2,000 illegal sub letting

Southwark Council has 19,000 people on its housing waiting list.

At the start of the year I asked Southwark Council internal audit management whether could use commercial data matchers to fight fraud. So I’m delighted this technique originally brought to work on illegal claims for Council Tax Single Persons Discount is now being applied to council properties and the housing waiting list. Initially 2,000 properties out of the 45,000 have been highlighted as being good leads for further investigation. Of the 2,000, 900 have really good data matches. So many matches that a new team has been created to chase them all up. The council isn’t yet clear how many on the council housing waiting list shouldn’t be. But we can expect a large reduction.

The technique uses commercial credit agencies databases and finds examples such as a tenant who is supposed to be living in Southwark but who bank statements go elsewhere, individuals with a history of fraud and similar data matching. The data matching will also work with other boroughs cross-checking details against what is held elsewhere.

2,000 recovered homes would mean around 5,200 desperate people on the housing waiting list being found a property. And 2,000 property matches the estimated 5% across London of illegally sub-let council housing. So its likely to be 2,000 and not 900. Last year Southwark officers thought they were doing really well in recovering 150 such properties so quite an uphill struggle to deliver those 2,000 quickly.

This is such a good technique that Southwark Liberal Democrat have written to all housing associations with properties in Southwark to ask when they will use this method. It may well reveal more opportunities to legally house people.

Where else could we use this technique – school place admissions. I’ve often had people querying whether all the families obtaining places are genuinely living close to a school. It’s already being applied to Council Tax Single Persons Discounts.

Do you have any ideas?

Cycleloops

Lots of guard railings have been removed with most to follow. Scrap metal merchant bonanza. it transpired that guard railings just corralled pedestrians and didn’t make them any safer or other road users – sometimes trapping cyclists and pedestrians into dangerous and even occasionally deadly situations.

So great these guard railing are going. But they were incredibly useful for parking bikes and locking them up.

What to do?

Well they’re not a new idea but cycleloops seem the obvious alternative. Just need to persuade Southwark to roll them out…perhaps not pink ones.

Aerial Insulating

Installing cavity wall insulation is a real problem for tower blocks. Scaffolding costs are enormous, lots of disruption and security risks.

So three years ago I contacted Southwark Council officers suggesting they use rope access. I’d read about an company called Avalon (Avalon Sustainable Energy Services Ltd) doing this for Camden Council – people abseiling down the sides of blocks. I used to climb and could instantly see how efficient abseiling would be. Avoiding scaffolding dramatically reduces the cost and time it takes to undertake the works.

Southwark Council has just decided to follow this technology for a number of blocks in Southwark. Council officials have confirmed its less than half the price of traditional methods. 

So for those that live in Burwash, Smila, Mardyke, Helen Gladstone, Redman, Styles, Prospect, Kennington Park Houses don’t be too shocked to find someone dangling outside a window.

For those living in Laird, Crossmount, Otterburn, Tissington, Addy, Brydale, John Kennedy, Crane Houses officers are double checking whether you have sufficient cavity to make such insulation worth undertaking.

All the Southwark tower block cavity wall insulation works will be completed by Christmas.

Hooray. Its only took three years to get my way!

Shawbury gates

Attached photo is the official opening of the fabulous new Shawbury Court Gates. Previously this area was ungated with lots of anti-social behaviour and access to the Shawbury Court flats above a number of Lordship Lane shops. Real problems of urination, defecation and worse.

So the gates are expected to remove this problem from these residents and businesses.

Picture show Cllr  Jonathan Mitchell, Madeleine one of the residents who led the coordination of businesses and residents to contribute to the gates and the artist Heather Burrell whose team made and installed her design.

The funding was 50% business/residents and 50% Southwark council via locally decided Cleaner, Greener, Safer funding. East Dulwich councillors are particularly keen on crime prevention and were delighted to encourage and support this scheme.

Where else do we need to gate and remove anti-social behaviour in East Dulwich?

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?

Noisy neighbours

The coalition government is bringing new powers for the Police to fine noisy neighbours up to £2,500.

The aim of this is to tackle problems via “community protection notices” allowing £100 on-the-spot fines. And then those that don’t stop can be fined up to £2,500.

Further powers are planned to solve the issue with “crime prevention injunctions” to ensure anti social problems can be dealt with near instantly.

All sounds good. Let’s hope the reality meets this aspiration.

Beyond daft?

I took this photo 6.40am today. Exactly the same traffic managementwas in place at 6pm last night and a number of iterations of this have been proceeding south to north along Walworth recently.

We also had the same issue at Goose Green in East Dulwich recently.

I don’t doubt that all these road works are necessary but why are lanes closed and temporary traffic lights in place for the hours outside when a whole lane needs closing?
Other local authorities I’ve worked with would insist that the lane required by workers when working to ensure their safety are released outside the working period.

Instead we have 16 hours out of 24 hour day where temporary traffic lights are in operation when they needn’t be. Sometimes such pointless traffic management is left in place over whole weekends.

I’ve contacted the Labour cabinet member to ask why this is now allowed to occur. If you also think this is beyond daft email barrie.hargrove@southwark.gov.uk the politician responsible and copy me james.barber@southwark.gov.uk.

Residents kept in the dark…

I was amazed to discover that Southwark Council is considering switching of Southwark street lighting. Clearly adjusting street lights is an ongoing sage managing over 16,000 street lights in Southwark.

What’s really amazing is that this news is buried in Highway Electrical Newspage 12. The article is titled “42% of Councils in England and Wales Planning Some Street Lighting Cuts”. It shows Southwark as one of of the local authorities in the “Councils planning total or partial night switch off”.

I haven’t knowingly heard this before. Have you?

It’s the only London Authority listed in this category. No public announcement. No public consultation even with the Police let alone residents or businesses.

Another example of no democracy in a Labour led Southwark.

What is particularly galling is that it took me four year to get all the street lighting in East Dulwich ward brought up to modern standards – bright white light rather than faded yellow light. This saved buckets of electricity. So really frustrated to hear they might be turned of.

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: