Agile Applications Ltd (2024)

In June this year, the University of Eindhoven announced its plans to 3D print affordable housing units in what they claim is “the world’s first commercial housing project based on 3D concrete printing” https://www.tue.nl/en/university/news-and-press/news/eindhoven-gets-the-first-3d-concrete-printing-housing-project/. New London Architecture has developed an interactive model of the future development of the capital https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-43820267/3d-model-reveals-london-s-future-skyline allowing planners and residents to visualise and delve into the impact of development. Digital innovation like this could herald the end of our housing crisis.

With projects like Google’s augmented reality maps around every corner – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F0gFpzsYLM – it’s evident that today’s technology can deliver solutions that would have been a pipe dream even a decade ago. As these technologies proliferate, the cost of entry will fall. But are organisations in a position to exploit the opportunities? The CBI reports that many organisations feel that they lack the skills and “Digital Leadership” to transform the way they work, a shortfall that is hampering their vision for the future. http://www.cbi.org.uk/news/digital-divide-among-uk-business-is-holding-back-the-economy/.

In Local Government, there are already many new and innovative projects that deliver digital services to the community, particularly in key areas such as benefits, education, health and social care. Nevertheless, there is a shortage of digital skills across the board, and budget spent in these essential areas means that budgets are constrained elsewhere.

A general concern about risk and the huge costs of failed “white elephant” software projects in both the public and private sectors feed into an understandable reticence when it comes to innovation.

The government recognises that the route to reducing developing time and the costs of trialing new concepts is to build easy to assemble digital services using reusable components and platforms. It’s here that flexible software vendors have the advantage over the established giants of the software world.

As a smaller vendor, we can take an agile approach and are not constrained by a vested interest in maintaining the status quo of our company’s legacy systems. We recruit our software engineers not just for the digital skills they offer today but for their appreciation of where technology can lead in the future.

For us, digital transformation means an improved experience for everyone who uses an Agile Applications designed service. A successful digital service must be easy to use – which is why video and voice input feature in our employee and citizen apps today and will be a driving force in our developments for the future.

Back to the present, where our focus is on two key areas that are common to all services – “smart” working and improved communication with local communities.

In many local authorities, the workload has increased but the numbers of staff and time to deal with it have not. Our mobile working solution gives every officer (irrespective of their job role), the ability to see and update their daily tasks quickly and upload video and photos wherever they are, with optional voice input for those need to have hands free moments.

Our @HOME mobile app currently delivers recycling and waste collection information to around 10,000 residents and growing. It’s a simple solution that gets the recycling message across, notifies residents on service issues in their area and encourages them to report problems. @HOME is multi-purpose and can be used to deliver notifications of all kinds – not just recycling.

“We want to close the “communications loop” between the organisation, its employees and the residents they serve”

says Israel Menis, head of development at Agile

“that’s the thinking behind Agile@WORK and Agile@HOME. A smooth flow of tasks and information between an operation and the people on the ground plays a huge part in making new digital services efficient. The issue is that solutions are sometimes overloaded with features that many people simply don’t have the time to use. We’ve pared our mobile working solution back, but kept the functionality to help staff optimise their work and give them the full user experience. We’ve taken the same approach to our resident apps. For us, simplicity makes for user acceptance”.

It’s easy to get swept away on a wave of enthusiasm for the benefits that new technologies can bring to service delivery, but the harsh reality is that making the transition is no easy task.

Sometimes it can seem easier to adapt a legacy system than to move ahead with a new approach to a business need. Just defining the scope of what needs to be done can be daunting. The latest Government Digital Service research on this tells us that, the very considerable technical considerations aside, “unpicking” data silos and allocating managerial and budget responsibility for migration are a stumbling block. GDS finds that there is no “one size fits all” when it comes to leaving legacy tech behind and that organisations are approaching the problem by migrating in small stages – https://gdstechnology.blog.gov.uk/2018/05/24/understanding-legacy-technology-in-government/

Back to the concept of reusable components and easy to assemble digital services, which is the Agile Applications’ approach specifically because it allows us to build cost-effective prototypes before making the final move. APIs are a standard element of all our current products which means that the transition can take place gradually in tune with our customers’ appetite for change.

If you view change as an opportunity, then the need for digital transformation to alleviate strain on budgets is an ideal chance to take a closer look at business processes. That’s a fundamental of the agile approach and an area where Agile Applications will work with you – a mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge is a key contributor to project success.

