central and local government – to elicit the views of key stakeholders on proposals for delivering a new waste infrastructure for Northern Ireland. Those stakeholders were generally in agreement with the Department’s proposals.
11.The Department also carried out a formal consultation exercise with interested parties on its contracts and compulsory purchase proposals over a 3-month period between December 2008 and March 2009. While the 14 respondents who commented generally welcomed the Bill and were supportive of the Department’s proposals, 7 mentioned that it did not cover all of the legislative issues that would arise in the waste infrastructure procurement process.
12.The Department conducted a consultation exercise on its proposal for a Waste Bill from April 2009 to July 2009 which included provisions to address the remaining legislative issues which were considered necessary for the waste infrastructure procurement process. On the recommendation of the Environment Committee, those provisions were moved from the Waste Bill into the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act (Northern Ireland) 2010.
13.
There was no formal consultation on control of disposals, etc. by existing councils; however, the Local Government Taskforce Finance Sub-group, which submitted its final report to the Taskforce in July 2006, flagged this up as an issue to be addressed. Membership of the sub-group included elected members and officers from local government and officials from central government.
14.Proposals in relation to the composition, governance arrangements and functions of the statutory transition committees were developed through the Strategic Leadership Board which was chaired by the Minister and included elected representatives from the five main political parties. A formal consultation exercise was carried out from 6 April 2009 to 31 May 2009 on the composition, role and governance arrangements for statutory transition committees.
15.Severance arrangements for councillors was one of the areas considered by the Councillors’ Remuneration Working Group which reported in June 2006. Membership of the Group included representatives of the Northern Ireland Local Government Association, the National Association of Councillors, the business sector, the voluntary sector, trade unions, the Department and an independent. The report was issued to councils and local government representative bodies for comment. A formal consultation exercise was carried out from 6 April to 31 May 2009.