Above...a rare beast
Dear Dame,
Mr. Oliver told last Monday's Town Hall meeting that RBKC/Suez had cleansed the 4 gullies on Portobello Road on Sunday 11th July yet by Monday12th all four were blocked!
Mr. Oliver is a very nice man.
He genuinely believes that the cleansing was carried out because he has Suez’s paperwork to “prove” it.
RBKC is tiny with a tiny and still declining population.
There's no industry or agriculture.
Despite this RBKC pays £25million a year for its waste contract - twice the going rate.
Statistics related to this contract fail to stand up to scrutiny.
By law, all businesses must pay for all their own waste; except in RBKC.
Here, residents pick up the tab.
Suez claims this is because it provides a “gold-plated” service - except when it doesn’t!
It is self-evident that since four gullies in Portobello Road were cleaned on Sunday yet all four blocked by Monday, all RBKC gullies must be cleansed every day!
Regards,
Marion Gettleson
Great Marion. Needs here kind of simple talking to get the point across.
ReplyDeleteNow can the Council sort this simple problem and make sure that Suez does what it is paid to do?
The Cabinet and their Job Titles are a nightmare of confusion that can only be understood by the socialist crypt academic Dr Quirk. Nine persons including dizzy.Cllr Weale is in charge of "Finance and Customer Deliver". Maybe she is the one to talk to Suez. Unfortunately we know that she listens but does not hear - so don't hold your breath.
It would be great if someone with the clear thinking and clarity of Marion Gettleson was allowed to reconstruct the Cabinet with clear and understandable job titles and job responsibilities.
Clear The Swamp is right. Anyone can check the Council website and try to figure out what all the job titles of Cabinet Members mean.
DeleteIt is time for all the hocus pokus to stop. Study the website of RBKC and discover a parallel universe of activities that bear no relation to what residents are thinking and are concerned about. For example the whole section on the "Grenfell Recovery Programme". Pages and pages of reports and worthy words. But spend a nanosecond with North Kensington opinion formers and discover that all of this gobble is trash.
ReplyDeleteWake up dizzyy! Start running the show and start listening. And for heavens sake dump Quirk. He is seriously bad news.
What a clear headed resident Ms Gettleson is. Easy to understand and straight forward analysis. What is going on? Buck passing, that's what.
ReplyDelete"Clear The Swamp" prompted me to study the Council website. Don't bother. It is a nightmare. The nine strong Leadership Team includes a person responsible for "Finance and Customer Delivery". One is a staff function, the other an operations function. Mix them at your peril. Another person is responsible for "Economy, Employment and Innovation". What is this about? Why is a Conservative Council spending Council Tax on private sector activities?
Having attended the Grenfell Play at the Tabernacle this week (Value Engineering), and also three Q&A sessions with the audience after the play, I was most interested to study the "Grenfell Recovery" part of the Council website. Masses of words. Masses of reports. But a completely different and parallel universe from what I was hearing at the Tabernacle. Not connected up. Babble for everyone other than Grenfell.
I have lived in RBKC for more than 60 years, in four different locations including North Kensington. I am confident that I have a feel for some of the social and economic issues. And therefore a basis for trouble shooting the current Council organisation and values. I feel very, very unhappy.
Decayed organisations, especially rich ones, have a huge capacity for pursuing agendas and building empires that have lost sight of customers and residents. They function on the basis of what they think needs to be imposed. I detect much decay in Hornton Street and an organisation structure that does not recognise basic management principles. In business when I came across this situation, for example a factory with destructive labour practices and a bloody culture, we sometimes found that the only solution was to close it and build a new factory down the road.
I smiled when I read the comments above. American companies build organisations around special functions like finance, sales and HR (professional societies). British companies build organisations around friends (friendly societies) and then invent titles for the friends. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. Cllr Campbell has built a Leadership Team with her mates Cllr Weale and Cllr Faulks alongside her, plus the six younger Concillors that they are "bringing along".
ReplyDeleteBut the central question remains. Is Cllr Campbell the right Leader for Kensington and Chelsea?
We should be asking how much Suez has charged residents for clearing out paladin bins Kempsford, Penywern Road & Eardley Crescent!
ReplyDeleteResidents did not want these bins as there is not a day goes by without fly tipping; all borough residents pay for it!!!
Sounds a silly idea to close down Kensington Town Hall and open a new one close by.
ReplyDeleteWhy not? The Town Hall is a symbol of the ego of Nicholas Freeman. Ugly thing. Smash it and develop mixed housing. As all the officers now work from home lots of surplus office space
DeleteErr - that's what they did in 1970 - didn't make any difference did it?
DeleteAnd the present Town Hall is the iconic last work of Sir Basil Spence (of Coventry Cathedral), and is sure to be Listed in the near future.
And the Redwood in the courtyard wasn't planted by Mrs Churchill.
Kensington Conservative, I never suggested closing the Town Hall. I merely used the extreme example of having to close a factory in order to overcome bloody labour practices and a destructive culture.
DeleteIn the case of Kensington and Chelsea, one way to overcome the current malaise in Hornton Street could be to replace the ruling Party Leader with an elected Mayor. This has worked well in Birmingham where the ex CEO of the John Lewis Partnership, Andy Street, was elected as Mayor. K&C needs to break the 60 year monopoly of the ruling party Leader which has resulted in corrupted power.
My experience of Kensington and Chelsea is that the overwhelming number of Councillors (including Cllr Campbell) and Officers want to make a difference and want to do good. But the absence of Leadership means that they are not "switched on".
For example, the latest fashion to delegate responsibility for policy making to residents by building a skill set to abuse the consultation and opinion poll process, is something that a good Leader would never tolerate. Another example is the under resourced surveyor organisation in the TMO which contributed to the Grenfell tragedy - an unfashionable cost center in the Council compared with £20 million subsidy to Holland Park Opera and a £100 million luxury spend on Holland Park School: an overspend of at least £50 million. A connected up Leader would never allow such imbalances to happen.
In America the President is limited to a maximum period in office of 8 years. Sir Pooter Cockle did 13 years as Leader of K&C before he was booted out. And look what he got up to.
ReplyDelete