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Just to remind anyone who is interested that the new Police Borough Commander, Chief Superintendent John Sutherland, will be attending the Dulwich Community Council tonight at 8.30pm in the JAGS School Dining Hall off East Dulwich Grove. We are going to launch Phase Two of our campaign to retain a police base in the East Dulwich area regardless of what happens to the existing police station, so we need all the support we can get from the community.

I'm glad to hear that Francesca has bonded with Eric! I've started clearing Eric's bed for the next round of planting - the Mandrake and more Spikenard (which looks like it has drowned!) to start with. Someone has donated a pile of wood chips that smell wonderful, we've asked so many people that I'm not sure who actually did it, so will find out and post it here. We need to clear the leaves from the site so that we can spread it... if anyone has any spare time, feel free to bag up leaves for recycling. I keep meaning to pop in and pick up a SNUB bag from you, Monica, be sure to save me one!

Probably the best thing to do is to wait until the proper Tree Warden program is launched in January. From experience with similar programs, you put in whatever time you want to, it's a bit like a "Friends" group... I asked a question about it in Council Assembly last time, the full reply should be in the minutes somewhere. But I'll definitely let you all know when we have the item at the DCC.

Har, har, barking. I used deliberately obscure wording because this is only my understanding based on other experiences I've had, it's not an official explanation. From what I understand, there are a series of new surveys being done of all the trees in the borough and I'm at least trying to ensure that the sensitive trees in the Dulwich area are specially noted so that nothing like this happens again. Would you be interested in becoming a voluntary tree warden? The council is offering to train up residents to report back on the state of the trees in their area and do basic maintenance such as basal growth removal. I was trained to do this a few years ago, it's really fun in a tree-geek sort-of way... or, conversely, I've invented a more freeform group to protect the trees in Dulwich called the Arboricultural Liberation Committee of Half of London (or ALCOHOL for short), would you like to join me?

Over the years young people have told me that their biggest concern is that they have nowhere to go at night. The Friday Night Youth Club along with the Millwall Football sessions attracts up to 200 youths between them over approx 5 wards on a Friday night, who would normally have nowhere else to go and the young people who attend these clubs have asked to be able to come and speak about how important this is to them. If we could afford to do more than one session a week, then we would. The youths attending the Millwall sessions have been in the program for 6 years now... the program has not only kept them off the street, but several of the youths have coaching certificates now and are now earning a living in this way. Zampa is just coming along for show, he doesn't speak (!). The Football team gave a presentation to the DCC over a year ago to thank us for the CGS funding and half the audience was in tears by the end of it and gave several hundred pounds in donations to the program. This is what the young people have said they want to do, so I'm listening. We contacted all the schools and asked for input. They each have 5 minutes within an hour and a half time frame, so it should work even if they go over time. The choir will be singing in the background as we arrive, so they won't take up any time at all. The police and school places discussion is set for the second half of the meeting, as I'm assuming that the young people will want to leave during the break, but they can stay if they are interested.

Aside from the appearance of the new Police Borough Commander, the entire rest of the meeting will be devoted to Youth Matters, including a presentation from senior council officers on the issue of school places and bulge classes, with time to discuss the possibility of building a new primary school on the Dulwich Hospital site or other local suitable location. Both the Borough Commander and the School Places presentation are scheduled to take place in the second half of the meeting, beginning at 8.30pm, in order to ringfence the first half of the meeting, from 7pm-8.20pm for matters entirely relevant to young people, made by young people where possible. Items in the first half include:- The Millwall Dulwich Friday Night Football program (including a guest appearance from Zampa the Lion) The Redthread Youth Club and Youth Services in Dulwich The Dulwich Youth Community Council Radio King Online Safer Routes to School (who led the Save the Lollipop Campaign last year) Southwark Council Apprentice Scheme A deputation from the Youth Learning Network A performance from JAGS' Gospel Choir The second half is comprised of the introduction of the new Borough Commander, Chief Superintendent John Sutherland, and then the presentation of the current situation regarding school places and bulge classes with an open discussion on whether a new school should be built. This is a genuine attempt to open up the floor to the views of young people in Dulwich, so all are welcome. From memory, I don't think anything like this has been attempted before, so it should be interesting to see how it turns out!

