Monday afternoon unforecast snow arrived. Council gritting is undertaken 12 hours in advance of icy or snowy weather forecasts as per the Met Office and Meteo. Unforecast snow during day time is terrible as no grit is in place. So day time traffic quickly snarls up and the gritters can’t get through to get gritting. Proverbial nightmare.

To reduce the chances of this Southwark employs two different weather forecasters - one the Met Office and Meteo. Both got it wrong. Arrgh.

So Southwark, as with everyone else, was caught out.

The good news is that we have more resources than most councils to get things moving again - 3 lorry gritters, 80 manual gritters, 500 officers and contractor staff, 1,000 tonnes of salt/grit. But we’ll never have sufficient to clear all 340km of road, 680km of pavements instantly.

Let me know your experiences to help shape the service for the future.

If you’re over 60 years old or know someone who is or disabled and they/you want a Freedom Pass for free bus journeys applications need to be submitted between 4 January and 13 February.

My understanding of the process is:

For Older Persons Freedom Pass.
Get an application from local Post Office FROM 4 January. Fill it in then take it back to Post Office with proof of age, proof of address and photo. Post office issues a receipt. Post Office send form and photo to a documentation bureau. Bureau issue Freedom Pass within 10 working day via 2nd class post.

For Disabled Person Freedom Pass.
Get reassessment form from Southwark Council. Apply with required proofs and photo. Southwark checks form and if necessary arranged for occupational therapy assessment. Applicant takes letter of authorisation, prooft of age!, address and photo to Post Office who issue a receipt. Post Office sends documentation to documentation bureau. Bureau issues Freedom Pass within 10 working day via 2nd class post.

Any problems let me know ASAP. Last time these passes were renewed it all went pear shaped across London. Everyone working really hard to avoid this. So any problems please tell me.

On Friday the latest manifesto pledge on Student Tuition Fees was agreed.

The Lib Dems havea six year plan to phase out tuition fees over the next six years. If we want a fair Britain then we have to ensure everyone feels able to attend university. Tuition fees are not part of the Lib Dem vision for a fairer Britain.

This policy also applies to those taking part-time degres swho tend be poorer or older. Under the current fees system they have to pay upfront making it doubly hard to change their lives.

However, due to the economic pickle this country is now in it would take six years to phase out tuition fees.

Final year tuition fees will be the first to go. Too many people drop out, often put off by the huge costs. We’d make it easier to stay on, because no student will pay any fees to complete their degree. In 2011, we’d get help to part-time students, regulating the fees they pay (a vital step towards abolishing them). In 2012, part-time students will be able to access the same loans as full-time students. In 2013, we would extend free tuition to second year students. In 2014, we’d extend that same free tuition to part time students. And in 2015, as the public finances are recovering, we will be able to afford to abolish all remaining fees.

Labour’s recession has made it more difficult to find the money to fund our priorities. That’s why we are right to adapt our plans for big spending commitments and why it is right that our General Election manifesto will focus this time on a smaller number of key commitments. But our message to students is clear: we remain the only party that believes fees are unfair, and the only party with a plan to get rid of them for good.

The Lib Dems were successful last week in getting the Greater London Assembly to finally sign up in support of the 10:10 campaign for cutting carbon emissions.   A similar motion in September was proposed but due to the Conservative Assembly Members walking out of the chamber the motion could not be debated.

Time Out has produced a map of London showing which local authorities have sined up to 10:10. Time Out 10:10 map.

The map clearly shows where Conservatives run the council they don’t sign up to 10:10. It also shows wherever Lib Dems hold any power that local authority has signed up to 10:10.

The bus stands at the junction of Friern Road with Lordship Lane represent the terminal points for the number 12 and 40 bus routes and any buses from routes 176, 185, etc that are turned around earlier. Over the last ten years bus numbers have increased - all great stuff.

BUT this terminus has no facilities. No toilets for bus drivers. This means when desperate the bus drivers have had to ‘go’ wherever they can. This has spilled into anti social problems for the residents in Rycott Path and Friern Road. To such a degree that the Police are involved.

Transport for London obtained planning permission 2007 for a drivers toilet to be installed. I’ve finally tracked down the hold-up. EDF power lines. Council officers have agreed to waive the normal notice periods and try geeing up EDF a major supplier to Southwark Council.

Hopefully within the next eight weeks the toilet can be installed and the area become just a little bit more civilised.

Council officers are compiling a list of destination disabled car parking bays. For east dulwich I’ve proposed that such bays are requried close to Grove Vale Library, Dulwich Library, close to the front of East Dulwich Police station.

Where else do you think they are needed in East Dulwich?

The East Dulwich councillors have been asked to give feedback on local bus services.

We’ve said that generally the lack of bus stop real time information on when buses are expected is suppressing bus passenger demand. Improving this would have the biggest impact on improving custom and the customers experience of any measure that could be taken.

Expressed a niggle is that the onboard information systems are not aligned between bus routes. Some bus routes call the junction of Barry Road with Lordship Lane ‘the Plough’ others call it ‘Dulwich Library’. Ideally London Buses would be organised to agree a common naming convention. Frankly it makes London Buses look at best disorganised. Clearly with the frequent name changes of ‘the Plough’ public house in recent years it would seem safer to align on’ Dulwich Library’. Suspect other examples abound.

The bus stands at the southern end of Friern Road need to have toilet facilities for bus drivers. Currently bus drivers through no fault of their own get caught short with very anti social consequences. Planning permission was given November 2008 for a toilet cabin opposite 391 Friern Road but nothing built yet.

Specifically we’ve also highlighted,

Number 12. When can we have non bendy buses. Presume this is already planned.

Number 37. This bus route seems especially prone to buses bunching. The regulation of bus frequency needs greater emphasis to avoid gaps in service.

Number 68/X68/468. Having an express bus stop at Camberwell and Herne Hill would really help speed East Dulwich residents to get near the area more quickly even though they’d then need to change buses to reach East Dulwich.

What do you think could be improved about the no.12 & 37 bus routes through East Dulwich?

The next Dulwich Community Council 14 December at Christ Church on southern end of Barry Road will be discussing the Dulwich Hospital after the latest update from Southwark Primary Care Trust. Trust has been lacking for the last 10 years with some many changes of plans and the appearance of secrecy and quango knows best. This has been compounded recently by the lifts being closed and the consequent ‘temporary’ closure of the intermediate care wards. These wards provided local care for people not well enough to go home but not poorly enough to block a bed at Kings Hospital.

However, I’m hopefully that with the current scaffolding, planning applications for new pedestrian entrances that the PCT now plans to keep the remaining hospital buildings and all the services they’ve traditionally provided. Sell the vacant land and the profits used to renovate the remaining hospital. That the financial accountancy tricks of the LIFT Co. Private Finance Initiative will be ended for Dulwich Hospital and we can all move on with local facilities agreed with the local community. This doesn’t mean the PCT using the rigged local ‘consultation’ results.

What do you think should happen to the Dulwich Hospital?

Every Southwark Council tax payers by law have to pay an extra amount to fund the Lee Valley Regional Park. This linear park runs along the Lee River from Ware in Hertfordshire, through Essex getting ever narrower until it reaches East India Dock Basin.

How many people from Southwark use this facility? They tell me one Southwark school visited their petting farm and the Herne Hill Harriers compete there. - unfortunately they don’t seem to know that HHH are not Southwark based but moved to Tooting Bec many years ago.

I don’t understand why council tax payers shouldn’t either pay prorated for the use they make - with Southwark residents paying little or nothing - or that it comes from central taxation or other non Southwark council tax payers pay proportionally for the use they make of Southwark Parks.

What do you think?

The next meeting of the East Dulwich Safer Neighbourhood Team Police ward panel is on Monday.

The current priorities set by the panel are -

1. Youth Priority

2. Offences within the vicinity of licensed premises

3. Vehicle Crime

Do you think they are the right priorities?

Please let me know what you think.

For the last 10 months I’ve been making enquiries about Southwark Council salt levels. Last Winter during dreadful 1 in 50 year snowy weather the whole UK effectively ran out of salt and many London roads could’nt be cleared. Some climate scientists have predicted the next 10 years will be colder winters and more likely for more snowy winters before returning to trend for rapid global warming.

Southwark salt storage areas have been confirmed to me as full. 950T of salt. Work on increasing this to 1,100T is being considered.

To ensure the salt is kept in a good condition it is kept covered by tarpaulins. Building a permanent structure over these stock piles has been considered - Eurodome or Cover-All- but the costs and time taken to build are not considered worthwhile compared to the small cost of salt wastage. Tarpaulins do feel a bit ‘Heath Robinson’ but do seem effective and certainly the cheapest option.

However, council officers have told me they are examining:

- ‘Dry Store’ a vented flexible covering. a step up from tarpaulins.

