Upcycling

If you are not already familiar with it, let me introduce you to a new word for your lexicon of sustainable language.

Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.

This is not the same as our chairman recovering a computer desk from a skip in Ashust Drive while out delivering our newsletter, because he knew his secretary was in need of one - It is being used for exactly the purpose it was made. It is akin to recovering wooden fencing or pallets from a skip and using it to make a compost bin.

You’ve all, no doubt, encountered those pyschological exercises where you are asked to think of as many uses you can for e.g. a house brick. Back in the days when smoking was allowed in pubs, the Dickens Inn used Flettons [left] as ash trays. But even that does not fully describe the creativity and innovation required for true upcycling. So here’s an example, with suitable drumroll, to tingle your creative juices for the festive season ahead. It’s from Hannah B down in Sarf East London and has been made by her Mister.

Of course you don’t have to use the storage space for books. It could be used for beer, or even re-usable nappies and all the other paraphernalia that comes with babies. Yes, Hannah’s bump is now showing and we wish all 3 of them a Nappy New Year.

Sleigh Bells Ring in Barkingside

A few snaps from Friday’s Fun Event in Barkingside High Street.

The Localism Bill

And following the same theme here’s something sent in by Tajinder.

The Localism Bill became law on Wednesday 16 October, when it received Royal Assent after eleven months of scrutiny in parliament.

It provides the legislative foundation for decentralised power and decision-making. Some of the measures introduced by the Act will come into effect from now, others are expected to take effect from April 2012, once associated secondary legislation and regulations have been reviewed/developed.

The Act can be viewed here: However, a Plain English Guide to the Act has been published and describes the main measures of the Localism Act under four headings:

• new freedoms and flexibilities for local government
• new rights and powers for communities and individuals (inc. ‘right to challenge’ (but not planning decisions), and removing charges for rubbish collection
• reform to make the planning system more democratic and more effective (inc. abolishing the Infrastructure Planning Commission)
• reform to ensure that decisions about housing are taken locally

Frankly, I don’t see much coming of this. The cards are still all held by central government.

Clearly we need some form of Individual [Poll] Tax to reflect the burden each of us place on local amenities, services and public infrastructure BUT we also need some form of effective property tax to ensure that basic social needs like housing are not over exploited by speculators withholding their assets and placing more pressure on public open space and the Green Belt.

Empty properties and second homes should be subject to a Green Belt Tax! – Discuss.

Housing Shortage or just Under-Utilisation

And on a related topic to the previous post, there are at least two houses quite close to me that have been purchased by developers and extended to their limits, but remain unoccupied. Clearly a Poll Tax would not exactly help with this.

Here’s something sent in by Dopeyf.

Governments of all colours have an obsession with house building when they should be concentrating on utilising the existing housing stock properly.

In case no one has noticed, they stopped building “land” some millions of years ago, you simply cannot expect to continue to build residences without losing open green spaces, and badly needed farmland ( ignoring the crazy antics the EU).

Up until the early/late sixties shops were invariably built with substantial accommodation above them. Now, large retail parks with no attached accommodation are the norm, a huge under-utilisation of space. The obvious answer - every new supermarket must provide accommodation above it.

In the last decade there have been many large regeneration schemes that have involved emptying homes in preparation for refurbishment or demolition. In the last three years falling house prices, restrictions on borrowing money and reduced government funding have caused many of these schemes to stall or even be abandoned. This has led to large areas of many social housing estates standing empty. In addition some regeneration schemes have taken the same approach to privately owned housing. Some of these have led to large numbers of homes standing empty. There are also many developments of new flats in towns and cities that have high vacancy rates. Some are owned by investors who may be waiting for rental prices to pick up, other flats were never sold, and others are incomplete, the development having been abandoned.

At October 2010 (the latest available) some 737,000 (yes nearly ¾ million) homes were long term empty.This does not include housing owned by Government Agencies such as M.O.D and NHS, which will not reveal the extent of empty homes they own.

Being a little flippant this does not include 2nd homes, Blackpool B&Bs and hotels during the winter. Why should owners receive Council Tax reductions for keeping empty houses?

With much less effort, money and time, and aggravation to residents trying to object to yet another block of flats, bringing these homes back into use is a quicker and cheaper way of solving a substantial part of the housing shortage.

According to Tim Dickens, via Twitter, there was a "Big row going on about housing in Area 4 Committee" this very evening. I don't suppose they resolved anything ... But ...

