Strategic policy committees – SPCs – were introduced as a strand of local government but they are not working effectively. That may be because it takes time for them to bed down. It is time that SPCs engaged in serious discussion on issues such as waste management, etc. I referred previously to the farcical situation that occurs at our annual estimates meeting when we spend a long period discussing waste management charges and try to ask questions in the space of a few hours. If the environmental SPC was functioning properly with local authority members and others as members of it, it would prepare a document for councillors for the estimates meeting detailing costs and where savings could be made. This would allow councillors to examine the issue on a more scientific and analytical basis rather than the farcical situation that applies at estimates meetings when we end up discussing refuse charges and scoring points off each other. The serious nature of local government is not discussed.