- Salt Union (national salt supplier) for a pan London salt distribution scheme.

- ‘Wet Salting’ involving pre wetted finer grade salt which uses less salt, quicker acting and less affected by high winds (a feature of last winter).

- Improving calibration of salt spreaders which would reduce the wastage and make salt go further.

Fingers crossed we don’t have another ‘1 in 50′ snowy winter. But if we do we’ll be better prepared.

I’ve come across another residents whose had work undertaken on her home. The builders have left her with 20 bags of rubble in her front garden. By law they should take them away and leave a waste transfer note.

Once left how do you get rid of them. Southwark has a bulk refuse service but it isn’t designed to take them and why should it if workmen by law should have. Also, it could be contaminated with asbestos for example. Also, it could mean workmen start leaving bags of rubble and shirk their responsibilities.

IF the householder doesn’t have a car to remove to the municipal recyclnig centre at Manor Place what does the resident do. If they put in their wheelie bin and it noticeably weighs more then it wont be emptied.

Everyone’s stance is perfectly reasonable and justified but it still leaves the odd residents with an intractable problem.

The moral of this story. If you have work done on your home or business make sure they take all the waste with them.

It appears the Labour Government has decided that peaceful protesters are now a threat to national security. Last week they passed laws that allows restrictions on where and when someone may go out what they mat wear or what pet they may keep. Apparently these injunctions are similar to terrroist control orders except that you don’t actually have to have done anything criminal other than be viewed as in a ‘gang’.

So if you don’t believe new nuclear power stations should be built and decided to hold a placard on a grass verge near a site you can now be arrested under the new Serious and Organised Crime Act for up to 51 weeks and/or be fined up to £5,000.

Crazy. I could imagine such laws in a fascist regime, or dictatorship in the 3rd world. But Britain. Now. Deeply saddened.

Saying that. It wont stop the family attending the Climate Chaos march in two weeks time. Hopefully we wont each be fined £5,000 for attending!

Network Rail is carrying out a survey of what passengers think of rail stations

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/6063.aspx

Tell them what you think.

At the last full council assembly we finally put in place in the new Southwark Planning bible - the Core Strategy - that London Bridge Station should prioritise links to buses and trains station in Southwark. Amazing that we’ve had to state what should have been obvious. But with so many proposed changes such as the South London Line being cancelled Network Rail have to be reminded.

I’m now much more hopeful that when Network Rail has a need to amend or apply for future planning applications to London Bridge station that changes will have to ensure changes make matter no worse for Southwark residents and usually better.

It is quite ridiculous that the huge barriers the railway viaducts and cutting in Southwark, yet the state operator of railway infrastructure Network Rail has to be reminded that the communities these obstacles carve up should actually see some benefit to hosting them.

What do you think?

The World Health Organisation has produced a draft global strategy on problems caused by alcohol.

It was a roundabout way for me to read the UK government’s chief medical officer, Liam Donaldson, chapter of his 2008 annual report covering “passive drinking”, the damage that heavy drinkers wreak on others. To illustrate the extent of the problem in the UK, he reported that in 2008, there were 125,000 “alcohol-related instances of domestic violence”, that an estimated 6000 babies are born annually with fetal alcohol syndrome and that in 2006, 7000 people were injured and 560 killed as a result of drink-driving, not including the drivers.

The term passive drinking is new to me. But blimey that 125,000 would equate to around 30 instances of domestic violence every year in East Dulwich ward alone.

Fascinating reading a report that prenatal and adolescent exposure to tobacco smoke have been found to be associated with changes in brain pathways to relay ear signals.  Most pronounced with teenage smokers.

Other research reports teenage exposure to smoking resulted in reduced auditory and visual attention with boys being most affected. Quite possible that such teenager’s hear and understand less.

No research yet to establish whether the affects are reversible.

I’d always understand it was bad for your health. But it now appears quite convincing that smoking is bad for your brain development.

London Mayor Boris Johnson has announced the closure the Commercial Vehicle Education Unit. This group of 3 Police sergeants and 9 Police constables specialise finding defective lorries and taking them off the road and working with haulage companies to reduce collisions with pedestrians and cyclists.

Not enough was being done to reduce such collisions. HGV lorries are the number one killer for cyclists in London. Even less will be done going forward.

The announcement was almost exactly nine years to the day when a previous treasurer of Southwark Cyclists, while I was the chairperson, Brigitte Robinson, was killed by a left turning lorry whose driver had a young child in the cab and had been working 12+ hour shifts 7 days a week for many months.

Loosing a close cycling friend was incredibly distressing. How many more people have to die to HGV’s before the few exempt from sideguards are no longer exempt and the limited resources are withdrawn from educating lorry drivers and cyclists.

New Scientist 24 October issue has an eye opening article about “How Green is your pet?”.

Apparently a medium sized dog has twice the eco footprint of a 4.6Litre Toyota landcruiser (including building and drive it 10,000km every year).

A typical cat is reported as having very nearly the eco footprint of a Volkswagen Golf. This doesn’t take into account the wild animals cats kill each year.

They concluded that if you must have a pet, have one with a dual purpose such as egg laying hens, or rabbits….as long as you eat them!

I’m amazed.

Tessa Jowell and Labour MPs vote down climate change action

Yesterday evening, Southwark MPs Tessa Jowell and Harriet Harman together with hundreds of Labour MPs voted down

Simon Hughes’ Liberal Democrat motion that would have committed the House of Commons, the Government and the entire public sector to cut their carbon emissions by 10 per cent during 2010.

Lib Dem led Southwark Council has committed itself to making a ten percent cut in emissions - why can’t the Government?

In Parliament and in the town hall, it is the Lib Dems who lead on the environment.

The full shameful voting list is on the House of Commons

Every year we have around 155,100 Heathrow flights and 9,900 London City Airport  flights going over Southwark at less than 8,000 where noise becomes increasingly disturbing.

Every day in my house I can tell when 6am is reached as a torrent of flights start overflying us.

Around 4am several flights come over and about 1 in 5 chance every day my 7 year old will be woken. Boy, does that spoli his school day with tiredness. And we have double glazing.

Fingers crossed this Labour government stops standing out by being the only political party in favour of a 3rd Heathrow runway.

Fingers crossed the Tories and Labour stop supporting a 50% increase in flights at London City Airport. I sometimes fly on business from this airport and I really don’t wont it to expand.

London has the worst air quality of any UK city and one of the worst in Europe.

It’s so bad that its causes OVER 3,000 premature deaths each year and so we breach European laws. It costs a fortune in all the ill health this causes such as asthma, cardiovascular disease, etc.

Road transport is a major contributor causing 41% of NOx and 67% of PM10’s. London already has a Low Emission Zone which only applies to HGV’s, buses and coaches to Euro III emission standards. From 1 October it was meant to be extended to cover large vans and mini-buses but Tory Mayor Boris Johnson decided to postpone this and subject it to more public consultation. A duplicate repeat. I guess those 3,000 people don’t have names so easy to politically ignore them and delay anti air pollution.

What the Lib Dems at the GLA have proposed is to introduce a more stringent inner London Low Emission Zone focusing on  the 1 million Londoners living and working where the air pollution is worse. That this should happen before the Olympics arrive and the world is told how rubbish our air quality is. That would be humiliating for Londoners.

Talking to East Dulwich Police the majority of Violence Against the Person - people hitting other people and worse - is behind closed doors and usually alcohol related…. 

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has recommended as part of its latest advisory document on public health that each alcohol unit should have a minimum price.

NICE says “Making alcohol less affordable appears to be the most effective way of reducing alcohol-related harm. There is sufficient evidence (within the published literature and from the economic analysis) to justify the introduction of a minimum price per unit. The evidence suggests that young people who drink and people who drink harmful amounts of alcohol tend to choose cheaper drinks. Establishing a minimum price per unit would limit the ability of these groups to ‘trade down’ to cheaper products. A minimum price per unit (unlike a tax increase) would prevent retailers from passing on any increase to producers, or absorbing it themselves, so it would prevent them from selling alcohol below cost price.”

This contrasts nicely with a survey of 10,000 teenagers by Prof Mark Bells from Liverpool John Mores University showing that alcohol is so cheap kids can get plastered on pocket money - 17p an alcohol unit or £1.36 for a 2 litre bottle of very strong cider.

Contradicting this is ASDA supermarket executive Paul Kelly & Sainsbury’s Nick Grant to a Commons Health Select Committee.

It will be interesting to see if the supermarket chiefs win over peer reviewed scientific research.

Will NICE be nobbled by the Department of Health. Sadly my money is on those supermarket drinks promotions selling at ridiculous prices winning at an ever greater cost to society of drunken behaviour.

