East Dulwich New Capital Projects

2002 Southwark Lib Dems initiated the Cleaner, Greener, Safer programme where each ward in Southwark gets a pot of capital money to allocate to new projects.

Last night we decided which projects to support in East Dulwich ward – ED CGS 15_16

Safer: Fencing between Dulwich library and St.Thomas Moore RC Church, Library Annexe opened as new space for Police surgeries and the like, More Crime Prevention, Norcroft Gardens fencing and lgihting.

Cleaner: Friern Road estate play area renewal, Goose Green School entrance, East Dulwich Community Centre new flooring.

Greener: Lots more trees locally, Physic GardenHeber School Upcycle Garden.

Our next funding decision will be our £25,000 of revenue funding in March. If you have any ideas to make the area better please let us know.

Recycling Failure

It pains me to say it but Southwark Council have failed to reached it target of recycling. When Lib Dems led the council we negotiated what we thought and government advisors told us was a tough target to reach 38% recycling rate by April 2014.

Southwark Labour said they would double recycling from 22% in 2010 to 44% in 2014. They then back tracked to 40% when they were in power.

But the final recorded rate was 34% for 2013/14. A long way short of the Veolia contract we negotiated. But significantly having introduced food waste 4 years earlier than the Veolia contracted planned they don’t have anywhere to go.

It isn’t any better in Lambeth. where recycling fell from 23% in 2012/13 to 21%. It’s fourth year in a row of falling recycling. It’s as if Lambeth Labour have given up on recycling.

Do you recycle?

What could we do to help you recycle more?

Dulwich Council Housing Forum Chairs Annual Report

At the AGM of the Dulwich Area Housing Forum – the forum for council tenants and leaseholders – Bill Newman gave his chairs annual report where he thanked delegates and council officers and then spoke about council housing…

“When major works are carried out to our homes we have endured a project that should be making our homes “Warm, Dry and Safe” but it’s not. We still have homes without insulated walls which are cold and damp resulting in the growth of mould. Condensation arising from badly fitted double glazing. Residents are being told that in a lot of cases that this is due “life style issues”.

We keep being told the repair service will be improved. We find it’s not. Mears now have has the contract to carry out their repairs to our homes for over two year’s Again we hearing they are having another “restructure” to improve their service to us, many residents are finding that they have to re-book appointments. Reasons being given of that the contractors were unable to get access, or that they are delayed, or they do not have the right materials or the job. 

We have been promised an improved service to the communal repairs, the council employing new staff to manage these repairs. “Estate action days” are now used to complete some of the working which should have been done on normal day to day level.

The call centre was brought back “in house” last tear with again promises of an improved services to the residents. As we see from theirs stats it has not, We hear that by bringing it back ”in house” that the council have saved over 3 million pounds. Would it not have been better to use some of the savings to improve the service we receive. The managers at the call centres say they are now receiving a larger amount of calls., which is most likely due to the fact that this is the main way many residents can contact the council. If residents are lucky to be near one the one stop shops they find they have to wait or be given as appointment to have the questions answers. (more…)

Chaotic Southwark Highway Renewals

Southwark Labour have just confirmed what roads and pavements they will renew over the next three financial years. It’s great they plan to spend more over the next three years but to fund this they plan to drastically reduce budgets in future years. Topically this remind me of GReek government finances.

But the decision has many duplications. For example they plan to renew 10% of footways on Dovercourt Road this coming financial year (FY) but then renew 100% of the footways in FY 17_18! Similar duplications for Aysgarth Road, Beauval Road, Casino Avenue, Copleston Road, Danecroft Road, Elmwood Road, Playfield Crescent, Wyneham Road.My favourite is replacing 75% of Tell Grove footwards in FY 2016/17 & then another 75% in FY 2017/18.

Grove Vale is called Grove Lane, some streets listed as in Dulwich are in SE1.

You could not make this up.

Perhaps their is a simple explanation. Eitherway do take a look at the currently signed off plans for road and pavement renewals in Southwark and those specific to the Dulwich area: Highway renewals

Needless to say I’veasked for the decisionto be repeated – in the Dulwich area alone we’ve spotted £147,000 of duplications. So for the whole of Southwark the errors are likely to be around £1M. Ouch!

New Dulwich Hospital Plans

Today Dulwich councillors were sent confirmation that new health facilities will be constructed on the Dulwich Hospital Site. The new health centre will be a new build and initially house the existing facilities provided at the Dulwich Hospital with the capacity to deliver more.

After 22 years I’m chuffed that a coalition government involving Lib Dems finally have decided what to do with this site and the re-provision of more health services. Hooray. Just the boring details of making it happen!

Dulwich HospitalWhen Cllr Rosie Shimell, Jonathan Mitchell and I were elected in 2010 we made it one of our priorities to get things moving on the Dulwich Hospital. We ran a survey of over 25,000 local residents, street stalls, knocking on local residents door to find out what people think and wanted. This built on the sterling work Jonathan had done in helping to stop the things just being closed and sold.