More rooms at the Inn

Here is the original letter from Ron Jeffries, the edited version of which appeared in the Ilford Recorder today, 24th November 2011.

Dear Editor,

In recent times new residents have purchased houses in the Borough and have been granted planning permission to extend the building to provide one, two, three or four additional bedrooms and living rooms.

Whilst I have no problem with this, I am surprised to learn that the banding for council tax will remain the same until there is a change in ownership however many years in the future that may be.

Here in Aldborough Hatch a three bedroomed semi-detached house is presently being extended to provide seven bedrooms and additional living rooms. There will be living space for at least fourteen family members and friends. The houseowner will pay the same council tax as before. In similar cases extended families move in – grandparents, parents, children and their partners and siblings – so that the probability of the house being sold in the near future is very remote.

This means that a large family occupying an extended house pays exactly the same council tax as a much smaller family or two pensioners in a considerably smaller house – and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. This would only change if there is a national re-banding of properties and to date the government has not carried this out.

This is totally inequitable and unfair. Not only that, but local councils are missing out on an additional source of income.

If people can afford the cost of these massive extensions, they can afford to pay a fair share of council tax for local services.

Yours sincerely

Ron Jeffries

Editor’s Note: Cue debate on the Poll Tax …. But …

Fairlop Airfield Memorial

This is a guest post from Alfred.

My wife and I went along to Fairlop Waters last Sunday and we were pretty disgusted by what we found there by way of wartime remembrance. I think the pictures and the captions say it all.

The new information panel at Fairlop Waters. It’s made of wood and will probably last as long as one of the German bombers shot down by the fighter pilots who operated from this airfield.

This shows the care and consideration exhibited by whoever was responsible for this magnificient tribute. They couldn’t even bother to check the spelling!

The Fairlop War Memorial. This disgraceful and irreverent exhibit, set out on a table outside the restaurant, was all that this borough (or Vision, whoever they are) could muster by way of a tribute to the magnificent work done by the brave pilots who flew from this airfield during the second world war. It is an insult to the memory of those who died in the air.

Editor's Note: There was a well attended remembrance service at this location on 11th November,  organised by the Fairlop Heritage Group. The table appears to be the wreaths laid by two MPs, the leaders of the local Political Parties and various others. What else would you want done with them?

The Big Barkingside Switch On

The Barkingside Business Partnership and Barkingside 21

welcomes you to a

CHRISTMAS FUN EVENT

In Barkingside

Friday 25th November 2011 3.30 – 5.00pm

Outside Fullwell Leisure Centre

Lively entertainment and fun from the Kenneth More Theatre Panto Characters

Christmas music and song from the Band and singers of The Salvation Army

Carol singing from local church choirs

Prizes and giveaways for children

Children’s Colouring Competition

Treasure Hunt on the day

And of course the switching on of the lights

Pick up colouring competition and treasure hunt details from the Central Library between now and the Fun Event

Special thanks go to our sponsors and contributors: Area 3 Committee (Your local Ward Councillors) ~ The Salvation Army ~ Kenneth More Theatre ~ Local Church Choirs ~ Toyology ~ Footology ~ Fullwell Autos ~ Eaton Hair

The Route to Queens

As part of the proposal to transfer Maternity and Accident & Emergency facilities from King George Hospital in Barley Lane to Queens Hospital in Romford, Transport for London are proposing to make it easier for residents in Clayhall and Barkingside to get there.

They are proposing to re-route the 128 bus into the grounds of Queens Hospital so we don’t have to walk from the old Brewery site. Mind you, it will still take an hour to get there and that’s on a good day, but they will have a standard First Aid kit on board.

You can have your say by completing the online consultation form by 23 December 2011. Subject to comments received, these changes would happen in summer/autumn 2012.

Note: Route 128 is a 24 hour service between Claybury Broadway and Romford Station every 12 minutes Monday to Saturday daytimes and every 20 minutes during Sundays and all evenings and every 30 minutes at night.

Via K-Type

Dark Nights and Lights

Police research shows that unlit homes in the early hours of the evening during these dark days of winter are a target for Burglars. See graphic – Don’t be dim and let the burglars in … leave a light on.

