Peckham Rye Online Residents' Survey

[VikkiM]

Dear all,

Over the next week residents in Peckham Rye ward (which covers some of East Dulwich) will receive a letter from me and the other Labour candidates, Gavin Edwards and Renata Hamvas, giving you a bit more information about us and setting out the issues that we think are crucial to Peckham Rye.

But we?re not only interested in telling you about ourselves, we?re also seeking your views on council services and asking what issues you think are most important. So to help with this we?ve enclosed a survey with the letter.

But for those of you who would prefer to take the survey online you can do so by clicking here.

Many reading this blog will no doubt live in ?East Dulwich? ward rather than Peckham Rye but local issues, such as the primary school places shortage, don?t work according to strict political boundaries so all views are very welcome!

For those of you still recovering from the last fortnight?s online local news drought, with the closure of the EDF, there?s loads of updates on our blog including ? Nunhead Community Centre, Southwark Caribb FC, Peckham Rye Station developments, Nunhead and Peckham Community Council, Peckham Rye Common toilets, Ivydale Road and South Nunhead traffic calming, bus fares and primary school places. Take a look.

Victoria.

[PeckhamRose]

The questionnaire is typical of questionnaires made up by people with a bias who want to hear what they want to hear. The questions are limited, leading and of no use to most people. Don't bother filling out this questionnaire.

[VikkiM]

Hi Peckham Rose

Am really sorry that you feel that way. That absolutely isn't the intention as it strikes me that would be of no use to either those that filled it in nor us.

I'm not sure how it can be biased if it has lots of comment boxes allowing people to write whatever they like? Sure, it's a survey by Labour candidates, but that doesn't make it irretrievably biased as you suggest. I'm slightly bemused as to why you feel so strongly about people filling in a survey to be honest!

Anyway, lots of people seem to be filling it in so am glad that some are finding it a good forum for telling us what's important for them.

Victoria.

[James Barber]

For the last 18 months the East Dulwich Lib Dems have been hand delivering and knocking on every door in East Dulwich ward:

www.tinyurl.com/edsurvey

[iamyamyam]

I thought we already had 3 labour councillors in Peckham rye ward. What's happened to them? I notice on your blog that your talking about lots of things you want to sort out. If we already have 3 labour councillors in place why aren't they already sorting it out?

Are the residnets of PR ward without representation? What's the story?

[VikkiM]

Hi iamyamyam

There are indeed 3 Labour councillors representing Peckham Rye ward. Their contact and surgery details can be found here. I'm one of the Labour candidates for the local elections that will be held next May.

But on your other point, yes, sadly there are lots of things to sort out! The current councillors continue to do all they can to raise the many issues and concerns with the Lib Dem-Tory executive which currently runs Southwark Council. On a case-by-case basis many things do get sorted out on a daily basis. Obviously, on many of the larger policy areas and decisions, a minority of Labour councillors tend to be continuously outvoted by the majority of Lib Dem and Tory councillors.

It's a bit of a battle of attrition but I do think local Labour councillors, and Labour campaigners like ourselves, are determined to keep speaking up for those being ignored in our area, often the most vulnerable. Should Labour win control of the council next May, we'll have a lot more policy levers which we can use to 'sort things out' as you put it.

Victoria.

[PeckhamRose]

"sort things out" is how a lot of us put it. And Labour has had since 1997 to do so. Instead all the money that it throws at problems goes on middlemen and the target culture.

The problem is that whilst individual councillors may be concerned about the bottom 84% of the population, the government (made of a party which has completely forgotten its roots) is not, which is why when it is trying to save money it is hammering us in many ways - for example the changes in the benefit system (and I personally do not think benefits should be universal. If a joint income is more than say ?40,000 you do NOT need child benefit). If you're rich you can afford your prescriptions but only diabetics for some curious reason are allowed free ones, whilst heart condition/asthmatics etc have to pay and I can not afford all the prescriptions I need to stay healthy, let alone when I get ill. With a government like that, why should I trust councillors who align themselves to that very same party?

Having said that, I would die before voting Tory (probably from not being able to afford my prescriptions!) - and LibDems are only good in areas where there is relative affluence.

But back to topic, I stand by what I said about the survey.

[Moos]

Way to get local politicians to engage.

"No, we won't play, and we're taking our ball home! Oh, hang on, is it your ball? That we paid for? Well, we still won't play."

[VikkiM]

Very happy to play! I love the area I live in and really want to make sure that me, my family, and my neighbours get the services and resources that we need.

Labour has indeed been in power nationally since 1997 but I think it?s important to note that just as we should all hold them responsible for shortcomings nationally, locally, the Lib Dems and Tories must also be be held to account.

Peckham Rose ? it sounds like you are on the left and you've lost faith in the Labour Party at national level. I think your wrong to do that for a number of reasons, but I can understand your frustration. I've even experienced it myself. But this questionnaire (and, indeed, our decision to stand as Labour candidates) is a genuine attempt to engage with people locally and find out what their priorities are. It is easy to be cynical and dismiss people as self-serving, but, believe it or not, myself, Renata and Gavin are people who live here and who genuinely want to improve our area. The survey will help us to campaign to do that.