When you’re ready to migrate, we’ll take you through the process of getting your new service up and running with proven data migration techniques and an always accessible project management team on hand.

As our customers make the move to our cloud subscription software, we’re looking forward to the next phase in digital service transformation. We can’t predict the future but we know that it’s where we want to be…

Lewis Pugh, who recently completed the “Long Swim” through the 350 miles of the English Channel, undertook the “Everest of swims” to raise awareness of the threat to the UK’s coastal waters from climate change, over-fishing and plastic pollution. His blog http://lewispugh.com/the-long-swim/ explains why he’s so passionate about the state of our oceans and how much environmental devastation he’s witnessed in 30 years of swimming in oceans worldwide.

Plastic is the major source of marine pollution – an estimated 12m tonnes of plastic enters the sea every year, finding its way to the most remote areas of the Arctic and Antarctic and even the Mariana Trench (the world’s deepest known ocean area).

According to US organisation, Ecowatch, there are 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile in the ocean. Experts estimate that there are six times more plastic in the oceans than plankton. Some claim that by 2050, there’ll be more plastic by weight than fish in the sea.

If you watched the BBC’s Blue Planet 2 series last year, you will have seen the impact of this pollution on marine life, but its impact is far wider, affecting livelihoods, food sources and potentially our health too.

According to the EU Environment Commission, “around the globe, seas and oceans absorb 25-30% of CO2 emissions and provide livelihoods for 3 billion people.”

Pollution, marine litter, underwater noise and damage to the sea floor are all putting pressure on ecosystems, while some 1350 alien species have established themselves in European seas since the 1950s”.

There’s evidence that marine plastic pollution is now affecting the food chain, although the scale of this is not fully understood according to the EU Food Safety Agency – https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press/news/160623.

How did we get here?

Plastic, plastic everywhere. Over the last 10 years, we’ve produced more plastic than was produced over the whole of the last century. Our lifestyles – eating and drinking on the go, convenience food, easy-care fabrics, furniture, the infamous plastic carrier bag – all play a part in pollution. Plastic was made to last – in industrial applications, technology and transport, that’s no doubt a plus and on the upside, scientists are working now on developing bio-plastics that are more environmentally friendly (https://www.sciencehistory.org/the-history-and-future-of-plastics). But today, we’re dealing with a deluge of plastic that simply doesn’t degrade – it persists for hundreds of years, leaking pollutants into air, soil and water…

According to the BBC, a paper published in July this year (in the journal Science Advances, written by industrial ecologist Dr Roland Geyer, University of California, and colleagues), calculated the total volume of all plastic ever produced at 8.3bn tonnes.

Of this, some 6.3bn tonnes is now waste – and 79% of that is in landfill or the natural environment.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42264788

How bad can it get? The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has been forming since 1985 between the coasts of California and Hawaii and is thought by some to be twice the size of Texas. It’s believed to comprise at least 80,000 tons of plastic rubbish – the equivalent of 500 jumbo jets. There are other similar patches across the world, resulting from a combination of atmospheric and oceanic forces that concentrate and trap debris of all kinds in certain areas of the ocean.

It’s the “travelling” nature of plastic and its durability that make it such a threat to marine life – BBC Science Editor David Shukman explains how plastic travels here:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44359614

What’s being done?

In April this year, the government pledged £61m to fund the drive to combat marine waste by tackling the problem at source i.e. by preventing plastic debris from entering the ocean and to aid improvements in waste management in developing countries.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-government-rallies-commonwealth-to-unite-on-marine-waste

This follows on from Michael Gove’s speech to the World Wildlife Fund when he acknowledged that, in addition to the bans announced in April’s press release, “ there is more we can do to protect our oceans, so we will explore new methods of reducing the amount of plastic – in particular plastic bottles – entering our seas, improve incentives for reducing waste and litter, and review the penalties available to deal with polluters”.

In fact, the current UK government has a 25-year environmental plan designed to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste in the UK over the period and a stated aim to “set the global gold standard on the environment”.

Beyond saying no to single use plastic

The campaign to “Say no to single use plastic” has gone truly viral worldwide, a great example of collective will and action. More than 40 British businesses have responded by joining the UK Plastics Pact which has pledged to eliminate single use plastics by 2025. The Pact includes food and non-food brands that are described by commentators as “collectively responsible for more than 80% of the UK’s supermarket plastic packaging”.

