Dulwich Leisure Centre – complete renovation approval

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.

Bank bailouts over council rents

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.

Electronic neighbourhood watch

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.

Heathrow – Government gives up on the environment

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?

Do you need a smaller rubbish bin?

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

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 – candidate for new Royal Park?

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?

Bail hostels – without consultation

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 – 14 March 2009

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.

Library scare mongering

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.