willow

Jeremy - I was referring to tigre's pride's post. Not sure why you'd bother cleaning a wheelie bin anyway.

But just because you choose to put a sticker on the bin and clean it doesn't make it your property. Council tax is for the collection and disposal of waste, not the provision of receptacles. We get a service above and beyond what the council is obliged to provide. Think a bit of perspective is needed.

I think we're actually fairly lucky that in Southwark we have a service whereby binmen come and collect bins from our properties in the first place. They are under no obligation to do so and most other councils across the country require you to present the bin for collection. In addition, they are not your bins; they belong to the council so does it matter which bin you get back? Again, the council is under no obligation to provide waste containers and a lot of other local authorities either don't provide them or charge residents to buy them. I sympathise with people that need assisted collections but really I think we're expecting too much of the service here!

I'm not sure what I need. I need to speak to someone about my 3 year old behaviour. It's not that he's naughty but totally lacks concentration to do anything and will not listen. He also seems to not want to do things well even though I know he can do them. I need to speak to someone about whether this is normal behaviour and how to manage it better

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My little boy has just turned 3 and I need some reassurance re: his behaviour over the past 2 - 3 months. Until fairly recently he used to play really nicely and would happily sit for hours doing puzzles, lego together etc. He'd also happily " help" me out hanging out the washing, sweeping etc. However his concentration seems to have gone to pot recently and seems to be regressing! He doesn't seem interested in doing anything. If I suggest doing games etc he'll just lie on the floor or act up. Also he doesn't listen to a word I say. We go to football classes on Tuesday morning which he used to really be into but now doesn't seem bothered by at all and will just act up when we go. Is this a normal phase for a 3 year old?? I find it very frustrating. I've tried all sorts of encouragement but he just seems to not to want to do anything (except watch Thomas which I have to limit!).

I have a serious dentist phobia but it's got to the point now where I can't put it off any longer. Has anyone got a recommendation of a sympathetic dentist that it very good with nervous patients? Preferably where you can be sedated?!

Is is just me or does anyone else get really, really irritated by flagrant displays of poor grammar in places that really should know better. I realise that I'm turning into one of those smug middle class types, or worse still my mother, but is it really so hard to know when to use an apostrophe?? So there's a certain chemist on Melbourne Grove that offers passport photo's (not sure whose photos they are) and a certain adventure playground in Peckham Rye that is open on Sunday's. Name and shame I say. Sorry if it really is just me!

Oliver I'm not sure Greenwich and Ealing are comparable as they're not inner London Boroughs with different socio-economic factors. Comparing Southwark with similar boroughs in terms of number of residents living in flats, high levels of turnover, deprivation etc, then Southwark really doesn't look that terrible: Lewisham - 22% Lambeth - 25% Hackney - 22% Tower Hamlets - 13%

People get really het up about tetra pak recycling but it really won't make a massive difference to the recycling rate seeing as they currently make up about 3% of the waste stream. Plus is it really worth a seperate collection? Southwark currently recycle a wider range of materials than most other councils. I've said it before and I'll say it again, low recycling rate is due to low participation, the fact that it's a highly urbanised borough (less green / garden waste) with the majority of people living in flats and it has a massive population turnover. Southwark was always going to be onto a loser. All the tetrapak and plastic bag recycling in the world won't make a difference.

Ha ha! No - neither am I a member of any political council. But I do think sometimes that we should remember that councillors are supposed to fit in full time jobs, family etc in addition to the time take up with a mainly voluntary post.

You seem to be implying that having a website is an excess and frivolity that could be done without?

For all the belly aching on here it's a wonder that people would want to stand as councillor at all. What a thankless task it seems to be as people never seem satisfied with the answers provided!

I'm not sure that everyone uses the library and buses...... I also doubt that the website is in the multi million pound region. It's about making sure that you reach the majority of people and I'm not sure that posters in strategic locations and a website will do it unfortunately

Worst by what measure?

I find that view point slightly patronising. And really how difficult is it??