Just to let all of you know that the new Police Borough Commander will be attending the next Dulwich Community Council meeting on November 27th, to introduce himself and address all the concerns that have evolved from the last Borough Commander attending the last DCC meeting on Sept 18th. The meeting will take place (beginning at 7pm) at JAGS (James Allen's Girls' School) on East Dulwich Grove in the Dining Hall (which is off the car park next to EDG) and the Borough Commander is scheduled for 8.30pm for half an hour, in order to enable us to devote the whole first half of the meeting to Youth Matters and also to allow residents who work to be able to get there in time for this item. The minutes for the Sept DCC (including a summary of the former BC's presentation) are here:- http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/documents/g4315/Printed%20minutes%20Tuesday%2018-Sep-2012%2019.00%20Dulwich%20Community%20Council.pdf?T=1 Those of you who follow the local newspapers are aware that there has been a lot of activity since that last meeting, including the appointment of the new Borough Commander. The 12 councillors from Village ward, College ward, East Dulwich ward, and Peckham Rye ward (who, together, represent a total of 50,000 local residents) made a joint representation in a letter to Deputy Mayor Stephen Greenhalgh to retain a police base in the East Dulwich area, in addition to the existing police base on Seeley Drive in College ward, when the East Dulwich Police Station shuts down. This was backed up by representations by all of the local MPs in Southwark and all the relevant GLA members as well. However, we have still not had any reply or even an acknowledgement from the Deputy Mayor, or the Police Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner who I also copied into the correspondence. So, I'm delighted that the new Borough Commander has agreed to attend this next meeting and look forward to launching Round 2 of our campaign to keep local police based in Dulwich.

Hi intexas, apologies for disappearing, workload has been insane so I have a lot to catch up on in here. The meeting went well, but I'm also in touch with the Tree Dept on a regular basis and have made them aware of the strength of feeling about the Barry Road pollarding (they were even following this thread for a while). My understanding is that the saga with Barry Road was basically caused by spreadsheet based maintenance schedules, but the new maintenance program allows for large avenue trees to be flagged to only be scheduled to be pollarded for after the leaves have fallen in the future (which will also ensure there are no active birds nests). There are quite a few streets that this would affect, but it's just a matter of adhering to a strategic management policy, in my opinion. I do intend to include an item about Trees at the Dulwich Community Council, but the Tree Warden Program that we wanted to launch won't be ready until January now, so it's looking more like it will come to the January 30th DCC... plus the Nov 27th meeting is getting complicated, more on that on another thread. Also, FYI, our tree maintenance contractors are going to change in December, so let's see how that affects the overall picture. Will try to update more often in here.

Hi first mate... I'm assuming you meant to post your comments to the Council Assembly thread, as the next Ass has a youth theme?? Also, I haven't forgotten to come back to the police station/Dulwich Hospital discussion, am still catching up with casework, a councillor's work is never done!

Hi Renata... am getting advice from constitutional officers, I'll email you directly. R

Hi mynamehere... it's well-known that I consider myself a public representative and not a politician, so I'm always happy to work together with other elected members where possible, especially when we already agree with each other and want the same thing! And, in this case, I think it will help if we stick together. Renata - do you want to check with your other two ward colleagues and see if you all want Peckham Rye ward to work in tandem with the three DCC wards on this? We agreed at the DCC meeting to send the Deputy Mayor for Policing a letter from all nine DCC ward councillors, but I am also in the process of liaising with the SPCCG chair on this and it would be useful in future discussions to be able to say that 4 out of the 21 Southwark wards are in agreement on the need for a local police base either at the existing site or the Dulwich Hospital site in the interim. Reg, Pugwash, Jenny - I'll post a more in depth commentary on the pros and cons of the current site vs the hospital site when I have more time as I've been working on this with the local police behind the scenes for the past three or four years and, now that the situation becoming more public, it would be useful to hear all of your views. In fact, this is the reason why I asked the Borough Commander to attend the DCC meeting when he did, so that we could put an end to the rumours and open the door for an open and transparent discussion.

