Sutton Council’s Customer Services team have retained their “excellent” rating for the 15^th year running.

The Customer Service Excellence standard, which is monitored by the Cabinet Office, checks that services meet the Five Es – efficient, effective, excellent, equitable and empowering – and always put residents’ needs first.

Research has shown that customers value timeliness, information, professionalism and staff attitude above all else and the assessor checks these as a priority while also looking at developing customer insight, understanding the user’s experience and robust measurement of service satisfaction.

The assessor highlighted several areas of good practice including:

·         Customer Services approach of offering interview space in reception to partner organisations is a successful response to the imminent increase in volume which changes to the national benefit system are likely to bring

·         Through the “Sutton Online” initiative the Borough is embracing the possibilities offered by new media channels. The Customer Services team is responsible for real time alerts about developing situations, as in the January inclement weather

·         The team supports other Borough services by ensuring consultations are appropriately structured and equalities issues are addressed. They check that all involved groups are identified and their needs are accommodated in the process.

Richard says “This independent assessment is good news but we cannot be complacent. I know how much a good customer care service matters. Most of the residents I deal with tell me they get a good service. I have sometimes had to deal with cases where the team could have done better, but this has been rare. We need to keep up the good standard.”

People rightly question why, when there is a shortage of accommodation, so many homes are left empty for long periods. Sutton Council has decided to remove the discount people can get on Council tax if a property is empty, and to charge a premium if it is empty for over two years. We think this rightly creates an incentive to keep homes in use rather than empty, and will help with the accommodation shortage in Sutton.

At the Sutton Council meeting on 14 January the Council agreed a package of reforms to Council tax arrangements that included this provision. Richard, in his capacity as Lead Councillor on Revenues and Benefits, has been closely involved in work on these proposals, and was specifically thanked for his contribution when the Strategy and Resources Committee agreed to forward his proposals to Council.

Richard says “When there is such a shortage of homes it is wrong that the system creates an incentive to keep a property empty by giving a discount on Council tax. This change makes the incentives work in the right direction.”

These “car club” cars have made an appearance on the streets of Sutton. They initially caused a stir as so many were in a few roads around Sutton station, but now they are more dispersed.

They offer an alternative to car clubs such as Zipcar, where the car has to be returned to a specified point, as they can be used and then left where the user ends the journey. They can be parked anywhere legal, though not in “Residents Only” parking bays. The company, Car2go, pays Sutton Council the cost if they are parked in a pay and dispay bay, the movements of each car being monitored by sophisticated GPS technology.

Residents who use car clubs tell us they are an attractive and economic alternative to private car ownership for anyone who is an irregular or occasional car user, but who sometimes wants to use a car for a complex series of journeys (visiting relatives or shops, for example) where a minicab or taxi does not offer sufficient flexibility. They thus offer an alternative that is a step in the direction of more environmentally sustainable transport patterns. That said, car club and car hire users are advised to shop around, as there is quite a spread of charges between different companies.

At the Development Control Committee meeting on 9 January Richard welcomed the proposal to erect a bandstand in the gardens next to the library in Wallington.

Richard – who plays the trumpet with a number of local bands such as the Phoenix Concert Band (one of the SCOLA family of bands) – pointed out that he has played on many of the bandstands in south London, including those at Battersea Park, Canbury Gardens in Kingston (pictured above) and Clapham Common. He welcomed the proposal, even though the proposed bandstand was too small to take the type of 30 piece brass band or concert band he is used to playing with.

Richard said “This bandstand will be an advance in the cultural life of Sutton. Perhaps in the future we can find funding for a larger bandstand as well.”

Richard’s first formal commitment of 2013 was to attend a Citizenship ceremony at the Registrar’s Office, which is in our Ward, to make a speech of welcome to twelve people taking British citizenship. There were new citizens from South Africa, South Korea, China, Macau (now part of mainland China), the Phillipines, a big family from India and a man from Syria, who told Richard a harrowing tale of his relatives back in Syria. In his speech Richard stressed how Sutton will gain from people with such varied cultural backgrounds joining our community.

Don’t forget that real Christmas trees will be collected for recycling between Monday January 7 and Saturday February 2, 2013. Put the tree out next to your bin on the day your re-cycling (green) bin is collected.

One of the nicest things Councillors get invited to do each year is to help serve the Christmas lunches at the schools in their Wards. Devonshire Avenue primary school, the only primary school in our Ward, had its Christmas lunch on 5 December.

The serving staff at Devonshire found Richard a particularly awful Christmas hat, as you can see from the photo above, and he helped serve 363 lunches.

Richard said “The catering staff do a wonderful job. It was great to have the opportunity to meet the Head, Martin Kersey, again, and observe the really good spirit at the school. I have served Christmas lunch two years in a row now. More this year than last as the school is still expanding, and that expansion is due to go through a further phase.”

To stay in the Christmas spirit, Richard took his concert band, featuring Richard on trumpet, to play Christmas carols at the tea for senior citizens at the Friends’ Meeting House in Cedar Road on Saturday 8 December.

Richard is the second trumpet player from the left.

Richard and Heather also went to the Christmas meeting of the Sutton and Sutton Senior Citizens’s Club, the former Eurasia Centre, which meets in the Thomas Wall Centre every Thursday. The members are mainly from India and Goa, but have lived here for a long time. Many have fascinating life stories. We had a wonderful Indian meal.

BT Openreach challenged on computer box “graffiti”

BT Openreach are being challenged by Richard, and by Sutton Council’s Planning Enforcement Team, over unsightly fliers posted on many of their green computer boxes.

Richard has fought a long campaign to get BT Openreach to move a large green computer box located right outside the front of a house in Cedar Road, Sutton. BT maintains that due to an Act of Parliament they do not need planning permission for these boxes and can put them anywhere they like. They are still refusing to move the box.

However, Richard saw red when he observed that BT had stuck advertising on the box.

He said:

“I am not against these boxes as such, because we need them for Broadband, but some have been positioned in an unsuitable place that upsets local residents, such as the one in Cedar Road. 

“They are mostly inconspicuous but will not be if the owner flyposts the box with advertising. These boxes are all over the place and will be an unsightly mess if they are covered with advertising. If BT Openreach establish that they can flypost the boxes, all of these boxes will be covered in advertising in no time at all. It will make our streets an unsightly mess.”

Other Councils agree that the adverts are objectionable and unlawful, but BT refuses to move them. A test case is being brought by Westminster Council to prosecute BT for unlawful advertising. In the meantime, the Enforcement Team are sticking posters over the BT posters saying “Cancelled: This sign is unauthorised and has been cancelled by the London Borough of Sutton”.

The photograph above shows the offending box in Cedar Road. The photo below shows Richard sticking the “Cancelled” poster over the notice.