How we are misgoverned

Commendably The Telegraph has made front page news out of Labour's concealment of a report highlighting the health risks of fortnightly rather than weekly waste collections. Common sense, you'd think, but the government commissioned a report which inconveniently stated the obvious and therefore decided not to publish it.

The real scandal is buried at the foot of the article, which is fair enough, because it's old news.

Official guidance from the government quango, Wrap, has told town halls how to get rid of weekly collections and overcome "public resistance".

It advised the cuts should be done after local elections to stop people voting against them, and in the autumn or winter so that residents would not immediately notice the extra smells and vermin.

It's government policy that this is an acceptable way to behave.

WRAP stands for Waste & Resources Action Plan. Their website doesn't seem to tell us how much they cost, but in 2007 the Sunday Express said that "the quango’s pay bill has soared by an incredible 561 per cent in the last five years". Their site says that "established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by government funding from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland". If the site shows the company's full name, it's not obvious.

According to a Daily Mail piece in 2007 about nappies -

After a three-year campaign that has cost taxpayers at least £30million, it has been decided that the two types have the same impact on the environment.

As a result, ministers at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have quietly dropped the lavishly-financed Real Nappy Campaign.

The decision follows a four- year research project which found that the impact of burying disposable nappies in landfill sites was matched by the energy consumed and greenhouse gases generated by washing reusables or transporting them to laundries.

But no one has told WRAP, which is still happy to link to the (presumably still government funded) Real Nappy Campaign, which may be able to get you "£30 off your first real nappies!" (sic). Local authorities can order a Real Nappies Resource Pack, and parents can search for an incentive scheme - "a scheme where a local authority provides either a voucher for the purchase of real nappies, a free laundry trial service or a free sample pack of nappies".

WRAP has recently joined 'Together'. "'Together' is a unique coalition of business leaders, brands, government and civil society organisations that are dedicated to helping consumers ‘go green’", and its website claims that "It’s easy to deal with climate change if we do it Together". Presumably taxpayer-funded WRAP is now helping to fund these eco-clowns.

Can we now look forward to WRAP donating to a Campaign to Subvert Democracy?

WRAP is also advertising for employees. The role of the Business Account Manager Wales (salary £35k + benefits) will be

To provide a competent, integrated support service to businesses within the recycling sector to facilitate their growth, and to manufacturers to enable them to source and use more recycled materials in production. The Account Manager will assess businesses' requirements and identify and secure appropriate support from WRAP's existing programmes, from other agencies and WAG Departments. They will subsequently take a lead role in managing the ongoing process on behalf of the client as appropriate, and maintain an ongoing relationship, both to ensure that desired outcomes are achieved, and to identify further opportunities.

WAG's probably do generate a lot of refuse. That person will report to the Programme Manager - Wales, whose job will be to

Work with Director of Business Growth to develop the delivery plan for Wales and then take responsibility for successful implementation. Success will be achieved by working closely with Welsh Assembly Government, stakeholders in Wales and WRAP's staff throughout the UK. Key to effective delivery will be building productive and collaborative working relationships with other resource efficiency delivery partners in Wales. The role will require a creative approach based on an appreciation of eco-design and lifecycle thinking to delivery innovative programmes and projects.

This is obviously a more senior role and so commands a salary of £50-55k plus benefits. If you want to be Communications Manager - Retail you can have a salary of £38k plus benefits, based at the head office in Banbury, which is a very pleasant part of the country, while a PR Manager - Programme Support is offered c£36,000 plus benefits (naturally) and, more mysteriously, a discretionary bonus. Two key competences are required - "creating the future" (eh?) and "delivering results" (well yes, but in true public sector style only one of the eleven sub-headings to this competence [11!] concerns "achieving targets").

Time to give this burgeoning post a WRAP. Oh, and what's the picture of the elephant doing here? Just a reminder that this quango is implementing an EU policy.