Whilst the wheels of government turn, and the packagers work on alternative solutions to single use plastic, the rest of us can take practical steps to help prevent pollutants, including plastic, reaching the ocean in the first place.

• Reuse – carry a reusable bottle, take bags with you when shopping
• Dispose of products properly – it’s not just plastics that threaten water quality. Cleaning products, paint, batteries and pesticides are all contributors
• Take your litter home after a day at the beach
• Opt for unpackaged fresh foods if possible

Steps like this can help to reduce plastic waste, but more than likely, you’ll still need to recycle. For a quick, visual guide to what can be recycled in your area, including those “hard to dispose of” products, our Agile@HOME smart app can help. If your council subscribes to Agile@HOME, you’ll have an instant reminder of when your collection is due.

By reducing our reliance on plastic and recycling as much as possible, we’ll hopefully prevent non-recyclable waste from making its way to the ocean – after all, no-one wants to swim in a sea of plastic.

Your community is almost certainly the victim of a crime that is sadly commonplace and so brazen that it often happens in plain sight – a toxic mix of fly-tipping, graffiti and flyposting. From the selfish individual who thoughtlessly dumps their old fridge to the unlicensed carriers who dump waste by the lorryload, the offenders might want to believe that these are “victimless” crimes. But we all have to pay to clean up their anti-social mess.

In fact, fly-tipping (illegal disposal of household, industrial, commercial or other ‘controlled’ waste without a waste management licence) is a criminal offence. It attracts massive fines and can lead to imprisonment for repeat offenders. Lower down the scale, you are committing an offence if you don’t properly dispose of rubble, garden waste, old furniture or even leave a bag of rubbish next to your waste bin.

In 2016, the Environment Minister, introducing new fixed penalties for fly-tipping, said “It’s beyond me that anyone feels it’s acceptable to simply dump their waste by the road – whether in our cities or our countryside. The new fixed penalty notices will provide local authorities with another tool to crack down on the selfish individuals who blight our neighbourhoods and ruin our beautiful landscape”.

But despite community censure and stiff penalties, fly-tipping increased by 4% over the previous year in 2015/2016 according to Defra. Local authorities reported around 936,000 cases of fly-tipping in England and around 67% of those – nearly 628,000 incidents – were household waste.

The clearance of this fly-tipping is estimated to have cost local authorities in England nearly £50 million. The annual cost to local authorities in Wales is nearly £2 million. The cost of clearing fly-tipping on private land is estimated at anywhere from £50 – £150 million a year.

In the same period, local authorities carried out nearly 494,000 enforcement actions at an estimated cost of £16.9 million. Enforcement actions in both years included investigations, warning letters, inspections and statutory notices.

See: http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN05672/SN05672.pdf

Whilst the government believes that the rise may be down to an increase in reporting by residents, critics attribute it to newly introduced charges for household waste collection and garden waste and others to households not having their rubbish collected regularly.

Whether it’s the chicken or the egg that came first, the fact is that cuts in local government budgets mean that there is a shortfall. There is heavy demand for services in other areas such as adult social care and housing, leaving councils to find new ways to combat the problem yet maintain their existing waste and recycling service levels with less funding.

Informing the public and gaining their support is an important route to staying on top of envirocrime. Ealing Council is the third largest London Borough in terms of population terms and, even before the introduction of our Agile@HOME app, had already achieved its 2018 50% recycling rate a year ahead. The app gives residents an easy-to-use guide to what can and cannot be recycled, their nearest recycling points and any disruptions to their service so there’s no excuse for leaving bags out on the street. By substituting SMS text messages with mobile phone notifications, Agile@HOME expands the council’s ability to communicate with residents whilst keeping costs down.

Ealing has also been targeting fly-tipping via their Enforcements service and residents, resulting in 4,262 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs). Whilst their enforcement team has made a positive impact evidenced by a significant decrease in fly-tips over the last year, the council is still dealing with reports of 800 incidents a month. That means a significant additional spend with the outsourced waste collection service called in to clear up. See:http://ealingnewsextra.co.uk/features/fly-tip/

Using Agile’s Waste Management system, Ealing can now identify duplicate fly-tipping reports at source and therefore reduce costs for ad-hoc services such as fly-tip removal.

It’s the flexibility of maintaining an in-house “owned” contract management system that has enabled Ealing to identify associated, potential annual savings in excess of £70,000 and to implement a solution to achieve them.

With new features soon to be implemented, the council will be able to record and report on fly-tips from incident report all the way through to prosecution in the courts.

