Stakeholder workshop in Glasgow, August 2015
27 August 2015
A collaborative stakeholder workshop for the LIFE SMART Waste project was held in Glasgow on 26 August 2015 focusing on two key project themes - barriers to joint working and designing effective interventions.
The workshop was attended by environmental authorities in the UK and Ireland, law enforcement, public sector agencies and industry and there was a real appetite for partnership working amongst participants. Barriers to joint working were identified but were not considered to be insurmountable. These included: difficulties in sharing data and information; lack of knowledge and understanding of the roles, powers and responsibilities of partner organisations; and unaligned, often fluid, organisational priorities.
Participants identified ways to overcome these barriers, including: listing the data and intelligence each organisation can and cannot share; joint training on the roles and responsibilities of partner organisations; single points of contact within organisations; and generating SMART objectives and memorandums of understanding between organisations, with senior management sign off.
In his closing comments SEPA’s Director of Operations, Calum MacDonald, highlighted the importance of sharing information and collaborating to obtain benefits for all in the fight against waste crime. He concluded by expressing the hope that all partners would be able to meet more regularly to discuss key issues. To this effect, participants will be consulted in more depth and the findings will be used to inform LIFE SMART Waste project recommendations.
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