Tim Peppiatt

Saturday, July 27, 2013 Reference : Total Surrender Council tax number : 49687288 Liability order number : 2571384 Dear Duncan, Congratulations, you have now succeeded, through the councils rudeness, total incompetence and abject indifference, in obtaining my complete and unequivocal surrender. As a private property owner Im selling up, after being a resident since 1997 and as a business owner employing over 70 people Im selling our offices in Curlew Street and relocating to anywhere apart from Southwark. So as to give you a flavour of why we despise you so much as an organisation I have listed three simple examples below, starting with threat to instruct bailiffs. Council tax private residence I wrote to you on the 29th April 2013 explaining that the property was completely unoccupied and received no response. You wrote to me again, without acknowledging my first letter to which I replied on the 14th May, again with no response from yourselves. Having had no response to my two letters, no further explanation of what was going on and no notification of the intended court proceedings, I get a letter threatening bailiff action. Damage to my car through a notified pothole I travel to work early in the morning and during one such journey I hit quite a serious pothole, so serious on inspection that I wrote to inform the council. I felt this could be potentially fatal for a cyclist or motorcyclist. In fact in discussion with a colleague, who does ride a motorcycle along the same route he told me of narrowly missing it himself. Obviously I received no response from your organisation and some three weeks later I hit the same pothole, only this time it was so severe it activated the gas canisters in my bonnet the create a safety crumple zone. It also put the suspension so far out of alignment that the manufacturer had to reset it at a cost of over 1,800. The pantomime that followed beggars belief with Southwark blaming TFL and vice versa and culminating in me talking to the bridge engineer, I now know more about public works construction and the road adoption process than I care to. The long and short of it was summed up in his verbal response if, Mr.Peppiatt, Southwark Coucil have not yet adopted the road and the wearing layer, why have they repaired it 5 times already? I was passed from so many different departments when I phoned, including housing benefit, that it truly beggared belief. That was 2011 and the war of attrition you people enact when someone tries to make a genuine claim finally has me beaten.

Business rates like many others in 2009 we were also suffering from one of the worst recessions most of us can remember. Despite having a strong company, built through sensible financial management since its inception in 1995, we were facing the prospect we may not succeed in continuing to trade. The internal response was for myself as CEO to take a 40% reduction in salary, my directors a 10% reduction and the staff 5%. Furthermore as landlord I took a 50% reduction in the rent I charged. These measures were incredibly painful for all concerned and Im pleased to say the company has returned to a growth trajectory. Having been informed that business rates were linked to rental value and not just services consumed we asked for ours to be reviewed. In 2012 we were informed from our adviser that the council would soon start looking at our application. We are now well into 2013 and as yet we have had no response whatsoever. In conclusion your incredibly quick to remind us when we need to make a payment but entirely invisible when, as either a resident or employer, we need to discuss things that are affecting us in a serious way. Theres a great line from a film called the Long Good Friday. A character played by Bob Hoskins is travelling under Tower Bridge and whilst briefing representatives from the Mafia he points over to Butlers Wharf and declares one day this derelict waterfront will be re-developed by men of vision. The good news is he was right the men of vision did come, the bad news is that the people administering the area fall well short of the standards of professionalism required in the real commercial world. Please find enclosed full payment with my sincere hope that in the not too distant future I shall be free from having to deal with your organisation.

Kind regards,

Tim Peppiatt Cc Simon Hughes David Cameron Boris Johnson 236 media contacts