Month: Jul 2008

This week we will all be getting more plastic sacks – white this time for our plastics to stop them blowing around. Hopefully this will make the recycling system even more efficient and help keep our streets tidier.

Ealing’s residents are working really hard at their recycling – they recycled 45 per cent more of their waste in May, compared to the same time last year. In total more than 4,000 tonnes was recycled, composted or turned into organic fertiliser and electricity in May.

Apparently you should get a sack this week in time for next weeks’ collection. If you don’t call the council’s help desk on 020 8825 6000. This number is also the main number you dial for any street related issue. It really does work so if there is any kind of problem in your street please phone it in. We can’t fix problems if no-one tells us they exist. I typically phone this number 2 or 3 times a week. It is sometimes a little irritating to have to spell out the name of your road to an operator that doesn’t know your end of the borough but it really is worth the effort.

There is much room for improvement in the parking/parking enforcement area in Ealing and I am certain that my biggest task over the next year or so is to show some progress here. I am not responsible for the implementation of CPZs. I am responsible for the people that do enforcement (Parking Services) once a CPZ has been implemented.

It does not help the council to improve its services if the papers print parking stories which are just utter rubbish, which I am afraid they often do. Yesterday’s in Ealing Times is a case in point and reporter Alex Hayes should be ashamed of himself. He widely quotes an individual called Tim Ponting who lives in Princes Road and has clearly got a bad case of sour grapes:

We had a consultation almost a year ago, and people voted overwhelmingly to reject the zone, but now the council has decided to go ahead with it without telling us.

I guess Ponting didn’t notice the public notices that have been littering the area for weeks. I live in the area and got a letter informing me when the scheme was due to start.

Ponting claims that not many permits have been issued but I am told by officers that they have issued 400.

There was indeed a majority against the scheme across the whole area consulted but the core area which gave rise to the consultation in the first place voted in favour. In fact the council received a petition in favour of a CPZ from residents of Princes Road and Princes Road was 11 to 7 in favour of the scheme. The minimum possible scheme was discussed and voted on at Ealing Area Committee, see minutes here. The consultation results are here.

The Ealing Times story notes that Ponting is by profession a PR. Maybe journalist Alex Hayes should know better than just to swallow a PR’s line wholesale.

Update: On my way to the shops this afternoon I made a detour down Princes Road. 9 cars parked in the road. 5 with permits, one with a voucher, one with a dispensation (displayed wrongly as it happens) and two without anything. On my way home I talked to a parking attendant who was giving out warning notices to anyone parked in the zone without the right permit, dispensation, voucher, etc.