T Brown excess

Every weekday morning at the northern end of Melbourne Grove T BROWN vans park willy-nilly. Some come super early before 7am park up and play loud music to annoy the locals. Many park on the single and double yellow lines.

When I’ve checked with council officials they tell me they have park anywhere passes.

I say but those vouchers are meant to be at the council housing end not at some depot newly acquired and effectively subsidised by this parking free for all. Tough is the effective response.

I point out that the vans proclaim how they work for Lewisham and Lambeth. And is the effective response.

This is exactly the type of issue that leads residents to understandably question the probity of parking wardens. I feel some sympathy with a management system that creates this wrong.

come of Southwark sort this problem out. It’s not fair. It’s not fair foremost on neighbours. But it’s also not fair on the contractors who also bid for this contractor but never realise they didn’t need to create a depot with parking.

14 February 8_12am22 January 8_24am

Welfare Reform – cap and spare bedrooms.

Welfare reform will always be painful. With the current generally harsher economic circumstances our societies tolerance for others on benefits has reduced.

One of the proposals is that no family claiming benefits will be able to claim more than the average family income for the country – £25,000 pa.

In East Dulwich this will impact 11 families claiming benefits. Each of these families are predicted to lose on average £3,887. If you’re one of those families please do get in touch if you need extra help or support.

Another aspect of welfare reform is around council houses where the occupants claim housing benefits (where the government pays the rent) and have spare bedrooms. They’ll see a reduction in housing benefit. The idea is that while we have families in bed and breakfast without proper homes we shouldn’t be fully subsidising under occupation of council housing. Their will be circumstance where this feels harsh but it must feel even harsher trying to raise families in bed and breakfast accommodation for long periods of time.

In East Dulwich this is predicted to affect 91 homes where 1 bedroom is spare and the tenants claim housing benefit and another 43 homes where 2 or more bedrooms are spare and the tenants claim housing benefit. Some years ago when the Lib Dems led the council we had schemes to encourage such occupiers to move to smaller council homes. Hopefully this scheme will become more popular to smooth people moving to smaller homes where appropriate.

If these changes affect you and you think you need those spare bedrooms please get in touch so we can try and help you fight for a sensible solution. It might be due to home dialysis, a son or daughter being in the armed forces. Whatever it is we want to try and help.

 

 

How long to… remove guard railings

In 1994 St.Clement’s School moved from Archdale Road in East Dulwich to Ady’s Road in The Lane ward. Nineteen years ago. The old school has been turned into 6 amazingly different apartments and homes.

Before ArchdaleAfter Archdale

 

 

 

 

 

But the guard railings were left and left and left. Eventually I spotted them and after 19 years they were removed.

So how long does it take to remove guard railings… 19 years!

 

 

 

 

New ED Harris Primary school update

Monday 28 January the very first interested parents meeting took place of those interested in sending their children to a new local Harris East Dulwich primary school.

The invite had gone out from Harris to those who’d said they’d consider joining any steering committee. Despite terrible weather I counted a dozen parents.

Lots of really useful questions.

Harris promised to provide a summary of their vision for the school – Harris Primary Free School East Dulwich vision

What I’m really chuffed about is the vision to create a school in the top 10% of the country by progress and overall achievement and through literacy.

Please do have a look at this document. Let me know what you think.

More nursery places

imagesCABUFU1BFor some time we’ve had a serious shortage of nursery  school places in East Dulwich and more widely across Southwark.

Fortunately some relief was announced yesterday. An application 12-AP-3844 to convert the St.Thomas More on Lordship Lane into a ground floor nursery and 1st floor community space was granted planning permission. This should lead to 40-70 nursery places depending on the age and exact final configuration.

A second planning application 12-AP-1767 to convert the former Dulwich area council housing office into a ground floor nursery – Crown House, 41-43 East Dulwich Road – was submitted. The council rejected this scheme due to the loss of office space. The applicant has appealed and my colleagues and I have written in support of this appeal. This scheme would provide up to 120 nursery places. Such spaces would do more to support employment not just in terms of the 20 direct jobs but in terms of enabling parents to go to work.

These two schemes together would go some considerable way to resolving nursery places shortages in our area.

Fingers crossed for the appeal. Hopefully the St.Thomas Moore conversion wont take long. 

 

Judith Kerr Primary School consultation

The formal consultation phase 1 has been launched for the proposed Judith Kerr Primary School.

