You've Been Cromwelled!

My second attempt at video making.

Well what can I say, it was a blast & I didn’t get arrested, accosted or interfered with in any way shape or form, always a good thing I reckon.

As has been habit this week I cut my bus journey short this morning in order to confront the camera car with my awesomely designed sign, my YBC T-Shirt, and my camera. No, no pig mask today. There’s lots to talk about and show you so I’m going to be breaking the whole episode up into three posts. This post is going to concentrate on the experience itself, one will be a serious question that’s arisen from the experience and the third will be the actual video.

I got to my position way too early this morning, but it gave me a chance to settle my nerves (no matter how many times you do these type of things there’s always a few nerves). I took this time to don my YBC shirt, get the sign ready and to make sure the camcorder was operational and on the correct settings etc. I didn’t have to wait long for the camera car at all, and as expected I didn’t have to wait long until it parked on the now famous double yellow lines.

Sign in one hand, camera in the other I walked up to the window of the car and greeted the occupants and then walked round to the front of the car, set the camera to record and held up the sign.

The male occupant of the camera car said something to his colleague and they did a bit of digging around, I wasn’t quite sure why, but it soon became evident. Which will be the basis of my second post.

Bear in mind this is rush hour in London so traffic isn’t exactly fast moving (Bonus for me) so people actually had the time to read and then react to the sign. At first a few people laughed in the comfort of their car, however they all gave the thumbs up signal,which I’m hoping was their approval of my activities. It didn’t take long before people started hooting as requested and I’m sure the local residents were wondering what the fuckety-fuck was going on outside.

Lots of drivers rolled down their windows and congratulated me as did a lot of pedestrians etc. The crowning moment I think for me (only because it provided a good old giggle) was when a Lambeth Council rubbish truck drove past and actually hooted. Considering I was protesting against some of their fellow employees it was quite surprising but the source of the stupid grin on my face.

After about 35 minutes I packed up and before leaving asked the occupants of the car whether it would be ok to lean the sign up against the car to take pictures etc. They said it was fine, so I took my pictures, wished them a good weekend and got the hell out of dodge.

So all in all pretty successful, hopefully it will have stirred a few people into being vocal about the hypocrisy of Lambeth Council, and it could possibly drive a bit of traffic to the site.

Apologies for the lack of pictures, they’ll be up later tonight when I get a chance to grab them off the camera.

Booyaka Mother-fuckers!

UPDATED: To include this link

UPDATED: To include the screenshot below: Welcome London Borough of Lambeth! I hope you’re on your lunch break while browsing the site!

Yes, yes I know an oxymoron and all that bollocks, but if you’ve read the post before this, you’ll know that the other day after almost two years of just driving by a certain camera car that was breaking the law I decided enough was enough. I confronted the occupants of the car and made a little film. Oscar winning stuff. I shit you not. Anyhow, the day after I filmed the camera car I thought I’d go back to see if they’d taken any notice of my complaint. Sadly not. However I did attempt to film the car again, I got about 30 seconds worth and to be honest I don’t have the motivation to edit it and stick it up just yet as the effort and time involved far outweighs the length of the clip..

I’m sure everyone’s heard the saying “Third strike and you’re out”, well judging by the non-response of the camera car I’m guessing I’ll be able to catch them a 3rd time. It should be pretty easy as parking on double yellows is quite a habit for these cretins. So to celebrate and to make the 3rd time a little more special I’ve done a little more preparation. See picture below. Apologies for the poor quality of the picture but I’m sure you’ll get the gist of what I’m going to be doing.

I’m sure you’ll agree I’m no arts and crafts specialist, in fact I failed that particular part of my school career rather badly. But at least I’ve got the job done and I’ll be able to get the message across.

Now I know some people will be asking what good will I be doing by standing in the middle of the road with a sign. Well to be 100% honest probably not a lot, however at least I’ll make my point. That said, on the two previous occasions I’ve filmed the camera car I’ve had a rather positive response from people in their cars and passers by, so I’m hoping a cacophony of car hooters will be piercing the still morning air in the Streatham area soon.

