| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:New Traffic Measures are Harming Your Town | |
| Posted by: | David Lesniak | |
| Date/Time: | 04/08/20 07:51:00 |
| Two things: Good to know Michael is an investor in Brewdog. He benefits directly from promoting unhealthy drinking. Tom, once again, skews his own references. Thanks to Adam for also picking up on this. And no, Adam and I are not related, don't know each other nor are we dating. I suspect, though, we share some Polish DNA somewhere along the line. Wandsworth was far ahead of the curve with respect to letting traders access pavement. They waived fees entirely - no application fee, no usage fee. Other boroughs adopted the draft guidance before it was enacted. They were completely pro-active. The guidance set a cap of £100 all inclusive. Not so Hounslow. Up until too recently, Hounslow wanted applicants to pay the £123 application fee (already 23% above the cap) with an additional usage fee based on £54/square meter used. That was 10 days ago, if that. Wandsworth had its initiative up and running in time for July 4th re-opening for hospitality. Labour leader Steve Curran and the all-Labour cabinet failed businesses terribly by not getting out in front of the situation. It failed to follow the lead of other Labour councils. The online application portal did not work. Hopefully that is now resolved. As such, businesses in Chiswick are at least a month behind putting in place any new amenities to maximize trade let alone take advantage of the Eat Out scheme for hospitality venues. Businesses in Chiswick suffered needlessly as a direct result of Hounslow's tone-deaf policy, ignorance, lack of leadership and/or ineptitude. You pick. In this case, the info Tom refers to is specific to COVID yet he tried to present it as specific to schemes pre-COVID for pedestrianizing. My grandfather (the Sanderson in me) used to say people can be too smart for their own good. Makes them stupid. He was a mechanic. Sold Jeeps. Quite possibly one of the smartest men I knew. |