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The Waste Authority – which is the waste disposal authority for seven north London boroughs – is made up of five Tories, five Labour and four Lib Dems. The Tory Chair is Cllr Brian Coleman of Barnet.

The meeting (Wed 20 Sep, Camden Town Hall) erupted in outrage when Cllr Coleman appeared to take advantage of the absence of most of the Lib Dems to force through changes which were completely unacceptable to those Labour and Lib Dem members present.

Cllr Coleman proposed an amendment to one agenda item which allowed the payment of recycling credits to profit-making companies. Among the companies that applied for recycling credits under the NLWA recycling credits scheme last year was Tesco. But the Lib Dems and Labour objected to this and voted to remove profit-making private companies from the scheme. Tesco therefore did not benefit. The Lib Dems and Labour members are upset that the Chair has now brought back the possibility of profit-making private companies, who can afford to fund their own recycling efforts, of receiving recycling credits.

The Chair also "forced through" an end to the NLWA subsidy for reusable or "real" nappies in north London boroughs. He also effectively closed the North London Recycling Forum – a body where councillors, officers and businesses meet to discuss how to improve recycling techniques – by withdrawing its NLWA grant.

Lib Dem Councillor, Alexis Rowell, said:
"This is a blatant misuse of power as far as I'm concerned. I don't believe the Lib Dem group would have supported these changes. At a critical juncture – just as we're preparing to decide waste disposal arrangements for the next 30 years – Cllr Coleman has turned the NLWA into a highly politically charged body rather than one where decisions are fashioned through consensus."

Labour members from Harringey and Hackney (Cllrs Haley, Stopps and Laing) were also incensed and vowed to bring back the agenda items at a future meeting.

Cllr Rowell added:
"I was so furious at the actions of the Tory group that I changed sides in the Chamber to sit alongside the Labour members rather than behind the Tories. If the Chair refuses to bring back these agenda items at the next meeting then our only option is to call for an Emergency Meeting, which two members can do, and have a vote of no confidence in the Chair."

Responding to Cllr Rowell, Cllr Brian Coleman said that the meeting was a scheduled meeting and members knew what was being debated, "but members did not bother to attend. Alexis Rowell was in fact late arriving at the meeting, and even missed his own question."

Answering the disputed points, Cllr Coleman told Tenbees:
"The real nappies were withdrawn because only 300 people were using the service at a cost of about ?60-70,000 a year, besides the money, a Defra report suggests that real nappies are not any better for the environment than disposable nappies, because of the energy used to clean them.

"As for the North London Recycling Forum: it delivered nothing (just two seminars in the last year) at a cost of ?20,000. We took the decision to use the budget in-house to be more generous to community groups who need the money."