Rockets

Don't worry - we are aware of what goes in a green bin/brown bin/blue bin and do our bit! The large majority of our food waste goes down the sink - the rest in the brown bin. Rotting and generally starting to stink a bit in the bin - cat litter. Vermin can also be attracted to things that smell of food that are not able to be recycled. And I can't vouch for the contents of the bags others left next to the bin! Council told us to leave it on the pavement until it is collected - which they claimed they would be doing over the course of the last 10 days.

Our green bin has been sitting waiting to be emptied for 9 days and after much back and forth with the council (where they kept promising to empty it) I finally managed to ascertain that the bin crew decided the bin was "too heavy" to empty. The bizarre thing is they moved the bin from the front of our house, put in on the pavement for the lorry to pick it up and only then decided it was too heavy. The lovely lady at the council I spoke to laughed and said that it was a new excuse by the bin team not to collect a bin - and that she had heard many. Has anyone else had this? Meanwhile the bin sits forlornly on the pavement awaiting a collection it's contents slowly rotting and attracting various scavengers, of the vermin type, and depositors, of the fly-tipping type. And we struggle to find somewhere to put our household waste...

...the council have excelled themselves this time. Next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday Alleyn Park Road will be closed for resurfacing causing huge disruption to Kingsdale and Dulwich Prep schools. Both schools were informed of the plan last Friday and despite both lobbying the council for a more common-sense approach (delay it a few days as the schools will have broken up for Christmas) they are carrying on regardless. The length of Alleyn Park will be closed from the Gypsy Hill roundabout to the Alleyns Head pub so prepare yourself for traffic chaos at both ends during drop and pick-up. The stupidity of our council amazes me sometimes....

On the subject of curries and Dishoom, Chai Naasto in Beckenham were looking at East Dulwich and had looked on both the Lane and also the Grove Tavern site but all were too expensive (Seperately I hear the Dulwich Estate don't want anyone to use the Grove for retail as have it earmarked for flats). Such a shame Chai couldn't find somewhere as it would be great to have such a fantastic Indian place on the lane and would force the plethora of mediocre curry places to buck up their acts!

So ventured to get some bulky items collected today and have to say the system is totally useless. You go onto a site and "list" your 10 items but you are only able to select pre-described items from a list so it affords you no flexibility whatsoever to list the 10 things you want collected. After my previous experience with this "service" I approached with caution and lo and behold they turned up today but left a few of the items - no explanation why, just some of the items taken some not. They left a couple of suitcases, a child's scooter and an old mop and took all the big stuff - chest of drawers etc. Have emailed them so await their response as to why they didn't finish the job I paid for......

Other than the fact the Highway Code suggests this what reason are the council giving for the implementation of this? There is so obviously a hidden agenda at play here. Drop kerbs and drop kerb enforcement very efficiently keep junctions clear and ensure safe places for people to cross. The anti-driving agenda is becoming tiresome and will ultimately backfire on those proposing it. Cars and traffic are an inevitable consequence of modern life and, in part, stimulated by public transport infrastructure that is not fit for purpose. Perhaps those who are empowered to manage these things should engage brain and look further than the "cars are bad" narrative and try and develop something that works for everyone.

Probably the same local council type who in Lambeth decided to pay for adverts across the borough informing local residents that due to govt cuts they were having to make tough decisions on what to spend money on.....(the cost of advertising excluded of course....;-))

So 10m is about 2.5 car lengths.....so each road will lose a minimum of 10 parking spaces.....here comes CPZ.... A lot of junctions are already policed by drop kerbs but this seems to be further extending the no parking area beyond this which seems draconian at best, opportunistic and motivated by some other strategic intent at the worst. 10m is a huge amount of space and I suggest there is good reason why most councils don't enforce this. Like the recent Loughborough Junction debacle initiated by Lambeth council there seems to be an undeclared war on car users being initiated by local and central government and, hopefully, like the Loughborough junction nonsense enough people will protest and defeat these hairbrain ideas.

So are they suggesting at each junction there will now be 10 metres of double-yellows in all directions....wow...there goes a load of parking...... Here's the rub: However the council has no power to enforce this without the introduction of a traffic order and subsequent implementation of waiting restrictions in other words yet more fines for local residents and more revenue for the council.....usual nonsense from local councils....

Yes it has been open since Wednesday - the huge majority of South East London drivers celebrate and flick the Vs at Lambeth council!

Or as the team who came to finally pick-up our fence panels very succinctly put it: "The young'uns in the other team don't want to get their hands dirty...." Must be the risk of carpet burns.....

I would call them - the folks on the phone are helpful and are aware of the problems with the collection teams and the rogue collection teams are supposed to log (their pitiful) excuses for why they didn't collect items. Keep persisting and if need be lodge a formal complaint - that way you get through to the company responsible for the collections. There is obviously a problem and the council needs to get on top of it.

I have just filled out the survey and will be interested to hear what comes from it: my suspicion is that Lambeth will fudge the responses to create a case to keep/modify the existing closures.

Received a call yesterday from the lady who left the message who was incredibly helpful and actually managed to get the collection arranged for today and....magically....the items were removed. When she called she said that they had been having a lot of complaints from residents about similar issues as the one I had been experiencing and she went to Deborah Collins directly and engaged with her and the supervisor of the bulk team who had said they had a policy of not collecting fence panels. She agreed that it appeared the team was changing their story each time they were supposed to collect the items. She called to say the collection would be made today my wife saw the team who came to collect who were very apologetic and cleared it without any fuss - they did, however, say that they have another team of younger council workers who "won't get their hands dirty" and that if they had come the first time the job would have been done properly. So, finally, the fence panels have gone and big thanks to Cllr Barber who really helped by contacting the council in the first instance. And if anyone else is having issues do lodge a formal complaint - the folks at Veolia are aware of the issues and will try to get it resolved for you.