Nationally, opinion seems divided on whether we’ve yet to reach “peak fly-tipping” but with councils’ budget shortfalls a continuing challenge, the application of cost-effective technology will continue to play a key supporting role in turning the envirocrime tide.

And in the meantime, we can all do our bit – here’s how:

• If you witness fly-tipping or come across illegal dumping, report it to your council
• If your council subscribes to Agile@HOME’s “Report an Incident”, you can use the app to let them know
• Be aware of what you can recycle – Agile@HOME gives you information about larger items and hazardous substances as well as standard domestic waste
• Ask any tradesperson working on your home how they will dispose of the waste created
• Check that they either licensed themselves or will use a licensed carrier – you can do that here:https://environment.data.gov.uk/public-register/view/index
• If you’re a business, make sure you have a commercial waste licence
• If you own an HMO, make sure that any property clearance is compliant
• Use your local council’s bulky waste collection service

There is an obvious need in the UK to build more houses. Since the Barker Review in 2004, policy makers, academics and politicians across the board have recognised the need to significantly increase the supply of new homes in order to meet current and future housing needs, and limit further dramatic increases in housing costs.

Where there is a high demand for housing but not enough supply, this leads to high house prices which exacerbates the problem for those trying to buy. So, theoretically if we increase the supply of housing, prices will fall.

However, 14 years on from the Barker Review, while development of housing remains a high priority issue and although there seems to be residential building sites wherever you look, the shortfall of housing doesn’t seem to be reducing. Not to mention the fact that the sale price of new-build houses remains high, precluding a great many people from buying their own home.

So, what determines house prices? Let’s break the equation down. In a given year the price will be based on the number of people who want to buy a house in that year, the amount of money they have to spend and the number of houses for sale in that year.

Currently we have this situation:

• There are a growing number of people who want to buy a house – mainly people who are currently not in the housing market, and are usually those wanting to buy at the lower end of the housing market.
• The amount of money people have to spend on a home is not rising (as wages have been largely static.)
• The number of houses on the market has not increased sufficiently. Successive governments have had a housebuilding target of between 200,000-300,000 against a fairly static actual supply of around 160,000 houses a year.
• Thevast majority of houses coming on to the market in a given year are not new-builds, but already-existing houses, and this number has dropped from around 2 million per year in the 1980s to under 1 million in recent years. This means even if the building targets were hit we would still not address the shortfall in the number of houses on the market each year.

We should stop beating ourselves up over this shortfall, and recognise it is not just a need for 1000’s of new builds that will solve this problem.

It’s not just about quantity

We also need to consider the types and tenure of houses that are being built. If we look at why the numbers of existing properties on the market has fallen there are a few reasons, such as:

• With prices rising fast, people are not rushing to sell up
• Staying put and extending is a more attractive option
• Stamp duty has risen, making the cost of moving more expensive
• Mortgages are harder to get

A key factor is also that the existing homeowner is an aging one and older people are less likely to want to move. This fact then also raises the question on the size of houses that need to be built (are more smaller houses required to attract older homeowners?)

From a developer’s perspective it is easy to understand that they gain to make more profit from building a larger house as the cost of building an extra bedroom is proportionally less than the value added to the sale value. However, this also has to be reconciled with the average number of people per household being 2.3, so the most sought-after property is a 3-4 bedroomed house.

But this figure doesn’t take into account the skewed nature of the population dynamic looking for a home, where more people are likely to be looking for a 1 or 2 bed house. On a typical development this size property may only account for less than a third of the overall homes available and this again forces property values of these houses higher. This has the inevitable result that many people cannot afford to buy.

Affordable housing, brown field sites & infrastructure

So, how do we solve this seemingly unsolvable problem with an unachievable target?

Affordable Housing schemes can come into play at this point. The Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) has just published a report citing that 63% of Councils regard their Affordable Housing need as severe. Surely if more smaller homes were available the prices of these homes would be lower?

This seems to be more sensible than engaging in extensive and complex agreements which compound the problem further by delaying consent times, tying up planning officers’ time and resulting in numerous conditions being imposed which then have to be discharged and/or monitored. AND on top of all of this, we create a new problem by inadvertently placing a negative stigma on the people and the homes within these schemes.

Another area the UK government should be exploring seriously is green and brown field sites. According to the UK National Ecosystem Assessment(NEA), only 2% of all of England’s land mass is built on (it’s just 1% elsewhere in the UK). By ‘built on’ this means anything covered in buildings, roads, car parks, railways, concrete, paths, etc.