Via Neighbourhood Watcher

click on image to enlarge

Cardboard, Drains and Cooking Oil

As it is now 5 months since Redbridge Council introduced Kerbside recycling collections for both paper and cardboard, I thought I’d find out how things are going. The blue boxes were not fully rolled out to the whole borough until July, so we are looking at figures for August and September set against the corresponding period last year. The headline figure is that paper/card recycling at the kerbside has increased by just under 38%. But the cardboard recycling facilities at bring sites have been withdrawn, so how much of that increase is a transfer from those bring sites and the RRC at Chigwell Road? The bring/RRC figures have gone down as expected - by 31% but on lower numbers so the impact is not as great. The overall total is UP by 26%.

Now, for those statistical nerds out there who will have noticed that the sub-totals do not add up to the total, there is a reason for that. The difference is the paper/card that is recovered from residual waste heading for landfill by the BioMRF facility at Jenkins Lane. So there!

There has also been an increase in mixed recycling by about 17% but I don’t know if that’s the total figure or just kerbside collections. There may have been some migration from bring to kerbside but an increase was expected as the arrival of blue boxes kick start more residents into the recycling habit.

As you can see from the chart green waste figures follow a similar pattern with the RRC total going down and kerbside increasing, as more people take advantage of the scheme. For the nerds the difference in totals here is the green waste collected by the Sunday car park scheme.

So, all in all, jolly good progress, except for this ….

Last month some dumbass dumped a load of cooking oil in the lake at South Park and three cygnets [baby swans] had to be rescued and cleaned up. This has prompted a Council campaign on how to properly dispose of cooking oil. You’re not supposed to pour it down the drains, it clogs them up, and especially the rainwater drains which end up in our lakes and rivers.

All Together now …

It seems that the spat between our local councillors over the use of the King George Hospital decision by the Secretary of State during the recent Aldborough by election is now over.

I can tell you this: The 75% of the electorate in Aldborough ward who did not vote are going to be pretty pissed off when they find there are no Maternity or Accident & Emergency facilities when they need them.

Here is the text of the Motion to be put before Full Council on Thursday evening [item 12]:

“This Council records its dismay and anger at the decision on the 27th October by the Secretary of State to accept the recommendations of the IRP with respect to Hospital Services at King George Hospital and Queen’s Hospital.

We note that the report from the Care Quality Commission on the same day raises major concerns regarding services at Queen’s Hospital and makes some 73 recommendations to improve the quality of services.

This Council finds it inconceivable that the Secretary of State can accept the ONEL proposals to reduce Emergency and Maternity Services at King George’s with such a damning CQC report into Queen’s Hospital and the management of BHRT. We also find that the decision he has taken disregards the views of local MPs, Councillors and the residents of Redbridge.

We urge the Secretary of State to rescind his decision and halt any moves to relocate services from this Borough’s local Hospital – King George’s immediately.

We further pledge our total support for the Save King George’s Campaign and will use every possible means to ensure that Redbridge retains full A&E and Maternity services at King George Hospital.

We further insist that the Health Scrutiny Committee measure and monitor the progress of BHRT in implementing the CQC recommendations to ensure a prolonged and sustainable improvement in Care Quality in both Queen's and King George Hospitals is achieved.”

The Wanstead and Snaresbrook Residents’ Alliance are to make representations and recommendations to their councillor on the Health Scrutiny Committee – Cllr Chan - which meets next on 23rd November 2011.

It probably does not need to be said, especially for our own Cllr Mrs Ryan who is Chair of that committee, but I’ll say it anyway. Barkingside 21 and every other local group and Tom, Dick or Mary we know are fully behind this campaign.

Political Branding

Do you remember me mentioning a heated debate in the Fairlop Oak that I might write up. Well, this is it. I’ve been saving it until after the Aldborough by election.

The basic premise which started us off is a perceived general dissatisfaction among the electorate with all the political parties on offer, and the party system itself, citing the numbers who don’t bother to vote, and asking why it is we don’t have, and elect more Independents. It included some er, criticism of those at the Town Hall and in Westminster.

The response to this, from our portly Labour veteran and ex-councillor, was “don’t complain, get off your butt [translated] and get your name on the ballot paper. I’ve no time for those who complain and are not prepared to do something about it, he (pointing at me) can complain because he’s name's been on the ballot paper”.

That’s all very well, but there are two major obstacles to this approach. First is Political branding. You may not think so but we all like brands of one kind or another. We are social animals and we like to identify with like others through brands. Be it a football team, a motive on a tee-shirt, Cucci handbags,  Jimmy Choo shoes or the colours of a Political Party. It is part of how we define our own individual identify. Breaking down and trying to overcome tribal loyalties (or consumer/voter intertia) is a very difficult thing to do.

