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INDUSTRY SOUNDINGS – POCKLINGTON : (2008) 20 ELM 159
Commission (CQC). The CQC, which will absorb the announced that it is to break its 22-year link with Torbay
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Healthcare Commission, Commission for Social Care and move its rebranded event – ‘Futuresource’ – to the
Inspection and Mental Health Act Commission, is being ExCeL Centre on London’s Docklands in partnership with
set up this October, and will become active next April. the Environmental Services Association (ESA).
The appointment will be ratified by the Health Secretary CIWM stated that its agreement with ESA reflects a
after a scrutiny report by the health select committee. joint intention to develop the event into a major
The Guardian noted: 4 international showcase for the UK waste and resource
management sector. The move to London ExCeL is
Back in the late 1980s, before taking up top roles at expected to deliver an event that meets the needs and
English Nature and the RSPB and becoming a life peer, expectations of visitors and exhibitors, and attracts a wider
Barbara Young was a prominent – and outspoken – audience, not just from Europe but from around the world.
NHS manager, so news of her probable appointment to The impact of CIWM’s move cannot be
the controversial new health and social care inspectorate underestimated – the approximately £11M income to
is likely to be greeted warmly by health managers. Torbay in the week of the conference is said to lengthen
the ‘season’ by effectively one month. Holidaymakers who
Likewise, she will be missed by industry and the Agency, mis-time their visit to Paignton to the week of the
as with Sir John she has provided strong leadership in conference and exhibition must be bemused by the vast
driving the EA towards being a ‘modern regulator’. array of compactors, waste handling equipment, shredders,
However, continuity and stability will be provided by collection vehicles and so on in the external exhibition
Paul Leinster, who has been appointed as Acting Chief areas of North and Middle Green.
5
Executive. He has held senior positions in two of the major However, given the difficulty of finding accommo-
areas of the EA’s work – Director of Environmental dation, holidaymakers are generally in the minority, and
Protection and Director of Operations – and acted as CEO this year lastminute.com directed some of us to the hotel
for several months during 2006. that inspired the Fawlty Towers series – now described as
On 8 May, it was announced that Lord Chris Smith of having been transformed into ‘a fashionable boutique hotel
Finsbury, Chair of the Independent Advertising Standards . . . in the chic neighbourhood of Wellswood’. 9
Authority and former cabinet minister, had been appointed The CIWM and ESA are to be congratulated on this
6
Chairman of the Environment Agency. A former councillor initiative which will transform the event, and provide trade
and MP for Islington, his Private Members Bill – the association input to this major exhibition which does not
Environment and Safety Information Act – became law in sit entirely comfortably within the activities of a
1988. In the 1990s, he served two years as shadow professional association. All the CIWM must now do is to
spokesman on environment protection, and was the remove the ‘W’ from its own title, as the ESA did a number
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President of SERA from 1997 to 2007. He has recently of years ago when it changed its name from the National
stepped down as President of the Ramblers’ Association, Association of Waste Disposal Contractors (NAWDC).
a position he held for the last four years.
He is currently the Chair of the Advertising Standards Ruddy ducks
Authority and takes up his position on 14 July 2008. Chris
Smith has indicated that the new mantra for Agency staff Conservationists do not always get in right. When in 1948
is: ‘consistency, transparency and partnership’. However, Sir Peter Scott introduced three pairs of ruddy duck
given the comments of some senior staff at the launch of (oxyura jamaicensis) from North America to his Slimbridge
‘Spotlight on Business – Environmental Performance’ on reserve in Gloucestershire he cannot have envisaged the
23 July 2008, there is still some work to be done in this conservation and financial consequences resulting from
area. the subsequent escape into the wild of this species. The
ruddy duck has a preference for blondes – the rare white-
‘Oh we don’t like to be beside the seaside’ headed duck – and its pursuit of these across Europe has
been the cause of its fall from grace. The white-headed
This year the Labour and Conservative Party conferences duck (oxyura leucocephala) is native to Spain, and
will be held in Manchester and Birmingham respectively, although by 1977 its numbers had been reduced to 33
and in line with this move away from seaside venues, the through hunting, the introduction of conservation
Chartered Institution of Wastes Management, CIWM, has measures increased this to around 700 before the ruddy
duck entered the equation in 1983. 10
The more aggressively amorous ruddy duck became
responsible for a generation of hybrid ducks at the expense
of the native variety, and Spain demanded that Britain
5 http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/2045435.
6 Defra Chris Smith Appointed as New Chair of the Environment Agency
News Release Ref: 134/08 (8 May 2008) http://www.defra.gov.uk/
news/2008/080508d.htm.
7 Socialist Environment Resources Association, the aim of which is: ‘to 9 Industry Soundings does not write hotel reviews, so the reader will
promote sustainable environmental policies within government and the have to rely upon the comments of others on lastminute.com and
Labour Party’. David Miliband is now President. elsewhere.
8 Pronounced ‘future resource’: See ‘Futuresource – Europe’s 10 P Brown ‘Randy Ruddy Ruffles Feathers’ The Guardian (9 April 1993).
sustainability event’ www.futuresource.com. 11 P Brown ‘Specieswatch: Ruddy Duck’ The Guardian (26 May 2008).

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