Are the council aware of what I’m going to be doing? Nah, not really, but who gives a fuck huh? They do know however that I’m on the warpath:

Dear Mr Cromwell,

Thank you for your e-mail of 31 August 2010. I am sorry to hear of your dissatisfaction with our services. We have logged your correspondence as a complaint under the reference 134507. A copy of our complaints procedure has been attached for your reference.

A response will be provided by 21 September 2010

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further enquiries.

Yours sincerely

Robert Elliott

Assistant Team Administrator

Business Performance Section – Parking Services
Lambeth Housing, Regeneration and Environment
+: PO Box 51929, London, SW9 9YR
(: 020 7926 6249 Fax: 020 7926 0506
:: relliott2@lambeth.gov.uk
Website: www.lambeth.gov.uk

‘Making a difference’

Indeed, and if that’s not enough, the nosey mother-fuckers have been visiting the site, which is rather flattering really wouldn’t you say? That and they’ve got my FOI request too. Keep an eye out for a new video soon.

Text of letter in video:

Dear Sir/Madam,

RE: CAMERA CAR GREYHOUND LANE Nr. STREATHAM COMMON STATION

I write with a certain amount of anger and frustration with reference to the above camera car. Every morning on my commute into work I see this camera car parked in exactly the same place, and ALWAYS breaking the law by parking on double yellow lines.

Apart from that, from the top deck of the bus that I am commuting on I can see inside aforementioned camera car and 9 times out of 10 one or even both the occupants are sat inside the car reading a newspaper.

Firstly.
As a taxpayer, and therefore your employer I find this highly offensive as in these days of recession I’d like to know that my local council is doing everything possible in order to save money. For the taxpayer to fund someone’s newspaper reading habits is quite unacceptable.

Secondly.
While I appreciate to some degree there may be a need for a camera car to enforce whatever it is they are enforcing I find it highly unacceptable that they are breaking the law while doing so. I can only imagine they are there to enforce a trafiic law and as such find it laughable that they themselves are breaking the law.

I have filmed said camera car this morning and will be publishing the film on various well known social media, and will be disseminating the video and the background to local news outlets and some more mainstream outlets.

This letter has been handed to both occupants of the car to pass on to you. In case you do not receive this letter I have posted one to you via Royal Mail.

I trust you will deal with this communication appropriately.

Many Thanks

Sir Olly Cromwell

A couple of days ago I alluded to a little adventure I was gearing up for. Phase 1 was to put in a FOI request which I did, and the second phase was to find a means of recording the adventure, which I have now done.

Dear Mr Cromwell

FOI Acknowledgement

Thank you for your FOI Request, as below. Please quote our ref XXXXX in any further correspondence about this request. We anticipate responding within the statutory period of 20 working days following the date of receipt, in this case by 22/09/10.

Please note that our preferred email address to receive Freedom of Information requests is foi@lambeth.gov.uk Thank you for your interest in Lambeth Council.

Richard Gardner

Information Compliance Adviser

Legal Services

Finance & Resources

London Borough of Lambeth

tel: 020 79267741

www.lambeth.gov.uk

Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton Hill, London, SW2 1RW

Lambeth – Making a difference

Do you notice the telling off for using the incorrect email address? Strange considering I used their online form for a FOI request. Typical cluster-fuck from a local council.

This will be my first foray into video editing and filming, I hope I can pull it off. Thankfully for you motherfuckers I’ll be behind the camera and not in front of it.

These days just blogging about what pisses you off is not enough. I don’t consider myself a blogger though, just a person who is aiming to be the biggest pain in the arse possible while having some fun and getting the message across, I just happen to write about it in the hope it keeps some people as entertained as it does me. No, just venting your spleen via the written word is not enough, not any more

If you want proper proper political blogging this is not the place to come looking for it, especially recently, it’s been relatively boring on the MP front since they’ve been on a taxpayer funded break, thankfully the shit-bags are back soon and I can turn my attentions to them.

In the mean time read this article. In typical do as I say don’t do as I do fashion MPs have been blocking an anti bullying initiative. Bunch of cunts.

On a side note I saw this in the Evening Standard on the way home and was in fits of giggles for a long while. Of course the story’s shit but the picture… well it looks like the police are looking for a character from South Park: