Postage Stamp Secondary School

Since starting the secondary school debate and campaign in East Dulwich the key has always been where to put it. The only obvious space is the two-thirds of the Dulwich Hospital site that are no longer required for health facilities.

So the site for both secondary schoo,l campaigns is key.
I’ve written an open letter to Southwark Council Leader about this – Open Letter to Southwark Council Leader Peter John 25 July 2014

As things stand with Southwark Council marking out most of the Dulwich Hospital Site for housing the land values are so extremely high only a tiny portion of the site will be affordable for a new secondary school.

Southwark Council need to explain how it will avoid this situation, or as I’ve previously requested change the planning expectations for the hopsital site.

So far instead of practically trying to sort this out they’ve been raising the spectre of a Harris primary school also going on the site.

Without the council leader getting a grip, apart from the universally agreed replacement health provision, we will have both a secondary school and primary school on ridiculoulsy squeezed postage stamp sized spaces plus housing.

Dr Sharma Mess

Dr Sharma is retiring . A perfectly natural event. Good luck to him – thank you Dr.Sharma for serving our community so well.

But NHS England (London) have decided not to allow a new doctor to take over. They’ve decided the area has plenty of spar capacity and all the patients can move to alternate practices. Practices that patients can;t get seen at already.

This truly is a bizarre stupid decision by NHS England (London).

When patients and staff said they would hold a demonstration NHS England (London) effectively said ‘so what’. The caring face of the NHS!

If ever a stupid bureaucratic decision screams for GP patients to come with budget with patients able to decide where to take that budget…. The system should be patient led not faceless bureaucrat led who haven’t a clue about local decisions.

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?

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.

GP Chaos

We have an increasingly desperate issue about the Dulwich Medical Centre failing its patients:
But we also have the same problem at the Melbourne Grove GP:
Have you been affected?
We really need residents to formally complain. Many have they told me but nothing changes.
 

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?

Saving Men

The psychological needs of men and boys are often overlooked – males often don’t have someone to talk problems over with such that:

  • Men are three times more likely to commit suicide 
  • Three quarters of missing people are men
  • The majority of those who are homeless are men 
  • The rates on mental illness in the domestic homeless population are high 
  • Men are more likely to be victims of violence
  • 5% of men (compared to 7% of women) have reported being a victim of domestic violence
  • Men and boys can also be victims of physical abuse and sexual abuse
  • Men make up the vast majority of the prison population and it is estimated that 90% of prisoners have mental health problems 
  • Men suffer more substance abuse and dependence
  • Men account for 79% of drug related deaths 
  • Men are more likely to struggle with psychological problems following redundancy or the loss of a job 
    Men’s psychological wellbeing not only effects individuals themselves but also others, including women, children and other men. It is imperative that the psychological needs of men and boys are improved.

Did you realise things were this bad – I hadn’t?

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.