The second is a direct result of the first. In order to get established and then elected you need to put in a great deal of hard work which is not possible for one person on their own – you need a team of unquestioning and loyal supporters. To quote Lee Scott MP in the run up to the 2010 General Election: “you don’t get elected on the internet, you get elected on the doorstep”. Any party activist will tell you the same and this is where the established party machines can, for the most part, steamroller Independents and fringe parties out of the way.

Of course there are exceptions, as we saw in Hainault where the BNP got a councillor elected in 2006 after a sustained, at least 6 year, campaign on a contentious local issue. Elsewhere the Greens can do well where they can match the effort and resources of the big parties but this is only sporadic and has taken time and graft to do.

Last week’s by election in Aldborough is an example of this.

The result was not going to affect the complexion of the Coalition administration, BUT a Conservative win would have put Keith Prince one by election short of a majority (with the inclusion of the wayward Cllr Moth). This put the LibDems in the awkward position of not wanting to take votes from Labour in a seat where they are not strong, so their “campaign” was almost non-existant and they were thus relegated to the ranks of the fringe parties, even though they were third.

a select few from the winning team

In contrast, the Labour team [above] were already up and running prior to the election being called, in preparation for next year’s London elections, and were out of the blocks like a bat out of hell. Of course they may well have known there would be a by election before anybody else, but that’s by the by. They put in a tremendous amount of work on this even though the Tories, quite rightly, got upset over their use of the King George Hospital issue (see later), which was started by..... the previous Labour Government. I really do hope they will sort this out.

The Conservatives were a little slower off the mark but still put out a good show. And it shows up in the result, which is effectively a reflection of how much effort was put in to what was effectively a Labour/Conservative marginal.

The turnout of less than 25% is not unusual for a local by election, and last years turn out of ~65% was exceptional due to the locals and general taking place at the same time. Normal locals are about 35-40%.

So, the electorate, and specifically those who didn’t vote, had the chance to try something new or different to see how it pans out without much in the way of risk. They chose not to, and they stayed loyal to the established duopoly brands.

But does it really matter? You might think that I as a Green would say yes and I would with this caveat. Most of the party activists and councillors I am acquainted with are quite sane people and, in my perception, are genuinely trying [sic!] to do a good job for us residents. They are, after all, mostly residents too and rely on the same services as you and I. They have to put up with the same road humps as we do, use the same cycle lanes and buses, and see the same litter and dog poo on the streets and in the parks that we do etc. etc.

But if you can strip away that blinkered brand loyalty [easier with some than others] and get down to the nitty gritty and actually talk to each other [eg but not necessarily via non-party groups like B21] there’s not that much difference between [almost] any of us.

Same is true of our last two MPs. Linda Perham and Lee Scott are both local residents and former local councillors. The only problem I had/have with either of them [bar 2005-2010 when Lee was an opposition MP] is the way they prop up the Government, for it is there, in my view, that the problem lies.

It seems to me that there is a disconnect between the activists and councillors of all parties on the ground and their respective Party excecutives who seem completely out of touch with reality. As I said earlier, Brand loyalty is a very difficult thing to break down and it is still a legitimate question to ask why it is that activists and voters stay loyal under such duress?

Discuss

Aldborough Result

My forescast of being in the pub by 11pm wasn't to be, but turnout was LOW - 24.6%
Nor was Loraine's prediction that the electorate wanted a Male councillor.

Result:

Debbie Thiara, The Labour Party - 1436 ELECTED

Melvyn Marks, The Conservative Party - 1071

Christopher Greaves, Liberal Democrats - 87

Paul Wiffen, UK Independence Party - 83

Clive Durdle, The Green Party - 64

Daniel Warville, British National Party - 34

Congratulations to Debbie and commiserations to everyone else.

Cllrs Athwall, Thiara and Streeting

A Degree of Common Sense?

Following on from the previous post let’s take a look at what happens to our young people when they leave school.

Here’s a few things I’ve picked up recently which sort of make a theme:

This is an extract from a comment by “anonymous” on Richard Lawson’s blog

I have had the occasion to employ graduates that (I'm sure) could write a thesis on the subject they were taken on to do, but didn't have a clue about practical nature of the problems involved and were actually an impediment to the development of the project, we had to let them go!

