Capital Projects

At the last Dulwich Community Council meeting we decided (in no particular order) how to allocate our limited capital to projects:

1. Artistically illuminate East Dulwich station bridge £10,000 – we think making the station area more attractive will help reduce crime and the fear of crime there.

2. Go slower signs £6,000 – residents often contact us that people are speeding on there roads but they don’t want speed humps. Where do you think we should put the 4-5 active speed signs?

3. Cycle contraflow on Henslowe Road £8,500 – some residents have told us its a long cycle round while others have told us they don’t like pavement cycling. This should solve both points but we hope to do it for a lot less than the ridiculous sum council officers have suggested.

4. Fix North Cross Road grot spot £4,000 – just by the electricity sub station.

5. Community notice boards £3,000 – they’ve worked well so far and more should work even better.

6. 20mph Lordship Lane £15,000 – we’re hopeful that with the new crossings on Lordship Lane simple signing of a 20mph speed limit will work making Lordship Lane even more attractive.

7. Trees on Lordship Lane £8,500 – we want to make Lordship Lane even greener and more friendly.

8. Goose Green School £5,400 – they’ve asked for help greening the school grounds.

9. Goodrich School £3,300 – they’ve asked for help greening the school grounds.

10. East Dulwich Crime Reduction fund £8,000 – some more funds for local Police to tell us how to reduce crime further.

11. Worlingham Road grot spot £5,000 – space between sheltered accommodation and 31A Worlingham Road.

12. Goose Green playground £5,000 – a little help to make it an even better playground.

Total £81,700 (with reserve of £312).

Buried in details

 Southwark doesn’t take a long-term view of its cemeteries and crematoria.

Southwark residents pay standard fee but non residents pay significantly more. But many Southwark residents and neighbouring borough residents live close to the border. We should have reciprocal arrangement with neighbouring boroughs to allow use of each others facilities at borough resident costs. This would give more options for Southwark residents to be buried or cremated closer to family etc and vice versa. It would also remove perverse situations where people across the road from a facility get charged significantly more than a family living several miles away but on the right side of the artificial borough boundaries.

Partnering with a body, such as Kemeal Manor, which has cemetery and crematoria capacity in outer SE London/NW Kent where many Southwark residents children have migrated away from Southwark would be useful and give Southwark extended families more options. Equally such graves would be cheaper as the land is less valuable and it would help conserve burial space within Southwark.

Saturday’s burials and cremations are apparently difficult to arrange with Southwark.

Cemeteries

Private cemeteries typically hold 25% of burial fees to maintain cemeteries into perpetuity i.e. endowed. Southwark solely funds maintenance from current burial revenues. Hence Nunhead cemetery, where many of my family are buried, is an overgrown wilderness.

Lots of infill is available in Southwark cemeteries. So actual capacity is significantly higher than currently reported.

Plot ownership – ideally this should occur when the funeral director is paid a la City of London. Currently families can be passed cemetery plot ownership having not paid the funeral director fees.

Muslim believers must be buried as indeed must some others faiths. So crucial we keep our cemetery capacity.

But we do need to increase the future number of burials Southwark can host. One method is to lift out a coffin, dig the hole deeper and then re-place the original coffin back down ‘lift&drop’. A new coffin can then be placed in the old coffin’s original position. Limiting this to graves over 100 years old alone would largely solve cemetery space – potentially we could reuse much of Nunhead cemetery which with an endowment policy in place would see a permanent improvement to Nunhead maintenance (NB. some of my relatives are buried there).

For the Camberwell cemetery where builders rubble etc problems have been experienced we should create vaulting which some cultures particularly favour and allows many more internments for the area available. This would require significant capital hence the attraction of external investment. 

Crematoria

Considerable funds have been spent on this site within the last year eighteen months but at no point have funeral directors been seriously consulted ie. the principal users representatives.

In the 1970’s around 14 cremations took place each day but now circa 4 a day anecdotally. So huge capacity available if run properly. Currently crematoria doesn’t flow maximising privacy for families and helping more cremations taking place per day reducing the price that needs to be charged. Talking to others and attending some cremations other crematoria have ½ hour slots and the buildings designed for cremation parties to flow through the crematoria.

Conclusions

We have no need to use Honor Oak Recreation site for more cemetery places. We should sell it to Lewisham with a covenant that it wont be used for anything other than sports and recreation. Lewisham then have to fund its maintenance and it is located in Lewisham.

One proviso is perhaps moving the fence 2m to allow a strip of several hundred burials.

Recommendations:

–     Ensure 25% of burial fees placed into long term maintenance endowment fund.

–     Form user group of funeral directors to ensure their regular feedback include the relevant cabinet member and relevant shadow cabinet member.

–     Lease our facilities on long leases e.g. 25 or 50 years so that the necessary capital funding can take place but include requirement for each cemetery and crematoria to achieve green flag status and public access. Include pricing requirements about inner long average pricing.

–     Seek partnerships for cemetery and crematoria capacity outside Southwark to be booked via Southwark e.g Kemeal Manor or similar that could have a Southwark section.

–     Start lift and shift policy for graves over 100 years old.

–     Promote cremation to help burial space go further.

 What do you think – tell me – james.barber@southwark.gov.uk

Crossovers

People park their cars on their front gardens for a variety of reasons in East Dulwich. Some to ensure they can park outside their home, others for security. Every crossover adds an extra place for pedestrians to be injured – they’re mini junctions.

One very simple idea some residents have proposed is that when new crossovers are proposed is to ensure that they are safe under section 184(5) of the highways Act 1980 to require a mini speed hump at the edge of the pavement with the private land. Sections 184(3) & (4) and (1b) of the same act allows local authorities to impose such conditions.

