Speed cameras

Oh bloody hell.

The tory side of the national coalition has won out on speed cameras. We all know that they work. People slow down. Point speed cameras have an impact but average speed cameras are fantastic. Average speed cameras result in 99%+ speed limit adherence over the area they cover.

Well documented that speed limit adherence saves lives. Its not just well documented but peer reviewed research papers have proven it. Many are peevish about how safe they are and speed limits should’nt apply to people that drive as they do. Well everyone feels safe until that crash.

The revenue from speeding fines goes direct to the treasury and does’nt touch the sides of the enforcing authority the treasury then allocates funds to run cameras as per politician decisions. This was a silly change made by labour that urgently needs to be reversed.

Tory minsters have stated they’re ‘ending the war on motorists’. With this they mean they’re reducing the funds allocated to run speed cameras. So when we see more children killed, more multiple pile ups you know exactly which person is responsible – tory Secretary of State for Transport Phil Hammond. Of course speeding in our country is considered by most as ok until they’ve had the impact on family or circle of friends of a crash. Hopefully this selfish attitude will change as our country becomes more mature over speed as it did over drink driving all those years ago.

In a sane world local authorities would keep speed cameras fines and have to fund the cameras themselves. If residents think their council is overly zealous in enforcing the LAW about speed they vote them out. It’s called democracy.

In the mean time many local authorities are closing shop on speed cameras – Swindon, Oxford are some of the first.

Elephant&Castle southern roundabout

Work has started changing the E&C southern roundabout to a signalised junction.

The plans look to more civilise the this area and should make it much better for pedestrians who will be able to cross at street level rather than via forbidding underpasses. Also, should be an improvement for cyclists.

So good for getting from A to B and also good for reducing fear of crime.

I still think it could be even more ambitious but its taken years to get Transport for London to even agree these changes.

Latest crime stats

The latest crime stats by ward are available from the Metropolitan Police.

It shows East Dulwich is the safest ward in Southwark. The 108th out of 624 wards in London – so well and truly top quartile – but for the 243 inner London ward East Dulwich is the joint 7th safest ward.

I’m delighted that all the effort my ward councillors and I and resources we’ve allocated and put into crime fighting along with the dedication and expertise of the East Dulwich Police Safer Neighbourhood Team have paid even more dividends.

But how can we reduce crime further through prevention?

One-way streets

Southwark Council has a rolling programme to review all one-way streets to ensure they are truly required. On one-way streets people drive much father making it at best unpleasant for cycling and walking and at worst much more dangerous. It also creates very long detours making it attractive for some to cycle on pavements or the wrong way.

I used to live on Tabard Street which had a crazy one-way gyratory. It took several years to persuaded Transport For London to remove it but boy what a step improvement for the area. Still marked on maps as major road even though very little goes down it.

Closer to home in East Dulwich this review should cover Crawthew, Etherow and Henslowe as well as finalising the cycle contraflow on Spurling Road.

The contraflow cycle path on Rye Lane is taking an eternity but what a great change that will see.

If you have any views on one-way streets please let me know.

East Dulwich Cleaner, Green, Safer 10_11

The East Dulwich councillors have selected the following schemes for Cleaner, Greener, Safer funding:

– Traffic calming in East Dulwich bounded and including Lordship Lane, East Dulwich Grove and Melbourne Grove specifically including Matham Grove. £25,000.

– East Dulwich Carbon Fund funding measures to reduce CO2 and fuel proverty in East Dulwich. £30,000. First £25,000 allocated to addressing the 647 homes without loft insulation in East Dulwich which is the most cost effective way of reducing CO2. Last £5,000 to try other ideas.

– Goose Green school greenwall planting along Grove Vale. £5,000. Reducce the visual impact of Goose Green school on Grove Vale and as important create a much better play environment for school kids both visually, but also green wals absorb pollution and noise.

– East Dulwich Crime Prevention Fund. £10,000. Further projects to build on the huge success of preventing crime in East Dulwich.

– Gating alleyways. Installing more alley gates in East Dulwich specifically on Northcross Road and Shawbury Road. Eliminating more anti social hotspots.

– Street trees. £12,400. Planting more street tress in East Dulwich. So far around 220 tress planted in last four years. Plan to experiment with planting them in new build outs further from peoples homes and calming traffic.

– East Dulwich station extra covered waiting area. £6,000. Matched funding with Southern Railways. Make using East Dulwich station into central London more comfortable and pleasant to use.

– Bicycles for Schools. £8,000. Offer every East Dulwich school access to bicycle pools.

– Eco dry cleaners. £2,000. Encourage East Dulwich dry cleaners to become eco dry cleaners. Currently dry cleaners use Perchlorate chemicals which can be carninogenic. Other chemicals can be less eco damaging.

 I had also applied to other wards for CGS projects which were rejected:

– Expanding Dulwich Library £5,000

– Crime prevention funds for Village ward, College ward, Peckham Rye ward. Really disappointed by this as easy cheap measures to reduce crime have not been adopted. Some fellow councillors seem to view crime prevention as purley a Police matter.

Missing 50,000 residents

One of my councillor colleagues testified to the London Regional Parliamennts Select Committee regarding the 2011 census. The MPs heard a unified message from Newham, Southwark and Westminster councils about how hard it is to count residents.

Each resident attracts roughly £600 of funding from central government.

Currently central government believes 270,000 residents are residents in Southwark. Southwark currently has 320,000 people registered with GPs. That means roughly £30M of central government grants are not being made to Southwark.

It seems unlikely as planned the 2011 Census will close any of that gap. Worringly it could well open it up further.

Calculating crime

At last a Police force has engaged professional mathematicians. The LAPD are worknig with University of California. They’ve come up with two equations that could explain crime hotspots into two types.

If I’ve understood correctly:

“supercritical” – small spikes in crime rates pass a critical threshold and create a local crime wave.

“subcritical” – when a particular factor such as a drug den causes a large spike in crime.

 They state that the equations suggest that rigorous policing could completely eliminate subcritical hotspots but simply displace supercritical crime.

So the key would be keeping below supercritical thresholds and quickly dealing with subcritical factors.

Any local mathematicians available for pro bono work?

Mayor Boris Johnson cuts 455 Police officers

For many months GLA Lib Dems have been highlighting that London police officer numbers are set to fall. Just before Christmas Mayor Boris Johnson was directly challenged about his proposed cut in Police numbers as per his draft budget for 2010-2011. These advanced warnings are now being picked up on and this week were reported in the Guardian newspaper.

Lib Dems proposed a reversal to this cut and to also allow extra police officers for boroughs with the higher gun and knife crime while reducing the overall budget. The Lib Dem proposals can be seen in the group’s budget amendment.

How will this affect Southwark and East Dulwich?
455/32 London Boroughs would result in something like one less police officer for East Dulwich. It doesn’t sound much but we only have one Police sargent and two police officers supported by five Police Community Support Officers covering East Dulwich at present.

Labour’s 4,300 new criminal offences

Since coming to power in 1997 the Labour government has created over 4,300 new criminal offences. That’s around one for every single day in power.

apparently when Tony Blair was Prime Minister 27 new criminal offences a month were being created but under Gordon Brown’s premiership it has accelerated to 33 a month.

Some have likened this to ‘legislative diarrhoea’.

Importantly has it reduce the fear of crime or solves great issues?

I can’t say I feel any safer. Do you?

Friern Road bus stands

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.