I now really appreciate a person that has been through an apprenticeship or equal and brings the skills and understanding into the team, where he/she hits the ground running.

Hmmmm? So, what happens to those graduates who can’t get a job in the real world? Perhaps the 3 comments below are a clue?

"Big businesses and governments are totally, hopelessly clueless about small businesses" - Robert Craven http://tinyurl.com/3rube9g

The most gov't & BigCos give us is lip service about the value of start-ups and we’re the lifeblood of the economy. http://tinyurl.com/68yte4p

90% of the £billions of government money in last 15 years has gone to the 5% of businesses with over 10 employees. http://tinyurl.com/6lbbpxl

But they don’t all go into government or politics. Some of them stay on at University to teach. Here’s an extract from THE otherwise known as the Times Higher Educational Supplement:

What it has done is create negative publicity for the UCU, here and around the world, and cause the resignation from the union of dozens of Jewish and non-Jewish members in protest. A recent swipe came from Nick Cohen in The Jewish Chronicle, who wrote that “[the union] – which represents intellectuals and so, inevitably, is the dumbest and nastiest organisation on the Left – refuses to accept any definition of anti-Semitism for fear that defining prejudice would restrict its attacks on Israel”.

Not very complimentary so far, is it. How do Economists fare? Here’s Professor Steve Keen.

Not only did the global financial crisis catch the vast majority of economists completely unawares, they instead expected tranquil and even buoyant times just as the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression began. My favourite such observation is from the OECD‘s Economic Outlook for June 2007—in which the Chief Economist suggested that, “the current economic situation is in many ways better than what we have experienced in years . . . Our central forecast remains indeed quite benign.” But there are countless other such utterly wrong prognostications about the economy, from the profession that is supposed to be the font of wisdom on the economy.

Those “in the know” understand that this is not an isolated failing. The Neoclassical model that dominates economics today is riven with logical and empirical fallacies. If economics were a real science, it would have long ago been overthrown and replaced by something more realistic.

Yet at least 90% of academic economists believe in this model, as do almost all economists working in government and private industry. Left to their own devices, they will continue thinking that this model does describe the economy as the real economy falls deeper and deeper into a crisis, even though their model says that this can’t even happen.

Since economics has failed to clean out its own intellectual stable, it will be the public that finally forces reform upon it – as once-supporters like Anatole Kaletsky of The Times calls for “a revolution in economic thought” and George Soros funds an Institute for New Economic Thinking. With luck, in a decade or two, a more realistic approach to economics might emerge. But in the meantime, here’s a simple guide for the public: Anything the vast majority of economists believe is likely to be wrong.

I’m beginning to feel a bit nervous …

But help is at hand in the form of my sweary webmate Steve Pook who here reclaims the word Technocracy. There are loads of qualified people out there doing wonderful things. Doctors, Nurses, Vets, Engineers, Marine Biologists, Nature Conservationists and also Plumbers, Electricians, etc. The trouble is none of them are involved in running the country.

The Youth Problem?

A few weeks ago Councillors Paul Canal, Keith Prince, Bob Littlewood, Bert Jones and Ian Bond had a “speed debate” with 20 youngsters from the Redbridge Youth Council. Here’s Paul Canal writing about his experience on his blog.

My overall feeling after this invigorating session was one of quiet confidence. If these young people are indicative of those who will be making important decisions in industry, commerce, politics, the arts, health and science in years to come, my borough and my country will be in good hands.

So, why does he sound so surprised? Why should the present generation of youngsters be any different to previous generations? It’s probably a matter of generational perception, like this poster below (sorry about the poor quality, it was scanned from a newspaper).

Which leads me directly to this report in the Wanstead & Woodford Guardian, where the cuts to youth services are discussed. Ignoring the “blame war” between Cllr Wes Streeting and Cllr Paul Canal in the comments, the fact remains that there are £2 million worth of cuts to be made to things like careers advice, drama and music groups.

So perhaps we should expect more of our youth to be hanging around on park benches and scaring old people?

Which leads on to the next report also in the Wanstead & Woodford Guardian about the appointment by Redbidge Police of the new Youth Engagement Officer, Sergeant Marion Kent, who we know well from the Roding Safer Neighbourhood Team. She is an excellent appointment and I am confident she will be well received and do a good job.

