Vanishing groves

Since taking power Labour has net chopped down 196 more trees than its planted on our streets – 70 from the Dulwich area alone. Outrageous. Dulwich has so many streets called groves for a reason – they’re meant to be tree lined!

Everyone knows trees bring lots of benefits apart from sucking up Carbon Dioxide, they reduce air pollution/particulates, act as noise barriers, and lots of research showing people just feel plain better with plants and trees around them.

Come on Labour Southwark stop hating our environment so much – we don’t want an urban concrete jungle round here.

Seal Southwark Borders?

Average speed cameras have been now proven to reduce 73% of deaths and serious injuries – analysis of 15 sites with SPECS average speed cameras. But they’ve also seen improved traffic flow, reduced emissions and greater public acceptability than spot speed cameras.

The first 20mph average speed cameras are up and working in Southend on Sea.

The beauty of these camera systems is they don’t just make single locations safer but whole stretches of roads and areas safer. Smoother traffic means greater flow with less variability between the fastest and slowest vehicles.

A ‘safe-zone’ scheme was trialled of average speed cameras close to a school in Poole. 93% of parents supported the scheme but what parent wouldn’t support making the area around a school safer.

The key is general attitudes choosing to drive slower or accepting average speed cameras to make large safety gains. Here I’m hopeful. Since 2000 to 2010 the number of drivers breaking 30mph in free-flowing traffic has fallen from two-thirds to half. But at that rate it will take 50 years to solve speeding. Research suggests three types of driver – First 52% group largely speed-limit complaint, second type of 33% only sometimes drive up to 10mph above speed limits and the third group 14% who regularly drive above and often very much beyond the speed limit. Any average speed camera scheme has to be aimed at that third group.

Most research has shown that 70-80% of people support speed cameras. This probably stems from the fact people caught speeding are typically twice as likely to have been involved in a crash. This is born out in insurance premiums which often jump with a speeding conviction. Insurance companies have lots of their own evidence and data that they base such premiums on. They spend a lot of money analysing that data tofinely adjust premiums based of risk.

But how to fund average speed cameras them?

Obviously reducing crashes saves money. The West Midlands send people caught speeding on Speed Awareness courses that the speeder pays £80 towards. The course provider costs around £30 and £50 is used to pay for the camera system operation. So they can be largely self funding in revenue terms. So finding the capital is the issue. Each pair of cameras costs around £50,000. So volume discounts etc £650,000 total capital cost. Allowing for Southwark on costs a cool £1M to make Southwark probably the safest borough in London.

Where to start. Most crashes in Southwark happen along Transport for London trunk roads such as the South Circular, Old Kent Road. Such roads also cause a terrible local environment. Placing cameras at around 16-20 locations, at the Southwark borders, would catch the 50% of all Southwark traffic transiting Southwark which is more likely to be speeding through. 

Such a scheme would increase traffic flow as people drove more evenly. It would reduce pollution and most importantly reduce crashes and people being injured.

What do you think?

Statutory sick pay

For a number of years we’ve had legal minimum wage. Unfortunately statutory sick pay has not kept pace. In fact its never been in the same ball park.

Statutory sick pay works out as £85.85pw with many organisations paying sick employees at this rate for up to 28 weeks. The minimum wage for 21year old is £6.08ph or £243.20pw for a 40hr week.

So why the gap?

Beats me and I think it needs to be closed. Have you ever received statutory sick pay and how did you cope financially?

Unhealthy school meals?

Local authorities are responsible for enforcing food hygiene legislation and the obligation to comply rests with the food business operator. For schools that’s the Head Teacher but if that school is run by the local authority, ultimately, the Cabinet member would be responsible. So in Southwark that’s Labour Councillor Catherine Macdonald. She has been clear for that she will provide “free healthy school meals”.
 
Food safety enforcement officers are meant to carry out routine hygiene inspections of school kitchens. The frequency of inspections is based on the risk rating given at the time of the last inspection. Most schools have a hygiene inspection frequency of 18 months. Food establishments are rated on a star rating of nought to five stars with five stars being the best. But the resources dedicated to food hygiene is a political decision and I think they’re now too little.
 
Sadly Southwark Labour drastically cut the number of inspections they want council officials to undertake.
 
If we look at Southwark School hygiene ratings we find schools appear to be less than perfect. In East Dulwich Goodrich has 2/5 stars, St.Anthony’s schools 3/5 stars and Goose & Heber Schools 4/5 stars. Ironically Goodrich School with the worst star raiting hasn’t been inspected for over two years.
 
To compound things Southwark have placed data in two different places online so parents would be incredibly hard pressed to work out their children;s school star rating. To make it worse some older inspection results are placed in own area. Some newer inspections of the same school are placed elsewhere. And some inspections are listed on both. Majority of inspections are listed under the name of the contractor providing the catering rather than the school name. No other London borough is so obtuse with how it publishes this data – and I’ve looked widely.
 
Overall this is how Southwark compares to Lambeth:
Borough no. of schools no. of schools with ratings 1 star 2 stars 3 stars 4 stars 5 stars average rating average days since last inspection
Lambeth 99 88 0 0 11 33 40 4.35 513
Southwark 108 101 1 13 18 34 35 3.88 560
If you think this is rubbish tell catherine.macdonald@southwark.gov.uk and copy me james.barber@southwark.gov.uk nag your children’s school governors and head asking for improvements.
 
