Community Asset

I was very grateful that the Dulwich Society agreed to apply for East Dulwich Police station to be listed as a Community asset under thE Localism Act. This listing owuld give us more influence in what happens with the site.

Sadly Southwark Council refused this application stating the localism Act could not be used.

Weirdly three other councils around England have listed police station using this act:
• Waverley council: Haslemere police station was listed in 2013 
http://www.surrey-pcc.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/036_2013_Estates-Disposals.pdf

• East Hampshire council: Petersfield police station was listed in September 2013 
         http://www.petersfieldpost.co.uk/news/police-station-listed-as-a-community-asset-1-5535463

• Calderdale council: Hebden Bridge police station was listed in October 2013 
         http://www.hebdenbridgetimes.co.uk/news/local/sucesss-in-bid-to-see-old-police-station-listed-as-an-asset-of-community-value-1-6137306

I would suggest Southwark is unlikelyto know better than three other councils.

So I’ve started the process of appealing. It’s a really important principle.

Site found – East Dulwich Harris Free School

Great news that a permanent site for the East Dulwich Harirs free primary Scohol has been found.

East Dulwich councillors initiated this cmapaign in late 2012 when we realised Southwark ocuncil’s plans were inadequate to solve the looming primary school reception place crisis.

The new permanent site will be the former East Dulwich Police station. The school will open there September 2015. But it will open on a temporary site tihs September 2014. Very exciting.

Thanks you to all the parents who have lent us their support to make this possible and happen. For the Harris Federation who have acted brilliantly throughout. And all the supporters who have helped make this site possible – it has been a very bumpy, stressful ride.

cllr outside new primary scholl site

East dulwich Lib Dem councillors where the new school will go.

Local Indie Shop Map

Some local residents have put together a marvellous map of local independent shops.

Please see attached. Indie Shop Map

WELL DONE EMMA PALLANT for the lovely artwork and MADELIENE WORRALL for conceiving of the idea and making it happen.

I helped find the money and guranteed it so they could print before Christmas. I’ve already been asking them about the next version…

What have we missed?

 

Burgess Park CPO

Around two years ago I highlighted to the Cabinet member at Southwark Council that property adjacent to Burgess Park was up for sale. Key property that would really help improve the Southampton Way boundary and area. Cllr Barrie Hargrove was interested.

 I’m delighted that the council cabinet committee agreed this week to potentially seek Compulsory Purchase Orders to make this idea a reality.

Burgess Park was conceived during WWII to make the area much more green and pleasant. Huge number of homes and many businesses to make this happen. Some were my family. So I’m keen that in my lifetime this great project is properly finished.

What improvements do you think would help bring Burgess Park onto a par with London’s Royal Parks

Moth Drone Surveys

Southwark Council has a very large property estate. It regularly buys in surveys.

Sometimes this can be really expensive with scaffolding installed to give safe external survey access or abseiling engineers. This is hugely expensive.

Wouldn’t it be useful to have a high definition camera up close so a surveyor doesn’t need scaffolding and to get much quicker results.

Such a system has been created and is being used – month drone.

And talking to a survey supplier I’ve used professionally the system is already in use in the UK.

I’ve suggested this method to the Cabinet Member for Housing at Southwark. He told me not to hold my breath.

ED Changes for 2014/15

Every year local ward councillors get to decide how to spend some devolved Cleaner, Greener, Safer budget. The scheme started when Lib Dems first led the council in 2002 with only one year when it didn’t operate when the Labour administration wanted to use the money on pet Olympic projects.

I’m particularly excited by the prospect of improving the junction of North Cross Road with Lordship Lane. It’s one of our crash hot spots, doesn’t work well when closed for the street market on Saturdays. The Bike hangars will be a great experiment to see if they can work locally in East Dulwich – fingers crossed. And lastly trialling the Dulwich Hospital phlebotomy service on Saturdays. IT should really make it much easier for people to have blood tests outside of normal work hours and provide a real alternative to being at the hospital before 7am weekdays.

This year East Dulwich councillors have decided to allocate the following:

CGS capital:

–          ED Crime Prevention fund £10,000

–          ED street trees £10,000

–          Lordship Lane secure derelict property £4,500

–          Chesterfield £6,000 for upgrading street lighting to white light, £4,000 for pavement tree pit upgrading.

