James Barber

I came across this term in a science journal. The idea that water is traded not as water directly but as the water required to make a product. So imports of Spanish Oranges results in us importing the Spanish water required to make Oranges. Apparently a World Wildlife Fund report found that 62% of UK water consumption used each year is Virtual. This trade is largely hidden.

I wonder how much virtual water we use and import into Southwark?

Earlier this year Southwark Council ran the Freedom Pass renewals in Southwark and did a bad job. A colleague couldn’t attend the first council scrutiny meeting to review how things went and how things should be improved going forward.

Unusually I then attended the remaining review meetings to ensure I followed the process through.

The committees recommendations will be presented to the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee next Monday 8 December. Hopefully all our recommendations will be accepted. We put a lot of effort into this scrutiny.

Since my involvement further examples of how painful the process is have come to me as casework. We really must ensure we fix this service once and for all. 

The Met Police have introduced an alternative number to 999 for non emergency calls. Amazingly it the unmemorable 0300 123 1212.

Why could’nt they choose a memorable number - 0300 300 300 or something like that?

The end result of such a daft forgetable number will be lots of people still ringing 999.

At Mayoral question time London’s tory Mayor Boris Johnson was asked about the number of uniformed Police officers - the ones you see walking around on patrol or speeding past in cars.

He could’nt gurantee the current numbers would be increased or even remain the same!

He must at least occassionally read the papers, or speak to ordinary Londoners like you or me. He must know we’re worried about crime? Perhaps not.

Tell him if you think we need more Police in Southwark.

 [if you look at his website you’ll see ads for books suggesting global warming is a swindle - hello Boris smell the coffee]

I’ve just about recovered from all the efforts of the Rotherhithe by-election held 9 October.

This by-election was caused by the sad death of cllr Anne Yates. She would have been proud of how hard her colleagues worked to ensure the new councillor colleague was also a Liberal Democrat.

Liberal Democrat Wilma Nelson duly won with 57% of the vote. Up 9% from May 2006.

Worst part of the campaign - being stuck in a lift with two colleagues within a private block Labour cllr Fiona Colley lives in. The private lift maintenance contractor was useless and eventually they called out the London Fire Brigade. The fire fighters were absolute stars.

Best part of the campaign - the glorious weather and working so closely with colleagues.

I’ve asked Transport for London to ‘fix’ the 176 bus announcements for the Dulwich Library. The announcements state Dulwich Plough. No.40 and 12 bus routes state Dulwich Library on the front of the bus. The no.40 announcement states Dulwich Library and then immediately Dulwich Plough.
TfL really need to get themselves sorted out and change these announcements to avoid confusion. It wouldn’t be a problem except the Dulwich Plough pub has had several names in the last few years.

Dulwich Library isn’t moving, closing, is well known and on A-Z maps. It really is an obvious landmark to use.

WAKE UP TfL. Get your act together.

Its just been announced that refurbishment work London Bridge Underground station Northern line will take place 8 October to late February 2009. That’s five month.

I often visit Munich and other European cities for my normal day job. I see lots of escalators but they’re never closed let alone for five months.

How do they do that and why can’t we.

Not something to be proud to be British over. 

While travelling around on local buses I noticed that the same bus stops are described quite differently from one bus route to another. So the no.40 and 12 destination is Dulwich Library but the no.176 onboard announcement states Dulwich Plough at the same bus stop. How confusing.

So Caroline Pidgeon Greater London Assembly (www.carolinepidgeon.org) member kindly offered to take this up with Transport for London (TfL).
TfL Andrew Miles (andrew.miles@tfl.gov.uk 020 3054 0153) has responded saying that it would cause confusion to have the same bus stop called the same thing across bus routes.
If you think calling the same bus stop by two different names is just plain silly let Andrew know.

On Sunday Upland Road has its not firmyl established annual street party.

congratulations to all those that organised, made it happen and attended. Unfortunately I could’nt pop along - I’d even decided what to make and bring along (Strawberry salad starter).

The weather was fantastic and quite a relief after such a gloomy summer.

Abby, one of the prime organisers has kindly agreed to give us advice on how to encourage more street to do the same which could potentially drastically reduce the costs of public insurance, press notices, etc.

A few fridays ago I had the chance to visit London Bridge Station to discuss the South London Lines proposed closure with Andrew Munden the head of Network Rail infrastructure for SouthEast London and Kent. Apparently this area carries 1/7th of all the services Network Rail provides the tracks etc for.

As part of the visit we were shown the signal box. Which was interesting and appeared to be aimed at impressing us with how incredibly complex running trains services can be.

The meat was discussing in a group with Andrew the context of closing the South London Line.

He made it clear Network Rail would provide whatever infrastructure the Government Dept. of Transport so wishes if they are provided the cash to do it. They explain options to Government but that ultimately the final arbitor is the Secretary of State Ruth Kelly.

The rebuilding of London Bridge Station is required to enable Thameslink2000. The current 6 through and 9 terminating platforms will be changed to 9 through and 6 terminating platforms. Until 1974 London Bridge had 22 platforms. Six terminating platforms means that some of the currently terminating train services wont have any platforms to terminate on and will be closed. The argument being that the south London line having the fewest customers should be sacrficed. The counter argument being

So I asked the obvious questions about what benefits for Southwark will all this bring. Andrew suggested longer trains - but for Kent commuters, more reliable trains - but much fewer services for Southwark residents. It became clear and Andrew agreed no benefits to Southwark will come from all this.

The crumbs of comfort being proposed by the Labour Assembly Member for Lambth and Southwark Val Shawcross is that the East london Line phase 2 delivery be brought forward. I’m not sure people who currently use the South London Line into Victoria and London Bridge are going to find it useful to be delivered instead to Clapham Junction or Shoreditch.

What can be done?

The orignal planning application for London Bridge to be rebuilt was made in 2002 when Labour ran Southwark Council. No mention was made that it would result in a decimation of the train services to Southwark. If it had then I don’t believe it would have received planning permission. If such information was with held then that might mean the planning permission could be Juducial Reviewed.

The Southwark Council executive cllr Paul Noblet has agreed to urgently look into this.