Illegal parking at school gates

After pressure from local Lib Dems, Southwark Council is to start using two cars equipped with cameras to get tough on people who ignore traffic rules by monitoring school gates in the mornings and afternoons. We’ve had complaints about this from parents with kids at Heber and Goodrich Schools. Footage will be used to issue penalty notices of up to £120, with revenue from the fines directed back into road safety projects and traffic calming measures outside schools and across the borough.

Clearly illegally parked cars outside schools create dangerous situations for children and parents. The School Keep Clear road markings are there for a reason and I suspect with these camera cars coming people will take those markings much more seriously.

It also means our local East Dulwich Police and community Wardens can spend more time doing other tasks.

400 to 3

Came across some fascinating facts.

40 pedestrians are killed every year WHILE ON PAVEMENTS by motor vehicles.

Over the last 10 years 3 pedestrians have been killed by cyclists. 400 to 3.

Whether a reckless motor vehicles driver or reckless cyclist the full force of the law must be excercised.

Wierdly I only seem to come across residents angry with cyclists on pavements even when they are not being reckless.

East London Line chaos

It would appear another train service in South London is to be decimated due to the coming of the East London Line. Trains from Caterham into London Bridge will be reduced from 6 to 4 an hour. This comes on top of the South London Line plans to close the service.

It appears the Labour Government Department of Transport and Tory Transport for London are sacrificing inner London train services to make way for longer distance train services.

If when proposing the East London Line residents had been given a clear choice. Have an East London Line but pay for it by closing and decimating existing train services I’m clear in my mind what station people making such proposals would have been told to get of off.

The number of South London residents is rising dramatically. We need improved services to cater for them.

Primary School Places

This summer has seen problems with Primary school places in London as a whole and the Dulwich area. It’s believed that changes in London’s demographics, combined with the impact of the recession, have led to an extraordinary rise in demand for new reception places, leaving many schools with little or no capacity to take on new pupils.

Southwark purchases school population predictions, as do 25/33 London Boroughs, from the Greater London Authority and have done for a number of years. The models used appear suddenly wrong. The figures were revised by the GLA on 7 April, then 18 May and then 17 June. Each time upwards. This is unheard of.

But how has this impacted on how things have gone overall as only unhappy families contact local councillors. This was the first year East Dulwich families had reported problems.

For the Dulwich area and Southwark overall 304 and 2,370 applications respectively from Southwark residents on time with further 45 and 556 late applications. For the Dulwich area and Southwark 90% had schools offered and accepted within 1mile of home for on time applications. For late applications the percentages fell to 80%.

Of those who didn’t get a school within 1mile of home many were from choice – attending religious schools or the same school as siblings.

This appears a success but I dont’ yet know how many families had their first or second choice.  Once we have that information we’ll have a clearer idea how successful things have been overall.

BUT to make this happen in the Dulwich area an emergency extra class has been created at Goodrich. HUGE THANKS to Goodwich School.

Lots of efforts behind the scenes to work out is this a blip? how long if a blip? how to prepare for next year? how long would a new school take to build? is it necessary? where would you build one if necessary? government rules would probably result in a religious school and would an Islamic, CoE or Catholic school solve any problem? These questions if acted upon in series would normally take 7 years before a new school opens due to government rules and procedures.

What do you think has caused this blip and is it long lasting?

What do you think would solve the problem? 

1 Sargent, 3 PC’s and 5 PCSO’s

The East Dulwich Police Safer neighbourhood Team now consists of 1 Sargent, 3 Police Constables and 5 Police Community Support Officers. 9 officers in total. Amazing.

This might be related to the Police being unable/unwilling to correct their Police stats computer to reflect the actual East Dulwich boundaries. Currently East Dulwich includes 1/4 of Peckham Rye, 1/8 of Dulwich and 1/8 of College. Changing the Post Code lookup table in a computer file is dull but really very simple to perform. Only then will we truly know whether the efforts of councillors, council officers and Safer Neighbourhood Teams are working.

So even a team of 9 is hardly enough to cover 150% of the intended area for a Safer Neighbourhood Team.

10:10

The 10:10 campaign seeks as many people, business, and other organisations to commit to reducing their CO2 emissions by 10% during 2010. www.1010uk.org

I’m delighted to report Southwark Council is signing up to this.

I’m now seeking a commitment for another 11% during 2011….would that make it a 21:11 from now or 11:11?

No.12 buses

We’re keen on the no.12 bendy bus route no longer terminating in East Dulwich. Even replacing no.12 Bendy Buses with double deckers would be an improvement – crime reduction, blocking streets while turning etc.

We have in the past campaigned for the no.12 to go onto Forest Hill, but on reflection no other buses terminate there or turnaround so probably not realistic.

But waiting until the no.12 bus contracts comes up for renegotiation November 2011 is a long time to wait. To break that contract early would be very expensive. In the current climate we’ll have to wait until double deckers replace bendy buses as realistically the only option.

Rubbish collections 6.15am

Since being elected May 2006 I’ve had several report each year about rubbish collections starting before 6am.

Rubbish trucks are only allowed out from their Manor Place depot (close to Walworth Road Elephant & Castle end) at 6am. Recycling lorries at 7am. It takes about 15 minutes to reach East Dulwich. So no rubbish collections are legitimately allowed before that time. We have had some very keen crews sending colleagues ahead to move wheelie bins into position from 5.30am. Again this is not acceptable.

Why 6am? Croydon, Lambeth and Southwark start refuse collections at 6am, Tower Hamlets at 6.30am and Lewisham 7am. Delaying Southwark collections by 1 hour, due to the extra traffic congestion starting an hour later, has been calculated at requiring an extra crew and dustcart at around £150,000->200,000 pa. In the current climate we wont be reallocating this amount of money from other areas to fund this.

If you ever experience rubbish collections or preperations starting before 6.15am please do get in touch with me. james.barber@southwark.gov.uk