Strategic Waste Infrastructure Programme (SWIP)
The Strategic Waste Infrastructure Programme (SWIP) was established in 2008. Under the Programme the Department provided administrative and financial support to local government’s three sub-regional Waste Management Groups (WMGs) as they developed and took forward projects to secure the major new waste management infrastructure deemed necessary to assist their councils in meeting their statutory landfill diversion targets.
The three regional Northern Ireland Waste Management Groups which went out to tender for major infrastructure solutions on behalf of their constituent councils are arc21, North West Region Waste Management Group and Southern Waste Management Partnership 2008.
Two of the three projects in SWIP, led by SWaMP2008 and the North West Region Waste Management Group, were abandoned in 2012 and 2013 respectively. The remaining project, led by arc21, remains in procurement and the Department continues to monitor local government’s progress towards attainment of the Programme’s overarching objectives under the auspices of the Waste Programme Board and the more recently established Waste Co-ordination Group.
The Waste Co-ordination Group subsumed the functions of the original Waste Infrastructure Programme Board in March 2014 after it was recognised and agreed by the Waste Programme Board that the range of factors impacting on waste management requirements, including infrastructure requirements, could only be addressed effectively through a more holistic, less-project-focussed approach.
Waste Infrastructure and Secretariat Office
The Waste Infrastructure and Secretariat Office (WISO) provides a secretariat service to the Waste Programme Board and the Waste Co-ordination Group. WISO also manages all key activities associated with the SWIP such as Programme documentation, finance, project support and audit recommendations.
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