Kill Puffins

Transport for London has decided to stop installing Puffin crossings. Horray!

The UK is the only western country to have such a signalled crossing design un the Puffin crossing where crossing pedestrians have no indication or display to give them confidence of their status while crossing the road. Attitudinal research over the last decade has shown that Puffin crossings are unpopular with the public. I can absolutely see why.

Puffin crossing also preclude pedestrian countdown displays being installed which the public do find helpful. To know how long you’ve got to cross after the green man has gone is really reassuring. Several times I nkow it has stopped me crossing when I was tempted to.

For East Dulwich we have several Puffin crossings – Lordship Lane outside the Coop shop, Lordship Lane close to the junction with East Dulwich Grove, Grove Vale clsoe to Goose Green School.

With TfL changing its position we just need Southwark Council to change its position on Puffin crossing so that we once and for all kill them in East Dulwich and upgrade to Pelican crossings with pedestrian countdown displays. This would help improve the walkability of the East dulwich area.

What other measures do you think we could take to make the area more attractive to walk around?

 

Ring Road Money Pit

I was horrified to read that Boris Johnson has asked TfL to work up plans for a £30bn ring road tunnelled under London.

Apart from the traffic generation and extra air pollution it would cause £30bn is a colossal amount of money.

We could build roughly 6 complete new underground lines in London for this sum. Such a huge expansion in tube lines would bring huge benefit to all Londoners not just the tiny minority that drive in central London.

Or we could build 300 new tram lines across London. A revolution in public transport.

Or we could make every street and road in London utterly cycle friendly and still have many billions of pounds left over.

How would you solve London transport problems with £30bn?

Recycling Failure

The latest Southwark Council recycling figures show that recycling is in a malaise in Southwark.

In the last four years the figures have gone up from 22% of waste recycled in 2009/10 to 31% in 2012/13 the last year official government figures were made available. The council has now issued a press release stating 37% is the latest figure – but that’s before the Valuation Office Agency tell Southwark how many homes we have. So it’s clearly the wrong number.

But the tough contract the Lib Dems negotiated with Veolia was that it would be at 38% by now not a dodgy 37% AND that the next step would be food waste recycling.

Southwark Labour promised to double the 22% recycling rate by now, which they’ve clearly failed to achieve, and they deployed food waste recycling to reach this lower figure. They’ve shot their bolt.

The contract with Veolia the Lib Dems negotiated had financial clauses to ensure Veolia were hugely motivated to reach 38% AND THEN go to 50% by adding food waste recycling.

It seems clear that what is needed is some recycling of the Southwark Lib Dem policies on recycling to get recycling up above 50% with zero going to landfill.

What is your households recycling rate?

 

Upgrading North Cross Road

We’ve achieved much to improve North Cross Road and there market – road resurfacing last year, electric points for the market stalls, marked pitches.

IMG00353-20140323-1500We’ve just had the last patch of sub standard paving relaid. The Costcutter has started to smarten up its fencing (thank you).

We’re now trying to get the UK Power Networks electric sub station tidied up. For years and years an abandoned UKPN employee car and trailer have been present. Getting this removed will give the place a less abandoned look….

abandoned car and trailer

Labour Tree Chopping

Air pollution is a big issue. Latest figures suggest close to 1 in every 8 deaths air pollution was a significant factor.

One method of mitigating air and noise pollution and reducing the heat island effect is via trees. They’re also historic. East Dulwich has lots and lots of its streets called Groves as originally they were tree lined.

For many years we had a gradual increase in street trees. Sadly Labour led Southwark Council has been chopping down many more trees than it plants. Last year 97 more tree were chopped down than planted.

But we need to not just stop this irresponsible chopping of trees down but hugely expand the number of trees in Southwark and add lots of green walls.

In East Dulwich we’ve used devolved capital budgets to every year spend at least £10,000 on average for each of the last eight years to plant more street trees. If you have a spot where you think a street tree should go please let us know. The next tree planting seasons is January-March 2015.

