Christmas Trees

In a few days time we’ll all be starting to take our festive decorations down.

If you have a real Christmas tree you can dispose of it by putting it out on garden waste recycling days. Or locally take them to Peckham Rye Park (near the cafe) or Belair Park (car park).

If you’re disabled, elderly or don’t have transport and don’t have a garden waste collection service, you can arrange to have your Christmas tree collected.  To book a collection appointment between 5th and 29th of January call 020 7525 2000.

The following is a list of the next garden waste recycling collections in the New Year for East Dulwich:

Archdale Road            Tuesday 12 January

Ashbourne Grove         Tuesday 5 January

Barry Road                  Tuesday 5 January

Bassano Street             Tuesday 5 January

Read the rest of this entry.

Unforecast snow

Monday afternoon unforecast snow arrived. Council gritting is undertaken 12 hours in advance of icy or snowy weather forecasts as per the Met Office and Meteo. Unforecast snow during day time is terrible as no grit is in place. So day time traffic quickly snarls up and the gritters can’t get through to get gritting. Proverbial nightmare.

To reduce the chances of this Southwark employs two different weather forecasters – one the Met Office and Meteo. Both got it wrong. Arrgh.

So Southwark, as with everyone else, was caught out.

The good news is that we have more resources than most councils to get things moving again – 3 lorry gritters, 80 manual gritters, 500 officers and contractor staff, 1,000 tonnes of salt/grit. But we’ll never have sufficient to clear all 340km of road, 680km of pavements instantly.

Let me know your experiences to help shape the service for the future.

Freedom Pass 2010 renewals

If you’re over 60 years old or know someone who is or disabled and they/you want a Freedom Pass for free bus journeys applications need to be submitted between 4 January and 13 February.

My understanding of the process is:

For Older Persons Freedom Pass.
Get an application from local Post Office FROM 4 January. Fill it in then take it back to Post Office with proof of age, proof of address and photo. Post office issues a receipt. Post Office send form and photo to a documentation bureau. Bureau issue Freedom Pass within 10 working day via 2nd class post.

For Disabled Person Freedom Pass.
Get reassessment form from Southwark Council. Apply with required proofs and photo. Southwark checks form and if necessary arranged for occupational therapy assessment. Applicant takes letter of authorisation, prooft of age!, address and photo to Post Office who issue a receipt. Post Office sends documentation to documentation bureau. Bureau issues Freedom Pass within 10 working day via 2nd class post.

Any problems let me know ASAP. Last time these passes were renewed it all went pear shaped across London. Everyone working really hard to avoid this. So any problems please tell me.

Friern Road bus stands

The bus stands at the junction of Friern Road with Lordship Lane represent the terminal points for the number 12 and 40 bus routes and any buses from routes 176, 185, etc that are turned around earlier. Over the last ten years bus numbers have increased – all great stuff.

BUT this terminus has no facilities. No toilets for bus drivers. This means when desperate the bus drivers have had to ‘go’ wherever they can. This has spilled into anti social problems for the residents in Rycott Path and Friern Road. To such a degree that the Police are involved.

Transport for London obtained planning permission 2007 for a drivers toilet to be installed. I’ve finally tracked down the hold-up. EDF power lines. Council officers have agreed to waive the normal notice periods and try geeing up EDF a major supplier to Southwark Council.

Hopefully within the next eight weeks the toilet can be installed and the area become just a little bit more civilised.

Bus routes 12 & 37 review

The East Dulwich councillors have been asked to give feedback on local bus services.

We’ve said that generally the lack of bus stop real time information on when buses are expected is suppressing bus passenger demand. Improving this would have the biggest impact on improving custom and the customers experience of any measure that could be taken.

Expressed a niggle is that the onboard information systems are not aligned between bus routes. Some bus routes call the junction of Barry Road with Lordship Lane ‘the Plough’ others call it ‘Dulwich Library’. Ideally London Buses would be organised to agree a common naming convention. Frankly it makes London Buses look at best disorganised. Clearly with the frequent name changes of ‘the Plough’ public house in recent years it would seem safer to align on’ Dulwich Library’. Suspect other examples abound.

