Fairer Taxes

A review of taxation is taking place.

One tax that I’ve always been mystified by the most regressive tax that affects virtually all households and is evaded every year by 5.2% of those that meant to pay – TV licences.

The govt sets the amount of the licence and who doesn’t pay. After that all households have to pay whatever their ability to pay.

On top of this it’s a chore for most people to pay and the poorest who often pay by cash are most inconvenienced.

So I’d suggest getting rid of the annual TV licence. It would be fairer without it, simpler, more efficient, greener without forms etc, would remove 140,000 people mostly women from the criminal system every year (10% of all magistrate cases) who end up with criminal records.

Pupil Premium

I’ve found out the latest amounts of Pupil Premium to be given to East Dulwich schools for the financial year 2013/2014:

East Dulwich ward    
Goodrich Community Primary School 302 £271,800
Goose Green Primary School 144 £129,600
Heber Primary School 74 £66,600
St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School 45 £40,500
Ward total 565 £508,500

 This is a sharp rise from 2012/2013 where for example Goose Green will have been given £89,000.

For other schools please see:

https://skydrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=AA7D26429DB5E9EF!117&cid=aa7d26429db5e9ef&app=Excel

 

Crown House – decision point

Crown House at 41-43 East Dulwich Road is the ex. Dulwich Area Housing office.

It’s had a busy last six month seeing two planning applications to its reuse.

Nursery

The first was a planning application for new 100+ nursery places, refused by Southwark Council but the applicant has appealed it.
It was refused as the council doesn’t think they’ve made enough efforts to lease it as office spaces protecting local employment. And also no transport report.

The former is odd as with such huge shortages of nursery places many are unable to go back to work. So this feels a red herring or ill conceived. The transport issues interesting. When the council applied next door it was allowed BUT on the condition they produce a Travel Plan.

So I’ve contacted the planning inspector who will decide the appeal supporting the application IF a condition for a Travel Plan is added.
The planning inspector can be contacted at: teamp3@pins.gsi.gov.uk reference APP/A5840/A/12/2185756/NWF

What’s very frustrating is that until May 2012 this planning application would have been decided by the Dulwich Community Council but instead council officers miles away made the decision – wrongly in my mind.

Shop

The second is a planning application for a new medium sized shop. We’re not keen on this as if it’s a successful shop sucking retail vitality out of Lordship Lane. Also the needs more school and nursery places and this site on it’s own could provide much needed nursery places.

If you have a view on this planning application tell council officials – planning.applications@southwark.gov.uk – and copy me.

New Harris Primary School Application

I’m delighted to announce that we’ve achieved sufficient support for the Harris Federation to apply for a new two form entry East Dulwich Primary School.

The application has been submitted today.

Huge thanks to the 160 local families who  lent their support for this project. We needed 80 families with children due to start reception classes in 2014 or 2015 and 94 families have stepped forward. Another 66 supporters with younger children has also come forward.

We’ve also received lots of other support from residents. Thank you.

I’d also like to publicly say thank you to the Harris people who agreed to support our request on them to create a new school. Without finding such a successful and willing provider many local children would soon be stuck for reception places.

But the shortage of reception places by 2016 will reach 75-90 in Dulwich and up to another 135 for Peckham Rye and Nunhead areas.

It looks increasingly likely that the Judith Kerr Bilingual Primary school offering 50 places will be located in East Dulwich. But it isn’t certain and both schools together would still leave a gap of 115 reception places.

So we’re still campaigning for more support – so we can try and get the new East Dulwich Harris Primary school increased to three form entry (90 pupils).

If we obtain even further support we’ll ask Harris to apply for a second primary school in January 2014 to ensure all children have great schools places near to where they live.

If you support new primary schools in our area – please email me your support ASAP.

 

 

Buldge classes for September 2013

This morning the Labour led council have announced all the bulge classes they propose for September 2013:

  • Albion, Bessemer Grange, Crawford, Dog Kennel Hill, Ivydale and Langbourne will all take an additional 30 reception pupils
  • Camelot, Charles Dickens, and Grange will each take an additional 15 reception pupils.  In addition Keyworth had already agreed to take an additional 15 pupils in 2013 and this information was included in the  2013 primary booklet.

