Dulwich is 1/8th of Southwark Councils population and about 1/4 of its land area. In the past Southwark Council HQ was dead centre in the middle of the borough at Southwark Town Hall. This is/was where council assembly and most other committee meetings occurred.

Southwark Labour party have decided to sell Southwark town hall and relocate all meeting to Tooley Street – just about as far north as you can get from Dulwich without getting your feet wet.

To compound things our Dulwich Housing office is being relocated to a new office in Harris Street covering the south of the borough. To show how out of touch Labour are they think Harris Street is in the south. I doubt I could find a person in Dulwich who could tell me where Harris Street is.

Why is this important?

It is hard to get people to attend public council meetings and committees now. The Council is already considered aloof and distant. It will now be physically much more remote from most Southwark residents and over % miles away for many Dulwich residents. It will be rare for Southwark council senior managers to experience Southwark outside the enclave of London Bridge. This can’t be good for understanding of what needs fixing.

I could understand this IF significantly more powers and budgets were being devolved to local community councils to counter the gross centralisation. But it isn’t – not Labour politicians style of philosophy.