The bus stands at the southern end of Friern Road need to have toilet facilities for bus drivers. Currently bus drivers through no fault of their own get caught short with very anti social consequences. Planning permission was given November 2008 for a toilet cabin opposite 391 Friern Road but nothing built yet.

Specifically we’ve also highlighted,

Number 12. When can we have non bendy buses. Presume this is already planned.

Number 37. This bus route seems especially prone to buses bunching. The regulation of bus frequency needs greater emphasis to avoid gaps in service.

Number 68/X68/468. Having an express bus stop at Camberwell and Herne Hill would really help speed East Dulwich residents to get near the area more quickly even though they’d then need to change buses to reach East Dulwich.

What do you think could be improved about the no.12 & 37 bus routes through East Dulwich?

Dulwich Hospital

The next Dulwich Community Council 14 December at Christ Church on southern end of Barry Road will be discussing the Dulwich Hospital after the latest update from Southwark Primary Care Trust. Trust has been lacking for the last 10 years with some many changes of plans and the appearance of secrecy and quango knows best. This has been compounded recently by the lifts being closed and the consequent ‘temporary’ closure of the intermediate care wards. These wards provided local care for people not well enough to go home but not poorly enough to block a bed at Kings Hospital.

However, I’m hopefully that with the current scaffolding, planning applications for new pedestrian entrances that the PCT now plans to keep the remaining hospital buildings and all the services they’ve traditionally provided. Sell the vacant land and the profits used to renovate the remaining hospital. That the financial accountancy tricks of the LIFT Co. Private Finance Initiative will be ended for Dulwich Hospital and we can all move on with local facilities agreed with the local community. This doesn’t mean the PCT using the rigged local ‘consultation’ results.

What do you think should happen to the Dulwich Hospital?

Primary school admissions

This year Primary School admissions has been painful. Quite out of the blue we had unhappy parents. 120 appeals, 8 upheld.

I’ve asked council officers how many cases councillors and MP’s referred to them for help.

They’ve told me:

Labour 13 – councillors 5, Harriet Harman MP 3, Tessa Jowell MP 5.

Liberal Democrats 35 –  councillors 14, Simon Hughes MP 21.

Convervative 1.

Total 46.

East Dulwich Primary school places

Last night a meeting of the councils Overview and Scurtiny Committee met at the East Dulwich Community Centre to discuss the problems parents faced with this years primary schools admissions process.

Disappointing that barely a handful of parents could attend plus a handful of headteachers and school governors. However, the room was full of councillors and council officers. Really thought provoking presentation from Terry Parkin the lead officer accountable for admissions. Lots of searching questions that brought out lots of other facts.

Some unfortunate weird comments and wild accusations from Cllr Aubyn Graham. He seemed very confused.

Main points I took from the scrutiny:

– Idea of having quite a few pre prepared buldge class options and then activating them depending on parent demand. This de risks any future pupil predictions being wrong while the economy is in such turmoil.

– More assurance that the GLA stats people now understand what went wrong this year after 15 years of unblemished near spot on pupil predictions.

– Amazing to hear that Southwark created an extra 45 reception places and still has 17% spares places in less fashionable schools such as the excellent Bessemer Grange. Lambeth and Lewisham had to create 150 extra emergency reception places each, Richmond 210, Enfield a whopping 22 classes totalling 660 reception places. This was shocking and really put into context how well Southwark had coped.

– £30M being pumped in Southwark Primary schools to physically make them better by Southwark Council and £25M from central government.

– Southwark schools close to being in top quartile for performance but time lag from when a schools performance soars to when publicly recognised for this.

– That across Southwark175 and in greater Dulwich area 22 kids go ‘missing’ each year. They just don’t show up at the schools places they’ve accepted. It costs the council £100,000 each year chasing these down to ensure they are in a school somewhere and are safe. What a waste caused by tiny number of selfish parents.

– That the admissions department has enough officers for a normal year but this abnormal year they were overwhelmed with worried parents. These officers will be increased by three as admissions numbers are bulging for the next 5-6 years.

If you’re an East Dulwich parent and couldn’t make it last night please do feed in your thoughts and observations.