To see a list of all Southwark Schools:
 
 
 
 

Water is Cool

A campaign to encourage ready access to water throughout te school day has been going for over a dozen years – Water is Cool in School campaign.

Hydrated pupils are healthier, do better in school from better attainment and behaviour. That’s typically 6-8 glasses a day.

In March 2007 I asked a formal question about how many schools in Southwark adhere to ready water access. I was told 54% of schools provide this measured via the Healthy School Status.

What’s the current rate?

I’ll find out.

Harlem Zone’s vs Sure Start

As a nation and indeed local Southwark community we seem to be floundering how to solve the root causes of last summers riots and how a significant proportion of our communities are so disengaged from the majority.

The recent report seemed to blame the problems on everything from schools having pupils leaving who couldn’t read to rampant materialism.

Harlem under inspired insight from Geoffrey Canada has the Harlem Children’s Zone. This is a long term scheme to raise expectations of the whole community not just save the lucky odd child or family. Focus initially was on the first three years of children’s lives with pre nursery, tutoring, dance and sports classes, food co-ops, social services, and help with housing and health. Real community intensive care of families.

A 2009 Harvard report that evaluated this scheme after five years reported stunning results. They said it was the most effective intervention of any kind in the whole US at creating a huge step increase in school results offering many more opportunities.
The cost is about $5,000 per child per year but the costs of not making these life changing interventions is wildly higher.

This all makes our UK Sure Start interventions look very British. Small and very marginal.

How can we create our own Camberwell and Peckham Children’s Zones?

More classes please?

The Dulwich Leisure Centre has become significantly more popular than before it renovations.

It reopened with 63 classes in its studios. Complaints have been made about having more class participants such that its reduced the quality of peoples experience – not enough space to fling an arm let alone a cat. These 63 classes currently host 1,701 participants each week. But so many more people are failing to get places.

Now a new rota has been introduced with 80 very slightly smaller classes taking 2,000 participants in total per week.

This 18% increase in participants is a good start. But clearly it wont solve all the demand for places. So I’ll be pushing for even more classes until nearly everyone has a class who wants one.

What classes do you want?

Teenage pregnancies

Figures released last week show teenage pregnancies in Southwark fell in 2009/10. The fall was dramatic with 192 conceptions in Southwark by those under 18 in 2010 compared to 233 in 2009 and 318 in 1998.

What fantastic news. I’m really pleased that the work done by the previous Lib Dem administration which ended two months after the 2009/10 period has resulted in such a huge reduction in teenage pregnancies.

But will this rate of conception stay here or go lower?

Part of teenage pregnancy is seeing others do it so clearly that part of the equation is lower but also the effort put into tackling this problem. Sadly Labour led Southwark Council has cut that funding by 54% undermining all this good work. Only time will tell what will happen but it doesn’t look good for our most vulnerable young people.

Food Fight

The coalition appears to be heading for a food fight with plans to ban Environmental Health Officers from having the right to enter food premises to ensure they’re safe and not causing food poisoning and risking public health.

The Protection of Freedoms Bill could result in EHO’s only being able to inspect premises with the invitation of owners or a court order. Obtaining court orders takes time – allowing food poisoning to spread OR the owner to cover-up whatever the root causes of poisoning have been. The same type of problems are likely for pollution control inspectors and trading standards officers.

I really think this is a case of throwing out good regulations. Most people who eat out do so on the basis of believing businesses are responsible and regulations will find out the bad businesses. Breaking that covenant means people will feel less certain their health wont be compromised by the perfectly innocent act of spending money in local food businesses. To rely on outbreaks of food poisoning to catch badly run businesses and inspections where the business is forewarned to put on an act will see more instance of food poisoning.

Hopefully no one in East Dulwich will become a martyr for the foolishness of these changes.

Cycling covenant

I’m delighted to see that The Times newspaper has today launched a campaign for a new Cycling Covenant. But saddened to see that one of their colleagues and friends grave cycle injuries were requried to inspire them.

They propose:
1. Trucks entering cities by law must have sensors, audibles alarms, extra mirrors and side bars/guards to stop cycling being thrown under them.
2. The 500 most dangerous junctions must be identified, redesigned or fitted with priority traffic lights for cyclists and Trixi mirrors allowing lorry drivers to see cyclists.
3. A national audit of cyclists to keep track of making cycling safer and more popular.
4. The Highways Agency should earmark 2% of its budget for next generation cycle routes providing £100million a year towards world-class cycling infrastructure. Each year cities being graded on the quality of cycling provision.
5. The training of cyclings and drivers must improve and cycle safety should become a core part of the driving test.
6. The default speed limit in residential areas where there are no cycle lanes should become 20mph.
7. Businesses should be invited to sponsor cycle ways and cycling super-highways.
8. Every city even those without an elected mayor should appoint a cycling commissioner to push home reforms.

These proposals if implemented well would see a step change for the better at making cycling safer and more attractive. Only number 8 seems to mis the mark – setting targets for local authorities instead would achieve more than a commissioner.

More people safely cycling would see a fitter, heathier nation spending money more locally. Huge opportunities for regeneration and community growth.

But will the coalition government listen.

But many of these we could implement here in Southwark…