Play Streets

The legislation allowing Play Streets was passed in 1938. It allows for 3 hours per week for local residential streets to be closed and children get to play outside where they live.

But over time the number of Play Streets has declined from 700 in the 50’s to none by the 80’s. So a revival is long overdue.

Lambeth Council are trialling on Guernsey Grove in Herne Hill and Hexham Road in West Norwood Play Street days. Residents are allowed to close their street for up to 3 hours per week so their children can play in a great traffic free environment. Most often they do this during a weekend afternoon.

This has been inspired by schemes in Hackney, Bristol and even New York.

Should you street become a Play Street?

Southwark 20mph

Southwark is introducing 20mph speed limit on all roads except those controlled by TfL or the Dulwich Estate.

This has been a long time coming with the strategy agreed when Lib Dems led the council. Richard Thomas was the lead councillor on this years back.

But not much point making our roads 20mph without any enforcement.

The Association of Chief Police Officers have announced a course option for motorists exceeding 20mph as an alternative to a fine and or points on driving licences. The course would be for motorists travelling 24-31mph.
Avon and Somerset Police are the first ti pilot this course.

We need to persuade our Met Police in Southwark to also take this approach.

Do you agree most roads should be 20mph in Southwark?

Stairs Not Chairs

Some research has investigated whether people like you and me can be encouraged to forego using lifts to take the stairs between floors. Many of us have very sedentary work – sitting around on chairs all day.

Signs like this were used:

takethestairs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They found such signs tripled the numbers taking the stairs. Obvious health benefits for people and some electricity and lift wear and tear saved.

They also found that lifts visible from the foyer and with external windows were the most popular. Really important for a place like Southwark with lots of new developments that our planners work with developers to achieve this.

Do you take the stairs?

I’ll be asking Southwark Council to promote this initially in its office buildings.

Right to Contest – Dulwich Hospital

 The NHS could be forced to hand over part of the Dulwich Hospital site for a new secondary school after a local councillor formally referred the matter to Government Ministers.

A decision on its future will now be made by a panel comprising of Treasury Ministers and the Cabinet Office after I invoked new ‘Right to Contest’ powers to push the NHS, which owns the land, into selling it on. WS Dulwich Hospital 131216_Right_to_Contest_application_form_final

Despite the site being 27,000m² – the size of around four football pitches – currently less than a tenth of the space is being used.

I submitted the application earlier this month (5 February). I want to see at least half of the spare land used for a new secondary school to help plug the shortfall of permanent school places in the area. Land would also be available for the health centre already being planned on the site.

I believe this to be one of the very first applications of its kind in the country, after the new powers were introduced by the Government to free up public land and help boost economic growth. Launching the scheme in late January, Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander MP said the Government “should not act as some kind of compulsive hoarder of land and property” that could be better used for other purposes.

My application will now go forward for review by the Government panel, which will also see input from the NHS and the Department of Communities and Local Government before a decision is made.

It is amazing that after 20 years of false starts the Dulwich Hospital site is still in limbo. It is a criminal shame that so much land stands idle and under utilised for decades, especially when money is tight.

Dulwich desperately needs a new local secondary school – not children being bussed far and wide as Labour propose. That’s why we have submitted an application using new Right to Contest rules on the use of public land, which were introduced by Liberal Democrat Ministers in government.

We are on the side of local parents who want to see a new and much-needed secondary school in the area, and an end to Dulwich Hospital being left as an empty wasteland….

Dulwich Hospital cleared site

Flooding – sorry

This winters rainful has been historic and contributed to significant flooding.

As a nation we’ve also notable success around flood protection. Less rainful caused 200,000 more homes to flood 50 years ago and the significant measures taken sicne then have resulted in far less flooding. But that’s little consolication to those that have been affected.

But it’s also clear that recent governmental agricultural rule changes have also had a major impact on this – http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/17/farmers-uk-flood-maize-soil-protection

It’s little consolation that it was Conservative ministers that let this happen when Lib Dems are in coalition with them nationally.

Sorry to those affected that we didnt block these stupid agricultural rule changes.