Over the last four years, from 2005 to 2009, Southwark school results have been the most improved in the country. For Primary school key stage 2 English has gone from 72% to 79% and for Maths 67% to 79%.

In the league table of 150 English local education authorities Southwark has gone from 107th to 80th for English and 107th to 58th for Maths and from 110th to 92nd for science.

amazing success due to children, parents, teachers, governors, council officers and executive councillors.

Fantastic progress….with I’m very hopeful more to come.

Transport for London has just announced we’re two years away from 2,500 bus stops having the Coundown  replacement. No information what bus stops in East Dulwich will keep Countdown and IF any new ones will get it.

My day job is in telecommunications. It should be a really quick easy project to roll out countdown to every bus stop and all bus routes. Imagine how many people would choose to use bus more often if bus stops clearly showed when the next bus would be along. Combined with GLA Asssembly Member Caroline Pidgeon 1 hour bus ticket campaign we’d see a step increasein bus use.

Instead what will be offered is the ability to look on the internet or text via mobile phones. Frankly ridiculous stunt that a tiny minority will find it useful.

Today London Mayor Boris Johnson announced average fare rises of 12.7%.

For Oyster card bus users, bus fares go up from £1 to 1.20 or 20%.

Boris blames Ken Livingston who he replaced 18months ago. What tosh.

This year Primary School admissions has been painful. Quite out of the blue we had unhappy parents. 120 appeals, 8 upheld.

I’ve asked council officers how many cases councillors and MP’s referred to them for help.

They’ve told me:

Labour 13 - councillors 5, Harriet Harman MP 3, Tessa Jowell MP 5.

Liberal Democrats 35 -  councillors 14, Simon Hughes MP 21.

Convervative 1.

Total 46.

Last night a meeting of the councils Overview and Scurtiny Committee met at the East Dulwich Community Centre to discuss the problems parents faced with this years primary schools admissions process.

Disappointing that barely a handful of parents could attend plus a handful of headteachers and school governors. However, the room was full of councillors and council officers. Really thought provoking presentation from Terry Parkin the lead officer accountable for admissions. Lots of searching questions that brought out lots of other facts.

Some unfortunate weird comments and wild accusations from Cllr Aubyn Graham. He seemed very confused.

Main points I took from the scrutiny:

- Idea of having quite a few pre prepared buldge class options and then activating them depending on parent demand. This de risks any future pupil predictions being wrong while the economy is in such turmoil.

- More assurance that the GLA stats people now understand what went wrong this year after 15 years of unblemished near spot on pupil predictions.

- Amazing to hear that Southwark created an extra 45 reception places and still has 17% spares places in less fashionable schools such as the excellent Bessemer Grange. Lambeth and Lewisham had to create 150 extra emergency reception places each, Richmond 210, Enfield a whopping 22 classes totalling 660 reception places. This was shocking and really put into context how well Southwark had coped.

- £30M being pumped in Southwark Primary schools to physically make them better by Southwark Council and £25M from central government.

- Southwark schools close to being in top quartile for performance but time lag from when a schools performance soars to when publicly recognised for this.

- That across Southwark175 and in greater Dulwich area 22 kids go ‘missing’ each year. They just don’t show up at the schools places they’ve accepted. It costs the council £100,000 each year chasing these down to ensure they are in a school somewhere and are safe. What a waste caused by tiny number of selfish parents.

- That the admissions department has enough officers for a normal year but this abnormal year they were overwhelmed with worried parents. These officers will be increased by three as admissions numbers are bulging for the next 5-6 years.

If you’re an East Dulwich parent and couldn’t make it last night please do feed in your thoughts and observations.

Southwark Council has submitted its Local Implimentation Plan to Transport for London of how it wants to shape and change its highways and transport over the next three years. A £9.8M plan.

Two things solely proposed for the Dulwich Community Council area covering East Dulwich, Village and College wards. Spending £500,000 on public realm and speed reduction along Lordship Lane and Grove Vale. Spending £500,000 subsidising the number 42 bus being extended from Sunray Avenue to terminate at Sainsbury’s on Dog Kennel Hill during financial year 2011/12 & 2012/13. This bus extension subsidy does seem expensive.

Proposed schemes covering the whole of Southwark include - cycle training, travel awareness and promotion events, safe routes to school/travel plans, supporting sustianable infrastructure, speed reductions measures, surveying, eletric vehicle on street charging points.

What do you think is needed to improve Southwark roads?

Have we hit the mark?

Latest East Dulwich crime stats taken from the mets Police  http://maps.met.police.uk/tables.htm show that in the last year August to August the crime rate has dropped such that East Dulwich has moved from 4th lowest crime rate  in Southwark to having the lowest crime rate in Southwark.

This is despite having 1/4 of Peckham Rye, 1/8 of Village and 1/8 of College wards most problematic areas counted against East Dulwich ward. So the real underlying story is even better than this.

It’s so improved that the East Dulwich Safer Neighbourhood Team have been straying outside East Dulwich to help out in Dulwich Park - which has seen a 37% decrease in robberies.

When I became a councillor this was one of my personal ojectives - to have the lowest crime rates in Southwark in East Dulwich. We started our campaign to become East dulwich councillors with a Crime Survey. the survey results helped us decide to target a lot of the resources we as councillors allocate. We’ve still more work to do. I want East Dulwich to be better compared to London as a whole. We’re currently just outside the best quarter for London.

How can we improve it further?

In the week I attended the Dulwich Housing Forum. This forum covers all the housing is East Dulwich, College and Village wards. East Dulwich actually has a lot of social housing. Around 500 acquired streeet properties, 200 other council houses. Equally Housing Associations have around another 500 properties. So in total 1,200 social housing properties out of 5,100. Around the national average.

Eitherway, the topic of Fire Risk Assessments (FRA’s) was discussed. Southwark Council about a year ago bought in London Fire Brigade expertise to train our housing officers in undertaking FRA’s. After lots of training a nine month details programme started in May. To everyone’s huge shock the tragic Lakanal House fire happened. So the nine month programme has been drastically accelerated and on 22 September the 350 Dulwich area FRA’s were successfully completed.

Today I finally caught up with reading te local Southwark NHS report (formerly known as Southwark PCT).

Rather worryingly one of its nine objectives is “Development of the market in futures (acute, primary and community)”

Do you think Southwark NHS should be more market focused?

After pressure from local Lib Dems, Southwark Council is to start using two cars equipped with cameras to get tough on people who ignore traffic rules by monitoring school gates in the mornings and afternoons. We’ve had complaints about this from parents with kids at Heber and Goodrich Schools. Footage will be used to issue penalty notices of up to £120, with revenue from the fines directed back into road safety projects and traffic calming measures outside schools and across the borough.

Clearly illegally parked cars outside schools create dangerous situations for children and parents. The School Keep Clear road markings are there for a reason and I suspect with these camera cars coming people will take those markings much more seriously.

It also means our local East Dulwich Police and community Wardens can spend more time doing other tasks.

Came across some fascinating facts.

40 pedestrians are killed every year WHILE ON PAVEMENTS by motor vehicles.

Over the last 10 years 3 pedestrians have been killed by cyclists. 400 to 3.

Whether a reckless motor vehicles driver or reckless cyclist the full force of the law must be excercised.

Wierdly I only seem to come across residents angry with cyclists on pavements even when they are not being reckless.

It would appear another train service in South London is to be decimated due to the coming of the East London Line. Trains from Caterham into London Bridge will be reduced from 6 to 4 an hour. This comes on top of the South London Line plans to close the service.

It appears the Labour Government Department of Transport and Tory Transport for London are sacrificing inner London train services to make way for longer distance train services.

If when proposing the East London Line residents had been given a clear choice. Have an East London Line but pay for it by closing and decimating existing train services I’m clear in my mind what station people making such proposals would have been told to get of off.

The number of South London residents is rising dramatically. We need improved services to cater for them.

This summer has seen problems with Primary school places in London as a whole and the Dulwich area. It’s believed that changes in London’s demographics, combined with the impact of the recession, have led to an extraordinary rise in demand for new reception places, leaving many schools with little or no capacity to take on new pupils.

Southwark purchases school population predictions, as do 25/33 London Boroughs, from the Greater London Authority and have done for a number of years. The models used appear suddenly wrong. The figures were revised by the GLA on 7 April, then 18 May and then 17 June. Each time upwards. This is unheard of.

But how has this impacted on how things have gone overall as only unhappy families contact local councillors. This was the first year East Dulwich families had reported problems.

For the Dulwich area and Southwark overall 304 and 2,370 applications respectively from Southwark residents on time with further 45 and 556 late applications. For the Dulwich area and Southwark 90% had schools offered and accepted within 1mile of home for on time applications. For late applications the percentages fell to 80%.