As she says “I’m hoping that rather than just throw out what we as adults think is appropriate we can start to listen to what young people want.” Quite. But the other thing she needs to be mindful of is the perception of young people by older people. As I wrote back in 2007.

We don’t have a "youth problem", we have an "adult problem".

Note: Yes I am aware that as I write this, there is a demo going on up in Central London but they are “Students”, i.e. over 18, or should be.

Coining It

Or “Penny Pinching” whatever heading you choose. It seems our Council has another unexpected expense to squeeze into their ever decreasing budget over and above the costs of introducing the new parking charge regime earlier this year and then taking it out again – The Royal Mint are changing our coins again and all the meters will have to be upgraded.

From January, the new coins are set to be minted using steel instead of copper and while they will have the same weight and diameter, the coins will be 11% thicker. Estimates suggest the Treasury will save £176 million by using the cheaper metal.

But

Upgrading thousands of parking machines to accept the thicker coins will cost councils in England and Wales £5.5 million and the LGA said the Treasury should foot the bill.

So that’s all right then? A £170 million saving overall.

But of course the Council may just not bother and force us to pay by Credit Card using our Mobile Phones, that is if we have one. Has anybody used this “service”? I don’t quite get how it works. You need some sort of receipt to put on your windscreen so the Traffic Warden, or whatever they’re called these days, knows you have paid. Answers in the comments please.

Hattip: Dopeyf

Who’s That Girl

This post is dedicated to all those people out there in the background, mostly women, who make things tick, often without recognition.

In football it is the player who scores the goals who gets all the headlines. But any manager or coach worth their salt will know that to get those goals you need a team with a solid base and an engine room.

Some years ago there was a series of programmes on TV charting the changing personnel of pop groups through the 60s, 70s and 80s. One comment stuck with me. “You can eulogise all you like about Peter Green or Lindsey Buckingham but the heartbeat of Fleetwood Mac has remained constant throughout”. John McVie on Bass and Mick Fleetwod on drums.

This was no surprise to me as I had been a fan of The Shadows (but not Sir Cliff) back in the 60s and I was fascinated by the percussion and the rhythm behind Hank Marvin’s smile and spectacles.

Now, I don’t know what I was doing in 1978 but the release of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds somehow passed me by. I was probably playing snooker. It wasn’t until about 2002 that I caught up when it was used as the soundtrack to a November 5th Fireworks display at the Brentwood centre. I was visibly impressed, so much so that my son bought me the double CD for Christmas.

But even then, it was not until last week that I realised why it is that I like it so much. Of course I knew it was the percussion and rhythm but not precisely why. It was only when I found the youtube video of it being performed that I saw what was going on. There are only fleeting glympses of it but it is there in the background. The drummer is giving it some wellie but beside him is a young girl who alternates between a xylophone and a tamborine, both percussion instruments, and finishes on a harp. You can see that she is really enjoying herself on the tamborine. It’s her that holds it all together. She’s the one who makes it zing, zip and rock. Here are a few stills:

And here’s the video again. Do have a look/listen and watch out for her in the background.

Of course if this collection of musicians were a government, council or corporation department guess who would be the first for the chop in these austere times? And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why this country is in such a f*&^ing mess.

Women's equality: clock is turning back as cuts bite, says Fawcett Society

London’s Co-Mingling Muddle

Last week Martin Francis published a piece on his blog "Wembley Matters" entitled "Co-mingling muddle" featuring a video by Lorraine Skinner demonstrating the complexities of the Brent Waste/Recycling regime.

She is making a short film for each of the 33 London Boroughs to demonstrate what an absurdly diverse range of recycling systems there are across the Capital. She has already done here in Redbridge [see below] but has 11 more boroughs to do. Our one is a bit out of date now as we have Blue boxes for paper/card and we should also note that we do not send food waste to landfill, so I’m told – the East London Waste Authority have a BioMRF at Jenkins Lane where it is separated out and used to produce energy pellets.

She explains:

I am contacting you as you made a comment about Brent Council's new waste strategy on Martin Francis's blog "Wembley Matters".

“Isn’t it amazing how different councils can come up with such different waste regimes. I suppose that’s diversity for you, or is it the market?”

