SIMON EMMETT . net

Ever since I got involved in local politics I rapidly learnt that if Greenwich council comes out with a new piece of control legislation, it was only designed to give themselves a headline in their propaganda rag “Greenwich Time”, and would actually achieve nothing. That is except for the bill to the tax payers for the cost of the new orders. So to which orders have fallen foul  of this? (there is a pun there which will become apparent). It’s the new “tougher dog control orders”. Yes, the draconian order designed to enforce dog owners to clean up after their dogs!

But first, it would be useful for me to mention that before the scheme was made borough-wide it was trialled in a small part of the borough.  The justification of extending the scheme was questioned by the Conservatives in 2009 as only three people were fined, although nobody seems to know if these were actually collected.

So, just how successful has the scheme been? Well this press release from the Greenwich conservatives would suggest, not very. I would go as far as saying “stuff all”. The press release reads:

Greenwich Conservatives today revealed the failure of the Labour Council’s dog control orders.

Labour decided in 2008 to implement ‘dog control orders’ in certain set areas across the borough, and a year later extended this to cover the whole  borough.  The plan was to fine owners for allowing their dogs to foul  Greenwich’s parks, woodland and commons without clearing it up. The extended plan banned dog owners from allowing their dogs:

• To foul green spaces across the borough.
• Off the lead in all pavements and some green spaces
• To walk more than four dogs in any place in Greenwich.

In September 2009 Leader of Greenwich Conservatives Spencer Drury queried whether the expansion across the borough was fully justified as there was little evidence that the existing orders had been effective.

This summer, councillors quizzed the Cabinet member in charge about how many Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) had been issued since the scheme was expanded. They were assured that penalty notices had happened and the figures to prove this would be circulated.

After several reminders from Cllr Drury a set of figures were provided, but these did not show how many FPNs had been issued for breach of dog control orders.

After more stalling, finally this week, the council confirmed that three had been issued in August (since Cllr Drury has been asking for the figures) and NONE had been issued before then.

Cllr Drury says:  “Despite my clear warnings that this whole system was pointless if it was not going to be properly enforced, the Labour Cabinet seem to have treated the whole thing as a publicity stunt as not a single fine was issued before I started asking questions about this.

“These Fixed Penalty Notices have been in place, borough-wide, since last autumn and in those seven months Labour did not issue a single fine.  Yet since I started asking questions, they have suddenly issued three (possible to put me off the scent).  This is typical of the council.  It will be interesting to see if I were to stop bothering them on this, whether no more notices would be issued.  Meanwhile, the serious point is, that our parks and open spaces are still being blighted by Dog Faeces’.

“This council seems to love concreting over green spaces but has not the first clue how to care for our woodlands and open spaces.  Labour are not dealing with the real problem of Dog fouling which  really bothers people, including other responsible dog owners like myself.

Eltham resident and dog owner, Mike Dawes said “I haven’t seen any enforcement of these by-laws.  I don’t see anyone walking round enforcing them and so there is a blatant disregard for the rules about clearing up after dogs or limits on dog walkers.  I saw one man with 10 dogs in Oxleas Woods last weeks – it is simply a joke.”

So to recap. Limited trial: three fines, with no knowledge of them being collected. Borough-wide dog control orders: No fines issued until the Conservatives questioned the cabinet member responsible for them, and then only three issued in the last month.

What a resounding success! NOT!

As usual Greenwich’s secretive ruling Labour group, have wasted my council tax money on a scheme that has not properly been run, and wasted more of my council tax money on their Greenwich Time rag to spread their propaganda about how successful it would be.

One thing that any resident of Greenwich should be aware of is how the ruling Labour group love to control any form of dissention against its activities during council debates. In recent council meetings there have been two such occasions, regarding motions put to the council by the Conservatives on the Funding of the Eltham Regeneration Agency, and over scrapping Labour’s council tax funded propaganda sheet, Greenwich Time.

The way that these two motions were voted down, is exactly the same for every Conservative motion that is put to the council. With this in mind,  thought I would write a useful guide to Greenwich Council debates, in which you easily be able to follow if you do decide to view a council meeting.

Basically the debate will go like this.

The debate will open with the Conservative proposing it talking about it. For the purpose of this guide I’ll use Greenwich Time as the subject matter. So the Conservative would say something on the lines of “It is a waste of tax payers money, and does not show the work of all of the councillors in their but just the select few who are Labour members”, “in these times of austerity the money spent should be used for vital services” and “as it is poor value for money, is unethical, and used for party propaganda it should be scrapped”.

The proposer will then be asked if they would accept Labour’s amendment to their motion. The answer will quite obviously be no, as the amendment will completely re-write the motion “PRAISING” Greenwich Time.

There is then the debate in which you will hear the line from the majority of speakers “I wasn’t intending to speak on this subject this evening”. You will also hear from a number of the cabinet, whose pictures regularly appear in Greenwich Time, justifying the rag.

Then it will come to the vote. The motion to “scrap Greenwich Time” will be defeated by Labour’s majority, and the amendment “to praise Greenwich Time, there is nothing to see here, move along” will then be vote through.

Therefore it will be recorded that a motion was voted by the council to praise Greenwich Time. End of.

Like I said earlier, no matter the subject this is how Labour conducts council business. Feel free to use this guide at future council meetings.

Update: Based on this news item from the Greenwich Conservatives website (HERE), accusing Labour of lying to their electorate by changing their manifesto, after the election, and confirming the £26m of cuts that they had planned anyway, I am expecting something like the following to happen.

Conservative Motion: We condemn the ruling Labour group for lying to the electorate by changing their manifesto after the elction, thus making them be elected on false promises.

The Labour amendment will read: Thanks to the Tory/Liberal coalition it is all their fault the cuts are going to happen, and nothing do to with us. In fact we praise the ruling Labour group for its hard work delivering public services.

The motion will be voted down and the amendment priasing the ruling group, of course, will be carried because of Labour’s majority.