rch

Reading all of the recent threads on the forum about concerning activities, I just wanted to remind everyone that our new Local Safer Neighbourhood Police Team will be available at Goose Green tomorrow for three hours around lunchtime (11am-2pm). As we don't have a local police office and the 101 number takes so long to answer, it's very difficult to have regular direct contact with our local officers. So, I'm hoping that residents will be able to attend the event to make contact with our new team in person, with a view towards discussing local concerns and setting up easier ways to stay in touch in the future. The police horses and the police dogs are scheduled to attend, which is meant to make the event more fun, but the most important aspect is to introduce our new Goose Green SNT to local residents. I can see that a thread about this event was moved to the What's On section, but I hope that we can have a discussion about how we can positively interact and support our local officers within a system that's suffering from budget cuts.

Everyone should report plant thefts to the local police or 101... you can try to do it online, but I find the Met website dysfunctional. This is a common pattern that's been going around for years now - a previous local sergeant used to call the thieves The Flowerpot Men. They steal residents' plants and then sell them at pop up plant stalls (sometimes as far away as Chelsea). As soon as one area becomes aware, The Flowerpot Men simply move to another area. I tend to keep ugly plants outside my house, which no one would want to buy... The main reasons for everyone to report in tandem are a) once the police are aware that The Flowerpot Men are back, they can request night car patrols from the burglary unit. b) the police have actually found the plants in the past, so if they have a list of residents who have reported, they'll contact them to view the stash in order to reclaim plants that match the description of the stolen items. The thefts usually stop when I've posted this message on the Forum in the past...

Yes, it was struck by a lorry, as per my above post. I know who it was, so I will have a word at some point. And I also smiled at the Acorn coincidence... great minds, etc.

I've now heard back from the tree officer... sadly, the split in the trunk of the tree runs too far down, so the tree will definitely have to be removed before it dies and becomes a safety hazard... probably in August sometime. Have asked to plant a new replacement, but there are technical issues that need to be overcome...

Hi again, Maxxi... two quick updates. Firstly, I noticed that the cut up branch was stacked in the Curry Cabin forecourt for most of yesterday, but was removed by the end of the day. But I haven't heard anything formal from the tree team yet. Secondly, someone PMd me to say that it was witnessed that the branch was broken off by a lorry (am being specifically vague in public), so hopefully the dry weather wasn't a significant factor. Thanks yet again for posting this, will update when I know more specifics.

Some comments... Whether the council can control traffic on a bus route depends on whether the road is legally controlled by TfL or the council. I can't remember which Barry is (I used to know all of this ages ago). The slalom effect at Red Post Hill was one of the first experiments that I worked on with the council, as the previous speed humps were causing serious property damage in this location. The ped islands with cycle clearance create road parking restrictions, but this proposal got through public consultation as safety was considered more important. The good news is that the regulations have changed over the years and the distance between the ped islands has been lengthened, so fewer ped islands are needed for Barry, which will reduce the car parking issues. If you look at the proposal in the link I posted above, the diagram is clear. The link text also makes it clear that most of the collisions on Barry are caused bad driving, not speeding. There are some definite speeding sections, but the logistics of Barry are complicated with the bus stops and side roads... which is why the ped island and raised junction proposals make sense. In general, I totally agree with what Trousaprezz wrote above... as a pedestrian, I see this behaviour every day while walking down Lordship, Melbourne, and other roads. Speeding is very difficult on these roads, which is why the council is opting for logistical measures rather than ramming in speed humps everywhere. There may need to be some tweeks made in some of these proposals, but the engineer clearly understands the dynamic of the local area (in my opinion).

Thanks for posting this, Maxxi... I wasn't around yesterday and therefore missed it. I've emailed the tree officer to ask what caused it and what will happen to the tree, will let you know. Hopefully this wasn't a consequence of the dry weather...

Hi Sue... Normally birches aren't crown reduced - usually bigger trees such as planes and chestnuts - but we can ask. Ironically, most neighbourhoods tend to chose birches as a "medium" tree specifically because it tends not to block light. But it depends on the angle of the sun and location of the tree. The best thing is for you to put in a request to the council (I think you can do it via the Environment email link) and I can also try to ask the tree officer in tandem. Can you PM me the location of the tree, as this could make a difference to the argument?

