bawdy-nan

just read herta muller's land of green plums - amazing writing

yup - thought we might get something like this

oddly no word from the councillors on this - feeling cynical but this feels like stage one of yet another political spat. Wouldn't it be lovely if they just said - hurrah that's marvellous lets build a school. Can't quite see it

Jude the Obscure has the most heartbreaking episode. Parents go out and return to home alone nightmare. Children dead and hanging from the back of the door having left a note: "Done because we are too many". But I guess you knew that already H?

this is the last year for hackney empire panto I think - Greenwich is always great - same dame - andrew pollard

horrible histories and I'm sorry I've lost my head

Isn't salary sacrifice being phased out? Also, if job really low paid then tax credits better. An OFSTED registered nanny might work for you ... a really good and useful calculator for tax credits is entitledto.org

Well, that's not strictly true. Elected council members get a basic allowance and then further "special responsibility" allowances. They are compensated for their time. Those with heavy responsibilities and not employed elsewhere are more lardily compensated. A good thing, I'd say, or your local representatives (and indeed national representatives) would only ever be people for whom an income was an irrelevance. You can check out payments here All of which is not to say I think JB should be in thrall to the forum. It seems to me that he checks in pretty regularly and we're only one aspect of his constituency.

edited to say all fine

edited because all actually ok - many thanks for help and support - was really scared

thank you - there was no photo id. Fortunately nothing lying around in the hall at all - unless they wanted odd childrens wellies and crappy kagoules...

Hi Fidgetsmum - I didn't report it at the time but have now - what an idiot. BTW - does anyone know what police id is supposed to look like? I haven't got a clue...

edited

page 40

That's great news James. I was hoping that was the case - thanks for reporting back

Hello Cllr Barber I've noticed lots of lovely re-paving going on round about ED and DV and interesting narrowing of roads and generally pedestrian-friendly works. All good. One thing I have noticed is that the dropped kerbs - indictated by the cream bubbled paving have been raised in lots of places so that it is now impossible to wheel anything over (buggies, wheelchairs, wheeled bikes etc). You can see this especially at the Court Lane entrance to the park. I'm hoping this is because the work hasn't yet been finished but I've also seen it elsewhere where it looks as though the work has been completed ... If it is a mistake it really needs sorting out. If it isn't what's the rationale? Many thanks

Hi James - no, not really

Hi James Of course I wouldn't expect you to know all of the law as it relates to Local Authority Statutory Duty. However I would expect the officers of each relevant department to know that law and to act on it. Perhaps you should ask for their calculations pertaining to the provision of nursery places. in 2006, 7 & 8. I'm not suggesting that there is a hidden problem of missing nursery places rather that as Soutwhark is obliged to make accurate estimates of 3 and 4 year olds who would be eligible for free nursery places it is false to suggest that this primary school crisis should have come as a surprise. Private provision is a red herring - all chidlren are eligible for free nursery places - Southwark is not obliged to provide all of it but it MUST make sure that there are sufficient places avaialable. It strikes me as a little odd, however, that you wouldn't wnat to be fully briefed on the law as it relates to this issue which I assume has been taking up rather a lot of your time given the strength of feeling in the community you serve. As I mentioned in my previous post a brief chat with professor google can be a very enlightening thing. Either Southwark DID know how many 4 and 5 year olds would be expecting to take up primary school places or it failed to deliver its statutory duty to make an accurate assesment of nursery provision for 3 & 4 year olds. Which is it - incompetence and disregard of the law or blatant lying? Whether or not there have been similar problems elsewhere is neither here nor there - Southwark should have known and should have done something about it. The wriggling going on right now is outrageous. As regards the effect of the recession as I recall it is only in the last 2 or 3 quarters that we have been in recession. 4 or 5 years ago we weren't in the midst of a financial gloom - thus amusing and reassuring ourselves with reproduction...(!) The recession hasn't had an impact on the take up of fee paying schools either. As far as I am aware the private schools are also full. Do you have any evidence to the contrary?

Dear Cllr Barber - you might want to take a quick glance at the Childcare Bill in which the local authority statutory duty is set out - here;s an extract. Its quite easy to find I asked Professor Google... you are obliged to know whether there is a sufficiency of free nursery places available. Inorder to do thios you surely must have to have made an assesment of how many 3 & 4 year olds there were, hence my confusion about Southwatrk's bafflement at the primary school place problem ... or perhpas you just didn't bother with that pesky statutory duty thing ... 7 Duty to secure prescribed early years provision free of charge (1) An English local authority must secure that early years provision of a prescribed description is available free of charge for such periods as may be prescribed for each young child in their area who? (a) has attained such age as may be prescribed, but (b) is under compulsory school age. (2) In discharging their duty under subsection You are also most definitely required to know whethe rthe provision of childcare is sufficient(see below). I'm slightly concerned that as a councillor you seem to be unaware of the statutory duty of the local authority you run ... 11 Duty to assess childcare provision (1) An English local authority must prepare assessments of the sufficiency of the provision of childcare (whether or not by them) in their area (?childcare assessments?). (2) The first childcare assessment must be prepared before the end of the period of one year beginning with the commencement of this section. (3) Subsequent childcare assessments must be prepared at intervals not exceeding three years. (4) The authority must keep a childcare assessment prepared by them under review until the childcare assessment is superseded by a further childcare assessment. (5) Regulations may make provision requiring a childcare assessment? (a) to deal with prescribed matters or be prepared according to prescribed criteria; (b) to be in the prescribed form; © to be published in the prescribed manner. (6) In preparing a childcare assessment and keeping it under review, an English local authority must? (a) consult such persons, or persons of such a description, as may be prescribed, and (b) have regard to any guidance given from time to time by the Secretary of State. (7) Subsection (5) of section 6 applies Here's a handy link for you http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2008/pdf/uksi_20081724_en.pdf

James, isn't doesn't the council have a statutory duty to provide sufficient nursery places for all 3 & 4 year olds? If this is the case then in order to make the assessment of how many nursery places is sufficient you presumably would have to have an accurate figure for the number of 3&4 year olds in each area. This would therefore make the constant insistence that the council were taken by surprise by the number of children likely to make applications this year utter nonsense.

we stayed in a small apartment in the marais - just around the corner from Bofinger (beautiful bistro that does takeaway great plates of seafood). Paris is great for kids - carousels everywhere you look, the bateaubus, brilliant parks (where you can hire little boats to sail across the ponds) ... marvellous http://apartments-rental.yellowstay.eu/apartments-list.php?apartments-list-path=24_28&rental=Marais

anything to do with this? Seems a terribly sad case of course but the Albany practice have such a good reputation and success rate in acheiving good births it feels like a terrible shame to have them put out of operation even if this is for a short time. The issue in the article seems to be about whether or not continuos electyrical monitoring is necessary. I can't imagine anything worse during labour.

yes a strike. Its been going on for a few weeks now and is affecting London especially. Rather alarmingly this report is headlined Post backlog may never arrive

the uk campsite one is actually quite good for following up on happy campers recommendations

wildlife gardening centre is great