UN drug policy report

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.

Graffiti – how can we stop it?

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.

Leaseholder building insurance

Southwark Council has 13,000 leaseholders where it is the freeholder. After a very thorough consultation process with leaseholders Zurich has been the supplier of building insurance for two and a half years. The renewal date is April 2009.

Due to the lengthy consultation process required it’s considered too late to consider a full tendering process so officers are recommending the Zurich contract be extended by one year.

Zurich appear to have very carefully selected the date to consider any increase in charges via the rebuilding prices index produced by the Royal Institute of Charterered Surveyors as October. October was a high at 6.6% per annum which Zurich proposed to round up to 7%. How thoughtful. Whereas December is 5.2% and we can reasonably be sure in the current economic climate will fall further.

http://www.bcis.co.uk/rebuildingcosts/index/rebuildingcosts.htm

For leaseholders of Southwark council properties the difference between 7.0% and 5.2% will be an average of £2.68 for every leaseholder.

Clearly this is wrong and I will endeavour for more rigourous supplier management of Zurich to take place to get these increases minimised.

Bakerloo tube extension to Denmark Hill

1952 the planned extension of the Baklerloo line from Elephant & Castle via the Walworth Road, Camberwell Green to Denmark Hill was cancelled. They extended the line about 1km ,contructed three ventilation tunnels and then stopped.

Recently London Mayor Boris Johnson has cancelled the Cross River Tram that would have run parallel to much of this Bakerloo Line extension but targetted towards Peckham.

The Bakerloo Line is the only tube line in London not running at capacity. Ideal for extending. Transport for London working with AMEC/Royal Bank of Scotland has just extended the Docklands Light Railway by 2.5km to Woolwich Arsenal contructing two stations and going under the River Thames for £180m.

The distance from the end of the Bakerloo Line to Denmark Hill is 2.5km.

The benefits to Camberwell, the Aylesbury estate and surrounding areas would amount to considerably more than £200m.

How can we make this happen?

Policing & Crime Bill

The Labour Government has backed down from it proposals for locally elected representatives on new Police boards.

We could have had the situation where locally elected councillors were seeking one thing from the Police and this conflicted with locally elected Police board representatives views.

I’m not clear what the new proposals are but hopefully they involve using already locally elected councillors.

East Dulwich street parties 2009

For the past two years Upland Road has held a very successful street party early each September. Abby Taubin has done a maginificent job helping organse her neighbours . For 2009 a new organsier Polly Collier had taken on this role. To maneuvre around legally required red tape that Southwark by law has to follow the East Dulwich councillors especially Richard Thomas have helped. We’ve also found a little funding to help avoid charging residents for advertising of the legal notices.

However, for 2009 I’d like to extend the invite to all other streets in the East Dulwich ward. It costs the same to advertise and raise a traffic order for one or 100 streets. If you think your street would like to be closed for a Sunday in September to hold a street party then let me know and we’ll try helping you achieve this.

East Dulwich cycle saturation

As part of this years Cleaner, Greener, Safer scheme the East Dulwich councillors awarded money to help local East Dulwich schools increase cyclnig to school.

Its just been announced that Goose Green and St.Anthony’s RC schools are the most suitable for this.

Fingers crossed it all goes to plan and we see an increase in children cycling to these local schools.

CBI demand public sector pensions enquiry

I read this with amazement. In Southwark the council has a pensions hole which we’re on track to fill. Much of these problems were when central government disbanded ILEA and other pan London bodies and didn’t ensure the pensions pots were filled at that time. Southwark picked up a mess and we’re gradually fixing it.

However, many other public sector areas have no pension funds as such. Fire Brigades typically pay pensions from current incomes. The audit Commission explained a decade ago that this was going to get worse and no plans for a pension funds have been put in place. So the CBI is right to point out that Public sector pensions are messy and need a proper plan to resolve.

While investigating and deciding what to do with public sector pensions a look at private sector pensions should take place. It is universally prevalent that executives reward themselves with extremely generous pensions – often final salary – while removing and reducing such benefits from all other employees. This is crass hypocracy and the CBI should seek its membership to get their houses in order. Equally the government could pass legislation that private companies are only allowed to have one pension scheme. I suspect personal interests of executives would ensure all employees pensions would then improve.

Elected members of police authorities

The latest queens speach setting out the Labour governments legislative plans included the proposal of elected a few members of Plice authorities.

So the proposal is to elect a minority of Police authorities members. Police authorities, except in extreme circumstances, influence local Police but don’t control or direct them. So we’re being asked to vote for people who infuence an influencing board of the Police. We’re being asked to elect a minority of members of those boards. How will that change anything?

Ideally local Police should have priorities set politically by elected politicians.  Those politicians should be on the hook for local taxation to pay for local Police. That is the way for real locally accountable poltiics of local Policing.

Mrs Lambert

In July this year a resident in north Southwark Mrs.Lambert died under very sad circumstances. Those circumstances are being investigated by Southwark Council’s CEO Annie Shepherd via an indepedent investigator. They will report back to the Coroner. Before this detailed investigation starts Southwark Labour party requested an extraordinary full council meeting which took place last night.

Regretably it descended into a farce with Labour oppositions councillors trying to turn the evening into a kangaroo court with repeated allegations from Labour councillors of a cover up and of officers and executive members keeping it all secret. The facts at the time were issued in a council press release 4 August which were printed on 12 August in local papers. So much for keeping it all secret and a cover up.

At the time I read this story of a frail 84 yrear old lady being discovered dead at her home. It resonated and troubled me as one of my grandmothers had fallen over knocked her head and wasn’t discovered dead until the day after it happened by neighbours. Tragically sad and moving whenever this occurs.

Amazingly 28 labour councillors either don’t read the South London Press or couldn’t be bothered to ask questions about this sad death that they now claim to be so upset and troubled by. Either this implies the Labour opposition has 28 lazy councillors or are being extremely cynical.

I did ask questions at the time and have kept up on how the process to investigate this has occurred. I do await the reports recommendations and will help ensure they are carried out. This is how positive politicians should behave.

We now await the independent investigation results which are due before February.