Update to 1921... I walked round there again and realised that 54 isn't on the corner, but across the road. I can see exactly what your concerns are... fortunately the pavement is wide enough to accommodate taller tree to replace the internal trees on the property, but the developer may object to the "obstruction". Let's wait and see what happens as the site gets developed... I haven't seen the planning approval document, but I suspect that the developer will opt to keep at least one internal tree, which will indicate where pavement trees could possibly be planted.

Hi Sue... there are so many layers of complexity to tree replacements, that everything depends on the specifics of the location. A lot of residents are opting to replace dead trees with smaller species in order to keep the green feel of a road, but without blocking sunlight. This is actually one of the most fascinating aspects of street tree planting that I enjoy! Shame we didn't know each other back then... But, depending on the type of tree, you may be able to ask the council to do a crown reduction (a lowering and thinning of the crown) on it, which will help... the only problem with this solution is that it will have to be repeated every few years as the tree grows back, which will incur regular internal budget expenditure...

Hi 1921... is this the house on the corner of Ashbourne and Melbourne? I think the trees there are on private property and also have restrictions on chopping them down, but we'll have to see what the planning officers decide. I think I've seen discussions about allocating funding for street trees along there to compensate, but it may be necessary to wait and see how it goes and then plan accordingly. I'm just down the road, so let's stay in touch and I'll help you guys negotiate through the system as best I can!

In the meantime, I took a photo of the fox hole pit and sent it to the council tree officer and he has now requested for the highways dept to "cap" the pit (which means to tarmac or cement it over) so that no one trips over it. Can someone let me know when this happens??

Unfortunately we have a lot of dead trees in East Dulwich, which is why I'm still trying to keep track and replace as many as possible (unless the residents really don't want it, in which case I try to find funding to plant another one close by).

I chatted to some of the neighbours... apparently the council removed the tree because it died and then a fox dug the hole. The residents don't think a new replacement tree will work out because the pavement is too narrow due to the wheelie bins, which can't go anywhere else because of the way the basement flats are laid out (sad face). I'm in fairly regular contact with the council tree officers, so I'll let them know about the hole to see if it can be tarmacked over.

if you give me a rough address, I'll try to go over there and have a look...

Just to add that I don't think the loading bay is great, either, but once planning permission was granted to shrink the Library and squeeze in a retail outlet, one thing led to another. Those flats are a major example of overly dense overdevelopment in the area, which we need to keep our eye on.

The loading bay is technically in front of the Marks and Spencer's, there's a bit more space outside the actual stations entrances. But the problem along there are the multitude of bins and newspaper stands. And now that the ugly pigeon-pooed cycle storage (which mostly aren't being used) are finally moved, the commercial wheelie bins are inching their way back. I guess we'll need to start lobbying the council again to sort that area out, it's a real mess.

Hi Mark... I don't think that they have done any formal speed measurements since the Quietway assessment at the top of Barry a while ago (last year?). I asked 3 times at the DCC if we could have those Quietway recorded measurements, but never got a coherent response. The Community Road Watch sessions established a pattern, which the police could verify, which then inspired the council to do the assessment as per the link above. The problem in the Dulwich area is that everyone complains of speeding, when technically there isn't much down here, so the authorities don't pay attention. In my experience, once a precedent is set and it's noted that a road has traffic travelling up to a certain speed (anything over 24mph in a 20mph limit is technically an offense, although they tend to pay more attention over 27mph so that it can't be disputed in court), there really isn't a point to keep measuring. So that's what we set out to establish in our sessions, although it was hard to find definite sections of speeding because it was all so patchy with the bus stops. When we started recording speeds past 40mph during the Road Watch sessions, it definitely got police attention, because that can be fined even in a 30mph zone. But because of the buses and the junction lights, the speeding sections are patchy, which makes it more difficult to deal with. But I'm not sure if the accidents in the threads you posted were actually speed related as Barry is such a complicated road. Hope this make sense, it's a bit hard to type out. BTW, the police always claimed that the junction of Barry Road and Lordship was the most dangerous junction in the Dulwich area, but the funding has never been allocated to reconfigure it. Ironically, this reconfiguration forms a major part of the proposed Quietway scheme (in the same way that the Dulwich Village reconfiguration was part of that Quietway scheme), which is funded by City Hall and therefore doesn't come out of local council funding...