Of those who didn’t get a school within 1mile of home many were from choice - attending religious schools or the same school as siblings.

This appears a success but I dont’ yet know how many families had their first or second choice.  Once we have that information we’ll have a clearer idea how successful things have been overall.

BUT to make this happen in the Dulwich area an emergency extra class has been created at Goodrich. HUGE THANKS to Goodwich School.

Lots of efforts behind the scenes to work out is this a blip? how long if a blip? how to prepare for next year? how long would a new school take to build? is it necessary? where would you build one if necessary? government rules would probably result in a religious school and would an Islamic, CoE or Catholic school solve any problem? These questions if acted upon in series would normally take 7 years before a new school opens due to government rules and procedures.

What do you think has caused this blip and is it long lasting?

What do you think would solve the problem? 

It was a real delight to hear Nick Clegg conference speech.

Have a read at: Nick Clegg speech

Please do tell me what you think.

The East Dulwich Police Safer neighbourhood Team now consists of 1 Sargent, 3 Police Constables and 5 Police Community Support Officers. 9 officers in total. Amazing.

This might be related to the Police being unable/unwilling to correct their Police stats computer to reflect the actual East Dulwich boundaries. Currently East Dulwich includes 1/4 of Peckham Rye, 1/8 of Dulwich and 1/8 of College. Changing the Post Code lookup table in a computer file is dull but really very simple to perform. Only then will we truly know whether the efforts of councillors, council officers and Safer Neighbourhood Teams are working.

So even a team of 9 is hardly enough to cover 150% of the intended area for a Safer Neighbourhood Team.

The 10:10 campaign seeks as many people, business, and other organisations to commit to reducing their CO2 emissions by 10% during 2010. www.1010uk.org

I’m delighted to report Southwark Council is signing up to this.

I’m now seeking a commitment for another 11% during 2011….would that make it a 21:11 from now or 11:11?

An Australian interactive website called THRIVE http://lamp.health.curtin.edu.au/thrive/baselinetest.php that takes 10 minutes to complete has apparently seen an 11% reduction in the student boozers who drink the most.

If you any ooozy students get them to take it.

We’re keen on the no.12 bendy bus route no longer terminating in East Dulwich. Even replacing no.12 Bendy Buses with double deckers would be an improvement - crime reduction, blocking streets while turning etc.

We have in the past campaigned for the no.12 to go onto Forest Hill, but on reflection no other buses terminate there or turnaround so probably not realistic.

But waiting until the no.12 bus contracts comes up for renegotiation November 2011 is a long time to wait. To break that contract early would be very expensive. In the current climate we’ll have to wait until double deckers replace bendy buses as realistically the only option.

Since being elected May 2006 I’ve had several report each year about rubbish collections starting before 6am.

Rubbish trucks are only allowed out from their Manor Place depot (close to Walworth Road Elephant & Castle end) at 6am. Recycling lorries at 7am. It takes about 15 minutes to reach East Dulwich. So no rubbish collections are legitimately allowed before that time. We have had some very keen crews sending colleagues ahead to move wheelie bins into position from 5.30am. Again this is not acceptable.

Why 6am? Croydon, Lambeth and Southwark start refuse collections at 6am, Tower Hamlets at 6.30am and Lewisham 7am. Delaying Southwark collections by 1 hour, due to the extra traffic congestion starting an hour later, has been calculated at requiring an extra crew and dustcart at around £150,000->200,000 pa. In the current climate we wont be reallocating this amount of money from other areas to fund this.

If you ever experience rubbish collections or preperations starting before 6.15am please do get in touch with me. james.barber@southwark.gov.uk

Some Melbourne Grove residents have contacted me asking about a 20mph letter we’ve delivered.

They’ve heard that Tory councillors from Dulwich Village have objected to Melbourne Grove having 20mph traffic calming and speed humps.

It is true that an attempt has been made by Dulwich Village Tories to stop speed humps and parking in the road instead of half on the pavements on Melbourne Grove between Grove Vale and East Dulwich Grove. They wish to extend the number 42 bus route via this part of Melbourne Grove to Sainsbury’s. Speed humps would need to be removed if the number 42 bus route was routed via Melbourne Grove and parking on the pavement would be ncessary. While supporting such an extension in principle via Lordship Lane the East Dulwich Libl Dem councillors are wholly opposed for any bus route to be rerouted or extended via Melbourne Grove or other residential side street. Equally, snubbing local shops on Lordship Lane would not be acceptable. Residents of Melbourne Grove suffered more than enough inconvenience when the number 37 bus route was routed via Melbourne Grove in the past.

When the public consultation takes place on whether Melbourne Grove residents support or don’t support speed humps it will also be their opportunity to tell us whether they want the number 42 buses routed down your street.

In the mean time please do tell us what you think - are we right to oppose buses down Melbourne Grove or Derwent Grove or Elsie Road?

Lordship Lane has frankly been looking a little bit grubby. Unfortuantely we can’t afford to wash down all the streets every night as we’d all wish but can ensure we maximise our streets cleanliness.

Street cleaniness is measured by a company called Encams 3 times every year. Overall for Southwark last financial year (lower % good) we were litter 6%, dtritus 125, graffit 3% and flyposting 1%.

Following my enquiry Southwark’s Street Cleaning Inspector has confirmed for East Dulwich now litter 2.4%, detritus 22%, graffiti 0% and fly posting 0%.  So more attention in East Dulwich is now being made to clearing this detritus - all that organic material like leaf fall, etc.

If you see anything out of the ordinary regarding litter, graffit, fly posting, or leaf fall please do let me know or call 020 7525 2000 to report this problem yourself.

Last night Southwarks main planning committee granted planning permission to a new Integrated Waste Management Centre on the Old Kent Road. The committee took over 4 hours to get the final decision right and sat until after 1am this morning.

This new facility should be completed in around 15 months time. It will provide enough recycling capacity enable an increase from 21% recycling now to over 50%.

Do you recycle everything possible?

Several weeks ago we suddenly heard the terrible news a registered private day nursery called Bojangles  close to the junction of Barry Road with Upland Road was threatened with closure.

It has run up signficant debt with Her Majesty’s Customs and Revenue. It was advised by accountants to go into liquidation. Bojangles changed its legal entity to Fingerprints (Dulwich) Ltd. Unfortunately that meant the lease with the church expired. So the church served a notice to quit on them. Overall this meant its Ofsted status ended and had to be reapplied.

Lots of worried parents contacted us. We quickly escalated this to Cllr Lisa Rajan who heads up Childrens Services. Quickly Southwark Council Early Years officers stepped in to try resolving the dispute between the church and Bojangles/Fingerprints without success. All parents were contacted and public meeting took place to help find other nursery places. Currently 95% of deposits have been returned to parents with remaining £6,000 to be returned. More importantly these young children have been offered places.

LESSONS LEARNT:

This is the fourth nursery in Southwark to take such actions to avoid HMRC tax debts. Officers are planning to proactively give advice to all such nurseries to reduce the risk of this happening again.

The East Dulwich councillors have been campaigning for our streets to be safer. Many residents have contacted us about speeding vehicles. We’ve provided the local Police with a state of art speed gun and display. But on some streets the speed limit is excessive.

Just before the summer holidays traffic and speed counters were installed for a fortnight on 22 of the 65 streets in East Dulwich. On some streets several were installed.

The governments rules to make a street 20mph is that the mean average speed must be lower than 24mph. The results of the counters are below. The next step is for officers to meet the police and other emeregency services and agreed that their happy for these streets to be made 20mph in principle. Local residents are then formally consulted. Then we have to by law advertise this in the local papers (now you know why lots of council tax money on publicity goes), then the signs go up and we should see an average speed reduction due to the signs of 1-3mph. Then local Police can enforce such reasonable speeds on wholly residential roads in East Dulwich. Read the rest of this entry.

While on holiday in Dorset came across a local community radio station serving Crewkerne called United Internet Radio. They’re starting as an internet radio station. In 2017 when FM analogue radio is converted to digital very local radio stations should be possible. They plan to have a very low powered transmitter/FM licence then.

Wouldn’t this be a great idea for East Dulwich.

If you’re interested in creating something similar let me know and I’ll see how we can support you.

The world’s first Plastic Bag Free Day will be on the 12th September 2009. Please ditch plastic bags for good! Just take a reusable bag with you when you shop.

Locally in East Dulwich this has been led by SNUB (Say No to Unwanted Bags) - an inspiring team of locals that we’ve funded the bags and more recent composting trial via our councillor Cleaner, Greener, Safer funds.

There are many ways you can support Plastic Bag Free day. Leave plastic bags at the checkout, help to make your town Plastic Bag Free or join in the celebrations at town’s that have already stopped using plastic bags. You could also write to shops and supermarkets asking them to support the day. See www.adoptabeach.org.uk for more. 

