Southwark Council would like to know your experiences of open spaces in Southwark.
See www.southwark.gov.uk/parkssurvey or for a paper copy please call 020 7525 0855.
It took me about 2 minutes to complete. Bit long winded but worth persevering with as the results will be analysed and pored over.
Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg has pledged to give every child a fair start in life by investing an extra £2.5bn in schools which could be used to cut class sizes, offer one-on-one tuition and provide catch-up classes.
In a speech to Barnardo’s, Nick Clegg set out the Liberal Democrat manifesto pledge to introduce a Pupil Premium which would raise the poorest children’s school funding to private school levels.
He said: “One of the biggest challenges we face as a country is breaking this link between financial deprivation at home and educational under-achievement in the classroom. Despite all the money that has been spent by Labour, schools taking disadvantaged children aren’t getting the money they Read the rest of this entry.
Southwark Council is negotiating with which preferred Car CLub supplie rshould have 85 dedicated car clubs parking spaces around Southwark.
Car clubs are a great concept and have shown that each car club car replaces 8-15 private cars. Most private cars sit parked up 95%+ of their lives. Also, car club members tend to increase their thinking about travel and use publci transport more.
To accelerate this the East Dulwich councillors allocated £10,000 for extra Car Club spaces in East Dulwich. These spaces have been proposed no casework feedback about parking issues AND to ensure that generally an East Dulwich resident will have car club space within 200m of their home.
The next step is to finalise the Car Club and then the road markings process will happen across Southwark.
Since coming to power in 1997 the Labour government has created over 4,300 new criminal offences. That’s around one for every single day in power.
apparently when Tony Blair was Prime Minister 27 new criminal offences a month were being created but under Gordon Brown’s premiership it has accelerated to 33 a month.
Some have likened this to ‘legislative diarrhoea’.
Importantly has it reduce the fear of crime or solves great issues?
I can’t say I feel any safer. Do you?
The four main priorities for how the Liberal Democrats will make Britain a fairer place have been announced: fair taxes; a fair start for every child; fair, clean and local politics; and a fair, green economy with jobs that last.
The first priority is to introduce fair taxes, with radical proposals for the biggest tax reform in generations. The Liberal Democrats will close loopholes for the richest and introduce a tax on mansions to fund tax cuts of £700 for everyone else. No-one will pay income tax on the first £10,000 they earn, meaning millions of low earners and pensioners will stop paying taxes altogether, while millions more will get hundreds of pounds back in their pockets. Only the Liberal Democrats will make taxes permanently fair.
The next priority is to give every child the fair start they deserve through a huge transformation of our education system that will build the foundations of fair society. That means cutting class sizes so children get the individual attention they need Read the rest of this entry. Read the rest of this entry.
What do you think would keep and help make East Dulwich even more special?
For your local Lib Dem councillors, protecting and nurturing the unique character of our local community has been at the core of everything we have done over the last four years. It remains the driving force behind everything we do. Keeping East Dulwich special is a cause we are constantly fighting for, and it is a promise we are determined to keep.
We’veall witnessed first hand the remarkable transformation of our area, and Southwark generally. Southwark now has the fastest improving schools in the country, some of the cleanest and safest streets in London. Most striking of all has been the evolution of the thriving hub of our community: Read the rest of this entry. Read the rest of this entry.
Reading the latest New Scientist 16 January 2010, article about collaborative research between sociologists and biologists looking at two neighbourhoods in Chicago comparing populations from Clearing (well to do area) with Englewood (very poor crime ridden area). Suggests that residents of Englewood are contantly under stress and being on the alert and in a heightened state of readiness with high levels of cortisol. That this means such residents are much more prone to malignant breast cancers at +68%. That standard anti cancers drugs don’t work.
Suggests that social isolation and fear of crime cause an overload of stress hormones that actually change human cell biology and that social interventions may be the best way to fight such cancers.
Reported that others have hints of stress and social deprivation causing greater diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Similarly research into prostate cancers has found that prognosis is worse for black men without the support of social networks from families or friends.
What does this mean for Southwark with its very deprived areas? Do we have such social isolation to cause such terrible illness?
The latest results for 5 GCSE’s A*-C including English and Maths Southwark has jumped 11% points to reach 46% getting the closest to the National average results of 50% we’ve ever been.
I’m hopeful that GCSE’s to be taken this summer will reach the national average.
At last some sense about infrastructure. For years Tory and labour governments have been pushing public bodies to have Private Public Partnerships or Private Finance Initiatives. Where public bodies pay through the nose to have capital investment built to a generally minimalist quality and get locked into inflexible contracts - imagine 25 years ago predicting the internet, mobile phones, etc and building a contract sufficiently flexible to cope.
As a Liberal Democrat I thin kwe’ve cracked it by suggesting a national infrastructure bank. The idea is a bank guaranteed by government, long term investment from the private sector to build capital public projects that build wealth creating infrastructure.
The Institution of Civil Engineers have welcomed the idea.
You can be sure Conservatives wont like the idea - the current PFI system makes private bankers wealthy but locks in public inefficiencies for decades to come.
Hopefully the financial crisis will ensure all politicians take a fresh look at such a great idea.
I passionately care about our library service.
One of the first things I did when elected councillor was meet the head of libraries at our local libraries - Grove Vale and Dulwich Library - for a full tour. After much badgering Dulwich Library was opened for a 7th day each week and is now a seven days a week service. It was great that library staff in conjunction with their union agreed staffing roster changes making this possible. This has seen a doubling in weekly baby and toddler group attendance from 125 Dec’08 to 268 Dec’09 despite the snow. Weekly films clubs. Hopefully, we’ll have some adult learning soon rather than asking East Dulwich residents to trudge over to Peckham.
I’ve asked on many occasions whether a similar change for Grove Vale could be made. What days would you find it most helpful IF Grove Vale library could be open more? I’m hopeful that early in the next Financial Year something may be possible…
With an expanding population we need to grow our libraries. Opening for more hours helps but physically making more space for users. I’ve proposed a modest, very cheap, increase to Dulwich Library. Fingers crossed this rearranging will come to pass.