[Moos]

Well said. Telling people not to engage with their local politicians for asking the wrong questions is rather shooting yourself in the foot, in my view - although it is clear from her posts that PR does a great deal for the community herself so no disrespect intended.

[PeckhamRose]

I did not and would not ever suggest people do not engage with their local politicians.

I suggested people should not bother filling out a badly worded 'leading questions' questionnaire.

Why don't they just set up a topic like the StationManager and the LibDem one has, and get started - and scroll through this site and see what troubles all of us.

Having said that - we are hardly representative of the area in general I suspect.

And thank you Moos for your kind comments - no disrespect received! Indeed you can see from my signature thingy I care about the wider world.

[VikkiM]

I don't think we're going to agree on the survey ;-)

However, I would completely agree that it's not the only way to listen to people's views and get a hold on what's important to them.

Peckham Rose - why not get things started by using this topic to let us know what's important to you?

I do and will get involved with other topics on this site - I'm not expecting that you'll just come to me, I know that I need to come to you.

I've posted blog and contact details on here previously but the best email is [email protected] or you can ring me on 07867782964 (not too late in the evening is best!)

I'll be knocking on doors around Therapia and Marmora Roads tonight (obviously it's more likely than not that you don't live here!) and I'll be at the Peckham Rye Common central area meeting tomorrow night or, as you can see from the blog, we all tend to be at a variety of community forums and meetings where we're very happy to talk to people. In fact we actively want to talk to people!

Finally, as mentioned above, the current councillors can be contacted by email, phone and post and perhaps most importantly, you can talk to them face-to-face at their regular surgeries.

Victoria.

[Gavin Edwards]

Completely agree. Perhaps not that surprising as I'm also one of the Labour candidates! Appreciate the supportive comments fom Moos. I think Peckham Rose's response to the survey is perhaps misjudging the spirit in which it was offered. But as Victoria says we will be opening ourselves up to residents views in many other forums, so I hope that will convince you that our intentions are genuine!

That said, I'm pleased to say that many people have already taken the chance to complete the survey online. We've had 52 responses in just a few hours. A superb response. Please keep them coming in.

Gavin

[PeckhamRose]

"Peckham Rose - why not get things started by using this topic to let us know what's important to you?"

I did. See my post above. And while we're at it, stop putting our collective money in faith schools.

I applaud you, seriously I do, for genuinely wanting to make things better, but that limited badly worded survey was not a good start to get our opinions.

I suppose I'll vote for my Labour candidates again but only because they're the best of a bad lot.

I'm not stupid enough to think that just because we hear about the money grabbing ones, that you're all like that. I have had local (Labour) councillors who have been incredibly helpful to me and my neighbours. But they did not use questionnaires to introduce themselves. They knocked on the door or spoke at Community Council, Police Ward Panel, or residents/tenants meetings.

[toast]

Took survey, questions are oddly chosen but it is jolly hard to write a top survey. So long as it's used to improve the area and not for some political point scoring, its all for the best.

[Gavin Edwards]

Peckham Rose - I do agree with you re: the relative importance of the surveys etc. Online activity such as surveys, blogs and even this forum are ultimately a small part of communicating with residents. The real hard work, as you say, is done on the doorstep and in community meetings. But in fairness to Victoria, Renata and I, we've been doing this work too! Take a look at the other blog stories on community council meetings, school places meetings, canvassing, community forums and Rye Lane and Station Action Group to name but a few. Our aim is to emulate those excellent local representatives that you mention. You're right to set the bar high, and we're going to do our best to meet that standard.

Gavin

[JDR]

I agree with peckham rose and labour folk. Questionairre ok, not great. There are loads of things I'd love addressing that feel more urgent than tetrapaks (though, this has annoyed me for years and can't believe southwark 10th worst). There are also issues regarding schools (primary but also, by means of timing increasingly secondary???), safety (policing based and road), public engagement (how many non middle class degree educated people are you really engaging with on the EDF???) and areas development, though I'm more concerned about Peckham than East Dulwich at that point. Am a labour supporter, will be voting for you, always laugh when you canvess for the first time on my street 2/3 days before election - I postal vote so invariabley post mine a good week before!!!!

[Gavin Edwards]

The point about engaging people from all backgrounds and not just the middle classes is an important one.

I hope that reading and posting messages on this forum (and other places online) will help us to enagage with a wide cross section of people, but I accept that this may not always be the case. The point for us is to engage with a variety of different people in different ways. Only this evening we were out knocking on doors, speaking to residents about the housing repairs service, recycling and lots of other issues.

Some of these people might use EDF and some won't. But I don't see this as an either/or thing. Speaking to people face to face and letting people know what we're doing via the internet has to be the way to do it.