A site manager told me that they need to dig up the road to locate the main water sewer. Apparently the technical road diagrams are a bit vague. Once they locate the sewers, then Thames Water needs to come and assess. Then, in a couple of weeks, the road will be closed again to narrow the pavement in order to create a loading bay. The site managers are very helpful and friendly if you're nice to them. I'm a technical geek, so I love asking questions.

If you go to this link and click on "here", you can see all the criteria and proposals for Barry Road and nine other roads cited for action:- https://www.southwark.gov.uk/transport-and-roads/borough-wide-20mph-speed-limit There were 15 collisions on Barry in the 36 months between July 2013 and June 2016, but only one of those was a speed related collision. It's useful to read the whole document in order to understand the parameters. Intriguingly, Barry Road is listed as the highest priority for action out of the listed ten roads across the borough, although it doesn't have the highest speeding issues (but it's got other more complex logistical issues). I suspect this will be discussed at a future DCC meeting so that engineers can attend and explain. Glad to see that our GG councillors are assisting residents but, as the ward boundaries have now changed, I'm guessing that the Dulwich Hill councillors will need to join in in tandem?

Good to hear that there are discussions happening after all these years! I would suggest that you all read the council recommendations for Barry Road in advance, which are incorporated into this link that BanJo sent me (click the underlined word "here" for the 8.8 megabite download):- https://www.southwark.gov.uk/transport-and-roads/borough-wide-20mph-speed-limit I know the engineer who did this assessment, I also liaised with him on part of the Lordship Lane assessment (which was done separately, but I don't think it's published?)... he's a good guy. Ironically, the council are recommending the same concept of pedestrian islands and junction build outs that I referred to above, which I think is the best way forwards if suitable compromises can be found (for instance, enough space for cycles to clear balanced against loss of car parking). I have spent a lot of time studying these techniques with highway engineers, so I am happy to try to talk people through this. Frustratingly, it looks like this document was made available on the council internet site almost a year ago but, because the communication is so bad, no one appears to know about this... I think Barry Road was included after I asked the Community Roadwatch officers to flag it as a priority. My guess is that some of the Lordship Lane recommendations will be incorporated into the reinstatement of Lordship after the Thames Water sewer works (which are going to be discussed at the next DCC meeting), so it would be nice to see these in advance, too.

Glad to see that you agree about Melbourne, MCMC. A group of us spent a concerted amount of time trying to convince councillors and council officers not to waste public funding in a time of austerity. As leader of the Community Roadwatch Scheme for Barry Road, I specifically asked the Roadwatch police to provide the stats that we confirmed over several sessions and to recommend that Barry should be reviewed by the council, but I never got any confirmation that the council intended to follow the Met recommendation. So, I would love to see a copy of the 20mph review report that BanJo was told about as per above post. There was a Quietway assessment for the top part of Barry Road, but I was never able to get hold of a copy of this, despite asking publicly in two DCC meetings. BanJo can you tell me the name of the person who sent you this reply?? It sounds like the council intend to use more "organic" speed calming measures, such as the ped islands and raised tables, which may work well depending on how and where they are placed.

Well, at least you've confirmed that Lionel Stanhope submitted a response to your "open call" for interest, which is what I had intended. If I had been allowed to continue to attend your meetings, I would have done everything I could have to convince you to include him in the shortlist so that residents could actually vote for him. To be fair, Blue Shop Cottage is the least worst of the three shortlisted candidates, but I think their proposal to hand out flyers to collate phrases and responses to build into a design is the wrong approach for this location... it would be better if they simply designed an East Dulwich location graphic in the style of the old London Underground graphics, similar to Lionel's approach. