Last year, Upland Road residents held a street party in September. Everything was paid for by the residents and by all accounts a great time was had by all.  The highest cost of the event was the price tag charged by Southwark Council for carrying out the consultation for a temporary road closure. This year, the council was quoting £350 for the same service. Upon investigation, I was told that this is the cost of advertising the notice (which is required by law) in the local paper – in this case the South London Press.

So you have a case of ‘the council’ appearing to the public to be a total party-pooper when in reality it is just passing on its external costs.  Presumably, other local events like the Goodrich Carnival are also affected.

So at Wednesday’s Full Council meeting, I asked the Leader of the Council, Nick Stanton, to consider two possible suggestions for cutting these costs. Firstly, perhaps local papers could levy a ‘community rate’ for those notices that relate to such community events.  Secondly, why can’t such notices be published in Southwark’s own publication, Southwark Life, which is delivered to very household in Southwark? I am pleased to say he said he’d investigate – so watch this space.