Many residents in East Dulwich are so good at recyclnig that they hardly fill their existing 240Litre green rubbish bin.
Did you know that you can request a smaller 180Litre green rubbish bin?
It takes up less spaces and is easier to move around. Just call 020 7525 2000 to ask for this bin swap.
Equally, if you find one blue box or one blue bag is not enough then ask for more by calling the same number.
Burgess Park creation was started after World Ward Two in the post war ruins between Albany Road and St.Geroge’s Way. It came from the 1943 Abercrombie plan for London’s open spaces and has been assembled over the decades. London County Council surveyors while recording all the war damage recognised that with large swathes of London flattened it was an opportunity to reconfigure London.
My great aunt had a shop on Albany Road that was demolished along with many homes as part of the creation of this park. It will be quite an achievement when Burgess Park is eventually finished – perhaps in time for the 70th year since the idea was first conceived.
Why so much damage in South London?
V1 rockets were fired from Normandy directly south of Tower Bridge which was the aiming point the Nazis used. V2 rockets were fired from Normandy directly east of Tower Bridge.
Apparently the Nazis briefed field agents to report if these weapons and earlier bombing raids had hit the target. Most if not all of these Nazi agents had been “turned” and the War Cabinet debated whether these double-agents should be used to send back inaccurate reports to Germany. During July 1944 a secret report was prepared for the War Cabinet to illustrate what the impact would be on various London boroughs of a deception operation to convince the Nazis that V1’s were overshooting and thus further shorten their range and miss central London. The Minister of Home Security, Lambeth MP Herbert Morrison, opposed the idea of playing ‘God’, perhaps also suspecting an attempt to protect government officials and the wealthy at the expense of working people in south London. It seems that the War Cabinet agreed that the plan would be wrong in principle, but apparently a final decision was – exceptionally – not minuted in writing. This exceptional ambiguity has led many to conclude that attempts by the intelligence services to deceive the Nazis continued.
Bermondsey had the most V1 hits per 1,000 acres, Camberwell came 3rd and Lambeth 4th. It appears the War Cabinet had decided to play god. The Citizens of Southwark were being sacrificed to help protect Westminster and the City of London. The implication was that this was a continuation of earlier policies regarding bombing raids. Thirty percent of homes in Bermondsey, Camberwell and Southwark were destroyed or very badly damaged. The residential population halved between 1939 and 1941.
In recognition of the 5,349 residents of Bermondsey, Camberwell and Southwark killed of seriously injured – many as a result of these deception operations to protect the seat of central government – a gesture of penance is long overdue.
Making Burgess Park a Royal Park in my mind would be such a gesture.
What do you think?
While out and about in East Dulwich and Southwark generally I see and report and have removed a lot of graffiti. I make about 4 or 5 reports a week. You get to wondering how graffiti can be stopped permanently.
The East Dulwich Lib Dem councillors have funded over 1,000 SelectaDNA property marking kits. They retail at £47.95 each so huge investment in making East Dulwich a much harder target to burglars.
I wonder if the two technologies – spray cans and DNA style property marking kits could be combined. Register purchasers of spray cans. When graffiti found take sample of the paint and match it to the original registered purchaser. Who in their right mind would use spray cans for graffiti ever again.
National legislation would be required but what a different England would look like with no graffiti.
For the past two years Upland Road has held a very successful street party early each September. Abby Taubin has done a maginificent job helping organse her neighbours . For 2009 a new organsier Polly Collier had taken on this role. To maneuvre around legally required red tape that Southwark by law has to follow the East Dulwich councillors especially Richard Thomas have helped. We’ve also found a little funding to help avoid charging residents for advertising of the legal notices.
However, for 2009 I’d like to extend the invite to all other streets in the East Dulwich ward. It costs the same to advertise and raise a traffic order for one or 100 streets. If you think your street would like to be closed for a Sunday in September to hold a street party then let me know and we’ll try helping you achieve this.
As part of this years Cleaner, Greener, Safer scheme the East Dulwich councillors awarded money to help local East Dulwich schools increase cyclnig to school.
Its just been announced that Goose Green and St.Anthony’s RC schools are the most suitable for this.
Fingers crossed it all goes to plan and we see an increase in children cycling to these local schools.
I came across this term in a science journal. The idea that water is traded not as water directly but as the water required to make a product. So imports of Spanish Oranges results in us importing the Spanish water required to make Oranges. Apparently a World Wildlife Fund report found that 62% of UK water consumption used each year is Virtual. This trade is largely hidden.
I wonder how much virtual water we use and import into Southwark?
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.
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.
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.
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.