I would encourage East Dulwich residents to comment. They’re effectively asking whether we want the Judith Kerr Primary School in SE22.

With a shortage of primary school places of 75-80 places by 2016 in Dulwich and another 135 in the adjacent Southwakr area we have a coming crisis. Hosting the Judith Kerr school in Dulwich would really help address that coming shortage – along with one or possibly two Harris Federation Primary Schools.

The proposed Judith Kerr admissions code isnt ideal.  They’ve said after children with spciecla needs, looked after children and sibling that of the remainder places 50% would be allocated on distance from the school and the other 50% on a lottery basis. 100% of the remiqnder based on distance would make it much more integral to the community.

But please do respond to the online consultation

New Harris Primary School Application

I’m delighted to announce that we’ve achieved sufficient support for the Harris Federation to apply for a new two form entry East Dulwich Primary School.

The application has been submitted today.

Huge thanks to the 160 local families who  lent their support for this project. We needed 80 families with children due to start reception classes in 2014 or 2015 and 94 families have stepped forward. Another 66 supporters with younger children has also come forward.

We’ve also received lots of other support from residents. Thank you.

I’d also like to publicly say thank you to the Harris people who agreed to support our request on them to create a new school. Without finding such a successful and willing provider many local children would soon be stuck for reception places.

But the shortage of reception places by 2016 will reach 75-90 in Dulwich and up to another 135 for Peckham Rye and Nunhead areas.

It looks increasingly likely that the Judith Kerr Bilingual Primary school offering 50 places will be located in East Dulwich. But it isn’t certain and both schools together would still leave a gap of 115 reception places.

So we’re still campaigning for more support – so we can try and get the new East Dulwich Harris Primary school increased to three form entry (90 pupils).

If we obtain even further support we’ll ask Harris to apply for a second primary school in January 2014 to ensure all children have great schools places near to where they live.

If you support new primary schools in our area – please email me your support ASAP.

 

 

New East Dulwich Primary School – latest

photoMany thanks to everyone who stopped to talk on Saturday at our street stall outside the Coop on Lordship Lane about our campaign for a new Primary school/s in the area.

It was surprisingly cold after five hours  but everyone helping kept going  10am-3pm.

We’ve now reach 62 supporters for a new school out of the 80 we need with children who are 1 or 2 years old. So we’re just over 3/4 of the way. We’ve also found 49 other supporters with younger children. So it’s clear that huge demand for a new local school.

But we need to press on. If you agree we need a new Primary school please email me james.barber@southwark.gov.uk with your name, child’s DOB and home post code.

If you can help with this campaign by delivering leaflets, visiting nursery groups or in any other way please do get in touch.

9 December – train service downgrade.

LONDON OVERGROUND is being extended from 9 December by adding a section Surrey Quays to Clapham Junction – http://goo.gl/9roun

It brings 4 trains per hour (tph) 7 days a week between Clapham Junction and Highbury & Islington via Wandsworth Rd, Clapham High St, Denmark Hill, Peckham Rye, Queens Rd Peckham. This will open up new journey opportunities to east and west London. All these south London stations will appear on the new TfL Tube map. The downside to that is that it looks as if the new Tube map will show us cut off with no rail services to central London. How daft is that.Southwark Rail User Group have thoughtfully produced a much more useful map to publicise our rail connections into central London – http://www.bellenden.net/SRUG-maps.

BUT THE SOUTH LONDON LINE DISAPPEARS
But this also means we say a sad goodbye to the inner South London Line (SLL) – http://goo.gl/yWQmd. This hopefully temporary closure until 2018 when London Bridge station reopens will really isolate communities along the SLL route with no direct access to London Bridge and very patchy services into Victoria – many people will be deterred from living in Camberwell and other communities along the line. Many users, organisations and representatives fought a long and hard campaign to save it. But it was not successful. See here for some of that story – http://www.bellenden.net/rail-cuts. We’ll have to fight hard for the service to be returned in 2018.

REMAINING SERVICES
The changes will leave us with these services off peak:

– Victoria from Nunhead, Peckham Rye and Denmark Hill: 2tph Mon to Sat, but none in the evenings, and none on Sunday. (3tph between 8am-9am)

– Clapham Junction via Wandsworth Rd, Clapham High St, Denmark Hill, Peckham Rye, Queens Rd Peckham to Canada Water and beyond on the London Overground: 4tph, 7 days a week morning till night.

