Borough

Latest Borough posts

• You lot are a disgrace. A serious discussion ruined by pot-smoking dope heads.
  
  
  By the way there are more drug offences at Marlborough School than any comp in the country. Hurrah for state education !


• I hope you're not moving to Lewes but continuing to work in London because that would be a hilarious waste of oil to get you there and back every day. Also, for all their PR, Transition Town Lewes don't actually seem to do anything. They've still not released the figures for the first year of the Lewes pound and the second year has been pretty much an abject failure due to their imposition of a charge on traders to convert the things back into proper money. Don't let that put you off though and that's a discussion for a different thread.
  
  
  Lewes has a number of very good state schools and if it's a good community you're after then Lewes is probably the ideal place for you. I've heard some murmurs about bullying at a couple of the primary schools but I think that was just Chinese whispers. Priory was great when I was there, despite the drugs problems and even those are mild compared to a lot of private schools (Marlborough College for example has a much higher drug arrests per year than Priory). I've jeard it's gone downhill since then and there certainly seem to be a lot of fences up that never used to be there but I've never heard anyone complain that schools here are bad, certainly compared to what you get even as close as Brighton.
  
  
  As others have said though, the only way to know for sure is to take a look for yourself. If you're into all that Transition Town stuff you might want to look at the Lewes New School. It's a private school but much like a large family (As they only have about three kids for every teacher), a few of the parents are involved directly with TTL and they follow one of those non-national-curriculum teaching methods where the kids are encouraged to learn what they want when they want to (Kind of like Steiner Schools).


• I am a little confused as to why Cllr gardiner should pick on me. If he would like me to post details, or evidence about what I have written, i would be glad too. Unlike Council Officers, i prefer to rely on fact, not statistics. We all know what can be done with those.
  
  It seems to me, to be charitable to Cllr Gardine, that her doesn't seem to understand that his reality, is different to everyone elses.He obviously has never made a complaint to LDC Planning dept. so isn't really in a position to guage the respose that residents get when they have done so. Of course officers will seem wonderful to him, they are hardly going to admit to their 'boss' what is going on. and be rude and discourteous.. It is a common psychological phenomenon for people to seek to confirm what they want to believe, and instead of reading original documents, and speaking to real service users about their complaints and the way they are handled, Cllr Gardiner is unfortunately falling into that trap.
  
  The fact is that LDC is known in other authorities as a Rotten Borough for a reason, and we need to find out why that is, and remdy it. Not write thin denials on a local website.. To residents the probelm is pretty obvious because they have joined together in numerous ways and that has been an enlightening experience. especially given the wealth of experience in the town, that Cllr gardiner seems oblivious too. Cllr Gardiner knows that the legal department was misleading him for years with regard to not meeting with members of the public to discuss planning, so why is he deterined to believe this was the only mistake being made? I have been provided witha document that reveals that at leas one resident raised the issue 4 years before it was finally resolved. Indeed the problem was denied, It didn't exist. Everything was fine and rosy, nothing improper gong on at all..... Yes we do all make mistakes, which is why officers should just deal with any that are brought o their attention, instead of denying them, and then attacking residents for complaining. Jenny Mumford is a classic example, as she didn't even make a complaint, Just made a n innocuouse general comment. As Cllr Gardiner hasn't ever commented on that, we can only pressume he sanctioned and condoned this improper harassment.. Perhaps he can explain his actions?
  
  Cllr Gardiner knows that officers have low regard for residents, and make derogatory remarks about them, and due to their sloppy attempts at keeping that behaviour under wraps, everyone else knows it too. It is embarrassing to read the denials, and hardly inspres residents, does it?
  


• Dear Councillor Gardiner It is ironic that I posted my post just as you were posting yours isn't it? There is nothing nasty about the posts above IMO other than that they bring to light the reality behing the statistics. You are clearly defensive rather than impartial. We have all read your letters in the paper, and it is clear that you don't fully understand what is going on. You never will until you start speaking to the people you are supposed to represent, instead of officers. You are a scientist aren't you? I think us 'service users' are called 'a primary resource' Geoff has obviously trawlled through the original documents, in a way that you haven't. LGO letters etc are just political spin, we all know that. The actual complaints are the evidence, so perhaps , given that you represent the people who wrote them, not the Council, you should contact them? I for one would be interested to know what they tell you. Perhaps the person who got the funny letter from John Crawford could publish it, so we can get an idea if the claim is true or not? You talked about nastiness, well, isn't harassinga resident over a protest sign 'nastiness? that isn't just an understandable error.
  Your officers seem to be bullies.You will see my new thread asking if leaking complaints about councillors online is legitimate. Geoff probably doesn't use his full name, because like most of us in the town, we know that YOUR officers have been caught out bullying residents as well as Councillors. We are not stupid, it is a small town and since the Jenny Mumford debacle (did you condone that one?) we all started comparing notes...and letters..and documents....
  Like Geoff I don't vote Tory either, I vote Lib Dem, and will probably continue to do so in this area. But only because you and your colleagues aren't nasty , repugnant Tories. I want you to do better. I am desperate that you should, but as your post above indicates, you aren't representing me, or other voters, you have just been brainwashed into the biased defence of the actions of your officers, and many people like me are disappointed that you come across as being simply a mouthpiece for the actions of a failing Council. I don't want to see a repeat of eastbourne Borough Council in Lewes!


• Investigator.I can believe you have had a good experience. I have to confess I have an advantage over you, because I have been able to see 6 complaints made against LDC The malicious, and adversarial line our officers take against residnets has to be seen to be believed. It is hardly surprising that they behaved towards Jenny Mumford in the inappropriate way that they did.. Complaint s reach the LGO AFTER the Council complaints procedure has been completed, and I regeret to tell you that one I have seen was dealt with entirely by John Crawford, whose very expensive time was wasted unsuccessfully defending his officers! He failed to prevent a finding of administrative fault, and had to provide a very begrudging apology to the complainant, two complaints were successful, but were buried in a statistical category called 'Ombudsman Ciscretion" which is not included in statistics (hardly impartial is it?) The other four were initially belittled, but time passed, and it has since become known that they were correct. The LGO made a mistake in failing to investigate properly. As well as costing us money. The complaints I have seen revealed that LDC had improperly considered a planning application, weren't filing documents correctly, and were leaving confidential material where they shouldn't (very topical). I think we all have to be careful about projecting our prejudices onto a situation, and should look at the specific facts and the evidence. The LGO's own statistics reveal how poor their record is, which is why there was a parliamentary investigation into their activities which raised a considerable amount of concern. I note other people on thois site have mentioned LDC being referred to as a Rotten Borough by our neighbouring Councils, and I can also confirm that this is the case from my professional experience working in another area.