Whatever you do please take part.

Lots of debate about traffic calming measures - speed cushions are often  ignored by larger vehicles and 4WD cars, humps are painful and dangerous for cyclists and painful for vehicle occupants even when taken at less than 20mph. Until the Labour Government finally approves average speed cameras or changes insurance laws physical measures have to be installed to calm peoples behaviour behind the wheel.

However, one type of hump doesn’t seem to have this problem - sinusoidal humps. They’re curved like a wave. Not quite as effective at traffic calming as regular ’round topped’ humps but boy are they more comfortable for vehicle occupants and safer for cyclists.

With the executive councillor Paul Kyriacou agreement it is now Southwark Council policy that all new humps will be sinusoidal.  I also expect when old humps get replaced during maintenance that they’ll be replaced with sinusoidal humps.

For some time I’ve been following this Act from its initial proposal onwards. It aims to give communities the opportunity to take back powers for things pointlessly decided by central government or its quango’s.

As part of this Act I applied to Southwark that its asks for Southwark to have its own Safer Camera Partnership - speed and red light running cameras. Effectively opt out of the London wide scheme. Full council agreed to approve this and it is now with the next filter organised by the Local Government Association. If they agreed it, then it is formally lodged with central government. They then decide whether to implement this change or not.

My idea relates to the fact that for several years no new cameras have been installed in Southwark by the London Camera Partnership.

The idea came from attending a Southwark Living Streets presentation where they showed that virtually all collisions on our roads occur on major roads and that the primary cause is speeding. They also explained that lots of research that such fast roads, such as the Old Kent Road, result in deprivation via ill health, injuries, noise, social dislocation (not knowing your neighbours).

Hopefully, I’ll get to present my case to the LGA soon.

What do you think - more cameras?

We’re now 8 weeks away from the deadline for applying for secondary school places for children starting school or moving September 2010.

If that applies to your children you’ll need to get your skates on finding out information.

The ocuncil operates an e-admissions at www.southwark.gov.uk/schooladmissions

Last night popped along to the open air cinema screening Back to the Future in Dulwich Park. Theirs something about open air cinema - kind of like how food tastes nicer when its BBQ. bBQ cinema.

Everything was really well organised.

Hopefully we’ll see a lot more BBQ cinema.

Alleys are magnets for anti social acts and worse. A simple measure to drastically reduce such problems is gating alleyways. Sounds easy - so I thought. The first act as a councillor was to arrange a pot of money to fund gating alleyways. Boy, is it hard to gate them. You have to obtain agreement from everyone who has legal access. Once you have agreement to gate an alleyway you need to arrange keys for everyone, who can provide emergency access. The list of issues and problems is long, very long.

So I’m delighted to report that the alleyway from Northcross Road behind the Palmerston has now been gated.

That an alleyway on Ashbourne Grove is imminent. We’re working on an Elsie Road one, and a Chesterfield Grove alleyway. We’re working on another but need to talk to residents more before telling anyone else.

If you know of any alleyway in East Dulwich that would ideally be gated please do get in touch.

Last night the final part of the specification for new outside lighting for East Dulwich Community Centre on Darrell Road was agreed by the centre.

The centre will have 90w lighting columns with total costs of £14,000 funding by the East Dulwich councillors support via the Cleaner, Greener, Safer funding. This lighting will enable outdoor activities for young people the whole year round.

Lots of complicated calculations involving predicted lux values and uniformity. The final solution will be 35% more energy efficient that the original proposals. Providing 35.52 lux with 45% uniformity.

I’m looking forward to having a kick around under these new lights in the next couple of months.

The current uproar in America about allowing all Americans having access to health care available from state funding rather than just retirees has crystallised for many Brits arguments about the NHS. For some, notably from the Tory party, its highlighted their true beliefs that the NHS should be dismantled. For many others we’ve heard deeply affecting stories of how the NHS has saved lives for all parts of society.

Several arguments that persuade me that a NHS system is best for individuals and society. A close friend took up a job in the states that came with medical health insurance for him and his family. The day he took up his new job his young child became dreadfully ill and spent a month in Boston’s children’s hospital. If she’d become ill a day earlier they would have been financially ruined by the medical bills. We are so lucky that we don’t live under the shadow of such fear. Even where medical insurance is in place the fine print will often mean it doesn’t pay out.

A few facts the World Health Organisation and Commonwealth Fund have reported:

US healthcare spend 16% of GDP, England 8.3%

US Life expectancy 77 years, England 78 years

US acute bed/1000 people 2.8, England 3.6

US average length of stay acute care 5.6 days, England 3.6 days

US under 5 mortality/1000 live births 9, England 6.

So we spend roughly half the cash but get better results.

Hopefully in America common sense will prevail rather than a poverty aspiration amongst the rich and powerful.

Hopefully the exposure of many Tories uncosted views on the NHS will ensure common sense. We can’t afford as a nation to double health spending for poorer results emulating the states.

It means that the Dulwich Hospital isn’t directly competing with Kings College Hospital for custom. But instead conitnues to compliment each others work.

I’m not a Muslim but for a number of years I’ve been thinking about taking part in Ramadan - this 30 day period of fasting and contemplation. I’ve been impressed by the fortitude of a work colleague every year. This year I’ve finally plucked up the courage to see if I can show sufficient resolve to take part.

Two big fears. My wife will have a sense of humour failure at my eating before 4.30am and after 8.30pm every day for a month. That I wont be able to stick to it. Wish me luck.

In January the East Dulwich Lib Dem councillors supported the planning application for the £6.5M renovation of the East dulwich Leisure Centre but asked that the scheme should be rejected if as planned due to the buildings heritage the pool roof wasn’t insulated. The main planning committee added a condition that this should be assessed and if practical roof insulation included.

What a relief - we’ve just been told that although insulating the roof will add 4 weeks to the centres closure it can and will be insulated. So I’d like to apologise for the extra 4 weeks the pool will be closed but the reduced CO2 emissions will make this really worthwhile.

Ensuring maximum insulation, as per this condition, is crucial to Southwark Council helping fight global warming.
The £6.5M renovation will be fantastic and will once again become the truely great facility it once was.

Caroline Pidgeon a local Lib Dem Southwark councillor and also a Greater London Assembly member has come up with the great idea for 1 hour bus tickets. The idea is much like the tube where once you’re in the system you can change tube trains and lines as many times as you need. 1 hour bus tickets would mean you could change buses with no extra charge. For me this would mean catching the first bus in the direction I want to go rather than a bus that goes exactly where I need to go. It will reduce the overal time taken to get me from A to B. It would also mean people are penalised for living in areas that have poor bus choices.

Caroline has visited a number of boroughs across London to drum up support including Lambeth, Waltham Forest, islington, Brent, Westminster, Harrow, Hammersmith and Fulham with lots more visits planned.

If you support this idea please sign the petition through the online petition www.ourcampaign.org.uk/1hourbusticket . Reaction from Londoners has been extremely positive. We need as many signatures as possible to really persuade the Mayor of London to listen to our idea and get a better deal for London bus users.

Each year, Dulwich Community Council has around £370,000 to spend on improving our area through the Cleaner, Greener, Safer programme. No one likes a constitutional anorak but if ever there was a demonstration of how the way we make decisions can improve the quality of those decisions it is Community Councils. In the past all spending decisions were made in Peckham by people who may or may not have a clue about our local area. Now spending decisions are made by people who represent the area - and that means we’re more likely to invest in things the community really wants to see happen. Liberal Democracy in action.

Each year, any local person or community organisation can submit an idea for how to improve our local area. All ideas are welcome no matter how big or small and each year the applications flood in.

In the past projects have involved things like improving open spaces , small parks and playgrounds, tree planting and public art. The famous East Dulwich SNUB Say No to Unwanted Bags campaign was funded this way, as was the crime fighting alert boxes for local shops in Lordship Lane. Funding can range from just £2000 for small projects to over £150,000.

This year, we’ve funded another great range of projects. Here are a few:

· School composting scheme

· New cycle parking at Halliwell Court

· Improved fencing at Norcroft Gardens

· 25 new car club spaces - so half of East Dulwich streets will have a car club space

· More street trees

· Hanging baskets and lamp post banners promoting local shopping on Lordship Lane

· Pop-up electic points for Northcross Road market - to eliminate noisy polluting generators

· Improving the shopping parade at The Plough on Lordship Lane

· A pilot food composting scheme for our shops and restaurants

We think we’ve chosen a good range of schemes - but if you’ve got better ideas, there’s always next year!

Back to school.

East Dulwich parents and children are anticipating the start of the new school year. It’s easy to forget what a major event this is for children. It’s less easy to ignore the lack of equality in educational chances. The gap between those who have and those who have not in education is stark in an area like ours. The whole range of provision is there to be seen, from the private schools of Dulwich Village, through our popular over-subscribed state schools to those schools that some parents fight to avoid.