15-01-16 Brand new health centre to be built in Dulwich FINAL

The full details will be released 22 January to the CCG Governing Body. The announcement I’ve received makes it clear NHS Property are now looking to sell the surplus land i will do everything in my power to ensure all the spare land is used for educational purposes.

What is troubling is that any money from the sale of land will be used nationally and not ring fenced to Dulwich. The Dulwich Hospital was paid for by public subscription by former Dulwich residents. It speaks volumes that such monies donated to health causes and charities could be ultimately used outside the area the donors could reasonably ever have expected.

 

 

Voter Registration Nonsense

The last Labour government in response to flagrant voter fraud started the process to introduce individual voter registration. The new system

The old system one person in each household registered everyone in the house – I did for our family. But sometimes people added extra people. So the new system means everyone has to register themselves with their unique National Insurance number to ensure no cheating from bogus residents.

My own experience is buy to-let landlords being registered sometimes multiple times for properties they don’t live in. So the new system will stop this and ensure tenants can register to vote.

To smooth the transition to the new system the Department for Works and Pensions has assisted local councils by matching over 90% of all the previously registered voters with their National Insurance numbers and other have reregistered themselves. This has left under a million voters across the country no longer being registered to vote.

So if you’re no longer registered to vote it is quick and easy and for the first time ever via a new online system. It takes just a few minutes, your National Insurance number and date of birth –www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

Lib Dems in government have also ensured another £10 million to smooth the introduction of this system that has been policy of all parties for a number of years.

School Admissions and Congestion

The biggest industry and businesses in the Dulwich area are in education. Not just the required schools for local children  – the 3 out of the 4 state secondary school or 11 infant and primary schools but also the private schools – 3 secondary schools and 5 infant and primary schools. (Kingsdale with it lottery admissions is no longer a genuinely local school).

These private schools and Kingsdale do attract many local children but they also have huge catchment areas. They support a private school bus network required to support such hugely expanded schools. And their expansion has been marked over the years.

I don’t blame the parents or children coming so far. We have great local schools but with so many now coming from so far it is contributing to serious local congestion.

The irony of those private schools being the core of a the Dulwich and Herne Hill Safe Route to School group while contributing so much to the congestion this worthy group wish to reduce won’t be lost on local residents. This group is now supporting measures to limit local junctions to try and reduce local congestion.

Southwark Council needs to find ways to reduce these attractive schools catchment areas and the congestion large catchment areas is causing.

I Southwark Council will use the planning process to impose new admissions conditions to further this aim.

This would be the route to minimising congestion and the harm and danger this causes local school pupils

Do you agree?

East Dulwich Highway Renewals

Every year we have a little devolved highway renewals money to allocate on East Dulwich ward.

This year we’ve decided to allocated our 2015/16 £38.095 on:

1. £24,843 on renewing the pavement along Lordship Lane eastern side going northwards from North Cross Road.

2. £13,252 remaining on repairing the pavement on Landells Road not repaied this financial year. The total cost would be £37,257 Goodrich Road to lordship lane along landells Road but we have to start somewhere.

Sadly we don’t have sufficient money £88,636 in our devolved pot to resurface Rodwell Road footways. Sorry.

New Gipsy Hill Federation Secondary School

Yesterday evening I met Sir Craig Tunstall, executive head of the highly regarded Gipsy Hill Federation, to discuss his plans for a new secondary school in the area. The plans for a secondary school follow overwhelming support from over 2,000 local parents at the federation’s primary schools, who want their children to continue their education within the Gipsy Hill Federation. It already is oversubscribed by 130% and all going well will open 2016.

For the last five years my number one priority has been ensuring local families have a great school for their child.

This has meant initiating and leading several campaign for new free schools. I’ve also helped with lots of practically help other free school campaign. At the last count five new local free schools.

The government’s free school policy is practically the ‘only show in town’ to build new school so despite my initial serious personal misgiving I’ve put those aside and pressed on to ensure we have lots of great local school place. We’re avoiding the worst of the national school admissions crisis. Phew!

Our next priority has to be helping create lots of new quality nursery places. We simply don’t have enough locally.

Do you know of any great new locations for a new nursery?

 

Labour Give Up on Bakerloo Line Extension

I was shocked to read the Southwark Council report about the Labour Councillors discretionary spending choices this year.

He plans to spend £30,000 on surveys about reopening Camberwell Station. Camberwell Station was closed along with Walworth Road and Borough Road stations during WWI. BUT they were doomed with the coming of the tram network which skimmed sufficient custom to ensure these stations were uneconomic. When the trams closed in the early 1950’s actual construction work had started to extend the Bakerloo line to Camberwell. But it soon stopped leaving a public transport void.

So choosing now, while purporting to campaign for the Bakerloo Line to be extended to Camberwell, to fund a survey for Camberwell train station to be reopened shows a lack of resolve to get the Bakerloo line extended. TfL will not support both. For over 100 years it has been an either or decision – train station or tram or tube.

I call on Southwark Labour party to use this discretionary spending to fund a study into extending the Bakerloo line to Camberwell and beyond.

IF they insist on funding this train station survey then please have the decency to state publicly you’ve given up on a branch of the Bakerloo line being extended to Camberwell so it can be debated.