The guys in PW are indeed approachable, and a while back, wondering what scope there was in general for Estate Agents themselves to act co-operatively, I approached Dan, who very simply explained that there was none. Unlike most of us on the Forum, they are playing for real money, and boards bring bucks (sorry about the Americanism - I'll start call them realtors soon
). They will understand that these boards drag an area down, but they face what economists and game theorists call a '
prisoner's dilemma' - it's a very general problem, and the way to break it is to change the incentives for those involved. Even small changes can make a difference, which is why I support Lee's attempt to embarrass PW here, and why I suggest perhaps a bit more pressure from getting official letters written.
"If it annoys you so much" is not fair. You, Simon, may not agree that these boards drag the area down, or you may feel that even if it does, it reveals a suspiciously middle-class NIMBYism, but I certainly think it does, and in this I think I'm with most reasonable opinion, and certainly with what regulations we have in the matter. As argued above, going into PW offices to speak to them would take time, and only achieve a sense of righteous indignation for the true busy-body type who actually gets a kick out of moaning - and this is not Lee, me or anyone else who wants to support our area.
This is simply a matter of enforcement, and this is where we need the Council. Few people like confronting other members of their community to tell them they are doing something wrong, which is why it is best done by professionals, and is why I referred to this very issue in my '
The Public vs. the Community' thread. If there was a system in place to enforce the existing regulations, we'd be better off, with no need for further meetings, about which I am as unenthusiastic as the next person.
The basic problem is that this is not a priority for our Council, and without going into the whole area of what the Council does spend money on, it's hard to say why it should be. We could all probably come up with examples of what we think is less necessary spending - let's hear again, if you like, complaints about senior officers' salaries and Cabinet members' allowances - but that's not going to achieve much.
If the Council is not going to pay for enough enforcement officers - which would be my preferred option - then I think it's reasonable to think about systems which do involve the voluntary efforts of members of the community. But they would have to be fair, which is why my first comment on this thread was to ask if PW was being picked on unfairly. Otherwise we could end up with what seemed like
active 'members of the community' conducting bizarre witch hunts against some particular local business. To prevent this, any such system would have to be sponsored in some way by the Council, in the way that the Council set up the system I referred to for us to post pictures of fly-tipping, which then lead through to straight forward job numbers for relevant Council staff - with no unnecessary meetings along the way. The only meetings I would have would be to work out how such a system could work, with possible follow ups to review its working. I think this is something our future Town Centre Team could usefully take up, and I would be happy to contribute.
My reference to time credits was a bit facetious, but one way of looking at them is as a way to encourage volunteering, and I know that Cllr Chris Best is keen on them, and I'd guess is behind the current push on them which I notice from the Council.
My views on them are set out here; what's relevant here is that volunteering, by its very nature, doesn't require a specific system of rewards, although sometime some public recognition is nice - so thanks again Lee for all your efforts for the community.
(I was going to do a more general post on the matter of volunteering, with reference to the triumph of the Olympics - how that worked is fascinating, but not for this thread
)