Things have of course improved immeasurably over the past few years. It was only a few years ago, before the Lib Dems took control in 2002, that the local education service under Labour for 44 years, having failed two OFSTED reports was deemed so dreadful that it was privatised by the Labour Government and given to an engineering firm to run. That Labour period is behind us and now, year after year, our local schools under the Lib Dems are improving above the national average rate.

At primary level, the latest results show our primary schools to be amongst the best in London and at key stage 2 we are now at the national average for the first time in Maths and English. The  pupils, parents, teachers and governors who have worked incredibly hard to achieve this all deserve our congratulations but there is still so much to do.

But being one of the best in London is not good enough when so many parents want to leave London because of their concerns about education. Approaching the national average is great progress but we are not content to settle for average.

In East Dulwich we will continue to strive to improve the facilities and opportunities available. After years of community campaigning, a new secondary school for boys is now being built at Peckham Rye.  It opens in temporary accommodation in September and in the purpose built new building next year. We wish the school well in this critical first year.

But at primary level too it is suspected there is a lack of places available. This year a few parents were offered places at primary schools in Camberwell as competition for places at East Dulwich schools exploded. It seems this was partly through the popularity of East Dulwich as a place to bring up children and partly through fewer people being able to afford private schools.

We need to move quickly to address this issue before next year. Plans are already in place to expand the number of spaces at Goodrich. We may need to go further though and look for further expansion of other schools.  Expanding St Anthony’s is an option, although in my view, only if we can ensure those spaces are available for all the community. It may be that we also have to look for a new primary school.

One thing is clear: Education in our area is improving and it is great that more parents now want their children to stay within our local schools. But education is still one of the main reasons why parents think about moving to the suburbs. This year, we need to get our heads down and ensure that our rate of progress accelerates and we make the right decisions to ensure we in the years ahead we are top of the class.   

Southwark Liberal Democrats come close to beating Labour across Southwark. Quite amazing considering two sitting Labour MP and one Lib Dem MP represent Southwark at Westminster.

Local Liberal Democrats in East Dulwich, and across Southwark are celebrating after coming the closest they have ever been to beating Labour across the whole borough in a European election. The Labour majority nearly halved with the Conservatives coming a distant third.  The Conservative vote fell from 19.3% in the 2008 GLA elections to 14.9% this year.

The news even says Gordon Brown is toying with the idea of Single Transferable Voting for other elections. Times they are a changing…..

Dulwich Baths is one of the jewels of East Dulwich. It was built by that breed of municipal Victorian politicians who took a real pride in their community and were determined to improve the lives of local people at a local level.

But just like our great Victorian parks, Dulwich Park and Peckham Rye Park, Dulwich Baths were neglected to a scandalous extent  - seemingly by every generation that followed them.

The parks have been beautifully restored over the past few years and now the spotlight is falling on the Dulwich Baths.

As local councillors, we have been campaigning with local residents to save the pool - and it has been a very popular cause!  Happily Southwark council is funding a multi-million pound refurbishment.

The building’s charm also makes refurbishment a difficult job but the plans include improved changing facilities, a café and poolside viewing area and an expanded gym.

Planning permission for the work was granted earlier this year and the refurbishment works have now begun. This means that the pool has been taken out of service but the good news is that despite the scaffolding, gym facilities will be available throughout the refurbishment works.

The final scheme also has great green credentials with a dramatic reduction in the energy required to heat and light it. Modern insulation has been used where ever possible.

The new swimming facilities should be available from spring 2010 and I’m sure will be well worth the wait. After all we’ve waited over a hundred years for this sort of investment!

Boy, what a series of scandals. Very sad that so many MP’s and Lords have been so outrageous for so long claiming expenses. Moats and Tennis courts. Flipping secondary homes severa ltimes in a year. I’m hopeful and sure the majority are honest to the spirit of the rules. I can understand someone having a second home due to their work having a cleaner or gardener for the second home. Assuming very modest gardening and cleaning.

I can confirm the only expenses I have as a councillor are phone bills, subscription for Local Transport Today magazine - I’m the council’s Cycling Champion. I even buy my own stamps. I did have a council provided broadband until I found out how to point the council computer via my home broadband. Could’nt stand the thought of wasting  oney with BT or the CO2 from having two broadbands modems in the house.

it appears that a secret deal has been hatched between Boris’s Transport for London and the Labour Government Department of Transport. Both parties wouldn’t fund the East london Line phase 2. They’ve agreed to slice and cut services. The South London Line linking London bridge via South Bermondsey, Peckham, Denmark Hill to Victoria will be removed. Services via Denmark Hill will be severely cut.

The bare faced cheek to then receive a Labour leaflet campaigning against these cuts that their own government hatched and agreed is exactly the sort of shabbiness that gives politicians a bad name.

By all means campaign but make it clear to the local Labour MP’s that you’re angry that their government is telling their Departmant of Transport to do this and that it must stop.

The GLA has issued a report about air pollution - available here.

It claims at least 3,000 people die prematurely in London each year due to air pollution. to make matters worse this is based on average air pollution for England. We all know London air quality is some of the worst in England.

- 3,000 amongst 7 million population.
- Southwark’s population is 270,000 people.
- Life expectancy in Southwark is around 75 years.
- QED 3.2% at least of the Southwark population will die prematurely due to air pollution.

Truly frightening.
What is Boris doing to lead and help on this issue….accelerating traffic across London by reducing pedestrian crossing times.

I understand Transport for London has announced iBus is present on all 8,000 London buses. This is the system that speaks the next bus stop and has indicator boards with the next bus stop stated. Useful. For East Dulwich different bus routes name the same bus stop differently. How kooky is that.

Apparently this system improve Countdown accuracy.  only trouble is Countdown isn’t as all bus stops.

When will we get Countdown at all London bus stops - especially those areas with no underground service that rely wholly or largely on bus services?

TfL seem to be pushing for people to receive such information by mobile phones or internet. What a narrow idea. How many people want to have to check the internet before leaving home for real time bus info or text a number on a bus stop, wait for a response and then make bus journey decisions by which time they’ve missed a second best bus choice but the best isn’t coming for some time.  it seems clear that people making such decisions don’t use buses.

East Dulwich is a great place to live, work and study. But it isn’t perfect. Please tell us what you think can be improved, doesn’t work or that is so good we must keep it by completing the following survey.

http://www.tinyurl.com/edsurvey

Your three Liberal Democrat councillors Richard Thomas, Jonathan Mitchell and I will then use the survey results to temper what we work on.

Last night the Dulwich Medical Centre on Crystal Palace Road held a public meeting to present its redevelopment plans.

You can see the plans at: www.dmchealthcare.co.uk

Lots of issues and potential benefits for East Dulwich. Do respond to the Planning Application when it is submitted.

In the mean time let the health centre know what you think.

My ward colleague Jonathan Mitchell is conducting an Inquiry into the local NHS:

www.tinyurl.com/nhsinquiry 

Please do tell him what you think about the NHS locally and how you think it should develop.

A study by the University of West Virginia in the US has found that owners of ‘vicious’ dogs are more likely to commit vicious crimes themselves.

Owners of dogs classed by the American Kennel Club as breeds with a high risk of causing injuries to humans - i.e. vicious dogs were asked to take part in a questionnaire. The study showed revealed that American owners of vicious dogs were significantly more likely to admit crimes such as fighting people, vandalism, illegal drug use.

I wonder if this applies to Brits and their dogs?

Last year the East Dulwich councillors Richard Thomas, Jonathan Mitchell and myself established a £50,000 Crime Reduction fund.

One idea from the East Dulwich Police Safer Neighbourhood Team Sergeant Duncan Jackson was for a hand held metal detector. I warmly accepted it and we quickly made our first purchase. The idea being that Police officers with a pocket metal detector could sweep someone they stopped for metals objects whether knives, guns or even needles. The first type we purchased was a big flat thing that could with a squeeze fit in a large pocket. Not very hand held. So we tried the next type. This attaches via a holder to a standard issue Police belt. They’ve tried it and found it works a treat and it has made searching must less intrusive and much safer for officers. It has sped up searches and we’ve made sure that the sgt. and both police constables have them.

In fact they’ve been so helpful in reassuring Police officers, being less intrusive during stop and searches and finding things that a finger tip search might not, that I suggested to our Executive member Paul Kyriacou and council Leader Nick Stanton that we had a winning idea and that we should find the money to kit out all frontline Police and enforcement officers in Southwark. That money was finally agreed early January and an order placed.

That order delivered in early March and now all frontline Police and council enforcement officers and our Community Wardens have them.

