Parking tickets in Brent and the FoI Act

Shahrar Ali, a Green Party candidate at both this years local and last years national elections, sent me an email yesterday on a topic important to car-owners - Penalty Charge Notices, or, rather, f’ing-tickets, as I’m sure most of us refer to them. Shahrar told me about meeting Brent residents while campaigning during the local elections and a common gripe that came up - being issued with a ticket on a public holiday. He writes: “Trouble is, “Restrictions apply on Bank Holidays” signage is to be found only on some of the posts as one enters the zone. But most people, reasonably in my view, take their cue from the signage in the bays - which without any explicit indication to the contrary they will assume does not apply on public holidays. Brent can’t have it both ways. Had the assumption not been justified there would hardly be a need for the additional signage. The trouble is these signs are not fit for purpose, ie. noticeable. What’s at issue? Nobody likes to get a fine at the best of times, but the suspicion is that signage has been erected to maximise the chances of catching people out and making a quick buck. That’s dishonest and only fuels resentment towards local government - increasing cynicsm and eroding trust in public or democratic institutions, moreover.” ...

September 21, 2006 · 3 min · Rob Dyke

SKNDC community network ideas

Last year SKNDC advertised for interested parties to propose solutions for a wireless network project in South Kilburn. Comwifinet responded and we won the work. Yet the project was shelved as the budget for ICT in the Home ran out. SKFM, the community radio station broadcasting from the NDC area, is currently streaming to listeners over the internet. Listening to the stream reminded me of the community network project and I’ve begun to make contact with SKNDC again....

September 19, 2006 · 1 min · Rob Dyke

civic reporter developments

early last week I met with two people from Brent Council Environment & Culture Department to discuss the Civic Reporter ideas and application framework that Comwifinet have been working on. A great opportunity to discuss how open accessible data could further develop participation in the up keep of the Borough. Brent Council considering working with a Made In Brent technology organisation and mobile technologies. Brent Council entertaining the public publishing daily status and performance information online....

September 18, 2006 · 2 min · Rob Dyke

civic reporter - background

The background to all this. Comwifinet had prototyped the Civic Reporter framework which is inspired by other innovative mobile technology projects, such as that implemented by Lewisham and the mySociety ‘Broken Civic Infrastructure’ idea. These similar initiatives all start from the question ‘Would putting pictures of abandoned cars on a map on the internet help people to think again about their role in maintaining a tidy Borough? [The background to all this....

September 18, 2006 · 2 min · Rob Dyke

FUD review for July

FUD? Check wikipedia… Received the first campaign materials from Team YellowGold and Team Red since the elections for local government in May. Sorry for the blue tint on the scans, I think my scanner is broken. The BELD are thanking people for voting for them in Mapesbury and give people the contact numbers of their new local councillors. I won’t reprint them here though - surely you can get them from Brent Council (after 6 or 7 clicks) or from the BELD website (well actually you can’t find any info about your local councillors or FOCUS TEAM on the BELD website)....

August 8, 2006 · 2 min · Rob Dyke