former East Dulwich councillor - how can I help?

[Loz]

buddug Wrote:

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> Otta, have you ever heard of road tax?

Uh-oh. Cue a hoard of angry cyclists...

[Damo]

Ding a ling!

No such thing as road tax

[buddug]

I found this: "Yesterday in Parliament Mike Penning, the minister in charge of roads and road safety, said:

?We also need to ensure that the motorist, who predominantly pays for our roads, is not inconvenienced too much.?

Seems I'm in good company in my mistake, since the minister in charge of roads didn't know car tax hasn't paid for roads maintenance etc since 1937 either!

[fazer71]

On a motoring forum I think pistonheads there was a thread about VED / Road Tax

Someone posted "It's about time Top Gear told everyone there's been no Road Tax since the 30's"

Reply was "nobody believes what's said on Top Gear except that Hammond bleached his teeth"

We brits are treated like mushrooms, especially by the politicians and the press.

[the-e-dealer]

Libya has over turned its leaders and Hundreds of Political Critics are being let out of prison in Burma and yet some on here think we shouldn't criticise the Holy James why?

[peterstorm1985]

fazer71 Wrote:

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> On a motoring forum I think pistonheads there was

> a thread about VED / Road Tax

>

> Someone posted "It's about time Top Gear told

> everyone there's been no Road Tax since the 30's"

> Reply was "nobody believes what's said on Top Gear

> except that Hammond bleached his teeth"

>

> We brits are treated like mushrooms, especially by

> the politicians and the press.

I guess they don't think to tell us anymore because the news was out in the 1930s. (Is anyone in any doubt that the Great war is over?)

I've never thought that stamp duty on houses paid for new houses to be built so why would road tax be anything more than another tax?

[pipsky2008]

Feel free to email me and I'll give try giving you a more specific steer.

Thankyou, I have now emailed you. I am to hear from you in due course.

Regards

[fazer71]

peterstorm1985

It's funny a large section of the UK population do not know.

I wonder could that have something to do with the education system.

Maybe there need to be classes in where our TAX money goes from the age of 4 ideally to give them time to work through the complexities when they leave at 16 but from 11 year old they'd still have 5 years to grasp the basics.

How about a GCSE in UK Taxation.

Of course no chance of that it would actually lead to a wothwhile job qualification??

[Lynne]

Any chance of an answer to my question about caravans being parked on the road?. we've now had one parked on our street for days and I didn't think this was allowed

Lynne

[Otta]

From Southwark website.

Parking

Tel: 0844 800 2736

[email protected]

Why not just drop them a line.

[Huguenot]

Nationally it's only illegal if it's causing an obstruction, which usually means blocking the road, reducing driver visibility or being poorly lit.

The police are the only guys who decide this.

There may be a Southwark by law?

If it's being used as accommodation other rules apply and they'd be in breach of a number of regulations.

[James Barber]

Hi Lynne,

I'm just back from weekend away which is a roundabout way of apologising for not responding sooner.

I dn't know what the rules are but will find your email, forward it to the parking team and ask them and then respond to you. Hopefully will get an answer today or tomorrow.

Hi Bellenden Belle,

If the back room could still be booked it might be within the consent already given but it would be worth planning enforcement to review this business as gm99 has kingly suggested.

[Guest]

Dear Mr Barber,

Recycling collections

Since the new recycling system was implemented there seems to be a lot more broken glass on the roads and pavements around Southwark than before. This is understandable to some extent as the new bins are obviously fuller and lifted much higher than the previous ones, so any spillages go further. I suspect the fact that rubbish is no longer separated also plays a part.

I cycle every day around this area and notice my bike is now getting a puncture roughly once a fortnight, whereas before it was perhaps two or three a year. Usually glass tends to get pushed into the gutter by traffic fairly quickly but now it's often spread 2+ metres into the road so you have to cycle down the centre white line to avoid it, which is obviously a potential hazard for traffic.

It's only a matter of time before a cyclist or pedestrian is flicked in the eye with it by some speeding motorist, or a child picks it up the tread of their shoes and carries it indoors where it's embedded in carpets or furniture.

I'm sure the operators are doing their best and I do appreciate it may take a while for all of us to get comfortable with the new system, but I wondered if you might be able to raise this with the right department to see if perhaps they can contain the glass more effectively?

This is not intended as a whinge, and I realise they're now dealing with larger volumes of stuff, but it would be great if they could also generally check the bins to make sure they've emptied them completely and pick up any paper, cans, bottles etc that they spill on the road as they go.

Many thanks.

[gm99]

@MsB

I'll second that. I had to clear up what I think was a smashed water glass from the road outside our house last week after the recycling men had been.

[fazer71]

Me2.

Either the collection crews aren?t doing their job as they should be sweeping up any mess that they make as they go.

Or a road cleaning crew needs to follow the recycling crew to clean up their mess.