If this was increased a little all the residential property issues could potentially be solved. To that end, the brownfield register was conceived in 2016 and came into effect last year. 73 councils across England are tasked with piloting one of these brownfield registers. These provide house builders with up-to-date and publicly available information on all brownfield sites available for housing locally.

The idea of these registers is that they help housebuilders identify suitable sites quickly, speeding up the construction of new homes. They will also allow communities to draw attention to local sites for listing, including in some cases derelict buildings and eyesores that are primed for redevelopment and that could attract investment to the area.

There are also massive improvements the UK government could make in the area of infrastructure investment. For instance, over recent years cities near motorways and rail routes have prospered and expanded dramatically, but where there has been minimal or no government spend on infrastructure, no one wants houses as there are usually few jobs in those areas.

There are some positives. For instance, in recent years the increasing popularity of self-build projects is encouraging. The more citizens that group together and are proactive in tackling their own housing needs the better, as in doing so they take control of the price and quality of that housing too, rather than being at the mercy of large developers.

Evidently, the answer to solving the housing shortfall is in the hands of not just the government, but developers too. The key is putting in place legislation and guidance that will work cross-party, avoiding party politics and the barriers that this can put in the way. We need something that will work for the nation over the coming years and decades as demand increases more and more.

It’s no secret that councils are under increasing pressure amid government cuts and budgetary demands. Having sufficient funding to hire trained professionals and equip departments with the necessary software can be a real struggle.

TheLGiUrecently published findings fromtheirLocal Government Finance Survey 2018which highlighted that “80% of councils fear for their financial sustainability” and that they face “continued uncertainty about the source and level of funding post-2020” due to political turmoil.

It’s something we hear a lot from our customers – that their departments areshort-staffed,and the pressure is on to be more efficient with fewer resources.We understand. And we want to help where we can.

A service to ease pressure and boost resources

We designed the Agile 360 offering in response to common departmental obstacles faced by ourBuilt Environment and Waste customers. The service acts as a support and resource which can be used when councils need it most and ensures our customers can get the most from their Agile software.

Graham Hopkins, ProjectManager at Agile Applications, said:“Our customers often find their teams are stretched, overloaded, or simply do not have the experience to run testing of a product upgrade, so we help out and run that testing process for them.”

He added: “Sometimesour customers don’t have the in-house skills to carry out certain tasks such as creating reports, templates or print layouts. In those cases, again we can step in and assign the most appropriate member of our team to those jobs, meaning there is no delay for the customer in getting that new management report generated for their next board meeting”

Agile 360, which was launched inDecember 2017, combinesexpertise from ourtechnical support teams, the product consultants, our project managers, and the marketing team to offer a completely holistic solution.

A number of our customers have signed up to the Agile 360solutionand are already feeling the benefits.

Jared Crane, Assistant Director, commented: “Agile 360 has already been well received by a number of our customers who found they just didn’t have the time to carry out certain tasks. The service costs a fraction of what a new hire would, allowing local authorities to increase resources without dramatically impacting their overheads.”

He continued: “We’re really pleased to see that Agile 360 is making a difference to our customers in the real world and we hope to help more local authorities relieve pressures in the face of further council budget cuts.”

Find out more about Agile 360

To find out more about what’s included in our Agile 360 offering, just request a copy of the brochure.

If you’d like to discuss the support requirements of your department further, then just get in touch.

The new General Data Protection Regulation, which comes into force on May 25th, 2018, has been described as the greatest change to data protection in decades, heralding new measures designed to enhance data protection for citizens across the UK and the EU.

In today’s digital landscape, the technologies used to deliver service transformation and the ways in which the public access these new services are very different to those envisaged even just a few years ago. With the advent of the new General Data Protection Regulation, legislation is now catching up with technology.

As our customers prepare for GDPR, we’re undertaking a continuous assessment of software features and surrounding services, as part of our Agile 360 offering. This can help to reduce the time and resources needed to put the new requirements into practice day-to-day.

Planning, building control and waste services departments are capturing data in-line with their statutory obligations or “for the performance of a public task”. This means that our customers will not generally be relying on Consent as their basis for “lawful processing”.

