Upland Road street party – congratulations

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

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

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

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

South London Line

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What can be done?

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

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

Elephant & Castle cycle by-pass report

While having a big tidy up, gearing myself up for the post August council buzz of meetings, I came across two cycle reports regarding the Elephant & Castle cycle by-pass. These reports were based on many hundreds fo hours of volunteer time to producing cycle count data.

Not many people know that cyclists can avoid the Elephant & Castle roundabouts by using a cycle by-pass. It isn’t offer the most direct routes, but it does the job for those of us like me who get enough excitement from life without needing the adrenalin rush of cycling around those roundabouts.

If you’re interested read the attached. The recommendations still seem as valid as eleven years ago. Shows what a good job the author Mark Hubbard and all us volunteers led by Michael Bridgeland did all that time ago.

Under fives care provision

Ofsted has released a report analysing education authorities under five provision and whether it meets standards or not and whether its making a difference.  Looking at the results for Inner London boroughs I find it hard to work out if this report is generally highlighting good or bad newsSaying that it does show dramatic improvements in Southwark.  Its a shame the information isn’t ward based allowing local councillors to get more involved asking challenging questions. I have tried searching through the Ofsted website just for reports on East Dulwich and after a couple of hours hadn’t cracked it. 

Take a look and see what you think and let me know. 

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Leading-to-excellence/Introduction

East Dulwich street lighting

The latest decision relating to Southwarks street lighting have been taken including those in East Dulwich. The East Dulwich Lib Dem cllr Richard Thomas, Jonathan Mitchell and myself made an electoral promise in May 2006 that all East Dulwich street lighting will meet modern standards by May 2010. Such street lighting helps reduce crime and the fear of crime.

This years decision and plan is that the following five East Dulwich streets will have upgrades to modern white lighting:
East Dulwich Road
Goodrich Road
Grove Vale
Lordship Lane
Upland Road

That the following eight East Dulwich roads will have recycled SON lighting upgrading from SOX (orangey/yellow lighting) for white light:
Crystal Palace Road
Dunstans Road
Fellbrigg Road
Friern Road
Heber Road
Rodwell Road
Silvester Road
Thompson Road

If you’d like to see SON and White Halide street lighting in situ they can be seen on  Whateley Road and Landcroft Road.

Terminal 5 is working….. at what?

British Airports Authority have been plastering all the media they can find to promote that Heathrow Terminal 5 ‘is working’ after the incredibly unedifyingspectacle that was its original opening.

Working at what though….increasing global warming? increasing the number of flights over London including? increasing the number night flights?

I’ve actually been to Terminal 5 and it was a demoralising soulless experience that I will move heaven and earth to avoid again. I suggest you do the same.

Beach weddings

Some friends wanted to get married on a beach. In England we don’t allow that. So they travelled abroad. We don’t allow getting married anywhere outdoors. How weird is that?

Why would the state want to specify that civil weddings and partnerships can only take place in a few very restricted places. I guess our national politicians still feel beholden to making civil weddings feel as close to the style of a state religion wedding as possible. Good luck to those that want to become married via their religion but as a society we really should give people freedom to express this as personally and meaningful a way as they want.

For me my civil wedding would have felt as loving, passionate and sincere in a garden, woods, on a beach, or on a mountain, as it felt in a licensed venue for civil weddings.

Can you imagine getting married in Dulwich Woods, Stave Hill in Russia Dock Woodlands or one of our several Green Flag parks.

TfL learns nothing?

Its been reported that Transport for London has now estimated the cost of building the Cross River Tram would be £1.3 billion but that 40-60% of that would be contingency funds ie. money in place on the self assumption TfL will screw up or not manage its contractors.

Over the last five years TfL extended the Docklands Light Railway from North Woolwich to Woolwich Arsenal with 2.5km of big bore tunnels under the River Thames. This was done on budget and on time.

Why is it that with that recent success TfL feel they can’t repeat such project management. Or is it a Political decision by the London Mayor Boris Johnson and the Labour Government who would have to fund a major part of it to make it sound so expensive that this decision to ‘can it’ is accepted.

Shame on them all.

1984 State Police

Two peace protesters attend a peaceful political meeting in Walworth. A Police photographer wanted to take their photo. They objected to this as they had done nothing wrong. They were arrested and then found guilty of obstructing a Police officer doing his duty.

Is it really a Police officers duty to take photos of citizens attending lawful peaceful political meetings. Orwell 1984 eat your heart out – even if you didn’t think of this as an oppressive form of state Police behaviour. Putin in Russia would be reticent in authorising Russian Police to do this.

I hope that the Police refrain from continuing this practice. Such heavy handed tactics lose the Police friends, politises the Police, and law abidding citizens need the Police to maximise the number of friends the Police have.

Mr E.Mission

Adult habits can be swiftly changed via childrens pester power. You know you should do something and a kit of pestering can get you to d othe right thing. No parent wants their children to have less respect for them.

The Swinbourne University of Technology in Melborune Australia havea great kids game at: www.keepwintercool.com.au

It helps kids indentify how to save electricty and stop the bad guy Mr.E.Mission melting a snowman. My young kids thought it was great. If have kids try it with them. It made them think about turning lights and other items of.