Welcome to the 21st issue of Hampshire Now – the magazine produced for Hampshire residents by Hampshire County Council.

We’ve done it again! We’re a four-star authority, improving well – the highest grading awarded by the Audit Commission to local authorities as part of their annual performance assessment. This is the fifth consecutive year that we have achieved the highest rating, which places us in a select group of top-performing councils in England.

This year we are also having a thorough corporate assessment, when the Audit Commission takes a detailed look at every aspect of the operation of the County Council. This assessment takes place in May 2007. It will be a major event and a big test of everything we do. It will also be happening in parallel with the Joint Area Review of Children’s Services in Hampshire and inspections of the Youth Service and the Youth Offending Team. Look out for the results of the corporate assessment in our autumn/winter 2007 issue.

By now you should have received your new look council tax statement. For the first time, we have issued a joint statement with the Police Authority and Fire and Rescue Service, as well as some district and borough councils. We hope this change will make it easier for you to see where your council tax goes.

Restricted government funding and record demands on our services mean that council tax has to stretch further and further. It also means that we must continue to identify efficiency savings across our services and change the way some of those services are provided to meet the community’s needs.

We welcome your views on our services. You can tell us what you think by calling our freephone information line on 0800 028 0888.

Councillor Ken Thornber CBE, Leader of Hampshire County Council

Leader replies

I’m increasingly confused by the number of items that cannot be recycled. This is particularly so in the case of plastics. It seems from issue 19 of Hampshire Now that there’s only one plastic item that can be recycled, i.e. plastic bottles. This seems to leave an awful lot of other plastic items that seemingly find their way to a landfill site. It’s my recollection that recycling applies to a far wider range of plastic items than just bottles. Could we have some clarification please, if not improvements to this service?

N. C. Simmons, Fleet

Mr Simmons makes a valid point, and one that has been raised by many residents in Hampshire. We share absolutely his wish to be able to recycle all types of plastic but at present we’re constrained by the processing facilities that are available.

Plastic bottles are the only type of plastic that can be recycled in Hampshire at the current time. This is because they’re made from what’s commonly known as ‘soft’ plastic, and there are facilities in the UK for shredding the material and recycling it into other items such as fleece jackets. Those of you who have enjoyed visiting the County Council’s stand at the New Forest Show in recent years may already be familiar with these fleeces!

Polystyrene packing, polythene bags, yogurt pots and margarine tubs – to name just a few – are usually made from ‘hard’ plastic. This cannot be recycled anywhere in the UK at the moment, which is why we ask you to put them in your general waste bin. Confusion often arises because manufacturers of these items put the recycling logo on to say they could be recycled, rather than they should be recycled – but until such reprocessing facilities exist in the UK this just isn’t possible.

Effective recycling is about energy usage as well as material resources. There are clear carbon dioxide savings from recycling steel, aluminium, glass and paper, even taking into account the transport from Hampshire to the mill or other processing facility. These benefits are less clear cut with plastic, which is high volume and low weight. This means there’s a real likelihood that the energy used in all these activities outweighs the actual benefits of recycling.

I’m pleased to say that although hard plastics can’t be recycled in the UK, here in Hampshire they don’t go to landfill. They are instead taken to one of the three energy recovery facilities in Hampshire – at Chineham, Marchwood and Portsmouth – where they are safely incinerated and play their part in providing enough electricity for the National Grid to power the equivalent of 40,000 homes.

Councillor Ken Thornber CBE, Leader