Nevertheless, individuals may still have the right to be forgotten, data capture must be minimised and data can only be stored for a limited period if there’s no valid reason for keeping it. Simply handling FOI requests, where the council can no longer charge and has less time to respond, will have an impact on already hard-pressed departments. With this in mind, our new services are designed to help reduce response times and manage document storage as effectively as possible.

As the Information Commissioner says: “GDPR preparation doesn’t end on 25 May 2018 – it requires ongoing effort. It’s an evolutionary process for organisations – 25 May is the date the legislation takes effect but no business stands still. You will be expected to continue to identify and address emerging privacy and security risks in the weeks, months and years beyond May 2018”.

Since the new law applies to all types of organisations (worldwide) in all sectors and with customers across the EU and the UK, it will be interesting to see how GDPR plays out in relation to “local” territory laws. At Agile Applications, we’ll continue to assess how we offer practical support to customers as the real-world implications of GDPR emerge.

If you’d like to discuss this more, or if you require more information about our Agile 360 offering, just get in touch.

Christmas is a wonderful time of year, there’s no doubt about it – it’s a time for sitting around the fire, watching old movies, catching up with family and friends, exchanging gifts, and indulging in food and drink. But there’s also no doubt that Christmas is a very wasteful time of year, with many of our festivities generating refuse.

Whether it’s wrapping paper and gift cards, festive food or unwanted presents, we generate waste in the tonnes over Christmas.

Take a look at our video to see how much is wasted each year.

As shown in the video, Christmas waste statistics highlight that the UK discards:

• 227,000 miles of wrapping paper
• 74 million mince pies
• Over a billion Christmas cards
• 6 million Christmas trees
• 2 million turkeys

That’s an awful lot of waste to be generated over a short period of time!

Aside from the amount of food and products we buy for the festive period leading to an increase in refuse, why else are we wasting so much? Well, confusion and over-buying play a huge part.

Can you recycle wrapping paper?

There’s some confusion over whether wrapping paper can be recycled or not – this is something we mentioned in another post about household recyclables – and this often results in gift paper being sent to landfill.

So, what’s the answer? The majority of wrapping paper is recyclable and will often be collected kerbside by councils. Some councils may prefer you to bring wrapping paper to the local recycling centre, but you can check your council’s website or the Agile@HOME app to find out.

The exception is gift wrap that’s metallic or shiny, has a foil effect or is glittery.

You can also do a quick test at home to see if your paper is recyclable – just scrunch it into a ball and if it keeps the shape, it can be recycled; if it unfolds, it’s not recyclable.

Festive food waste

Many people overcompensate at Christmas. We buy mounds of food to entertain friends and family – keeping bellies full is all part of the Christmas spirit! But sadly, a lot of this food goes to waste.

We often prepare too much, we don’t always use our leftovers and we neglect to consume food before it goes off.
To combat this, think carefully about what you actually need to buy to feed everyone, rather than what you think you may need. Buying the correct amount can avoid both a waste of food and money, which is a festive win-win.

Utilising leftovers is also important. Turn those turkey trimmings into a delicious curry and fry up those veggies for a tasty Boxing Day bubble and squeak!

For food that isn’t wanted or isn’t consumed in time, be sure to pop it in your food caddy instead of general refuse. When sent to landfill, food rots and generates a potent greenhouse gas which is damaging to the environment.

What to do with real Christmas trees?

Real Christmas trees are a hot topic for most councils each Christmas and councils encourage these to be recycled when the festive season draws to a close.

Unlike fake Christmas trees, which cannot be recycled, real trees can be chipped and reused in park areas. An even greener option, if you’ll excuse the pun, would be to opt for a live, potted Christmas tree that can be used every year.

Check the Agile@HOME app or your local council to find out how you can dispose of your real Christmas tree in January.

Enjoy a more environmentally friendly festive season

Will you be enjoying a festive season will less waste? We certainly hope so! Do you have any top tips for generating less waste over Christmas? Find us on Twitter to continue the conversation.

Waste and recycling support for councils

We understand that the combination of bank holidays and an increase in the waste that needs to be collected can create added pressure for a department that might already be under strain – our Agile@HOME app can help.
We can send automated updates to residents, notifying them of any changes to your waste schedule during the festive period.
Our recycling app also informs residents of what can or cannot be recycled in your area.

Download the brochure to find out more.

Shampoo and shower gel bottles, drinks bottles, fruit punnets, ready meal trays, and toothpaste tubes –from the moment we wake up until the moment we go to bed, we use and consume products in plastic packaging. Not all of this plastic is recyclable, but the vast majority is and yet we’re still not recycling enough of it.