Raymond, is that you?! Give me a call sometime and let me know how you're doing! In defence of Mr Cook, I think he was inserted into the middle of some pre-existing policies that are taking a while to re-arrange, which is why I plan to attend this meeting in an attempt to jolly things along. Hi, intexas... I'm assuming it's a public meeting, but I'll double check just in case. But if you want to come along, just tell people you're with me and look for me as soon as they let you in!

TopTree and Jenny1 - thanks for your kind words and support. I'm in the process of making contact with Assembly Members with a view towards progressing a united campaign. I'm also drafting a letter to Stephen Greenhalgh for all nine DCC ward councillors to sign. Will keep you updated. In the meantime, the draft minutes to the DCC meeting should be posted to the Southwark website within ten working days of the meeting, I'll let you all know when they're up.

For those who are interested, there will be a briefing on the Tree Management Strategy on Tues 25th Sept starting at 7pm at the Francis Peek Centre in Dulwich Park. I'll be attending, so I'll try to summarise here afterwards.

Sorry about the delay, there's a lot happening at the moment... It was fortuitous that we managed to talk the Borough Commander into attending the Sept 18th DCC meeting, as we just got a notification today at lunchtime that he will be leaving the MPS on the 28th Sept. We suspected that things were going to happen quickly, and there were a lot of rumours circulating, so I'm grateful that Mr Griggs was able to attend and confirm what he could. The main bullet points are that the ED Police Station is indeed going to close, although we're still not sure when. At the moment it looks like the East Dulwich and Village Safer Neighbourhood Teams are going to be based out of Camberwell and the College SNT will hopefully stay at Seeley Dr for the foreseeable future. The big issues that were raised are the large geographical distances across the DCC area of Southwark combined with poor public transportation in Village and College wards in particular, which will hinder police patrol movements in addition to the difficulty for residents to access the Peckham police station to report crime. In order to address these concerns councillors and Safer Neighbourhood Panels, in discussion with the local SNTs, have come up with a suggestion to base the local teams at the Dulwich Hospital site and Seeley Drive in the interim while negotiating a longer term agreement to rebuild a smaller police station in the redevelopment of the ED Police Station site with section 106 or CIL funding. To this end, all parties are working together to lobby the Deputy Mayor for Policing, Stephen Greenhalgh, and the Mayor to consider the viability of these proposals before they unilaterally pull the plug. We understand that there are financial restrictions, but we believe that a cost-effective solution can be identified and implemented quickly and we are willing to work together to move forwards.

I've just spoken to the police, everything is in hand and under control. It will be on the news at noon.

Just to remind everyone that this DCC meeting is tonight at the Dulwich Library starting at precisely 7pm. I'll try to post tomorrow with an update if I have time, if not Thurs.

It wasn't on the agenda of the Sept 11th Planning Sub-Committee meeting (which I attended because there were three items in Village ward). I'll keep my eye out and try to post when it comes up - they usually circulate the agendas the week before the meeting... the next Sub-Committee meeting is on the 2nd Oct and there's another one on the 24th Oct.

The next Dulwich Community Council meeting will be held next Tuesday Sept 18th at the Dulwich Library, beginning at precisely 7pm. The Southwark Police Borough Commander, Charles Griggs, will attend from 7pm until 7.30pm to update us on the future of our local police services and the fate of the East Dulwich Police Station. The second half of the meeting will include a presentation by NHS managers about the Dulwich Hospital site consultation, with an opportunity for us to begin to express our views. There are campaigns being launched by community activists to build a new primary school, a retirement village with elderly care, and a community hall with a small park. Any development on the police station site or the 7 acre hospital site will have a major impact on the Dulwich community, so I think it's important for us to make our views known now, before any final decisions are made. The full agenda for the meeting can be found here, along with reports that can be downloaded:- http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=176&MId=4315

