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Original poster

How does Wandsworth do it?

30 replies

meditrina · 16/02/2011 18:44

It's just been on the news:

  • really high salaries to its top staff (4 x over £200k)

-yet really low Council tax (lowest or 2nd lowest in UK)

  • and good standard of services (according to Audit Commission)

Is it really that good? (I have a cynical mood coming on).

OP posts:
NormaStanleyFletcher · 16/02/2011 18:46

I thought you were talking about the prison

Wink Grin
wilbur · 16/02/2011 18:52

Some bits are very good, but they don't repair the roads or pavements unless you beg them, we live 20 feet inside the boundary and people fall flat on their faces outside our front door, tripping on broken paving stones on a regluar basis. I have asked twice for them to fix them but am always told they are not bad enough. Grrr. Also, the provision of playschemes/respite care/help for the vulnerable is minimal - btw that is me reporting what friends with SEN children/elderly parents etc in the Borough tell me rather than my own experience. I also reckon they make wads of money from parking charges and somehow manage to divert this to other services.

You also have to remember the demographic of the borough makes a big difference - Wandsworth is going to have a far higher rate of payment of Council Tax than many other boroughs so the costs can be lower as there are economies of scale when everyone pays.

Nancy66 · 16/02/2011 20:57

I come under Lambeth but am on the Wandsworth border.

As Wilbur said they are very slow to do repairs. There are potholes on some of the major roads that are nearly two years old.
residents have to pay for services like fridge removal etc...which would be included in higher council taxes.

I also hear that things like their adoption/fostering/social services units are smaller than average and not as efficient as larger boroughs.

NoSuchThingAsSociety · 16/02/2011 23:54

They are very good - one of the forst councils to contract out services, saving taxpayers' money and driving up standards.

taugenichts · 17/02/2011 00:05

I think it's a good idea for the competent councils to take over services from the truly crap ones.

Original poster
meditrina · 17/02/2011 10:29

I've found an Audit Commission report which goes up to 2008, which shows Wandsworth getting mainly 4s (highest possible rating) and two 3s (benefits and adult social services). This seems like a strong performance - are such reports reliable indicators?

OP posts:
taugenichts · 17/02/2011 12:54

Yes, they're like Ofsted reports. Wandsworth has long been a high-performing council. It's partly to do with organisational culture, that's why some councils are excellent through and through, others are rubbish through and through. Like attracts like - excellent/conscientious staff can't bear to work in crap councils, so they gravitate towards the good ones.

serajen · 17/02/2011 14:10

i like you, NormanStanleyFletcher, funny as f*ck!!

fruitshootsandheaves · 17/02/2011 14:11

and I read it as Wordsworth and thought you'd gone all cultured Grin

MrsSnow · 17/02/2011 16:02

I also live in Lambeth on the Wandsworth border, local residents pay for their own bins (ours are free), they pay for road side collection eg fridges, furniture, they pay for resident parking, if you are visiting or shopping you also must pay (we don't) they also have a constant stream of traffic wardens ready to pounce, they recently removed their annual free fireworks so that the only fireworks are a paid for event etc etc. The roads are horrible.

The grass isn't always greener.

Treats · 17/02/2011 16:59

I live in Wandsworth (but am due to move to Kingston soon - the highest council tax in London!) and I find that the services are pretty much OK. I don't find the road repairs much worse than anywhere else - they patched up the potholes from last year's poor weather pretty well. I don't have a problem with paying for parking - I don't find it exorbitant and we wouldn't be able to park outside our flat if it was unrestricted, and am generally happy to pay for extra things if I'm going to get the benefit from it.

When I had to get a new parking permit last year for our new car, I had to go to the Town Hall and they couldn't have been more pleasant or eager to help. We were supposed to register DD's birth in Lambeth as that's where she was born, but the only appt they could offer was 3 weeks later, so we went to Wandsworth who could see us the following day.

mpsw · 17/02/2011 17:08

I used to live in Lambeth, then Wandsworth, a while ago.

Wandsworth doesn't pay for bins, because it doesn't have wheely-bins - so there is nothing to pay for. Bins are collected from and returned to your front garden, and you can put out as many as you like. Collections of both landfill and recyclable weekly.

Lambeth residents also pay for residential parking permits (at least they did when I was there), the cost to me halved when I moved to Wandsworth. Plenty of traffic wardens in Lambeth too.