[iamyamyam]

Could someone from the labour team explain the source of the info that "southwark is the 10th worst recycler in the country"? do you mean 10th worst council? I find this hard to believe.

I lived here under the last Labour adminstration and the recycling facilities were terrible, no doorstep collection at all. Whatever you say about the Council I don't think they're bad at recyling. My mom lives in the west midlands, her council wont recycle plastics and won't collect her garden waste. The other side of my road is in Labour controlled Lewisham and they don't have the same level of facilities as we do.

Please quote the source of your claim

[peckhamboy]

To be honest, I agree with peckhamrose about that survey. Half the questions are leading ones pointing towards an answer the Labour candidates would like you to give (eg "Do you think the council makes the most of every penny of your council tax?"). How about following that one up (in the interests of fairness and impartiality) with "Do you think that this would be any different if Labour had control of the purse strings?". I think we can all be fairly sure that very few people (probably not even current councillors) would say that the council makes the most of every penny. Similarly, I would be surprised if even our Labour candidates had the gall to suggest that a Labour council would make the most of every penny.

The other half of the questions seem to be asking about your voting habits and intentions (after asking for your name and address). Personally, I think that's rather inappropriate.

And please stop using the forum for political point-scoring (and before anyone starts that applies to all political parties, I just can't be bothered to start a new thread). By all means tell us what you would do if you ran the council but give up on the usual blarney about all society's ills being the fault of the Tories/Lib Dems/Labour (delete as applicable). I'll vote for whoever looks more likely to be concerned about what they can do rather than what others can't do.

[PeckhamRose]

I agree with what PeckhamBoy said.

And 10th worst for recycling means what? 10th worst for people who bother to use the services? Or 10th worst in as much as the council don't bother recycling. I know for a fact this council is very good at recycling and are building a big new facility on the Old Kent Road, and having been to a council 'partnership'* meeting, I also learned things are improving even further very soon. So what Does 10th worst mean?

* I hate the use of that word 'partnership' but that's what it was called! It's a bit like everything has to be an experience now. "What was your shopping experience / patient (sorry 'customer' experience like?" etc etc!

[VikkiM]

To be equally honest, sat at home with loads of ?great? survey results but not coming up with the campaigns and policies that will mean people vote Labour next May strikes me as pretty pointless.

But, as both Gavin and I have stressed, the survey is just one thing. Those who have filled it in ? thank you. It?s genuinely useful. Those that don?t but have left comments here ? that?s really helpful too.

Peckhamboy - you?ve certainly set us a challenge to respond without political point scoring? I think I?ll fail but I?ll try to do my best.

- I?ve always thought that if don?t back yourself, you can?t expect others to believe in you either. I?ve got involved with a variety of community issues, campaigns and groups because I honestly think that a Labour run council will be better for Southwark. I don?t doubt that others will disagree. But I?ve put myself up for election because I want to make a difference, not for personal gain.

- On this basis, I wholeheartedly believe that the local Labour party, and its candidates, must be confident and convinced that, were we to control the purse strings, we would do it better and that our priorities and spending would reflect our values of equality, fairness for all, solidarity with others in our community and a radical desire to make change happen rather than just accepting and protecting the status quo. So what we spend money on might change ? I personally believe that would count as better use.

- On a more practical note we need to make sure that council tax collection improves and we welcome the decision by the Lib Dems and Tories to bring council tax collection back ?in-house?. This is something that Southwark Labour councillors argued for back in February 2008 because the private contractor used to collect council tax for Southwark was losing such large amounts of money in uncollected council tax.

- Again, on a specific policy, bringing Southwark?s homes up to Decent Homes standard was always going to be a challenge ? I wouldn?t want to suggest otherwise. However, I believe the ?700million short fall in the council budget need not have spiralled to such high levels had the council acted on it earlier ? Labour councillors? calls for a cross-party (non-political-points-scoring!) group to solve these funding problems were sadly knocked back.

Finally, those recycling stats can be found here -

http://www.defra.gov.uk/evidence/statistics/environment/wastats/archive/mwb200708a.xls

You need table 3, column 3.

As a comparison recycling rates in Lambeth have doubled in recent years, they have tetra pak recycling and single bag collection. I lived in Lewisham for many years and thought that the larger bins, which didn?t require you to separate stuff out, were easier to use. This system was independently mentioned to me by several residents on the doorsteps last night. However, it?s really interesting to hear a cross-section of views and experiences.

Victoria.

[PeckhamRose]

Larger bins where you don't have to separate stuff out will be in Southwark soon.

I did Not Tell you that!

[Moos]

The whole separation thing is nonsense anyway. I've watched the guys emptying the sectioned bins into their lorry and they don't bother much with separating.

[????]

It would be nice for a Labour party canvasser of any description to come and knock on my door for the first time since...oooh...let me think..mmm 1997. I guess suddenly they care about the electorate again, I've got plenty to ask them although they lost my vote locally and nationally at the same time the government lost those weapons of mass distruction...have they been found yet BTW?