This weeks Local Transport Today has an interesting article about Dutch style roundabouts called a turbo roundabouts.
They provide 1-1.5 time more capacity than traditional 2 lane roundabouts but with 50-70% less serious crashes than respectively traffic signalled & give-way junctions.
Struck me as a possible model for Paxton Green.
You can see a 70second video of the concept here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMYib3IR43I
Do you think it would help solve the problems at this intersection?
Success. Earlier today the Dept of Education announced that they’ve agreed we need at least one more primary school and possibly another two.
Funding for one new primary school to open September 2014 has been approved – http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/freeschools/b00222077/pre-opening
Our campaign for more primary school places to solve the pending places crisis has taken a massive leap forward due to your support and help. Thank you.
Background. By 2016 our area will have a shortage of 215-235 primary school reception places. That means we need 2 to 3 new primary schools around the Dulwich, Forest Hill Road, Nunhead areas. The Harris Federation agreed to apply for funding to open a new primary school with vision of being in the top 10% for results and progressions of English schools. The Judith Ker bilingual school have confirmed a site in the SE24 Southwark Herne Hill area.
Next step. Parents and members of the community are invited to attend a public meeting to discuss the school on Tuesday 11th June, 7.30pm at Harris Girls’ Academy East Dulwich, Homestall Road, SE22 0NR.
2009 I obtained agreement on behalf of Southwark Council from TfL that for the cycle super highway along Southwark Bridge Road (most of its route in Southwark) that it would be 20mph.
Putting self enforcing measures along the road would be really expensive and disruptive.
Separately I’ve been nagging Southwark Labour cabinet members about trialling 20mph average speed cameras.
I’m chuffed to see both moving forward: http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/documents/s38028/Report%20-%20Allocation%20of%20discretionary%20funding.pdf
20mph average speed cameras will also have a small £10,000 study about them being applied to Southwark Bridge Road.
I submitted details to them about Siemens having a self funding scheme with 3-4 speeders paying to attend speed awareness courses and some of the fees paid for the £50,000 per cameras pairs and administration.
Hopefully the study concludes this route is suitable. Happy days for an opposition councillor to helps steer an administration policies.
For a few years I’ve been banging on about Southwark Council funding a study about extending the Bakerloo line http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=21396&Opt=0
This approach by Greenwich Council about extending the DLR resulted in the Woolwich Arsenal extension. Funding such a report – not cheap at £50,000 – ensures some real depth occurs and hopefully will push the Bakerloo extension along by several years.
It is brilliant in opposition to push policies and actions you want and see them adopted. Happy day.
Ever since standing as a councillor many residents in East Dulwich have been very clear that they agree we should ensure our shopping streets don’t become clone zones.
The New Economics Forum have come up with a method to measure this.
This methodology involve counting the number of independent stores versus the number of shops and the different types of shops.
We’ve surveyed Lordship Lane northern main shopping area, Lordship Lane around Dulwich Library and Grove Vale. The measures is that areas 0-50 are called Clone Towns, 50-65 Border Towns and 65-100 Home Towns.
Lordship Lane (northern/main area) = 73 — largely affected by estate agents
Lordship Lane (Dulwich library area) = 75
Grove Vale = 78 — but vitality affected by number of takeaways.
Walworth Road = 61
To make Lordship Lane more of a Home Town we’d need more variety of shopping – we don’t have electronics, sports/cycling store, music/games. We also have a very large number of chain estate agents and food stores.
We’ll be using these survey results to inform the Dulwich planning bible currently being prepared.
What do you think would help preserve and increase the shopping vitality of Lordship Lane?
The second Planning Application 12-AP-3773 for a new M&S store at 84-90 Lordship where Iceland used to be has just been rejected. The first planning application had been withdrawn by the applicant last year.
This application was to extend the shops and convert the upper floor offices into 8 flats. It was applied for such that the statutory consultation took place over Christmas. Not the most public spirited behaviour of such a well respect national institution.
East Dulwich councillors had called-in this decision due to impacts it would have and that so many details had not been properly thought through.
So we’ve now heard that the application has been assessed by council planning officers as being unacceptable on transport and amenity grounds and has been rejected.
Overall 35 people objected to the application on these grounds and 7 supported it.
With Iceland closed I do hope that M&S or other responsible retail business come up with a more measured planning application that doesnt cause the amenity and transport issues.
What do you think?
Are you pleased or annoyed by this decision?
Southwark is often said to be the most historic London borough. Part of this evidence in the Tower Subway. It was the world’s first ever tube railway in 1869.
Today English Heritage decided not to award it Grade II listing.
See the report why: report_165456
The tower subway has historical significance as one of the earliest tunnels to be dug using the tunnel shield method. Marc and Isambard Brunel pioneered the use of a tunnelling shield in the digging of the Thames Tunnel between Wapping and Rotherhithe (now part of the London Overground Network) and Peter Barlow and James Greathead significantly improved on this work in constructing an iron shield that was circular in cross section (the Brunel’s shield was rectangular) that laid the foundations for the tunnel boring machines that are used today. The Tower Subway is also significant in being the first to use a segmental cast-iron lining, a system still in common use today. The Tower Subway is thus London’s second oldest tunnel beneath the River Thames and pre-dates the next oldest – the City and South London Railway (now the Northern Line) – by some 14 years. Tunnel’s are not normally listed (the Thames Tunnel, at grade II*, is a rare exception) the historic significance of the Tower Subway suggests that it would make a worthy candidate for listing.
It was built in less than one year in 1869 which is a great example of how great an engineer Peter Barlow was designing his shield etc and how James Greathead delivered the project. It originally had a mini tube train which failed commercially. Once this subway train was removed in 1870 it became a 1/2 penny toll foot tunnel and was hugely successful in getting one million people a year from Tooley Street to outside the Tower of London. But this commercially died when Tower Bridge was opened as a free way of crossing the River Thames in 1894.
The tunnel was then bought by the London Hydraulic Power Company housing high pressured water pipes, later Thames Water pipes and more recently fibre optic cables for Cable&Wireless Worldwide.
Is it safe for the future?
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.
For 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.
Southwark’s Planning Committee meet this coming Tuesday 29 January to decide on Herne Hill Velodrome’s future.
Two planning applications.
This application is to install track lighting so that cycling can go on into the mid evening. 55 x 5.5 posts holding 150W halide lights. Lots of design effort has gone into avoiding light going anywhere but directly down onto the tracks. The designers state that away from the track it will feel like bright moonlight.
This application is to build a 250m flat junior track into the main 400m banked track. Plus a multi use games area – effectively to replace the current football pitch – which can also be used for bike polo.
Overall I’m strongly in favour of these applications. They’re an important step in making Herne Hill Velodrome sustainable going forward. Fingers crossed the planning committee also believes this and grant permission.