And here's how Richmond council enforces parking...

With a mobile camera car (an all new Toyota IQ, probably replacing the Smart cars?), parked on a double yellow line.

This is of course timed to cash in on parents dropping kids at school.

Note that there's no lollipop man at Marshgate school, the council's priority is clearly revenue generation rather than safety...
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Quote of the day

Sometimes I like how a quote can be just flipped on its head, like that one:

Tessa Jowell, Minister for London, said: "The people who came out and voted Labour are the people who use public services and know their importance and their value to their lives." (souce: Labour takes control of eight more London town halls, Evening Standard, 10/5/10)

And taking the contrarian view, those who voted Conservative are the ones paying for those services?
This isn't really a stretch from the imagination, especially considering that Richmond for instance gets less per head than other boroughs:

It explained that we get less than £150 a year per resident from central government – less than any other borough - compared to the outer London average of over £400 a head. Neighbouring Wandsworth for example gets over £500 a head.  This means that our residents have to pay one of the highest Council Taxes in the country, despite having an efficient, low-spending council. (source: Extracts from Cllr Stephen Knight’s speech to council on 2 March 2010: recommending 0% increase tax increase)

politics, taxes, richmond, richmond.giv

Another smash-and-grab robbery, in Richmond?

Just walked past at lunchtime today what seemed to be the scene of a smash-and-grab robbery in Richmond.

This comes right after the one at Westfields this week and is the last one of a series of audacious heists in London over the past months.

Today's schocking attempt was at Courlanders, in George street, the last ones in Richmond were in Paved Court.

Update - here's the RTT article: Motorcycle raiders carry out smash and grab attack at Courlanders jewellers