Hi All... I've been liaising informally with the tree dept on this. I believe that the pollarding schedule was put on hold for a couple of weeks until any nesting birds could leave the nest. My understanding is that there is going to be a public Tree Maintenance consultation shortly, I'll let you know when it's launched so that everyone can respond. There appears to be two views on the concept of pollarding... one view is that the severe pollarding saves on maintenance costs overall by overcoming the need to prune the crowns of the trees every two or three years. The other view is that the pollarding actually increases the maintenance costs because the severe pollarding creates basal growth all along the trunk of the trees, which then needs trimming every year - you can see the columns of growth all along some of the trees that were pollarded in the spring. I haven't been able to schedule an item about Tree Maintenance at next week's DCC meeting (which I'll update on another thread), but I'm going to see if we can do it at the November meeting, January at the latest (tree planting season runs from Sept to March, but the maintenance works run all year round).

For those who are interested, the Southwark Police Borough Commander has agreed to attend the next Dulwich Community Council meeting on September 18th at the Dulwich Library. He will be discussing changes to the local police services in the Dulwich area in general and we are hoping to extract a confirmation about the ED station in the process. So, if you feel strongly about this subject, this is an opportunity to be heard. The BC has a very tight schedule, so his slot will start precisely at 7pm and last for half an hour.

Aaaahhhhhh. Don't worry, Eric is trained not to eat small children... he's actually quite tame. I spoke to Heather yesterday, she is organising a Physic Garden Open Day to celebrate the herb harvest on Sunday 23rd September, more on that later.

Technically pigeons are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, they are not considered to be pests. Rats and mice (and certain insects) are legally considered to be pests (a danger to public Health and Safety) and subject to pest control legislation. I've done lots of casework on foxes - for the record, they are not classed as pests and are protected by legislation:- http://www.southwark.gov.uk/news/article/64/living_with_urban_foxes I responded to this situation because, technically, our tree contractors shouldn't have left the nest uncovered as shown in my photos, the baby birds were exposed in the torrential rain and could have died.

Billybiro, yes, there are contractors, but they work to order. They are monitored by our tree officers... in the past year we have undergone an almost complete change of staff in our tree dept who are now reviewing our systems and getting to grips with a lot of issues that may have slipped under the radar over time. I have a lot of faith in them and respect for what they are trying to do, which is why I'm happy to liaise with them and go out on a day off to look at issues. We are lucky to have some amazing officers in Southwark, who are very dedicated. Lastly, thanks for "getting" me, Eileen!

Thanks, mynamehere! first mate, despite what happens with the M&S, I think we still need to look at the bigger picture in the Dulwich area, as I believe that the piecemeal approach is only exacerbating problems. Again, this is a long discussion, probably best for another thread, but I personally feel that a multilevel approach is what is needed. On one hand, as a non-driver, I am well aware of the problems involved in navigating around the Dulwich area without a car. It can take me up to 45 minutes to travel across my ward, which takes around 5 minutes by car. I have to leave up to an hour between meetings (which drives people mad and inevitably reduces the number of meetings I can have in one day) and it can take up to an hour and a half for me to get to the council offices in Tooley St - a journey that can take between 20 and 30 minutes by car - or up to three hours round trip, detracting from the time I can spend on casework. Our policies clearly state that, with fewer car parking spaces available, people will seek alternative modes of transport to the private car... but, in Dulwich this is difficult because public transport options are limited (we have been lobbying TfL for the past five years to get the 42 bus extended so that we have an east-west alternative to the 37, to no avail, and I have even looked into the possibility of launching our own local bus service) and the high demographic of mothers with small children and elderly people limits how many residents can cycle easily/safely. Our policies recognise these local restrictions and allow for more car parking spaces than in the rest of the borough and I think there are still more creative options that can be explored - both in general and in this specific application. It's a matter of public record that I voted against the latest CPZ in the consultation, clearly stating that officers should try to find more possible parking spaces to mitigate the displacement of cars around the station - and I personally still think there is more that we can do on this. So, the short answer to your question, first mate, is that I think the community needs to work together to find a balance between positive growth on our high street and loss of amenity to the local residents. You would be amazed at how much power a community has when it speaks with one voice.