Rejoice!" Cllr Nick Paget-Brown

"The gritters are out, the traders are happy, the customers are coming, the lights are lovely, the congestion charge is going, the loos are due for re-opening.  Rejoice!" Cllr Nick Paget-Brown

Now we know Nasty Nick Paget-Brown is not exactly a David Willets (BTW not Hornet's opinion-merely what she hears from councillors) but when a highly committed resident receives this sort of response after complaining about the hopeless job the overpaid SITA are doing for traders, one has to wonder whether he is not a few trash cans short of a bin round...

Here is the background that caused Cllr Paget-Brown to hurl insults at public spirited residents and taxpayers.

The Portobello Market people have long been aware, as have the Labour and LIb Dem councillors who represent them, that they are not on the Leader's Christmas Card list. That's fine but surely it does not mean that they should be singled out for special punishment measures.

Fifty pages of RBKC/Sita Waste Contract 2005 are devoted to "Winter Emergencies." Appendix A: Salting of Roads Priority List designates Portobello Rd as a First Priority to be salted along its entire 2km length. Westbourne Grove, it notes, is to be treated from Kensington Park Rd and is also as a First Priority.

The southern section of Portobello Road is a steep hill. It is visited on Saturdays by tens of thousands of people. Yet last weekend, despite forecast heavy snow, no salt/grit was put down. By contrast, Westbourne Grove - flat, with virtually no footfall was salted. Consequently, Portobello was a sheet of ice all weekend through Pembridge, Colville & Golbourne wards. Westbourne Grove however, was largely ice free.

Was Portobello unique? We know RBKC pay twice the national rate for waste services so many are wondering why the world-famous Portobello Market wasn't protected from ice. When retailers are struggling to make ends meet, and shoppers desperate to use the Market for Christmas shopping, it would seem a priority to keep this area of heavy footfall from becoming a municipal ice rink.

 Could this be his puerile and nasty way of getting their own back on the insolent Portobello people for daring to challenge the council in other areas?