So 7.5 extra temporary forms of primary school entries.

But the last cabinet papers pages 92-100 stated we’d need an extra 7-11 forms of entry to cope with September 2013 for Southwark. Zero margin for error and the one major lesson from the last four years of primary school admissions is you need to have margins for error.

For the Dulwich area where its predicted we’ll need 2-2.5 extra forms of entry for September 2013 only 2 are being provided. But we also have the issue that the schools taking bulge classes are in locations people don’t find easy to get to – Langbourne and Bessemer Grange. It’s as if Labour have given up on helping Dulwich.

 

New East Dulwich Primary School – latest

photoMany thanks to everyone who stopped to talk on Saturday at our street stall outside the Coop on Lordship Lane about our campaign for a new Primary school/s in the area.

It was surprisingly cold after five hours  but everyone helping kept going  10am-3pm.

We’ve now reach 62 supporters for a new school out of the 80 we need with children who are 1 or 2 years old. So we’re just over 3/4 of the way. We’ve also found 49 other supporters with younger children. So it’s clear that huge demand for a new local school.

But we need to press on. If you agree we need a new Primary school please email me james.barber@southwark.gov.uk with your name, child’s DOB and home post code.

If you can help with this campaign by delivering leaflets, visiting nursery groups or in any other way please do get in touch.

Thomas Moore Hall

This is an important planning application for East Dulwich.           

The local Catholic church have a planning application in for its Thomas Moore Hall on Lordship Lane:

 

http://planningonline.southwark.gov.uk/DocsOnline/Documents/267296_1.pdf

 

The area is desperately short of nursery school places. So largely this will be a very good thing for East Dulwich. But sad to lose a large hall and all the past activities that used to take place there.

If you object or support this application please let me know.

 

2012 Primary School league tables

The latest Key Stage 2 Primary School league tables are out today.

Southwark overall is at 80% of its children meeting expected level at KS2 in both English and Maths. The England average is 79%. But our neighbours Lambeth reached 84% and Lewisham 85%. So still lots more to be done with Richmond reaching 90%.

Our local schools around East Dulwich achieved:

9 December – train service downgrade.

LONDON OVERGROUND is being extended from 9 December by adding a section Surrey Quays to Clapham Junction – http://goo.gl/9roun

It brings 4 trains per hour (tph) 7 days a week between Clapham Junction and Highbury & Islington via Wandsworth Rd, Clapham High St, Denmark Hill, Peckham Rye, Queens Rd Peckham. This will open up new journey opportunities to east and west London. All these south London stations will appear on the new TfL Tube map. The downside to that is that it looks as if the new Tube map will show us cut off with no rail services to central London. How daft is that.Southwark Rail User Group have thoughtfully produced a much more useful map to publicise our rail connections into central London – http://www.bellenden.net/SRUG-maps.

BUT THE SOUTH LONDON LINE DISAPPEARS
But this also means we say a sad goodbye to the inner South London Line (SLL) – http://goo.gl/yWQmd. This hopefully temporary closure until 2018 when London Bridge station reopens will really isolate communities along the SLL route with no direct access to London Bridge and very patchy services into Victoria – many people will be deterred from living in Camberwell and other communities along the line. Many users, organisations and representatives fought a long and hard campaign to save it. But it was not successful. See here for some of that story – http://www.bellenden.net/rail-cuts. We’ll have to fight hard for the service to be returned in 2018.

REMAINING SERVICES
The changes will leave us with these services off peak:

– Victoria from Nunhead, Peckham Rye and Denmark Hill: 2tph Mon to Sat, but none in the evenings, and none on Sunday. (3tph between 8am-9am)

– Clapham Junction via Wandsworth Rd, Clapham High St, Denmark Hill, Peckham Rye, Queens Rd Peckham to Canada Water and beyond on the London Overground: 4tph, 7 days a week morning till night.

– St Pancras and beyond from Nunhead, Peckham Rye, Denmark Hill via Elephant Castle/Blackfriars: 2tph, up to 9pm Mon to Fri, and terminating at Blackfriars after that time and weekends. (More tph Mon-Fri between 8am-9.15am)

– London Bridge from North Dulwich, East Dulwich, Peckham Rye, Queens Rd Peckham, Sth Bermondsey: 4tph, 7 days a week morning to night. (In the peak there will be 6tph – a 10 minute frequency.)

