Let's have a big round of applause for Lambeth council...

[nipsla]

...for being one of the five worst performing councils in the country :D :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6384843.stm

Credit where credit's due - they've put the effort in to win this award :cool: ;)

[innit]

I think there were only 1 or 2 other councils which actually went down from 2 stars to one :D

Lambeth: getting even worse

[nipsla]

Lambeth: getting even worse

They should do some more Revitalise style posters and put that slogan on it :cool:

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I charged in here all excited at the prospect of seeing a good news story about Lambeth... :mad:

You tease :D

[nipsla]

I charged in here all excited at the prospect of seeing a good news story about Lambeth... :mad:

You tease :D

But is is good news - Lambeth have won something (albeit recognition for being utterly incompetent!) :D

[Minnie_the_Minx]

But is is good news - Lambeth have won something (albeit recognition for being utterly incompetent!) :D


But they've been winning that award for decades :p

[chegrimandi]

my mates just finishing up a contract there and she says its the worst run place she's come across by a very long way - and she worked somewhere I used to that was appallingly run...

she was employed as a policy officer and worked the six months as a P.A - apparently an old hand said that most people act 'down' by about two positions of seniority...

:D

good way to run a massive council that - how many do they employ? 12,000 or summat :eek:

[normskii]

Was this study undertaken before the local elections or after?

[Skim]

Bravo, Lambeth! :cool:

[aurora green]

Was this study undertaken before the local elections or after?

For the life of me, I can't think what difference that would of made...

[normskii]

Surely the whole point of these exercises is to aportion blame on the governing parties. This is why I ask.

Just trying to work out if it was from the Lib Dem/Tory era, or crossed over into the labour one.

[aurora green]

Well, I see your point,
but it seems as despicable and downright dodgy as the last lot were, this new lot are poised to be even worse (http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=196403).

[bluestreak]

bloody hell, i'm working for islington at the moment and i thought they were bad. lambeth must be some sort of monkey farm.

[Minnie_the_Minx]

bloody hell, i'm working for islington at the moment and i thought they were bad. lambeth must be some sort of monkey farm.



That's an insult to monkeys as I'm sure they'd do a better job ;)

You only need to go on the Brixton posts to see the complaints about Lambeth. They'd keep you entertained for ages

[Chairman Meow]

bloody hell, i'm working for islington at the moment and i thought they were bad. lambeth must be some sort of monkey farm.

Having audited Lambeth's Housing Benefit accounts many years ago, thats an insult to monkeys. :D

I still must owe them about £400 poll tax. We *tried* to pay, but as they refused to acknowledge our existence, preferring instead to send bills, for wildly varying amounts to an occupant who had died in our house some years previously, we eventually gave up. :) Its nice to see some things don't change. :)

[Lambethsos]

In today's Evening Standard Steve Reed described the rating as 'perverse' and commented that it did not give 'the full picture'. Well Cllr, maybe this will help you illustrate the situation in lambeth under a Labour administration more clearly!

http://www.lambethsos.org.uk

[Brixton Hatter]

In today's Evening Standard Steve Reed described the rating as 'perverse' and commented that it did not give 'the full picture'. The 'full picture' is probably much much worse!

I'm not just slagging them for the sake of it - here's a few random examples of their incompetence, from my own personal perspective:
- I am still owed housing benefit from 1998 - that's NINE years ago. I don't think I'll ever get it back.
- The council recently spent a month and lots of cash on improving the lighting on my road and in the surrouding area by removing old lights and replacing them with new ones. There is no noticeable difference and there are still very scary dark areas on the street! Muggers paradise.
- Continued sell off of council property and housing stock to try and balance their budgets

It's not all bad - they have pulled their finger out and tried to do a few things such as improving the market on Electric Ave, plans to improve the parks etc - but it's still pretty bad.

[grimble]

Can we have a big hand for Hammersmith & Fulham too please (my council) - one of only 2 nationwide to receive the lowest possible marks for "Culture".

There is classical music at my tube station, but I think that's to scare away undesirables - "Noooooo! It's Vivaldi!".

[ViolentPanda]

Can we have a big hand for Hammersmith & Fulham too please (my council) - one of only 2 nationwide to receive the lowest possible marks for "Culture".
Going to be even less "culture" now the Palais is going. :(

There is classical music at my tube station, but I think that's to scare away undesirables - "Noooooo! It's Vivaldi!".
:D

[Mrs Magpie]

Lambeth are still chasing me for rent on a flat at a time they had actually let it to someone else....they still occasionally ring me to arrange repairs when it's over four and half years since I left.....

[Irenick]

In today's Evening Standard Steve Reed described the rating as 'perverse' and commented that it did not give 'the full picture'. Well Cllr, maybe this will help you illustrate the situation in lambeth under a Labour administration more clearly!

http://www.lambethsos.org.uk

Reed is right. The rating is perverse; or, at least it soon will be. Lambeth is introducing a ‘Final Solution’ for disabled people. They’re going to cease funding crips with ‘substantial’ care needs; and, hike up the care costs of those assessed as ‘critical’ from £7.55 to £17.50 per hour – niceeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Access this link http://www.lambethsos.org.uk/ and sign the online petition; come on the march on 28th February; I’ll be there; it’ll be great – really, it will be fierce!

What Hammersmith and Fulham council lacked in culture; they certainly made up for in human decency. A couple of years ago, this progressive council did away with care charges for disabled people – that, I can relate to; culture? You know what; ultimately, we’ll find our own level of culture.

[Bob]

Surely the whole point of these exercises is to aportion blame on the governing parties. This is why I ask.

Just trying to work out if it was from the Lib Dem/Tory era, or crossed over into the labour one.

It's a mixture of them from up to 2 years ago. But the changes to the quality of Lambeth's services that have led to the downgrading are in the culture area and relate to Lambeth's services since last May.

Ironiclly the 'improving strongly' organisational performance that Steve Reed (Labour Leader) is referring to is actually a 2 year old report on the organisational strength under Lib Dems.

If you want to find out more for yourself have a look at the Audit Commission website here:
http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/cpa/authority.asp?CategoryID=ENGLISH^576^LOCAL-VIEW^AUTHORITIES^104598

[pooka]

It's a mixture of them from up to 2 years ago. But the changes to the quality of Lambeth's services that have led to the downgrading are in the culture area and relate to Lambeth's services since last May.

Ironiclly the 'improving strongly' organisational performance that Steve Reed (Labour Leader) is referring to is actually a 2 year old report on the organisational strength under Lib Dems.

If you want to find out more for yourself have a look at the Audit Commission website here:
http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/cpa/authority.asp?CategoryID=ENGLISH^576^LOCAL-VIEW^AUTHORITIES^104598


Surely, the assessment is what it says - for 2006? You're right that the basis is from a number of sources, including the standard audits and performance indicators. But if they put 'improving strongly' for their 2006 Assessment then that is what they mean - and it is perverse.

Looking at the detail, it appears that Lambeth improved (2005 to 2006) in Benefits Admin, Environment and Social Care for Adults. One might suggest that if dropping a point in Culture looses a star, then it must have been a bit tenuously held in the first place and perhaps not meriting the junketing that the council laid on at the time :)

A more balanced judgement might be that a (1) council doesn't turn about that quickly, and partisan reading of the runes is not so clever and (2) with a flip-flop council like we have, one star/two star, whichever, it's a plague on all your houses (or rather ours!).

[William of Walworth]

If NVP was still here, he could tell a few tales (if he could bear to repeat them!) about Lambeth Housing from a few years back ... ;) :eek:

<falls back in a faint of relative gratitude for Southwark, and that's saying something! ;) >