If you carry guns or knives or needles in Southwark your chance of being caught has been dramatically increased.

It used to be called Walk to Work day but has now become Walk to Work week. This year it runs 27 April until 1 May.

See: www.walkingworks.org.uk

I live about 3 miles form work. I walked there and back again during the February snowy weather we had when I could’nt cycle or take bus or train. I think I’ll try walking in several times next week. Why don’t you?

For most of us who live in East Dulwich, Lordship Lane defines our community.  Its importance to East Dulwich as a commercial, social and cultural centre is clear. But it also serves many other purposes too – as a bus route and a through route for traffic.

It is not surprising that everyone has a view about Lordship Lane.

Road safety is always top of the list when we ask people about how Lordship Lane could be improved - what has not always been clear is what should be done to improve the situation.

So we commissioned Living Streets to help us identify the problems on Lordship Lane. The Living Streets approach is simple but effective. They walk up and down the road with a group of local people and a clip board, identifying issues and talking about possible solutions.

This is exactly what a small gang of us did.  We identified loads of things that would improve the shopping experience on Lordship Lane.  But overwhelmingly, the one issue highlighted was that people shopping on Lordship Lane tend to walk up one side of the street or down the other. They rarely cross the street to reach a shop on the other side of the road and when they want to - they find it unpleasant, off-putting and down right dangerous.  That’s not just bad from a road safety point of view. By degrading our shopping experience it threatens the lifeblood of our local shops and encourages particularly the elderly and families to head for the safety of Sainsbury’s or White City. Better crossing points - especially outside Somerfield – was the number one way to improve things.

So that is what we have been working on and we have now got to the point where we have designed and consulted upon new crossings on Lordship Lane – at the Goose Green roundabout and outside Somerfield.

The initial results indicate that the plans are supported by over 80% of people who responded.

There is still some way to go – not least to persuade Transport for London that providing a safe crossing point won’t interfere too much with the bus timetables. I hope that in the end the road safety arguments and the need to promote our local shops in the current climate will win the day.

On Friday the Labour government blocked a bill to end fueld poverty by 2016. Fuel poverty is wher epeople have to decice whether to eat of heat their homes. Erradicating fuel poverty involves installing lots of insulation. Installing insulation is labour intensive. Saving fuel bills reduce climate heating. People without either enough heat or food are more likely to be ill or stay ill or worse.

The bill has the support of Help the Aged, Friends ofthe Earth and many other worthy organisations.

It seems truly bizarre that a Labour government blocked such a clear anti povery measure that helps prevent people being ill, fight climate heating and creates employment very efficiently.  

E.coli 0157 is an infection that can prove fatal especially for children younger than 10 or older people. Those that survive this infection will very often have serious ongoing medical conditions - impaired kidney function, kidney failure and need dialysis.

Children are particularly at risk as their immune system isn’t fully developed. They’re also much more likely to put fingers or toys in mouths, or not wash hands properly. Even family vehicles need to be kept clean if they do near manure, slurry, dung or sewage.

It appears to be much more prevalent than in the past and can be avoided by excellent hygiene.

With easter coming up, if you have plans to visit farms, the countryside, zoo or other leisure facility with animals then do use the following advice:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/publications/2003/06/17334/22401

Equally if you’re planning to rent a holiday cottage that has private drinking water supplies then check it has no livestock within 50m as this infection has been found in springs or boreholes especially on farmland.

We were out doing our rounds as East Dulwich councillors on Saturday and Sunday. Knocking on doors and asking what is great about East Dulwich we need to keep and build on and what doesn’t work in East Dulwich and we need to fix. Frankly the best part of being a councillor seeking views.

I took a breather and sat on a bench on Dawson’s Height. After reporting the dumped rubbish and sign that is broken and needs replacing I st down and enjoyed the most marvellous views across London.

A real hidden spot. If you get the chance take 30 minutes out and enjoy the whole of London panorama spread out before you.

I wrote to our local MP Tessa Jowell about the Labour Governments appalling decision to approve a third runway at Heathrow Airport.

Air travel and to a lesser degree road building are the only areas this government predicts the increase and the associaited increase in pollutuion and then provides it. If you want to produce any other pollution in any other industry you eiher are not allowed or must pay extra e.g. Carbon Credits.

If you want to read the reply she sent me and see all the platitudes then please follow the following link - clearly a stock answer for the many thousands who have written in across:

http://www.tessajowell.net/uploads/fdecc393-b238-3644-1d5b-779f340f2499.pdf

 SHAME.

I’m sure everyone is as shocked as I am that a shooting  incident has taken place in the Barry Road area of East Dulwich.

I understand the Police have launched a murder investigation.

At a suitable time my fellow East Dulwich councillors Richard Thomas and Jonathan Mitchell and I will be talking to the Police understand what has happened and what the next steps are.

Today the phase two extension fo the East London Line to Clapham Junction was finally announced. This will create a route from Mile End to Calpham Junction via Canada Water, Peckham, Camberwell (Denmark Hill) to Clapham. great if you don’t want to get into central London. Unfortunately this is probably a sop to recompense for the closure of the South London Line which did link two parts of central London via Peckham and Camberwell/Denmark Hill. Getting the former and keeping latter would have seen a real transformation for South Londoners travel options. Recently trains via East Dulwich and North Dulwich to East Croydon, where users could change for a variety of services, were stopped.

So Southwark rail users find thing worse  in the short term. Longer term we instead get a kind of stasis - swapping the South London Line for East London Line phase 2.

The one thing that would change the game would be extending the Bakerloo line to Denmark Hill……

The weather has been unusual this week. Not remarkable in that this type of weather happens about every ten years. Weather Scientists have stated that we’re going to have a decade of colder winters. Weather forecasters even predicted the severity of this weeks weather four days in advance.

Southwark Council had gritting lorries and teams out at the right time and spread 500 tonnes in the first 48 hours. Quite normal and sensible. Those operations could be tweaked - perhaps snow ploughs on the front of the gritters, perhaps a covered storage area for salt stocks.

But it feels as though as a capital city we didn’t cope. No buses to speak of when our part of London is so reliant on buses. Schools closing for two days. All those parents who could’nt go to work even if prepared to make a big effort as they had to stay at home to look after children. Its these little instances that make it harder for Southwark residents to get or keep work.

The GCSE results cross referenced across the country were recently released.

Southwark schools have had another remarkable year. The average GCSE A*-C including Maths and English results across Southwark have gone up by +4 points. Of the 149 education authorities across England and Wales Southwark has moved up from 125th to 110th place. Nationally the average result was +2 better. So Southwark improved at twice this rate.

What a great result for al the efforts of children, parents and teachers. Well done.

Tuesday night the culmination of three years hard work from East Dulwich councillors and council officers, planning permission for the complete renovation of the council Leisure centre in East Dulwich was given. Phew.

The original recognition came during the East Dulwich campaign in January 2006 that the centre was sub standard and unacceptable. It hadn’t had major investment in over fifty Labour years. On the door steps and in resident surveys many had expressed dissatisfaction. Our own personal experiences bore this out.

So the new renovated leisure centre will have a new DDA compliant entrance on Crystal Palace Road. The swimming pool will have more space around the actual pool making circulation easier and only for actual swimmers. It will also have a proper viewing area so parents can see their kids learning to swim. The pool will be changed from 27m to competition sized 25m. The main gym will be revamped. New dance studios and a cafe.

Overall it is anticipated that the numbers of users will increase to around 50,000 a year. Over half already walk to the centre. 8/9 schools that use the centre walk already.

Wherever possible insulation to modern standard will be installed. New air recycling and heat exchangers and plant. Overall a dramatic reduction in the energy used and CO2 produced to run the centre.

Cllr Richard Thomas and I persuaded the planning committee that the plans needed to have added roof insulation above the swimming pool and gym hall.

This scheme is one of the reasons I enterred local politics. Making sure local services are something we can all be proud of.

The Labour Government has mismanaged the UK economy to the degree where apart from Northern Rock chaos two multi bank bailouts have been required. Schocking times. All the citizens of the UK and our children will be paying for this debacle for decades to come.

At the same time the Labour Government is setting inflation busting Council rent recommendations. If councils don’t follow the recommendations they get severely penalised.

I guess ‘recommending’ a 5.8% increase in council rents when retail price inflation is at 0.9% is one way the Labour government will start paying for the bank fiasco’s. A stealth tax on the poor and neady.

Who would ever have thought a Labour government would be driven to such retrograde policies.

The East Dulwich councillors - Richard Thomas, Jonathan Mitchell and myself - helped establish a Crime Reduction fund in East Dulwich ward.