I get a bit annoyed when people attack the Council for low recycling rates (I don't work for the council incidently but do work in waste management). After all, a large proportion of households have a comprehensive, door to door recycling service. This includes many blocks of flats in the borough which have a clear bag scheme. This is not standard practice across London. Southwark also collects mixed plastics, which is also fairly unique. Responsibility for the low recycling rate is mainly (not solely) because the service isn't used because people can't be bothered! In addition, Southwark's recycling rate is low compared with other boroughs because it has such a low proportion of households with gardens. Green recycling contributes significantly to the recycling rate so Southwark is automatically onto a loser here....

Don't spoil everyone's fun ????! People want to blame someone! Blame, blame, blame.

John L - Governments and leaders worldwide have flown in the face of overwhelming, independent scientific advice and comprehensively failed reach a meaningful, legally binding deal that would advert catastrophic climate change. They've hardly shown themselves to go to any lengths to keep up the global warming myth. "Are we really sure they're not just in it for a quick profit somehow" - again it's not really been governments pushing on this agenda over the past two decades. They've been so slow to act I'm not really sure you could accuse them of making a "quick" profit Besides the cost of mitigating the effects of climate change will be far greater that the costs of trying to avert it in the first place. It would be less costly for us to do something now.

Surely Louisa is just a caricature like Jeremy Clarkson or David Cameron, not to be taken seriously.....

Sorry Gavin - I completely disagree with you. I work in the recycling sector and believe that this obsession with tetra pack recycling is misguided. I mentioned that less than 3% of waste is made up of tetra packs. I would argue that this is a fairly insignificant proportion of the waste stream and the council's focus should be increasing the number of people using the existing facilities available as it's here that will make the most difference. Whether or not the council collects tetra packs from the kerbside is merely a distraction. I imagine the cost of adding tetra pack recycling to the existing kerbside collection would be way out of proportion compared to the impact on the waste stream. "Almost everyone else in England is able to do better, and if we really care about this issue we have to ask why Southwark is being left behind." If you look at the councils that do best at recycling they tend to be affluent rural boroughs that have a large proportion of single dwellings in their housing stock. More than 60% of Southwark residents live in flats, one of the highest percentages in the country. Collecting recycling from flats presents a much greater challenge as I'm sure you'll agree. If you look at the breakdown of recycling and composting councils with the highest recycling are those that are able to collect a large amount of green waste i.e. those boroughs where there are more green spaces and most households have gardens (For 8 out of the top 10 recycling boroughs in the country more than half is made up of green waste). The leafy suburbs these aint. Combine this with the fact that Southwark has a highly transient population where for many people English isn't their first language (which makes it harder to communicate with people about the service) and the fact that it's one of the most deprived boroughs in the country (proven link between socio-economic group and recycling behaviour) it's obvious that Southwark was always going to have one of the lowest recycling rates in the country. "It's an issue of political priorities - and for the Lib Dems this clearly hasn't been put far enough up the list" Bit rich considering when the lib dems came to power in 2000 the recycling rate was less than 3% due to woeful neglect of this area by the previous labour administration. I think you need to do more research in this area

I'm curious as to what the Labour candidates are suggesting that they could do better with recycling. Southwark collects more materials than most local authorities. Certainly there are very few councils that collect mixed plastics. They collect door to door on estates, which again is very rare. I'm not sure that focusing on tetra paks is really the answer seeing as they make up less than 3% of the waste stream. The council can only do so much to make people recycle - people have to take responsibility for their actions by making use of the service. You can lead to horse to water etc. I'm not sure you could accuse the council of not neglecting recycling. As I understand it the recycling rate as increased massively under this council admininstration.

I think we should remember that councillors have full time jobs, families etc and that their role is unpaid. I'm not sure that Cllr Barber can realisticly be expected to look at this forum every day and respond to the posts.

Check out the most highly rated comments and the worst rated ones. Makes me so angry. I don't know why I persist in reading the comments on the Daily Mail website. Must be a sado-masachistic streak in me.....

Great - thanks Mscrawthew. That's put my mind at rest!