Labour and Green’s 14% a year Council Tax hikes

Southwark Council Taxpayers have faced an average 14% a year tax rise from Labour and Green Members of the Greater London Authority.

Working with Labour Mayor Ken Livingstone, Labour and Green Assembly Members have backed big rises in the “GLA Precept” charged on Council Tax bills. These rises have been much bigger than inflation and have ranged as high as 29% in one year.

I guess we shouldn’y be surprised that Ken Livingstone should do this. One example is bus investment. Before the GLA is cost £30M and took 7 years to get 20% increase in passenger numbers in London. Ken spent £1,000M to get such a rise in 3 years. His impatience is costing Southwark council tax payers a fortune.

GLA Assembly members are there to watch over the mayor and stop him when he goes too far. But Green and Labour members of the Assembly seem to have forgotten this role.

Contrast this with Southwark Council’s Lib Dem-led Administration which has kept average Council Tax rises below inflation each year over the same period.

What could you buy for £4,520,548 a day?

This year the UK will spend £1.65bn. on British troops being in Iraq.

If the Labour government hadn’t taken us to an illegal war on Iraq, during which 1,140,000 Iraqis have died since we invaded, what could be be spending on better services?

For Southwark we would be keeping home help for residents with moderate needs, the Livesey Museum open, meals on wheels below the London average prices.

How many years will we be pumping money away trying to esacape the consequence of this daft labour war supported by the Conservatives?

Caffe Nero – decision

During January a Planning Inspector held two appeals about Caffe Nero on Lordship Lane regarding Enforcement Notices to remove illegally installed airconditioning units and against a Change of Use. Caffe Nero also requested that all legal costs be born by Southwark on the basis they thought Southwark Council had been so very unreasonable.

The inspector decision was announced yesterday. She found that Southwark Council should not pay for the appellants costs – so clearly Southwark Council has acted reasonably. She upheld the enforcement notice against Caffe Nero about its illegal airconditioning units and they should be removed. She accepted that evidence from the council that the balance of shops to non shops on Lordship Lane had changed since the original decision and that this unit use as a cafe should be allowed.

Overall, considering the changes Lordship Lane has had this was that best possible decision. Residents have a ray of hope that Caffe Nero will finally resolve the illegal sleep disturbing airconditioning units which have frequently operate 24/7 even when the cafe is closed. What amazing eco credentials Caffe Nero must be aiming for!

The coffee lovers of East Dulwich can sleep easy at night knowing that caffiene will still be available locally.

Hopefully Caffe Nero will now clean up its act and will conform to the planning laws of this land.

Cleaner, Green , Safer – Climate Chaos

The deadline for applications for Cleaner, Greener, Safer funding was midnight last night.

With the support of my Liberal Democrat ward colleagues cllr Richard Thomas and cllr Jonathan Mitchell I’ve applied for various schemes to help reduce emissions in East Dulwich.

The main application is for a home visitor project to talk residents through how they can reduce emissions, reduce fuel proverty and if eligible where to apply for funding. 

More symbolically I’ve also applied for a landmark windturbine for East Dulwich. We just need to find the best possible public building that would like one!  

Cleaner, Greener, Safer – crime reduction

Yesterday was the deadline for Cleaner, Greener, Safer funding applications. This flagship Southwark Liberal Democrat policy sets aside around £120,000 for each ward for capital projects and circa £5,000 for revenue events type projects.

As with previous years I’ve applied for funding to help reduce crime and the fear of crime. Previous years I’ve led on getting Alterboxes into East Dulwich shops. They’ve helped participating shops reduce shop crime by over 50% and engendered a more local shop community spirit.

East Dulwich ward was slightly better than average for crime being 274th/625 wards in London – 1 having the lowest crime rate in London. For Southwark East Dulwich has 2nd lowest crime rate out of 21 wards.  During the last year East Dulwich has improved slightly and is now 236th/625 wards in London but still no.2 in Southwark. So each resident in East Dulwich has a 8.5% chance of being affected by crime each year that they report to the Police. Still rather depressing. 