Crossovers need to also ensure that they are largely at the level of the pavement maintaining the pedestrian priority and NOT lowered to create a mini bits of new highway.  Only then can we ensure pavements are fully attractive for walking and safe for our children.

New Lordship Lane crossing – update

This is the latest update I’ve received from council officers. Generally good and progress news.

Site 1 (Lordship Lane / East Dulwich Grove) is now fully complete and was commissioned for use at 9:30am yesterday. I am pleased to inform you that the facility is working well and is already heavily used by pedestrians. The operation of the signals is also assisting with local traffic management by assisting vehicles turning in and out of East Dulwich Grove whilst the lights are red to general traffic on Lordship Lane.

Site 2 (Outside the Supermarket) has been constructed (including all civils works, footway buildout, carriageway table, antiskid surfacing and paving). Unfortunately we are still waiting for BT to disconnect the existing telephone box outside the supermarket, which is in line with the western crossing location. We have requested a detailed response from BT as to why there has been a delay in disconnecting the power supply to the box when their planning application and agreement to proceed with the scheme was granted in September last year. We anticipate that we will have a confirmed date by the end of the week and TfL are on standby to install the signal equipment once this date has been confirmed.

Once the telephone box has been disconnected and removed, then it will take approximately 5 days to install and commission the new signals. I will keep you updated accordingly.

The new parking bays are currently being installed, with line marking and sign post implementation to be completed by the 30th March.

Food Fight

The coalition appears to be heading for a food fight with plans to ban Environmental Health Officers from having the right to enter food premises to ensure they’re safe and not causing food poisoning and risking public health.

The Protection of Freedoms Bill could result in EHO’s only being able to inspect premises with the invitation of owners or a court order. Obtaining court orders takes time – allowing food poisoning to spread OR the owner to cover-up whatever the root causes of poisoning have been. The same type of problems are likely for pollution control inspectors and trading standards officers.

I really think this is a case of throwing out good regulations. Most people who eat out do so on the basis of believing businesses are responsible and regulations will find out the bad businesses. Breaking that covenant means people will feel less certain their health wont be compromised by the perfectly innocent act of spending money in local food businesses. To rely on outbreaks of food poisoning to catch badly run businesses and inspections where the business is forewarned to put on an act will see more instance of food poisoning.

Hopefully no one in East Dulwich will become a martyr for the foolishness of these changes.

Draft House

Blackcherry appears to have been sold and renamed Draft House.

The first thing the new owners do – talk to neighbours NOPE but apply for shorter licensing hours.

They have applied to be open Thus, Fri and Sat 10am until 1am and the  rest of the week 10am until midnight. Draft House licensing extensions. This is dramatic improvement on the current 2am and 3am closing.

If you think Lordship Lane and East Dulwich already has enough anti social problems from late night revellers then please do SUPPORT this application by emailing licensing@southwark.gov.uk and please copy me james.barber@southwark.gov.uk. Equally if you think we don’t have enough late night drinking tell me that.

The only tweak would be closing at midnight on Thursday.

Whenever you see or hear any anti social problems that don’t warrant a 999 call please do call the the non emergency 101 number. Without reporting problems they never happened as far as licensing and Police officers are concerned and businesses can keep on causing alcohol fuelled problems for East Dulwich.

But this application is a move towards a saner East Dulwich.

MisAdventure

This week the Adventure Bar on Lordship Lane licensing application to remain open on Thursday nights until 2am and bank holiday Sundays until 2am was decided. They wanted to add to the current Friday and Saturday 2am closing.

The Licensing Sub Committee did not allow Thursday night opening until 2am but has allowed bank holiday Sundays until 2am which this year will happen four times.

Big thank you to everyone who objected and to Fred and Joe who attended the hearing with me. I’m really sorry for all the anti social behaviour this bar and Boho bar are causing you.

So, please whenever you experience anti social behaviour locally that is not an emergency please DO report it via the 101 non emergency number. Failure to report problems means officially they never happen and make it very hard to resist more late night licenses and longer licensed hours.

Circular economy

The circular economy is about ensuring all waste can and is reused or recycled. A new report by McKinsey suggests that redesigning our economies to run in this way would ultimately save $340 to $630 billion per years in material costs alone. Versus the current linear economy we live in where much can’t be reused or recycled and is toxic to some degree.

It’s about minimising materials used and ensuring that those that are used don’t get so mixed up you can’t easilly reuse or recycle them.

Great schematic showing this:

Burgess Park

The Burgess Park landscaping is making progress. I’ve a real soft spot for this park to fully be as I’ve past relatives homes under the grass!

Sadly a local business in the SW area of the park on Southampton Way burnt down. Even more dreadful it appears arson is to blame. I can only imagine the horror of losing a business.

I think Southwark Council should offer to buy the business out and seek to incorporate the land into the park. It fronts a large wildness area and would open up this corner.

Fingers crossed something can be done that helps the business owner out of the terrible loss of their business while helping the park out of a grotty corner.

Wired Plants

Researchers have produced electricity directly from plants. Five years ago just a few milliwatts m2 but now at 200mW/m2. During the next two years they expect to more than double this to 500mW/m2.

Solar panels and wind turbines generate around 5W/m2. So some way to go but this is a brand new technology.

A happy is effect is sucking out electrons reduces te production of methane from plants so it’s combined electricity production and methane reduction is a double positive whammy to help the planet avoid global warming.

Amazing stuff because green electricity producing roofs also provide great insulation, rainwater storage, help urban sustainable drainage, and are useful animal habitats.

Hopefully this technology will take a lot less than the usual 50 years to become ubiquitous.