As an Environmental Management Advisor I try hard to ‘practice what I preach' and not travel by car when there is a good alternative. Consequently I get annoyed when I see adverts for places or events and there is a road map provided showing where it is !n relation to all ‘nearby' major roads but there is nothing to show the name and location of the nearest train station or how far away it is, or what buses service the venue, or what phone numbers I should use to get public transport information. I have been complaining to organisations on this matter for some time and have had some definite ‘wins'; !n general, businesses seem happy to provide useful information for the non-car driver provided they do not need to use more paper to do it and they will work with bus operators to improve services or even location of bus stops. Usually it just seems to be a case of having the matter brought to their attention.
I would be pleased to hear from other people, either working individually or as part of an organisation such as Transport 2000, who try to facilitate consumer choice in this way (email BeryIWells@on-edie.net). I would also be very pleased to hear if any one, as a result of reading this letter, goes on to have ‘wins' of their own.
PS. Ironically, some of the worst ‘culprits' I find these days are people who organise workshops on environmental best practice!
A member who recently bought a number of items at IKEA in Croydon was staggered to find that delivery of goods to an address over 10 miles from the store was charged at a flat rate of £70! The member realised that if he had known in advance what the cost would be, he could have hired a van to do it himself! Be warned!
I recently attended the second meeting of the above. A number of interesting issues were discussed, including the EC Green Paper on Consumer Protection, and the EU Directive on the Sale of Consumer Goods.
Several useful papers are on the Forum website, including an excellent NCC position paper on Unfair Trading Practices which is well worth reading.
The web site is at Agenda - http://www.consumercouncils.org.uk/cpf/ You should enter the username and password are published in Consumer News for members.
I have ascertained that it is OK to circulate any of these papers within NCF
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