The latest actions this fund is taking is the purchase of 50 Alertboxes to create an electronic neighbourhood watch scheme in Crystal Palace Road between Whateley Road and Lordship Lane. This patch is a crime hotspot for East Dulwich as identified by the East Dulwich Police Safer Neighbourhood team. This enhanced electronic neighbourhood watch should see neighbours working more closely together.

Combined with SelectaDNA property marking kits the Police will engage residents to install Alertboxes and demonstrate how to use them. Installing the Alertboxes will magnify neighbours looking out for each other and we should see a dramatic reduction in reported crime.

Today the Labour government announced a third runway at Heathrow. It has decided to sacrifice carbon emissions, noise pollution and the huge detrimental impacts on millions of residents in London and South-East England.

I often travel through London’s airports on business. I much more often use voice conference calls and video conference calls. If I have to travel my company pays the market price. I have all the flight connections from London I could need. I’m spoilt for choice and can time my flights out and return easily.

So why do we need to increase the number of flights from Heathrow from the current 480,000 flights to 720,000! 

But the majority of people using Heathrow and other airports are travelling for leisure. This is ridiculously cheap. Expanding Heathrow will make air travel even cheaper as its doesn’t pay for the noise pollution, carbon emissions it causes. Air travel also pays little tax compared to other forms of transport.

It will mean more flights flying over Southwark epseically Camberwell and East Dulwich. The Government hasn’t even announced an end to night flights as a tiny compromise.

More fundamentally why does a Labour government want to ensure air travel becomes cheaper and easier so that wealthier UK residents can travel abroad to spend money and create jobs abroad. We want this money spent in the UK creating jobs in the UK. Truly bizarre government policy.

Do you think air travel should be expanded or limited?

Should we encourage UK residents to spend money in the UK creating jobs or abroad?

Many residents in East Dulwich are so good at recyclnig that they hardly fill their existing 240Litre green rubbish bin.

Did you know that you can request a smaller 180Litre green rubbish bin?

It takes up less spaces and is easier to move around. Just call 020 7525 2000 to ask for this bin swap.

 Equally, if you find one blue box or one blue bag is not enough then ask for more by calling the same number.

Bendy buses were introduced some years ago into London. In East dulwich we’ve had a number of problems - where they terminate in Lordhip Lane/Friern Road, toilets for bus drivers who in desperations have used front gardens much to everyone’s disgust, junctions have been widened to allow them to turn and for others to then speed, bus stops hugely extended

The Mayor of London has decided to retire bendy buses form the streets of London.

Has he budgeted to put everything back to ‘normal’?

• All those junctions made tighter to stop speeding?
• Bus stops shortened?
• Kerb build outs shortened?
• Bus stands shrunk back to sensible size?

I will find out.

Burgess Park creation was started after World Ward Two in the post war ruins between Albany Road and St.Geroge’s Way. It came from the 1943 Abercrombie plan for London’s open spaces and has been assembled over the decades. London County Council surveyors while recording all the war damage recognised that with large swathes of London flattened it was an opportunity to reconfigure London.

My great aunt had a shop on Albany Road that was demolished along with many homes as part of the creation of this park. It will be quite an achievement when Burgess Park is eventually finished - perhaps in time for the 70th year since the idea was first conceived.

Why so much damage in South London?

V1 rockets were fired from Normandy directly south of Tower Bridge which was the aiming point the Nazis used. V2 rockets were fired from Normandy directly east of Tower Bridge.

Apparently the Nazis briefed field agents to report if these weapons and earlier bombing raids had hit the target. Most if not all of these Nazi agents had been “turned” and the War Cabinet debated whether these double-agents should be used to send back inaccurate reports to Germany. During July 1944 a secret report was prepared for the War Cabinet to illustrate what the impact would be on various London boroughs of a deception operation to convince the Nazis that V1’s were overshooting and thus further shorten their range and miss central London. The Minister of Home Security, Lambeth MP Herbert Morrison, opposed the idea of playing ‘God’, perhaps also suspecting an attempt to protect government officials and the wealthy at the expense of working people in south London. It seems that the War Cabinet agreed that the plan would be wrong in principle, but apparently a final decision was – exceptionally – not minuted in writing. This exceptional ambiguity has led many to conclude that attempts by the intelligence services to deceive the Nazis continued.

Bermondsey had the most V1 hits per 1,000 acres, Camberwell came 3rd and Lambeth 4th. It appears the War Cabinet had decided to play god. The Citizens of Southwark were being sacrificed to help protect Westminster and the City of London. The implication was that this was a continuation of earlier policies regarding bombing raids. Thirty percent of homes in Bermondsey, Camberwell and Southwark were destroyed or very badly damaged. The residential population halved between 1939 and 1941.

In recognition of the 5,349 residents of Bermondsey, Camberwell and Southwark killed of seriously injured - many as a result of these deception operations to protect the seat of central government - a gesture of penance is long overdue.

Making Burgess Park a Royal Park in my mind would be such a gesture.

What do you think?

The Government has decided to create 200 new bail hostels without publicy telling anyone where they are thinking of putting them. In secret they plan to talk with senior Police and council officers around the country.

Until very recently friends lived next to such a hostel. They had significant problems because mechanisms to manage it and the residents were not in place. The governments idea to create 200 new hostels without involving the public to ensure such governance mechanisms are in place is irresponsible.

Bail hostels are clearly needed. If they are ineffective offenders will be more likely to reoffend or not integrate fully into society. Without consulting with the public or having to follow the full planning process such checks and balances will not be in place.

Frankly such behaviour is soft on crime and the causes of crime. If you happen to come across one in East Dulwich please do get in touch so we can try and ensure it helps the residents rehabilitate and doesn’t cause local issues for residents.

World Kidney Day, which takes place on 12 March this year, is designed to raise awareness about how import kidneys are crucial role in keeping us alive and well. The day is also to help spread the word that kidney disease is common, harmful and treatable.
The theme is “Keep the Pressure Down” highlighting the importance of high blood pressure as one of the key symptoms and causes of chronic kidney disease.
Many people who suffer kidney problems are children and ensuring we all keep hydrated is crucial to healthy kidneys.

Kids Kidney Research have put together a information pack aimed at primary school children, with a selection of fun and exciting ideas on how to mark this important day which can be found at http://www.worldkidneyday.org/

Hopefully many Primary schools in Southwark will be taking part.

On Tuesday the South London Press launched a campaign to ’save four libraries’ they suggest are proposed for closure. It then went on to suggest how Southwark libraries are under resourced, etc, etc.

This is the same Southwark Council that has announced a new state of the art Library for Canada Water. Has increased the opening hours at several libraries. Is currently revamping the John Harvard library and Local Studies library.

Many options are presetned by council officers near budget times.

Southwark Liberal Democrat councillors have no plans to reduce the numbers of libraries in Southwark. It is a shame when a local newspaper tries to start creating such unfounded news.

The Beckley Foundation http://www.beckleyfoundation.org/ has produced a report about drugs policy. Its research states that alcohol and tobacco drugs are the most harmful in terms of numbers badly affected and the affects on users and society. Then other illegal drugs and lastly cannabis. They’ve suggested that most of the harm from cannabis is criminalising people, that criminals produce cannabis that is very high strength and more likely to cause physchosis as so much is now grown indoors under continuous lighting.

They will be proposing to the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna during March about cannabis that ”The damage done by prohibition is worse than from the substance itself”. Dynamite. They propose legalisation, taxation, controls in terms of adult use only and restricted strength. They don’t suggest its a healthy substance but that criminalising so many young people is more harmful than the ill effects it causes. Equally they point out roughly 80% of illegal drug use is of cannabis. That if cannabis use was legally controlled then crime enforcement could be concentrated on the 20% of ‘harder’ drugs. Imagine five times the resources targetted on heroin and cocaine crime.

Lambeth Police took a softly softly approach over cannabis which seemed to backfire as it attracted many people from outside Lambeth looking for drugs. That was bad news.

I don’t feel comfortable with this report and the challenges to my personal beliefs it presents. But the harm reported by keeping cannabis illegal feels compelling.

The Scientific evidence is such that the UK government should seriously investigate what would be best overall policy for fighting the harmful affects of drugs in the UK. Clearly the current ‘war on drugs’ feels lost and changing the game in some way is necessary.

While out and about in East Dulwich and Southwark generally I see and report and have removed a lot of graffiti. I make about 4 or 5 reports a week.  You get to wondering how graffiti can be stopped permanently.

The East Dulwich Lib Dem councillors have funded over 1,000 SelectaDNA property marking kits. They retail at £47.95 each so huge investment in making East Dulwich a much harder target to burglars.

I wonder if the two technologies - spray cans and DNA style property marking kits could be combined. Register purchasers of spray cans. When graffiti found take sample of the paint and match it to the original registered purchaser. Who in their right mind would use spray cans for graffiti ever again.

National legislation would be required but what a different England would look like with no graffiti.