– St Pancras and beyond from Nunhead, Peckham Rye, Denmark Hill via Elephant Castle/Blackfriars: 2tph, up to 9pm Mon to Fri, and terminating at Blackfriars after that time and weekends. (More tph Mon-Fri between 8am-9.15am)

– London Bridge from North Dulwich, East Dulwich, Peckham Rye, Queens Rd Peckham, Sth Bermondsey: 4tph, 7 days a week morning to night. (In the peak there will be 6tph – a 10 minute frequency.)

DISAPPEARING SERVICES
The services we are losing are:

– the 2 tph between London Bridge and Victoria via Sth Bermondsey, Queens Rd, Peckham Rye, Denmark Hill, Clapham High St, Wandsworth Rd, Battersea Pk, provided by the South London Line. (SLL). They are currently 7 days a week from morning till night.

Their loss means for the stations affected:

– no trains to London Bridge via Battersea Pk, Wandsworth Rd, Clapham High St, Denmark Hill.

– no trains to Victoria via Sth Bermondsey, Queens Rd, Clapham High St, Wandsworth Rd, Battersea Pk.

– no trains to Victoria after about 7pm, and none on Sunday from Peckham Rye, Denmark Hill.

– a reduction from 4tph to 2tph to Victoria from Peckham Rye, Denmark Hill.

– a reduction off peak from 6tph to 4tph to London Bridge from Peckham Rye, Queens Rd Peckham, Sth Bermondsey.

CAMPAIGN TO RESTORE OUR VICTORIA SERVICES
In the longer term we want our South London Line service between London Bridge to Victoria, via Peckham Rye and Denmark Hill and all the current SLL stations, restored once London Bridge station is rebuilt in 2018.

In the meantime, the campaign continues to get the gaps filled in services to Victoria that the loss of the South London Line creates in the evenings and at weekends and to restore the service to 4tph – http://www.bellenden.net/victoria – You will see there the email addresses of all those who should know the effect of the loss of our South London Line.

New Primary Schools for SE22

After a number of years of forecasters telling us we have a temporary baby boom they are now clear we have a permanent problem – we need more school places on a permanent basis.

At full Council Assembly 25 January I had it confirm that in the Dulwich area ongoing we need an extra 60-75 reception places every year from 2015.

At Council Cabinet 20 November it was confirmed by council officials that the shortage is bigger and increased to 75-90 reception place per year by 2016 for the Dulwich area and for the Nunhead and Peckham Rye area  90  to 135 reception places per year by 2016. The two demand equate to 2 or 3 brand news schools.

The council’s plan is to ask the government for £40-50m to expand existing schools. But the ideal size of primary schools is two or three form entry. If you go above that size the adults and children don’t know each other – it becomes anonymous. Not an experience we’d wish for our youngest.

We know a German/English school are interested in being created in Southwark or Lambeth – we need more certaintythan this.

So the East Dulwich ward councillors have been in conversations with the Harris Federation. They have a clear track record of excellence at creating new schools that Ofsted rate as outstanding. None of our local Primary schools are rated outstanding yet. After many points and perspectives being shared they have agreed to apply for a new school serving the Dulwich area. But I’m hoping to persuade them to apply for a second primary school serving the east Dulwich/Peckham Rye/Nunhead area which has little school provision.

Our converaations have involved Sir Robin Bosher the ex. head of Fairlawn rated outstanding and Sir Dan Moyniham the chief executive of the Harris Federation. We’ve met him before when visiting Harris schools in East Dulwich.

We hope to persuade other local politicians for this to be cross-party and have contacted College, Nunhead, Peckham Rye and Village ward councillors.

The obvious site is a fifth of the Dulwich Hospital. To make that happen will take a lot of influence by the Department of Education over the Department of Health. I’d be amazed if Lord Harris and his team couldn’t make that happen.

To make a new school in Dulwich or the Peckham Rye/Nunhead area we need to find 80 children for each school who would attend ie. 1 and 2 year old children now. The families need to say that they would like their children to attend a new Harris Federation Primary school. It doesn’t commit them but it does indicate they’d like to attend if built and if we succeed will ensure we have enough extra  excellent places locally for all our children.

Please see attached form Harris have kindly produced.

12414_HF_HarrisEastDulwichFreeSchool_Leaflet_LowRes

Please complete the last page and post it OR email me your name, your child’s date of birth, your postcode. Or just email me if you’d like to be kept in touch with this campaign.

Together we can make this happen.