[James Barber]

Hi fazer71, gm99 and Ms B,

I think this issue result from several changes. Since April litter picking is now meant to take place alternate days versus past daily. These litter pickers are meant to pick up any glass they come across.

I've had two instances where residents have been able to prove the litter pickers haven't been doing their jobs. If you can provide several pictures of litter not being picked please do send it to me. Suc evidence is irrefutable and we can get things improved. The other factor is street sweeping which used to take place fortnightly changes to 4 weekly. So this other mechanism for fixing this is now much less frequent.

And finally the new waste collections regime. I doubt that's making it worse as either a blue wheelie bin that gets tipped into the rubbish truck of a blue box/bag that gets empties. The old process of hand picking in theory should have been more prone to breakages.

IF you see broken glass please report it via 020 7525 2000 or [email protected] and feel free to copy me.

IF you can see litter generally isn't vanishing with 48hours please tell me.

Hope this helps.

[peterstorm1985]

James Barber Wrote:

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> And finally the new waste collections regime. I

> doubt that's making it worse as either a blue

> wheelie bin that gets tipped into the rubbish

> truck of a blue box/bag that gets empties. The old

> process of hand picking in theory should have been

> more prone to breakages.

Unfortunately they don't always tip the bins into the truck. As has happened for some time with the green bins*, they now look into all of them and if there isn't very much they pull it out by hand and put it into another bin which is tipped on the truck. By doing this they can keep the truck moving faster. Unfortunately they find it harder to reach into the blue bins than the boxes and bottles sometimes get caught up with papers which means they're more likely to get dropped, leading to more glass.

*Because we live on a street just off Lordship Lane we get passers by using our bins on the way home at night so there are always loose items in our green bin which remain in there for weeks on end as the binmen never empty our bin by tipping - they always just pull out the bags.

[gsirett]

James.

You have to vote on Tuesday to decide whether East Dulwich gets paid/controlled parking or not.

Have you decided how you're going to vote yet? - or are you still "consdiering"

As a reminder: 70% of respondants to the consultation said NO, 20/22 streets said NO, nearly 2000 local people signed petitions against, local buisness says NO.........are you still undecided?

Are you going to vote in line with the clear majority of local residents (who voted for YOU) or are you going to do your own, Lib Dem, thing

[pipsky2008]

pipsky2008 Wrote:

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> Feel free to email me and I'll give try giving you

> a more specific steer.

>

> Thankyou, I have now emailed you. I am to hear

> from you in due course.

>

> Regards

Dear Mr Barber

Have you had a chance to consider my request in the email I sent you regarding my freedom of information question?

Thanks

[the-e-dealer]

Its ok you will still be able to Park at Forest Hill Road and shop there.

[James Barber]

??

[Otta]

As a reminder: 70% of respondants to the consultation said NO, 20/22 streets said NO, nearly 2000 local people signed petitions against, local buisness says NO.........are you still undecided?

Are you going to vote in line with the clear majority of local residents (who voted for YOU) or are you going to do your own, Lib Dem, thing

That is completely unreasonable. The whole point of a vote, is that people vote for what they believe. James doesn't have to vote with the majority!

[the-e-dealer]

Depends whether a councillor is a delegate or a representative and whether he want to get elected again.

[Guest]

peterstorm1985 Wrote:

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> James Barber Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

>

> > And finally the new waste collections regime. I

> > doubt that's making it worse as either a blue

> > wheelie bin that gets tipped into the rubbish

> > truck of a blue box/bag that gets empties. The

> old

> > process of hand picking in theory should have

> been

> > more prone to breakages.

>

> Unfortunately they don't always tip the bins into

> the truck. As has happened for some time with the

> green bins*, they now look into all of them and if

> there isn't very much they pull it out by hand and

> put it into another bin which is tipped on the

> truck. By doing this they can keep the truck

> moving faster. Unfortunately they find it harder

> to reach into the blue bins than the boxes and

> bottles sometimes get caught up with papers which

> means they're more likely to get dropped, leading

> to more glass.

I agree. Last week I happened to arrive home just as they were emptying our bins and I made a bit of an idiot of myself by filling a small bin with the paper, cans, plastic containers that they had strewn over the pavement and road outside my door (everything was tidy when I went out an hour earlier) and ran up the road and asked them politely to take that too. They did, but seemed surprised that I should ask.

I have also witnessed broken glass showering into the street as they empty bins. I'm not saying it's all the operators' fault as where I live some bins are shared and people overfill them, or use other people's, and/or don't bother to compact the stuff, so bins don't always empty cleanly. Plus, as I said before, recycling isn't separated now so the operators don't always see what they're pulling out until it's too late.

I think James's estimate of litter picking is optimistic. I sometimes resort to collecting litter in my road myself (under cover of darkness so the neighbours don't think I'm nuts). Although it's a short road there's usually enough to fill a couple of bags.

[the-e-dealer]

Collecting litter in the Dark is nuts!