Plastic recycling at home

Our throwaway culture means we’re producing over 1.5m tonnes of plastic waste every year; despite over 90% of UK councils accepting recyclable plastic materials, we’re only recycling about a third of all the plastic packaging we consume. So why is this?

Well, there are many different types of plastic, some of which are recyclable and some of which are not, so this can confuse the consumer. Councils can help educate citizens within their area to encourage better recycling of plastic materials and help combat confusion; they can also clearly highlight what is recyclable in the area to ensure the right materials are being collected.

But how can the UK pull together as a whole to improve the rate of plastic recycling further, beyond educating citizens?

Will a plastic tax help UK plastic recycling rates?

The government has suggested that a tax on single use plastics might be one way to combat this problem.

In last week’s autumn budget, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, announced that in 2018 the government will launch a call for evidence on whether a tax on single-use plastic (items such as straws, stirrers, takeaway containers, coffee cups and lids etc.) would help reduce consumption of these items as the 2015 plastic bag tax has helped reduce plastic bag usage.

Suez CEO, David Palmer-Jones, said: “Policy and taxation changes are welcome if they can help reduce the use of virgin materials in favour of more sustainable, recyclable products. Taxation changes to help the environment need to be part of a wider policy that marries the protection of our precious natural resources with a modern, sustainable, industrial strategy.”

Bottle deposit return schemes

Another suggestion to combat plastic waste is to adopt a bottle deposit return scheme in the UK. A deposit return scheme (DRS) would involve a small surcharge being added to the bottle at the point of sale with a refund being issued to the consumer when the bottles are returned.

Similar schemes have been implemented in Sweden, Germany, NSW in Australia, and certain parts of the US. Germany’s DRS has proved to be the most successful so far with 98.5% of refillable bottles being returned.

Scotland has committed to introducing a deposit return scheme to help reduce waste. They will be working with Zero Waste Scotland to design this. The Welsh government have also expressed an interest in adopting a DRS in Wales.

Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, has announced that central government are now assessing the feasibility of introducing a bottle deposit return scheme in England; they will work with industry leaders to understand whether this is the best course of action.

Elena Polisano, Greenpeace Oceans campaigner, has commented: “We urgently need solutions, and we think a bottle return scheme like those being looked at by Michael Gove, and by the Scottish and Welsh devolved governments, is probably the best way to raise collection rates and turn that stream into a loop.”

The government is expected to come back with its findings on a potential DRS in December.

We’re committed to aiding the increase of recycling rates across the UK; our recycling app provides handy reminders to residents to pop their waste and recycling out for collection; it also allows councils to clearly communicate key recycling messages to citizens – telling them which items can be recycled in their area.

The Agile@HOME app can be downloaded via iTunes or the PlayStore.

If you work for the council and want to discuss our app in more detail, just get in touch.

What’s green and associated with Halloween? Witches? Frankenstein? Ghoulish slime? Well yes, but Halloween is also about recycling! Let’s explorethe environmental impact that Halloween has in the UK and look athow you can bemoregreenthis year by following ourHalloween recycling tips:

Halloween is horrifying forfoodwaste

Pumpkin carving is a great activity for the whole family to get involved in – seeing your masterpiece light up on itssurfaceis quite magical. However, a large number of the pumpkins we buy and carve in the UKend up going to waste.

According to Hubbub, 25% of the 42%who buy pumpkins in the UK forHalloween throw them in with household waste whenthey’refinished with them. Thisculminates in ahorrifying 18,000tonnesof pumpkin being sent to landfill.

Instead of throwing your pumpkin in the bin, why not make a tasty pie or soup? If you don’t plan on cooking with your leftovers then try recycling yourHalloweenpumpkins instead –pop them into your compost bin or into your food waste caddy to prevent them rotting away in landfill. Don’t forget to put any unwanted scrapsor part-eaten sugary treatsfrom Halloween festivitiesinto your food waste caddy too.

Scary stats on Halloween waste

As well as pumpkins and sweets, there are numerous other items sent to landfill around Halloween – these itemsinclude costumes, decorations, batteries, and party paraphernalia.

Hubbub claimsthat a mere 4 out of 10 costumes bought in the UK will be worn just once. They write:“Last year a shocking14 million costumes were thrown in the bin, contributing to the300 milliontonnesof textilesthat end up in landfill every year. Whilst much more were given to charity shops, these can also end up going to waste as many charities won’t resell costumes without original fire labels intact due to safety concerns over issues such as flammability.”

