You couldn't make it up (Southwark counci)

[Amelie]

Has anyone else seen this?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2007/08/20/is-this-the-baddest-council-in-britain-89520-19660975/

and if you think this is bad you should read the 15 pages of complaints about Nick Stanton on the London SE1 forum. I haven't reprinted any of it here because our beloved Administrator has enough problems with lawyers looking over his shoulder.

[Administrator]

Thank you Amelie

[Scylla100]

I dunno, I work in Lambeth and I think they'd give Southwark a pretty good run for the money for worse councel in inner London. People in Lambeth aspire to be as good a Southwark (its that baaaaad).

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

What the mirror don't say is that Denise Slapstick, the drunk driver, is also responsible for Southwark's alcohol policy in her health job!

[Keef]

Hmm, maybe I'm glad I didn't get that job in Southwark now... That said, Greenwich are surely the worst, and like Lambeth, have spent the past 3 years aspireing to be like Southwark, a 3 star council! :-S

[Siduhe]

I think one needs to draw a distinction between the leadership of the Council and the day to day services the Council offers. I'm sure Southwark have their moments, but having recently moved home, I found them to be surprisingly good. When they said they were going to deliver recycling boxes and a wheelie bin, they turned up. When we had a problem with our next door neigbour's tree growing down and blocking the pavement (and next door neighbour declined to do anything about it) I phoned up for some advice - they came the very next day and cut the tree back on the pavement side so people can use the footpath again. No connection to the Council by the way.

The Berkeley Homes development at Tower Bridge being discussed on another forum is quite a different story and I have some sympathy for any council which tries to oppose a development in similar circumstances to that one. Developers have significant funds to throw at legal action and Berkeley have made very clear they are going to fight this one tooth and nail, including starting work on their own part of the site in circumstances where it's far from clear that they have permission to do that.

If the Standards Board report earlier this year is anything to go by other local councils have their own share of problems - some allegedly far worse than those mentioned in the Mirror.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Good points Siduhe

Having ordered a skip and requested that the (now remedied) pot-hole ridden Friern Rd be sorted I had very swift responses. Obviously the roadworks were already in the pipeline but someone took the time to reply and outline the strategy which, given the bad press councils get, I wasn't expecting

Now a private company like (insert telecomms provider named after a vivid colour/fruit here) has been absolutely appalling for the last 4 weeks and is very clearly not interested in fixing a problem experienced by several of it's customers

[Ted Max]

One of the targets is not even a councillor. One person has no confirmed links to any terrorist organisation and is nt being investgated by the police. Another has a perfectly legal occupation. Fair enough there is one drink driver.

But overall that's a pathetic effort for "baddest council". Wouldn't even get a nib in Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs.

[Marmora Man]

SeanMacGabhann Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>Having .... and requested that the (now

> remedied) pot-hole ridden Friern Rd be sorted I

> had very swift responses.

Sean, who did you contact? I'd like to get the council to fix the "speed bump" at the Friern Road / Peckham Rye junction. No matter what tye of car I go over it in the vehicle grounds. The gouges in the road are evidence of failed design / placement.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Can't remember the exact page MM (it was a couple of years ago) , but I definitely went through the website and filled out a form

You could try starting here and having a look around some of the links :

https://securesite.southwark.gov.uk/ShowForm.asp?fm_fid=276

[the-e-dealer]

Is you go over it slowly its fine - so its doing its job!

[kford]

Hey, for replacing the suspension-crunching, ambulance-slowing speedbumps on Colyton Road with those flat trompe l'oeil-effect ones, which still seem to calm traffic, you get a thumbs-up from me. Pretty good with the old heavy-item rubbish collections too.

[macroban]

Tricking drivers' eyes sounds inherently dangerous.

[kford]

Likewise making them swerve all over the road to staddle or avoid conventional speedhumps, as any cyclist will tell you.

[Loz]

Having put up with a number of London councils, I find Southwark pretty good. The binmen come and get the bin if you forget to put it out, the streets are reasonably clean and our local councillors pop round every couple of months to gauge any local issues. They killed off the Homebase development a few years ago and the Leisure Centre next to ED station recently - both damn good decisions. Mt Sainsbury (the new speed bump they installed on Edgar Kail Way for the store reopening) lasted less than a week - I assume the council had a say in that one.

For the basic stuff I can't ask for a lot more, really.