DISAPPEARING SERVICES
The services we are losing are:

– the 2 tph between London Bridge and Victoria via Sth Bermondsey, Queens Rd, Peckham Rye, Denmark Hill, Clapham High St, Wandsworth Rd, Battersea Pk, provided by the South London Line. (SLL). They are currently 7 days a week from morning till night.

Their loss means for the stations affected:

– no trains to London Bridge via Battersea Pk, Wandsworth Rd, Clapham High St, Denmark Hill.

– no trains to Victoria via Sth Bermondsey, Queens Rd, Clapham High St, Wandsworth Rd, Battersea Pk.

– no trains to Victoria after about 7pm, and none on Sunday from Peckham Rye, Denmark Hill.

– a reduction from 4tph to 2tph to Victoria from Peckham Rye, Denmark Hill.

– a reduction off peak from 6tph to 4tph to London Bridge from Peckham Rye, Queens Rd Peckham, Sth Bermondsey.

CAMPAIGN TO RESTORE OUR VICTORIA SERVICES
In the longer term we want our South London Line service between London Bridge to Victoria, via Peckham Rye and Denmark Hill and all the current SLL stations, restored once London Bridge station is rebuilt in 2018.

In the meantime, the campaign continues to get the gaps filled in services to Victoria that the loss of the South London Line creates in the evenings and at weekends and to restore the service to 4tph – http://www.bellenden.net/victoria – You will see there the email addresses of all those who should know the effect of the loss of our South London Line.

New Primary Schools for SE22

After a number of years of forecasters telling us we have a temporary baby boom they are now clear we have a permanent problem – we need more school places on a permanent basis.

At full Council Assembly 25 January I had it confirm that in the Dulwich area ongoing we need an extra 60-75 reception places every year from 2015.

At Council Cabinet 20 November it was confirmed by council officials that the shortage is bigger and increased to 75-90 reception place per year by 2016 for the Dulwich area and for the Nunhead and Peckham Rye area  90  to 135 reception places per year by 2016. The two demand equate to 2 or 3 brand news schools.

The council’s plan is to ask the government for £40-50m to expand existing schools. But the ideal size of primary schools is two or three form entry. If you go above that size the adults and children don’t know each other – it becomes anonymous. Not an experience we’d wish for our youngest.

We know a German/English school are interested in being created in Southwark or Lambeth – we need more certaintythan this.

So the East Dulwich ward councillors have been in conversations with the Harris Federation. They have a clear track record of excellence at creating new schools that Ofsted rate as outstanding. None of our local Primary schools are rated outstanding yet. After many points and perspectives being shared they have agreed to apply for a new school serving the Dulwich area. But I’m hoping to persuade them to apply for a second primary school serving the east Dulwich/Peckham Rye/Nunhead area which has little school provision.

Our converaations have involved Sir Robin Bosher the ex. head of Fairlawn rated outstanding and Sir Dan Moyniham the chief executive of the Harris Federation. We’ve met him before when visiting Harris schools in East Dulwich.

We hope to persuade other local politicians for this to be cross-party and have contacted College, Nunhead, Peckham Rye and Village ward councillors.

The obvious site is a fifth of the Dulwich Hospital. To make that happen will take a lot of influence by the Department of Education over the Department of Health. I’d be amazed if Lord Harris and his team couldn’t make that happen.

To make a new school in Dulwich or the Peckham Rye/Nunhead area we need to find 80 children for each school who would attend ie. 1 and 2 year old children now. The families need to say that they would like their children to attend a new Harris Federation Primary school. It doesn’t commit them but it does indicate they’d like to attend if built and if we succeed will ensure we have enough extra  excellent places locally for all our children.

Please see attached form Harris have kindly produced.

12414_HF_HarrisEastDulwichFreeSchool_Leaflet_LowRes

Please complete the last page and post it OR email me your name, your child’s date of birth, your postcode. Or just email me if you’d like to be kept in touch with this campaign.

Together we can make this happen.