Think about the products you’re using for your Halloween celebrations and check whether they can be recycled eitherkerbsideor locally.

Halloween upcycling ideas

Instead of spending a fortune on costumes anddecorations, and ultimately generating more waste,you can get creative and create some from scratchbyusing household items and craft supplies. Here are some nice ideas to get you started:

DIY Halloween costumes

Kids love capes, and this Halloween costume staple is easy to make. Just by using an old skirt ort-shirt, keepingthe neck or waistlineintact,but cuttinga cape shape from the rest,youcan create a costumefit for a superhero, a witch or wizard!

Do you have some broken umbrellas hanging around? Well, theseactuallymake perfect bat wings! Take a look atthis tutorialfor full instructions.

If you’re a bit pun-tastic, then how about acerealkiller costume? All you’ll need is an old shirt, some small, empty sharing boxes of cereal, plastic knives, and fake blood! Carefully stab a plastic knife through each cereal box and then glue the box to your old shirt. Go crazy with the fake blood to create a real massacre and you’re done.

DIY Halloween decorations

Toilet roll bats are super cute and super easy to make; just collectyourtoilet roll tubes for a couple of weeks in the run-up to Halloween so you can make a nice little colony of these furry flyers. Press two fingers on top of the toilet roll tube to push the cardboard inwards – do this from both sides to create a dip at the top and the illusion of two little ears either side. Then all you need to do is paint your bat and give it some cardboard wings.

Glass lanterns are a lovely addition to any Halloween celebrations. Using an empty jam jar and some black glass paint, you can create a magical ambience– try painting a simple black cat or a witch’s silhouette onto your jar and pop a tealight candle inside to light up your design.

Plastic bottle monstersarefun to look at and great for presenting snacks. By cutting the tops off empty drink bottles, and adding some spray paint and imagination, you can create some pretty awesome treat holders that will definitely impress your own little monsters. Take a look at thefull guide here.

Enjoya greener Halloween

Hopefully, our post has opened your eyes to the volume of waste generated by AllHallows’Eve; if you’re unsure which items you can recycle when the celebrations are over you can find out using theAgile@HOME recycling app.Downloadit for free from thePlayStoreoriTunesto find out what’s recycled in your area.

January 2017 saw the introduction of Vacant Land Registers in Ireland. Since then, Irish authorities have been required to list all vacant sites from within their area that are suitable for development.

As of January 2018, vacant sites which are bigger than 0.05 of a hectare (excluding gardens) will be subject to the Vacant Site Levy, as set out in the Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015.

Developers and landowners of unused land will face an annual charge equivalent to 3% of the market value of the land in question. This fee will be payable in arrears from the beginning of 2019.

As an example, land that is valued at €300,000 would incur an annual charge of €9,000.

The aim is to incentivise those responsible for vacant land to develop on it to boost available housing stock and combat the housing crisis.

As quoted in the circularletter to the Directors of Planning Serviceslast July: “land is a finite resource and should be used efficiently especially in urban areas. There are currently a considerable number of vacant sites in urban areas throughout the country which are lying dormant and undeveloped by their beneficial owners.”

The letter continues: “In Dublin City alone, it is estimated that there are presently over 280 reasonably-sized, vacant, undeveloped sites in the area between the two canals – involving approximately 60 hectares of land – many of which have the potential to be developed for residential and other purposes.

What is classed as vacant land?

In terms of residential land, it is considered vacant if it is suitable for housing, is situated in an area where there is a need for housing, and/or the site, or the majority of the site, is not in use.

For regeneration land, the site is considered vacant if it is idle and has unfavourable effects on or reduces amenities, or if it has a negative impact on the area’s character.

About our Vacant Land module for APAS

With planning departments already under pressure, the maintenance of the Vacant Land Register, and management of the Vacant Land Levy, will add to their already busy workloads.

At Agile Applications, we understand how in demand planning departments are, and how busy the workload can get, which is why we’ve developed software to help streamline and simplify processes – thus reducing the burden on planning teams.

In response to the Vacant Land legislation, we’ve produced a facility with automatic and manual links to our other products, such as planning, enforcements and building control, which will make the management of Vacant Land and any associated charges, simpler and easier for Irish authorities.

If you want to discuss our vacant land solution, or any of our other planning and building control modules,get in touchand one of our consultants will get back to you.