Had a message left on my mobile from Veola...or whatever they are called...dealing with my complaint. The lady who left the message (she didn't leave her name...more on that shortly) said that she had dealt with my complaint and that they have a policy not to collect fence panels....which is quite obviously a lame excuse as James Barber got the response earlier in this thread from the council/Veola that said: "The service requested was for collection of 8 fence panels with attached fence posts and 4 bags. The bulky waste collection crew went to carry out this job on 29th September. They found that the fence panels could not be safely removed as they were breaking up in hand as soon as any attempt was made to lift them, and also some of the fence panels were overgrown with trailing vegetation making them more difficult to safely handle. The collection crew took such items as they were safely able to and left the remainder." So it now appears in the space of a week or two their policy towards fence panels changed.......hmmmmmmmmm! ;-) So I thought I would call the unnamed lady back. As mentioned earlier she didn't leave a message just said call me back on this number....needless to say the number she gave was a switchboard number and the kind lady on the phone said that they have 50 people in their department so she would try to find the person who "dealt" with my complaint.... It is now getting utterly ludicrous the amount of time having to be spent to try and get the council to do the job they should have done on Sept 29th......the levels of incompetence (deliberate or otherwise) are eye-opening and if this is indicative of the way this council is run.....

Yes I was being facetious...;-) ....my car isn't big enough to take them...which is why I requested the bulk collection service but they are worried about splinters/killer vegetation on the fence attacking them Triffid-like/spontaneous combustion of wood/the communicable diseases carried by wood lice and a host of other health and safety horrors associated with loading fence panels onto a van....... I bet we wish we all had jobs where you could say...nah, don't fancy doing that today...let me quote health and safety.....

Now lodged official complaint - not sure that will get us anywhere...I might just drive said fence panels to the council offices and leave them there for them.......I bet they'd want to deal with it then.... Our local council is fast becoming a joke....

Just had an explanation from Southwark why the fence panels weren't collected on Saturday...and it is laughable and obviously they are making it up as they go along.... On the system at Southwark it is saying that the collection team informed us that they now have a policy that they don't collect fence panels due to "health and safety". Firstly, no-one spoke to us, we didn't even see anyone try to collect it and two, they have changed their tune from their first attempt to collect it a week or so before....

And the council has erected one of those temporary illuminated road sign trailers warning people of the ?130 fine should they enter Loughborough Road. Also tonight I realised they had shut Padfield Road by putting three of the largest plant pots ever seen across the road. It begs the question why.

Oh dear mako - it appears that your correction of some stated "facts" appears to have somewhat annoyed TG..... And the statement that 9,000 people die from car pollution seems to somewhat overlook the fact that buses that the TG family no doubt uses are some of the main pollutants with diesel particles being particularly bad for you. Let's be honest here - the efforts of various local councils to close local roads will zero impact on car ownership in the long run - people just adapt and adjust...and we use things like Waze which finds you a route in the most trying circumstances.... We will not be stopped from getting to where we need to go......;-)

TG - good for your three children I am happy for them. This is precisely my argument - you family's model doesn't work for everyone yet you seem happy to use this ideal as the bar by which you decide what should and shouldn't happen. I work in Chiswick (used to work in Hammersmith and used to cycle in to the office but Chiswick is that bit too far) so my options are very limited. This is not Victorian Britain where we all work, live and play within a bike ride of our homes. I don't feel I need to address your point on pollution as I am not arguing there is not a problem just we need to have an approach that is more inclusive. The stop driving cars, stop taking flights model just doesn't work. We need a more intelligent and inclusive debate. The "let's reduce car usage" is all too often hijacked by local government as means to raise further funds by punishing drivers trying to go about their business - the Loughborough Junction debacle is a prime example and these proposals look like more of the same.

TG - your approach to this is admirable but somewhat unrealistic. These plans are not pragmatic - as we have seen on numerous threads on this forum they are ill-convinced, badly-designed and executed and ultimately do nothing but aggravate people trying to live in the city and many would argue actually create more pollution due to increased traffic congestion. Your utopian mantra of ditch the car and get on a bike is just not practical for the majority of people living or going about their business in the city and I think the numerous threads on this, and other, forum/s shows how much people are not supporting these ideals - or at least the execution therein. And I don't think anyone is suggesting demolishing anything to make way for new roads (and I would suggest London's road system hasn't been expanded for decades - it's the same layout it has been for a very long time) but to take a balanced approach to traffic management to make journey times for everyone as quick, convenient and a safe as possible whilst at the same time protecting the environment as much as possible.

Is the service outsourced? Maybe we can get more joy making noise with the company responsible for it. Companies with a commercial interest tend to care more about reputation than unaccountable council officials. Anyone who has had problems please feel free to PM me with details of the issues and we can collate a list of problems. Thanks

So, the collection was re-arranged for yesterday and guess what....nothing removed - what a surprise. And, no calling card left either....so looks like the council are still not following their own code....or perhaps no-one bothered to come out...what a shambolic council we have to endure...I will call them tomorrow for their latest round of excuses.... Anyone got the contact details for Deborah Collins at Southwark as I understand she is the one responsible for this "service" within the council....?

Tigres...I agree their proposals are utterly unrealistic. Unfortunately for them we don't live in Victorian Britain where we all work, study and play within a stone's throw of where we live. Nor do the majority of people work, study or play along the antiquated and shambolic transportation routes into and out of town. These are just the type of job-justification plans that 10 years down the line everyone says "what were we thinking....."