Unforecast snow

Monday afternoon unforecast snow arrived. Council gritting is undertaken 12 hours in advance of icy or snowy weather forecasts as per the Met Office and Meteo. Unforecast snow during day time is terrible as no grit is in place. So day time traffic quickly snarls up and the gritters can’t get through to get gritting. Proverbial nightmare.

To reduce the chances of this Southwark employs two different weather forecasters – one the Met Office and Meteo. Both got it wrong. Arrgh.

So Southwark, as with everyone else, was caught out.

The good news is that we have more resources than most councils to get things moving again – 3 lorry gritters, 80 manual gritters, 500 officers and contractor staff, 1,000 tonnes of salt/grit. But we’ll never have sufficient to clear all 340km of road, 680km of pavements instantly.

Let me know your experiences to help shape the service for the future.

10:10

The Lib Dems were successful last week in getting the Greater London Assembly to finally sign up in support of the 10:10 campaign for cutting carbon emissions.   A similar motion in September was proposed but due to the Conservative Assembly Members walking out of the chamber the motion could not be debated.

Time Out has produced a map of London showing which local authorities have sined up to 10:10. Time Out 10:10 map.

The map clearly shows where Conservatives run the council they don’t sign up to 10:10. It also shows wherever Lib Dems hold any power that local authority has signed up to 10:10.

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.

Bus routes 12 & 37 review

The East Dulwich councillors have been asked to give feedback on local bus services.

We’ve said that generally the lack of bus stop real time information on when buses are expected is suppressing bus passenger demand. Improving this would have the biggest impact on improving custom and the customers experience of any measure that could be taken.

Expressed a niggle is that the onboard information systems are not aligned between bus routes. Some bus routes call the junction of Barry Road with Lordship Lane ‘the Plough’ others call it ‘Dulwich Library’. Ideally London Buses would be organised to agree a common naming convention. Frankly it makes London Buses look at best disorganised. Clearly with the frequent name changes of ‘the Plough’ public house in recent years it would seem safer to align on’ Dulwich Library’. Suspect other examples abound.

The bus stands at the southern end of Friern Road need to have toilet facilities for bus drivers. Currently bus drivers through no fault of their own get caught short with very anti social consequences. Planning permission was given November 2008 for a toilet cabin opposite 391 Friern Road but nothing built yet.

Specifically we’ve also highlighted,

Number 12. When can we have non bendy buses. Presume this is already planned.

Number 37. This bus route seems especially prone to buses bunching. The regulation of bus frequency needs greater emphasis to avoid gaps in service.

Number 68/X68/468. Having an express bus stop at Camberwell and Herne Hill would really help speed East Dulwich residents to get near the area more quickly even though they’d then need to change buses to reach East Dulwich.

What do you think could be improved about the no.12 & 37 bus routes through East Dulwich?

Lee Valley Park – council tax

Every Southwark Council tax payers by law have to pay an extra amount to fund the Lee Valley Regional Park. This linear park runs along the Lee River from Ware in Hertfordshire, through Essex getting ever narrower until it reaches East India Dock Basin.

How many people from Southwark use this facility? They tell me one Southwark school visited their petting farm and the Herne Hill Harriers compete there. – unfortunately they don’t seem to know that HHH are not Southwark based but moved to Tooting Bec many years ago.

I don’t understand why council tax payers shouldn’t either pay prorated for the use they make – with Southwark residents paying little or nothing – or that it comes from central taxation or other non Southwark council tax payers pay proportionally for the use they make of Southwark Parks.

What do you think?

Salt!

For the last 10 months I’ve been making enquiries about Southwark Council salt levels. Last Winter during dreadful 1 in 50 year snowy weather the whole UK effectively ran out of salt and many London roads could’nt be cleared. Some climate scientists have predicted the next 10 years will be colder winters and more likely for more snowy winters before returning to trend for rapid global warming.

Southwark salt storage areas have been confirmed to me as full. 950T of salt. Work on increasing this to 1,100T is being considered.

