What Hackney Council can't do

2. Control noisy parties. The council has reduced its noise control staff to a skeleton service that can only operate during office hours. No one is on duty during evenings and weekends.

3. Remove dumped cars. Hackney activist Bruce Spenser became so enraged with the number of decaying vehicles on the borough's streets that he dumped one on the town hall steps. He says he'll fight plans to prosecute him by invoking the Human Rights Act.

4. Provide Freedom Pass concessionary travel for all the borough's disabled. The council plans to cut back on the free travel passes by taking them away from people whose disability is not "visible", including those suffering psychiatric disorders and nervous complaints.

5. Maintain its playgrounds and parks. Parents have been dismayed by a recent decision to withdraw maintenance from a popular play area, Shoreditch Park. Other playgrounds have also suffered and some have been closed by lack of maintenance.

6. Help the elderly with telephone bills. Hackney is planning to end a longstanding policy of paying for pensioners' telephone line rental.