So this year I’ve applied, supported by my Liberal Democrat ward colleagues cllr Richard Thomas and cllr Jonathan Mitchell for things to further help reduce crime in East Dulwich. My personal aim is to help East Dulwich become a truely low crime ward, not just compared to other wards in Southwark but compared to London as a whole. To achieve this we will need to halve rates of crime in East Dulwich.

In about 6 weeks time we’ll know which applications won. The real work then begins.

 If you’d like to get involved the East Dulwich Safer Neighbourhood Team next meeting is 23 April contact me for further details.

Post Offices

The Post Office is planning to close Melbourne post office. This is part of a huge programme directed by the Labour Government.
Liberal Democrats think that when a Post Office master says they are making a profit that it is bonkers to close such Post Offices.
Local Labour MP’s voted last week for such closures. They also appeared in photos campaigning against such closures.
How hypocritical is that?

Graffiti at height problem

Southwark Council is really good at removing graffiti. You report it and it’s removed within 24 hours. Fab. We have a great Street Leader network of hundreds of active residents, including children, who report such eco problems. The Integrated Cleaning Contract provides for all street cleaners etc to report eco crimes. Community Wardens patrol our streets and report such eco crimes. One day we might even persuade Southwark’s Police Officers to report such eco crimes.

This is part of how Southwark has become one of the top performers in London for keeping streets clean.

But this only works when the graffiti is at street level. When the graffiti is at height such as on railway bridges, 1st floors or above on buildings it doesn’t get removed.

Southwark Council has metalwork teams that fix signs who use aerial platforms. We have teams that work with street lights who use aerial platforms. We even have some graffiti removal officers trained to work at heights from aerial platforms.

We just don’t seem able to join all this up.

So after many many many many many months of reporting the same graffiti over and over and over and over again, the property owner is served a notice and it eventually gets removed. A bit longer than 24 hours! Usually it takes over a year. It certainly took over a year to get the Gala Bingo hall on Camberwell Road. Its taken over two years to not get graffiti removed from Network Rail bridge over Newington Causeway. Walworth Road had lots of graffiti at 1st floor level but officers were able to stand on solid flat roofs over several weekends and it only took six weeks to get removed.

Needless to say I’m pushing for drastic improvements to this. It should not take longer than 24 hours. It does require co operation from organisations such as Network Rail, Bingo halls. We must lot graffit criminals keep feeling they’re are winning.

Get involved, become a Street Leader.

Do we support Chinese oppression

Sunday 6 April an Olympic torch parade takes place through London celebrating this summers Bejing Olympics. Part of this parade will be through Southwark from London Bridge to Tower Bridge. To ensure the ‘best possible’ Olympics the Chinese state has been increasing its oppression of any dissent. China doesn’t have a free press. It gives long prison sentences and tortures citizens who criticise it. The Bejing Olympics are clearly being used to provide propaganda material for China. The latest Tibet attempted uprising against Chinese occupation and the brutal retribution is just another example of how morally bankrupt the Chinese regime is.

I don’t see how we can morally support a parade through Southwark celebrating this summers Bejing Olympics.

What do you think?

Dulwich Paradiso

The Spring programme for Dulwich Paradiso film society is out.

A long time ago East dulwich had a local cinema on Grove Vale. It was demolished and replaced with key worker accomodation several years ago.

It is really good to see that this local cinema club is still surviving and goning from strength to strength. It meets on Tuesdays upstairs at the East Dulwich Tavern. I hope that my family, work and council diaries will allow me to visit at least once during the Spring season – especially for Control on 1 April. 

www.paradisofilm.co.uk 020 8299 1136

Southwark drink driving

Drink driving is up in Southwark by 14%. This compares to London-wde figures where charges for a positive breath test have gone down by 10%. How very disappointing and life threatening.

Several years ago the Traffic Police service in south London was decimated.  Perhaps this is one of the results. All the research shows that Traffic Police patrols are one of the two most effective means to reduce average traffic speeds to the speed limit – the other being average speed cameras.