It was great news to hear that the high court challenge 3 day challenge was successful. The judicial review challenging the process was upheld and effectively the government has to start again. This is a good result for the government as a daft policy can be reviewed. It delays things until after elections. Starting all over again means that the stark sense of global warming will have more impact on any decision and High speed 2 will have hopefully made at least some planning progress.
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.
Recycling in Southwark parks.
The Dulwich Park Pavilion cafe have come up with a great question – why can’t park visitors recycle rubbish when they visit Dulwich park?
After investigating Southwark parks are maintained by Quadron who collect all rubbish from parks and take to Southwark rubbish contractors Veolia. So absolutely no reason why Quadron couldn’t keep generall rubbish in one type of bag and comingled recycling in another type of bag.
Veolia and Quadron just need to advise the ideal contianers for this and the Village ward councillors just need to fund via the cleaner, Greener, Safer funding the bid made by the Pavilion Cafe so that a dozen recycling bins can be bought (around £3,000).
Fingers crossed they do.
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.
Keeping East Dulwich special – shops
As local councillors we’re absolutely committed to keeping East Dulwich special – one of the main reasons I became a councillor. It’s clear from residents responding to our Keep East Dulwich Special surveys that one key characteristic of our area is the preponderance of small local independent shops and businesses. None of us want Lordship Lane to become a ‘clone’ high street with repetitions of all the same shops from national chains. We all want a balance and don’t want more of our local shops to become estate agents, bars or restaurants. As a councillor I’ve helped ensure that we have legally enforceable policies so that at least half of retail units remain exactly that, retail units. But we’d really welcome your thoughts on whether 50% is the right balance.
Perhaps it should be 60%?
However, this policy doesn’t enable councillors to decide which shop is owned by whom, or stop a particular shop being sold from one retailer to another. So the recent Sainsbury’s Local opening near Dulwich Library has caused consternation for many residents. This particular site is a tricky balance between creating something to attract more shoppers, not killing the local small shops but in fact generating more business from residents who previously drove elsewhere for all their shopping.
Southwark parks survey
Southwark Council would like to know your experiences of open spaces in Southwark.
See www.southwark.gov.uk/parkssurvey or for a paper copy please call 020 7525 0855.
It took me about 2 minutes to complete. Bit long winded but worth persevering with as the results will be analysed and pored over.
Car clubs in East Dulwich
Southwark Council is negotiating with which preferred Car CLub supplie rshould have 85 dedicated car clubs parking spaces around Southwark.
Car clubs are a great concept and have shown that each car club car replaces 8-15 private cars. Most private cars sit parked up 95%+ of their lives. Also, car club members tend to increase their thinking about travel and use publci transport more.
To accelerate this the East Dulwich councillors allocated £10,000 for extra Car Club spaces in East Dulwich. These spaces have been proposed no casework feedback about parking issues AND to ensure that generally an East Dulwich resident will have car club space within 200m of their home.
The next step is to finalise the Car Club and then the road markings process will happen across Southwark.
The Four Lib Dem national priorities
The four main priorities for how the Liberal Democrats will make Britain a fairer place have been announced: fair taxes; a fair start for every child; fair, clean and local politics; and a fair, green economy with jobs that last.
The first priority is to introduce fair taxes, with radical proposals for the biggest tax reform in generations. The Liberal Democrats will close loopholes for the richest and introduce a tax on mansions to fund tax cuts of £700 for everyone else. No-one will pay income tax on the first £10,000 they earn, meaning millions of low earners and pensioners will stop paying taxes altogether, while millions more will get hundreds of pounds back in their pockets. Only the Liberal Democrats will make taxes permanently fair.
The next priority is to give every child the fair start they deserve through a huge transformation of our education system that will build the foundations of fair society. That means cutting class sizes so children get the individual attention they need Read the rest of this entry. Read the rest of this entry.
Sustainable Communities Act
This act enables residents to indetify and suggest ways to improve local areas. Only 1/3rd of local councils took part. 293 ideas were proposed of which 8 came from Southwark.
These have been short listed to be discussed by government ministers and 7 of Southwark’s 8 have made it to this final list:
1. Southwark camera partnership – Transfer of funding to a Southwark camera partnership, which would redistribute revenue towards services such as road calming measures and have the power to move existing cameras.
2. Relax the requirement for 20mph zones – It should be at the discretion of the council whether there are self enforcing calming measures and what form they take
3. National plastic bag free day – No exchange of plastic bags between retailer and customer on a given day.
4. A duty on Network Rail and any other rail operators – A duty to be imposed on Network Rail and any other rail operators to work in partnership with local authorities and local communities to safeguard and improve the environment directly relating to railway land and infrastructure
5. Smooth leaseholder repair bills – Change in the rules to allow councils to take deposits and prudently invest leaseholder funds, on a voluntary basis, to help smooth leaseholder repairs bills.
6. Unlawful use of properties – Penalties for unlawful use of a property, with the council having the ability to impose civil penalties on the freeholder to cover the costs of planning enforcement.
7. Permaculture design principles – A permissive regime that enables Council to prioritise permaculture design principle in local planning policy.
All great ideas (the first was my idea) that would make a real difference to Southwark.
Fingers crossed they don’t get lost in the general election period but that most proceed.
Christmas Trees
In a few days time we’ll all be starting to take our festive decorations down.
If you have a real Christmas tree you can dispose of it by putting it out on garden waste recycling days. Or locally take them to Peckham Rye Park (near the cafe) or Belair Park (car park).
If you’re disabled, elderly or don’t have transport and don’t have a garden waste collection service, you can arrange to have your Christmas tree collected. To book a collection appointment between 5th and 29th of January call 020 7525 2000.
The following is a list of the next garden waste recycling collections in the New Year for East Dulwich:
Archdale Road Tuesday 12 January
Ashbourne Grove Tuesday 5 January
Barry Road Tuesday 5 January
Bassano Street Tuesday 5 January