Archive for the ‘Consumer matters’ Category
Hi, ho! Hi, ho!! It’s off to work we go!!!
January 6th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Remember the old Walt Disney animated tim “Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs”? And that cheery song that the dwarfs sang as they went to work? Today most people return to work with a vengeance after the prolonged Christmas/New Year break. Even though – as a portfolio worker – I don’t work in one place […]
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What’s been driving me crazy the last three months
December 2nd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Recently I have blogged here and here to explain that, for the last 20 months, I have been chairing the Customer Challenge Group of South East Water which has to submit views on the company’s business plan for 2015-2020 to the water regulator Ofwat . Each water company in England & Wales has a CCG which has […]
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Farewell Consumer Focus, hello Consumer Futures
July 23rd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Consumer Focus – on whose Board I served for four years – has just published its last Annual Report. In it, the Chair Christine Farnish writes: “This is the last Consumer Focus Annual Report. We were established by Parliament in 2008 as the result of a merger between the National Consumer Council, energywatch and Postwatch. […]
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A poem from my niece Saskia
July 20th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
”The Dragon Eye” Bright as the moon fierce as the sun as delicate as a rose weighs just about a ton Yet its foot steps are silent so he wanders late at night fighting other dragons and using his special power flight He’s delicate and cunning but fierce and enchanted as he […]
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Ofcom. Ofwat. Off to both …
May 13th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
This morning, I have an appointment at the London headquarters of Ofcom, the communications regulator. We have a meeting of the 4G/TV Coexistence Oversight Board of at800, the body responsible for the mitigation measures for interference of 4G mobile services on digital terrestrial television, and I shall be there in my capacity as the Non-Executive Member with a special interest […]
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The things that I’m learning about water
November 28th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
It is now eight months since I was appointed the independent Chair of the Customer Challenge Group at South East Water which supplies drinking water to 2.1 million customers in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire. I’m paid to do a day a week, but obviously the actual workload varies from week to week. This week, I […]
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Is the customer really king?
November 20th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
The whole of my portfolio career of the last 10 years has been about representing the interests of the customer/consumer/citizen – see my current and previous appointments here. So I was interested this afternoon when I visited the offices of the Hacked Off campaign for effective regulation of the press because it is located in […]
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London’s water from the Great Stink to the Tideway Tunnel
September 28th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I have now served for six months in my new appointment in the water sector as Chair of the Customer Challenge Group at South East Water. This is a new sector for me and a really complicated one, so I’ve been attending lots of briefings and meetings and doing lots of reading and research. This […]
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The transformation of the Post Office network
August 2nd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I have a long involvement in postal matters. For 24 years, i was national official with a trade union representing postal works and then, after I left the union, I spent 6 years serving on the Boards of Postwatch and then Consumer Focus which have been the statutory consumer bodies on postal issues. Although I […]
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What can you do with a telephone box?
July 3rd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
First it was life-size models of cows; then it was huge decorated eggs; now it is telephone boxes. I am referring to collections of artistic works placed in public locations all around central London. What’s the latest thing about? To celebrate the 25th anniversary of ChildLine, BT has launched the BT ArtBox project – a vast, […]
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