ReadingTeaLeaves · 25/02/2011 22:22

This article on the Indy gives some context (read some of the comments at the bottom too, which give some history) blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/02/21/what-wandsworth-reveals-about-the-big-society/

I live in the area. It is fine.... If you're middle class and don't rely much on public services. It has one of the smallest council housing stocks in the country - that's a reason for the low comparative council tax - and doesn't seem to like paying for services for low income earners at all and is cutting harder than most right now particularly in low income areas.

Personally I think that's a bit crap, but I'm a lefty so perhaps that's why.

Essentially, council tax is low because services provided are limited. If you can afford services yourself your fine. If you can't, your screwed.

ReadingTeaLeaves · 25/02/2011 22:25

Oh something else I remember being told was that the council gets away with services being a bit crap because it has a really odd demographic in comparison with most other parts of the country - including other areas of London... E.g. one of the most mobile communities in the country: a very high % live in the borough for a short time and move on; one of the few places in the country where the % of elderly is declining rather than rising etc. This means they don't have to plan for some of the high expenditure items in the same way as other councils.

MrsGuyOfGisbourne · 26/02/2011 19:10

I used to walk to a tube sation on a road which was half in Lambeth and half in Wandsworth. When it snowed it was very funny, everyone walking on the Wandsworth side where the pavements had been gritted, and not on the Lambeth side where thy hadn't... Rubbich collected regularly on the Wandsworth side, and often piled upo on the Lambeth side... Flates cheaper to rent on the Lambeth side...
Some years later worked professionally with (not for) Wandsworth and other councils and found Wandsworth by far the most professional people to deal with. Went to a meeting at Lambeth council and wasn't even given a chair to sit on...

Sequins · 26/02/2011 19:12

If you live in Wandsworth and have SN children, I believe they are educated in Lambeth.

not1not2 · 11/04/2011 16:33

lol at sequins just about sums it up

otherwise what tealeaves and MrsSnow said
together with very high rates of paying council tax

IMHO they provide limited services well
plus although they have a hospital the Lambeth one is the one of choice, a lof of secondary children are educated outside the borough (although I don't know whether councils pay each other back)

when we were in Wandsworth we weren't even offered a reception place for our child

aliceliddell · 11/04/2011 20:44

Maybe the odd demographic is because all the old people died from neglect and all the parents moved to somewhere with schools? Just a thought...

Original poster
meditrina · 11/04/2011 20:54

Are hospitals a Council thing - St George's Tooting is in Wandsworth, isn't it? I thought that's a good teaching hospital.

It seems to be Merton/Wimbledon which is having reception place difficulties this year (from the threads I've seen on here). It seems to be a problem for the whole of London. Is Wandsworth really notably worse?

OP posts:
not1not2 · 12/04/2011 14:19

ha ah at somewhere with schools alice

med no council doesn't fund hospitals but it does some of the services they interect with thereby affacting their efficiency and desirability in some way

opinion of George's is somewhat split locally...... (IMHE)

med I suppose it's where you are in the school application process that affects your view Grin as I said Wandsworth never even offered us a place we ended up going out of borough not out of choice

Ryoko · 12/04/2011 16:33

They don't have many council properties there do they?, only parts of Wadsworth I've been in look rather fancy so wouldn't have anyone on HB living there.

EldonAve · 15/04/2011 17:00

17,000 council homes apparently link

londonartemis · 15/04/2011 19:53

Also, Ryoko, people on HB are often renting private properties.

lalalonglegs · 15/04/2011 20:16

I live in Wandsworth - the council are pretty efficient (roads certainly don't seem worse here than Lambeth or Merton) and, what amazes me, is that when I do have to contact the council for some reason, the staff are always very polite and helpful - having dealt with Greenwich, Lambeth and especially Islington over the past few years this is astonishing and wonderful.

I think a large part of Wandsworth's low council tax is that back in the 80s, Thatcher wrote off the council's debts (it was her flagship borough) - it had zero poll tax and low council tax ever since as it had no debt to service.

queenbathsheba · 17/04/2011 19:06

wilbur I think you might be right about the parking charges, well parking tickets anyway.

A few years ago I was sent a very nasty letter by recorded delivery. It was a bailifs letter saying they were going to sieze property on behalf of Wandsworth because I had failed to attend court or pay the parking fine. I was.....like......what parking fine, I have never been to Wandsworth and i certainly haven't parked my car there.

It took ages to sort out and it looked like they would persue it until my MP started writing to them. Apparently they are renowned for it. What I couldn't get over is the fact that they said they had photographic proof, they knew when my tax disc was due for renewal, colour of the car, year of manufacture, not just numer plate. A few years ago I was told that all this info is easy to access straight from the DVLA!

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