–          Bike hangars – fund 2 to be decided where most popular by residents £10,000

–          East Dulwich Community Centre (EDCC) children garden area materials £524

–          Bassano Street gating £2,000

–          Dawson Heights tree planting £1,000

–          Upgrade junction of NCR/LL £50,000

–          ED public Automated Emergency Defibrillators £5,000

–          Historic photos project £4,500

Total £112,524

 

CGS revenue:

–          Give and take EDCC events £1,500

–          Goose Green nursery improvements £1,400

–          EDCC gardening £700

–          WW2 plaques across Dulwich £667

–          Street cleaning machine extra half-time employee £11,605

–          Saturday Dulwich Hospital blood testing trial x 26 weeks (as per separate email) £20,000

Total £35,872

Fewer streets faster traffic?

A chap called Breass discovered the best overall flow of traffic may not be by the most direct route. In fact adding direct routes can slow down traffic. The corollary is removing shorter more direct routes can actually speed traffic up.

Example to demonstrate this…Imagine a single route between A and B that however many cars take this route it always takes them 10minutes. Add a second shorter route that takes 1 minute for every car using it. If everyone, all 20 cars, take the shorter route their average speed will be 20minutes. Chopping this shorter route and diverting them back to the less direct route would half their average journey time.

In New York they’ve produced this affect in real life. 42nd street, the second busiest road, was closed for a day. Instead of expected chaos traffic flowed much more smoothly.

I wonder what road in East Dulwich and Southwark would produce this effect?

81 seconds to answer

Southwark Council can be painful to deal with. It’s such a large organisation doing so many different things that people often tell me it’s hard to find the right person or get the response they expected.

All queries are dealt with by a now in-house contact centre based in Peckham. It handles huge volumes of phone calls and emails. Typically 25,000 calls a month but only gets to answer between 45% and 73%. The average time taken to answer those calls is much improved from a high in October 2012 of 5 mins 56 seconds down to 1 mins 21 seconds in December 2013. But most organisations aim for just a few rings before answering in less than 10 seconds. So still huge work to be done.

When you do get through, 77% of residents found they received the help they needed, 15% didn’t and 8% aren’t sure. Importantly many of these calls are to tell the council something they want to know to fulfil its duty to us as residents.

During 2014 efforts to get more services online to avoid having to make a phone call are planned. Silly things like bulk waste collection will go online. So far 55,000 residents have registered to use online services and is increasing by 300 pw. If you haven’t registered please do register here: https://my.southwark.gov.uk/Default.aspx

What have your experiences been like?

Which council officers has gone the extra mile for you?

Missing Children

One of Lib Dem councillors ask a question at last nights council assembly which elicited a shocking response: 

54. QUESTION TO THE CABINET MEMBER FOR CHILDREN;’S SERVICES FORM COUNCILLOR COLUMBA BLANGO

How many incidents of children in care going missing for more than 24 hours have been recorded in each of the past four years? How many children are currently missing from care, and for how long have they been missing in each case?

RESPONSE

The issue of children going missing form care does cause us concern because when a child is missing there is a possibility that they could be at risk of harm or danger.

At present we do not have any children reported missing from care and I am pleased that when our children in care go missing, we are able to return them within 48 hours. On the rare occasion where this is longer we work with the police to alert the media.

–          In 2012-13 there were 168 missing incidents recorded for 36 young people.

–          In 2011-12 there were 88 missing incidents recorded for 27 young people.

–          In 2010-11 there were 17 missing incidents recorded for 9 young people.

–          In 2009-10 there were 14 missing incidents recorded for 9 young people.

All of the above were young people missing for over 24 hours. There has been a significant improvement in the recording of missing incidents in the last three years and we have implemented workshops for staff and our administrative.

END

Really disappointing that no plans were revealed how to fix this. All those Southwarks children in danger. And what are they running from…

Fair pay rises

Since the economic car crash of the last Labour government the economy is now growing and forecast to grow strongly.

Pay rises will return. But how to ensure pay rises are applied fairly. One system that a staff committee I worked with developed was the following – this example was related to a 3% overall increase:

Pay rise grid

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It worked a treat bringing transparency and fairness.