East Dulwich New Cinema

I am delighted that the Picturehouse Cinema group have obtained planning permission to open a new cinema in East Dulwich at 116a Lordship Lane – the former St.Thomas Moore Church Hall. And hopefully by Christmas!

Having a local cinema will make going to the cinema much easier. It will mean me and my family will go to the cinema much more often.

This is fantastic news for East Dulwich.

A few have expressed disquiet about this group not paying the London Living Wage. I agree they should pay this and moving towards doing that have made a large wage increase offer of 21.5% towards this. I hope they complete this by the opening.

Will you use this new cinema when it opens?

Most Expensive Council Meeting Ever?

A meeting to announce thew Labour Cabinet members  in Southwark has been dubbed the most expensive council meeting ever – after costing taxpayers more than £400 a minute.

On Wednesday 11 June Southwark Council held it’s annual constitutional meeting. The £12,500 meeting used chairs, tables and curtains hired in especially for the occasion, but only lasted a total of 30 minutes from start to finish. It means every minute of the meeting will have cost the council over £416.

As a Lib Dem councillor I tried fighting the annual Mayor Making and Constitutional Meeting begin separated out. But Labour refused. This is especially bizarre when Southwark Labour keep telling us how tight money is but then blow £12,000 in 30 minutes.

This is an appalling start to the new four year term they lead the council.

Think what Southwark Council could have done with £12,000. In East Dulwich it could have provided the double glazing, currently being refused, to a council home or two benefiting tenants for several decades to come.

What do you think the council should have spent this £12,000 on?

PS. I was delayed due to child care arrangements and because it was over so quickly didn’t make it in time. I hadn’t realised it would be such a race to attend!

 

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?

 

2006 Six To Fix

After the recent elections I was going through lots of old papers in post election clean-up. I cam across lots of stuff from when I first stood as a councillor in 2005/2006 with Richard Thomas and Jonathan Mitchell.

We stood on a promise to fix the following six things:

1. New secondary – East Dulwich Harris Boys Academy – OPENED

2. Modernise all street lighting – COMPLETED

3. Longer opening hours – Dulwich Library opened on Wednesdays making it open 7 days a week – COMPLETED

4. Modernise the Dulwich Leisure Centre – COMPLETED

5. Fight to keep East Dulwich surburban and not redesignated as urban – COMPLETED

6. Campaign to keep East Dulwich Police station – SUCCESSFUL 2006-2010 (but since closed by Boris in 2013).

We were hugely successful in getting them all done at the time. Boy did it take a lot of work but making the area is why I was persuaded to enter local politics.

Introducing Haberdashers’ to East Dulwich

Today at the Dulwich Festival Fair on Goose Green we had the opportunity to for Haberdasher’s Aske’s to further introduce themselves to the families of East Dulwich. Haberdashers’ are our preferred school provider for a new East Dulwich Secondary School.

It felt a huge success with lots of positive interest. Thank you to everyone who made it possible today and everyone who stopped to say hi. I was amazed at how many people didn’t know about the campaign. Boy have we tried to let people know about it!

Goose GreenThe Charter School was also present seeking further support for their version of providing a new local secondary. To think 6 weeks ago Southwark Council said not over their dead body and we didn’t have any school providers interested and now we have two outstanding ones interested. How cool is that!

If you’d like to support our campaign please visit www.newschool.org.uk

AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT IT.

School campaign at Goose Green Fair

This coming Sunday 11 May is the Dulwich Festival Goose Green Fair from 11am to 430pm.

The East Dulwich Secondary School Campaign will have a gazebo there. The campaign steering group will be there along with Habderdashers’ Aske’s Federation staff and some of their year 9 prefects as ambassadors.

I really hope you can come along and say hi, ask searching questions about what we and Haberdashers are proposing, and how that fits with your expectations for a great new school to join the area’s other great schools.

And if anyone can help us make this happen please do get in touch. We can never have too much help. Even just helping blow up balloons from 10am!

PS. We now have over 550 supporting families for our new East Dulwich secondary school. If you know anyone who would like to support our campaign they can sign up here.

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?

 

Dangerous Junction

The more that I look at the areas around the junctions go Townley Road with Lordship Lane the more convinced I am that we can make it much better.

Currently its crash magnet and a local hotspot for collisions. It’s also an area with really restricted parking for residents. The road has been been made nice and wide and clear of all obstacles. It makes it tempting to speed.

Narrowing the road and the Townley Road entrance would really help reduce speeds and crashes. With kerb build outs we can achieve this while making it possible for residents to be able to park. It would require changing the two stage Pelican crossing to make it more obviously one stage crossing.

What do you think should be done to make this patch of East Dulwich better and safer for roads users and local residents?

New Powers To Control Betting Shops

Communities across the country have understandably been concerned and annoyed at the proliferation of betting shops since Tessa Jowell MP reversed the burden of proof required to open new betting shops. Instead of betting shops having to prove they wouldn’t cause harm communities had to prove they would cause harm to shop them. The flood gates opened.

So Lib Dem ministers have worked to give new powers to councils to halt this terrible trend. Sadly their isn’t enough parliamentary time for a new gaming act so instead planning rules have been changed.

Betting shops fall in the same planning category as a bank or estate agent and can open without the need for a planning application hen a premises becomes vacant. The new rules mean that councils will have the power to scrutinise and refuse such betting shops where they have grounds to do so. Hurray!

Do you think we have too many betting shops?

New East Dulwich Cinema

East Dulwich Lib Dems are very excited that at last the planning application from the PictureHouse cinema group has been submitted to convert the former St.Thomas Moore Hall at 116A Lordship Lane into a cinema.

Council planning officers are ready for your comments whether supporting or objecting. The details of the planning application can be seen here.

Please send your thoughts to planning.applications@southwark.gov.uk and copy me at cllrjamesbarber@gmail.com with subject line 14/AP/1101

We think a cinema will be a great new asset to the area. So much so that over the last few years we’ve talked to five different cinema groups trying to attract one to the area. But as with any change it needs to be planned with care to minimise any negative impact.

Please do tell us what you think. And please ask your friends and family to also tell Planning Officers what they think.