To ensure the salt is kept in a good condition it is kept covered by tarpaulins. Building a permanent structure over these stock piles has been considered – Eurodome or Cover-All– but the costs and time taken to build are not considered worthwhile compared to the small cost of salt wastage. Tarpaulins do feel a bit ‘Heath Robinson’ but do seem effective and certainly the cheapest option.

However, council officers have told me they are examining:

– ‘Dry Store’ a vented flexible covering. a step up from tarpaulins.

– Salt Union (national salt supplier) for a pan London salt distribution scheme.

– ‘Wet Salting’ involving pre wetted finer grade salt which uses less salt, quicker acting and less affected by high winds (a feature of last winter).

– Improving calibration of salt spreaders which would reduce the wastage and make salt go further.

Fingers crossed we don’t have another ‘1 in 50’ snowy winter. But if we do we’ll be better prepared.

Bulk Rubble

I’ve come across another residents whose had work undertaken on her home. The builders have left her with 20 bags of rubble in her front garden. By law they should take them away and leave a waste transfer note.

Once left how do you get rid of them. Southwark has a bulk refuse service but it isn’t designed to take them and why should it if workmen by law should have. Also, it could be contaminated with asbestos for example. Also, it could mean workmen start leaving bags of rubble and shirk their responsibilities.

IF the householder doesn’t have a car to remove to the municipal recyclnig centre at Manor Place what does the resident do. If they put in their wheelie bin and it noticeably weighs more then it wont be emptied.

Everyone’s stance is perfectly reasonable and justified but it still leaves the odd residents with an intractable problem.

The moral of this story. If you have work done on your home or business make sure they take all the waste with them.

Domestic Extremism

It appears the Labour Government has decided that peaceful protesters are now a threat to national security. Last week they passed laws that allows restrictions on where and when someone may go out what they mat wear or what pet they may keep. Apparently these injunctions are similar to terrroist control orders except that you don’t actually have to have done anything criminal other than be viewed as in a ‘gang’.

So if you don’t believe new nuclear power stations should be built and decided to hold a placard on a grass verge near a site you can now be arrested under the new Serious and Organised Crime Act for up to 51 weeks and/or be fined up to £5,000.

Crazy. I could imagine such laws in a fascist regime, or dictatorship in the 3rd world. But Britain. Now. Deeply saddened.

Saying that. It wont stop the family attending the Climate Chaos march in two weeks time. Hopefully we wont each be fined £5,000 for attending!

London Bridge Station

At the last full council assembly we finally put in place in the new Southwark Planning bible – the Core Strategy – that London Bridge Station should prioritise links to buses and trains station in Southwark. Amazing that we’ve had to state what should have been obvious. But with so many proposed changes such as the South London Line being cancelled Network Rail have to be reminded.

I’m now much more hopeful that when Network Rail has a need to amend or apply for future planning applications to London Bridge station that changes will have to ensure changes make matter no worse for Southwark residents and usually better.

It is quite ridiculous that the huge barriers the railway viaducts and cutting in Southwark, yet the state operator of railway infrastructure Network Rail has to be reminded that the communities these obstacles carve up should actually see some benefit to hosting them.

What do you think?

Mayor Boris closes HGV cycle unit

London Mayor Boris Johnson has announced the closure the Commercial Vehicle Education Unit. This group of 3 Police sergeants and 9 Police constables specialise finding defective lorries and taking them off the road and working with haulage companies to reduce collisions with pedestrians and cyclists.

Not enough was being done to reduce such collisions. HGV lorries are the number one killer for cyclists in London. Even less will be done going forward.

The announcement was almost exactly nine years to the day when a previous treasurer of Southwark Cyclists, while I was the chairperson, Brigitte Robinson, was killed by a left turning lorry whose driver had a young child in the cab and had been working 12+ hour shifts 7 days a week for many months.

Loosing a close cycling friend was incredibly distressing. How many more people have to die to HGV’s before the few exempt from sideguards are no longer exempt and the limited resources are withdrawn from educating lorry drivers and cyclists.