Last year, when Brent were consulting residents on changing their waste collection policy, my friend Elaine did hours and hours of research into the various waste collection strategies in the 33 London Boroughs. But I am a much more practical person, so I set about finding more about them by filming a resident using them. When I got to Borough number eleven the penny dropped - having all these different schemes is at best silly, and at worst ridiculous. What we need is one simple system for flats, and one simple system for houses.
The London Assembly produced a report in October about the varying recycling rates across London, I attach the link. One phrase in the introduction is very telling -

"London’s complex waste governance arrangements bequeathed to the city following the break-up of the Greater London Council in 1986, are the result of happenstance rather than rational consideration."

Despite having hit the nail on the head, the report does not go on to suggest having the same system across London.

My remaining Boroughs are -

Bexley, Kingston upon Thames, Sutton, Greenwich, City of London, Havering, Hounslow, Barking and Dagenham, Croydon, Enfield and Waltham Forest

When I have finished filming all 33 Boroughs I will edit the films down to a short ten minute film called "TheLondon33TheMovie" in the hope that demonstrating the absurdity of the situation may bring about change.

Well, I know we have members/readers in some of those boroughs so if you are interested in helping Lorraine out please contact me here at B21 and I will put you in touch.

More Olympian Roadworks

Hot on the heels of the resurfacing at Redbridge Roundabout we now have Transport for London wanting to close Southend Road off Charlie Brown’s roundabout overnight for approximately 3 months. Normally we get notified of such matters direct from TfL but this time it comes from the Roding Councillors blog who are also celebrating a 101st birthday.

Transport for London has told us it intends to make a Traffic Order to enable carriageway resurfacing works to take place on the Southend Road. This will mean the road will be closed overnight, except for local access to Lechmere Avenue, preventing any vehicle from:
(1) entering, exiting or proceeding in an eastbound direction on A1400 Southend Road between its junctions with Charlie Brown’s Roundabout and Lechmere Approach. Local access will be maintained;
(2) entering, exiting or proceeding in a westbound direction on A1400 Southend Road between its junctions with Clayhall Avenue and Charlie Brown’s Roundabout. Local access will be maintained.
The Order will be effective at certain times between 14th November 2011 and 29th February 2012 each night 9:30 PM to 6:00 AM or when the works have been completed whichever is the sooner. The prohibitions will apply only during such times and to such extent as shall from time to time be indicated by traffic signs.

I don’t suppose our local 24 hour Tescos are too happy, this coming slap bang on the Christmas and New Year Sales shopping opportunities season but then neither am I – how am I going to get home from The Bell or the Rose & Crown on the 123?

The report in the Wanstead & Woodford Guardian where local businesses were up in arms about it has disappeared off their website but it is still available on webcache – see here.

I would have thought that a bit of contra-flow would keep the arteries open, and the buses flowing.

Note: It’s not just the Olympics traffic we have to look forward to next year, we also have the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. I don’t know if you have noticed but there is one of those beacon thingies over at Hainault Forest Country Park.

New Police Team to replace Old Police Team

Yesterday, to a fanfare of trumpets at the prestigious Valentines Mansion, Redbridge Council paraded their, or should that be our, “New Council funded Police Team launched to help reduce crime across the Borough” followed by a press release on the council's award winning website and which was duly repeated on both the Ilford Recorder and Wanstead & Woodford Guardian Websites.

The thing is that it is not really “new”, it’s a replacement for the Parks Police with exactly the same number of officers. The “new” or different bits are:

• This team, although still funded by Redbridge council (taxpayers) comes under the jurisdiction of the Met’s Redbridge Borough Commander and not Redbridge Council
• Their remit is much wider, covering areas such as licensing and anti-social behaviour particularly on Friday and Saturday nights outside our TOWIE nightspots, so their resources will be stretched much further than before.

But the notable absence from any of this is that the Parks Police and support staff have effectively been sacked, discarded, dumped and there is no recognition nor appreciation of the valuable role they have played for the past 6 years in restoring our parks and open spaces into family friendly places where we can visit without fear, after they had fallen into a squalid cesspit of drugs and scrambler bikes which the Met did absolutely nothing about. That’s why Laurence Davies’ administration introduced them and that’s what they did, as it says on the tin.

So, from B21, may we thank John Boylin and our departing Parks Police officers for all the work they have done and wish them all the best for the future - and cross our fingers that this new arrangement will work although there are serious doubts about that.

Previous posts:

Noisy Bikes
Two for One Police Offer – A Redbridge Sham
The Redbridge Bill
Boris on Parks Police
Policing by Numbers