Love Lewisham

[biscuitman1978]

For those who aren't aware, Love Lewisham (http://www.lovelewisham.org) is a really useful website which allows you to report a wide variety of problems in London Borough of Lewisham, including fly-tipping and graffiti.

Reports are usually acted on pretty quickly, and you can follow progress on the website.

[Tim Lund]

Love Lewisham is brilliant - the guy behind it, a senior Lewisham officer, Nigel Tyrell, is someone for whom I have massive respect.

[Annie.]

I have used this site many times- excellent response

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[Whiftoff]

yeah used this the other day after someone left a load of half full cans of paint on our road. Sumitted an entry via the Love lewisham app and they were gone by the next day. The only danger is that people take advantage and just dump stuff ouside their house knowing that it should be cleared by the council.

[Annie.]

That kind of person will dump stuff regardless I think.

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[Tim Lund]

That kind of person will dump stuff regardless I think.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

Yes - there's always that risk, but if you think about it, a system like this helps gather information about when and where littering and similar anti-social behaviour happens - just the sort of intelligence authorities need to identify perpetrators.

[Eagle]

Tim

Lewisham knew the perpetrators at Girton Rd Car Park but refused to take action. Doubt if any non travelling citizen would create such a mess.

[Manwithaview1]

Tim

Lewisham knew the perpetrators at Girton Rd Car Park but refused to take action. Doubt if any non travelling citizen would create such a mess.

They took action immediately. They successfully removed them. Ever heard of flytippers?

[Eagle]

MWAV

They removed the mess but took no action against the criminals that made the mess.I think you know this but choose to ignore.

Any resident who they knew was responsible for such a mess , would i think , have been prosecuted.

[bensonby]

The only danger is that people take advantage and just dump stuff ouside their house knowing that it should be cleared by the council.

And therein lies the problem: my parents had an old chest of drawers that they wanted to get rid of. I can't remember the exact amount the council wanted per item to take it away but I do remember that they wanted to treat every drawer, and the frame itself, as individual items - I believe it was over £50 or £60 to get it taken away. My mother pointed out that if she just dumped it on the road around the corner and called in then it would be taken away for free. (obviously she didn't do that). It seems slightly absurd.

However, I do remember reading somewhere (maybe even on here) it is cheaper, financially, to have this system of reactive clearing-up rather than introduce a free collections service.

[Tim Lund]

However, I do remember reading somewhere (maybe even on here) it is cheaper, financially, to have this system of reactive clearing-up rather than introduce a free collections service.

Sorry if this take this off into the further regions of abstraction ... but thanks to having recently read 'The Righteous Mind'. I find myself analysing the question along a liberal / conservative spectrum, in which conservatives are more influenced by a sense of disgust at this anti-social behaviour, and probably also a feeling that it betrays their sense of local loyalty, while liberals are more likely just to look at outcomes - so, ignoring such emotional reactions, and ask what is, objectively, the better way of dealing with the problem? - and not wanting to be get all judgmental.

So Whitoff feels - as I'm sure most of us to some extent - feel there's a problem with other people taking advantage, but ultimately I'd just go for the best cost / benefit trade-off. I think there's a parallel with our attitudes towards road use, which, except for a few rare cases, is not charged at the point of use. Drivers (and cyclists) have got used to this, and would feel outraged if someone tried to make them pay for every journey, even if economists told them they should. Drivers will say "I pay my road tax - how dare you make me pay again for using the road", and in same way someone chucking out some old furniture might say "I pay my Council tax - why should I pay more?"

I suppose I'm more on the liberal end of the spectrum (which should surprise no one), but I'm trying to capture that sense of local loyalty in the pride I feel in Lewisham Council doing something really well, and also, I'm not forgetting about the need to deal with anti-social behaviour, but not wanting to waste money in doing something about it when it won't achieve results.

It's also similar to what we think our local police should be doing, where almost everyone would feel it's better for them to be proactive rather than reactive - for instance in the just published Stevens Report

"Faced with budgetary constraints and the government's insistence that police are crime fighters, there is a danger of the police being forced to retreat to a discredited model of reactive policing."

But is this right? Sure, sometimes, it will be worth investing some time in anticipating where crime and other anti-social behaviour might happen, and heading it off before it does, and it will satisfy our wish to see the police as really going after the bad guys, but how will we really know it's money well spent? Is there not a danger that the police will spend their time fighting imagined evils, rather than reacting to the real problems people encounter?

[Whiftoff]

Another round of appluase for Love Lewisham. Took a photo of a really sharp dodgy tree stump on my way to work this morning. Submitted it through the Love Lewisham site and they're sending some around to sort it out. Such an easy app to use and the best way of keeping your local area in a decent state.

[Tim Lund]

Thanks Whitoff for getting this back on track after my diversion ... this next one will be much shorter. Restating a bit, a key reason Love Lewisham is so good, is that relevant information is quickly made public - unlike what I'm finding with Thames Water and information about leaks on Silverdale.

After my last digression, it also struck me that another clever thing about 'Love Lewisham' was the name; it makes it part of being proud of your area to the sort of people I described, with a sense of local loyalty, and who might otherwise be doubtful about a system with lets others just get away with being anti-social.

[Whiftoff]

I think it’s a really great service. The app is very easy to use and quick to submit a issue. You get confirmation that the issue has been approved normally within an hour and the issue is dealt with within a couple of days. I think the majority of residents take pride in where they live. As previously mentioned its obviously open to abuse but I’m sure the council are running metric’s on problem areas/streets.

[gillyjp]

Yep - full of praise for this site. Take a pic of the offending item, load up on the website and it's gone within 2 working days. Brilliant. Such a shame that it has to exist at all though. Hats off to Lewisham Council - exceptional response to a continuing and worrying problem. Keep up the good work.

[nvr24]

I have worked around Lewisham for many years now and you always get to see the stuff that should not be happening. Love Lewisham website lets you to report all the flytippers and the rest. Being a painter and decorator in london is not easy, but I have never thrown a single bit of rubbish on the streets. I always hope other people will stop littering our streets one day.

[biscuitman1978]

Just another word of praise for the Love Lewisham website.

I've reported an awful lot of fly-tipping, graffiti and fly-posting on and around Sydenham Road and Newlands Park in the last couple of weeks, and it's been dealt with very promptly.

For those who aren't aware, the website's at http://www.lovelewisham.org. Feel free to search 'biscuitman1978' in the 'Reported By' search box if you want to see examples of the things that some people think it's acceptable to dump, scrawl and stick in Sydenham.