Visit to the Yoga Centre

Last Saturday, all three of us had the privilege of being able to visit (and take part in a class) at one of the many small businesses in our area, the Iyengar Yoga Institute on Randolph Avenue.

The Institute is well known throughout the area for its yoga classes which it puts on throughout the week for local residents in Maida Vale, St. John's Wood, Kilburn and beyond.

Personally, having never taken part in a yoga class before, I was a little apprehensive at first - however, it was much fun and it was great to see so many people taking part in the class (and quite early in the morning!)

All three of us would like to thank the Institute for the invitation and for the warm welcome we received.

Lee

A day in Customer Services

One of my greatest pleasures in life is call centres. The opportunity to fill 20 - 30 minutes of my day with snatched bits of songs from The Lighthouse Family/Rod Stewart/The Cheeky Girls whilst being told by a recorded message that my call is "important" is, I find, one of the best ways to relax and unwind after a long day.

All of which is why I jumped at the chance of being part of a Council taskgroup investigating our approach to customer services. We've spent the last few months looking at Westminster's approach to contact with residents, taking evidence from leading consultants, questioning officers and reading reports. One of the things I thought very important, though, was actually to get onto the frontline and see what actually happens.

Last Saturday I spent several hours listening to calls received in several of our call centres - queries ranging from asking about library opening times, finding out how to dispose of bulky rubbish, enquiring about parking in the West End and services for older people. The whole experience really was fascinating - listening to the way in which residents interact with their Council and the level of services they expect. I was particularly heartened by the professional and courtous manner in which Westminster's employees handled each call and, particularly, the minimal waiting times to be connected.

Last night I reported back to the meeting of our Customer Services taskgroup and we had a wide-ranging discussion on the future for Westminster. The organisation - as every other Council and company in the UK - still has some way to go and I know officers are committed to making improvements. Council officers are preparing a Westminster 'standard' of customer service to build upon our strong foundations and make sure that we are dealing properly with every customer who gets in touch.

If you'd like to discuss your experience of Westminster's customer services, please do get in touch.

Lee

A day at St. George's School

They say that standing up and giving a speech in dusty Council chambers is something of a challenge. Nothing, however, has yet compared to the grilling that I got on Tuesday from two of the most engaged audiences I've ever spoken to - two Year 10 classes at St. George's School.

It was open forum for two hours last week to discuss the work of the Council and anything anyone wanted to talk about, during GCSE Citizenship classes. All of the students were informed, interested and concerned about their local communities, and I learned a huge amount. Discussions ranged from youth facilities to recycling, from school dinners to knife crime, from homelessness to public transport.

It was a real privilege to get a new perspective on Maida Vale. Thanks to everyone at St. George's for the great welcome, and for being willing to let me into their classes for a morning.

Lee

A day at the recycling centre

One of the most frequent questions that residents ask is about what happens to Westminster's recycled waste, particularly given that we collected all materials for recycling in the same box/bag. Residents are very eager to see that we are disposing on the waste in the most cost effective and environmentally-friendly manner possible. There is also the occasional sceptic who wonders if we simply nip round the corner with the recycling boxes and stick it in with the rest of the rubbish too!

So, I decided to spend an afternoon at the recycling centre where Westminster sends all of its waste for recycling. The centre is based south of the river, in Thamesmead, and has been used by Westminster since it opened. Recycled waste is collected from doorsteps and the 'big black bins' and stored at a collection point in Brent. Every few days a 20 tonne lorry takes all the waste down at once (to reduce the impact on the environment) to Thamesmead for processing.

The facility, which has only been operating for a couple of years, is actually very impressive. All kinds of machines are employed to separate all the waste that is collected (various magnets to remove the aluminium or steel / a huge tumbler to separate the newspaper from plastic etc.) There is even a machine at the end which separates plastic and glass through the medium of infra-red and high-pressure jets of air. And at the very end, a team of professional (and very quick) monitors check to make sure all of the recycled waste has been separated correctly into paper, plastic, glass and the like. Once separated, recycled waste is then sold, via a number of contracts, for use in other industrial processes, both at home and abroad.

Westminster Council is strongly committed to reducing the impact of our rubbish on the environment, but we face considerable problems, not least our city centre location and that space is precious for most of our residents living in flats. It is through facilities like Thamesmead that we are still able to deliver on our commitments to recycling resident's waste.

Westminster's recycling team are intending to run a number of visits to the Thamesmead facility in the next few months for any residents who are interested. Please do get in touch if you'd like to find out more details. You too could be wearing the same funky luminous overcoat as I am in the picture!

Lee

PS Do you have everything you need to recycle? If you need boxes or bags let us know! There are also large boxes available if residents find the smaller ones aren't sufficient for all the waste. We'd be happy to get one ordered for you.

A day with the parking wardens

One of the biggest grumbles that we hear from local residents is regarding Westminster's parking policies. Receiving a ticket can be an intensely frustrating experience and sometimes the stories we listen to do make you question your sanity. So, I decided to spend a morning with some of our parking attendants to see how it is in on the frontline.

I picked a good morning for it - not too cold for January. I met many of the parking attendants on the 'beat' I was assigned in Bayswater and all of them were polite, hard-working and reasonable. And, for the record, none of them were hunting in packs.

Adi, the supervisor, showed me around and talked about the challenges of keeping traffic flowing in Westminster. We might not all agree with all of the rules around parking but the intention is correct - to allow all drivers to get around the City as quickly as possible and to make sure that residents and visitors can access parking spaces in an area of very high demand.

Just in case you were interested, in the entire time I was out, we only issued one parking ticket. And we let off a good number of people who knew that they were being naughty, but agreed to move when they were asked. That said, we did rather scare a perfectly innocent (and legally parked) white van man on Leinster Terrace, when Adi ran through how a parking ticket was issued for me. The man looked mortified when he thought we were about to stick a ticket on his windscreen!

Lee

PS We know that sometimes parking attendants get it wrong when issuing tickets. And we'd be delighted to help if you shouldn't have received a ticket. Please get in touch!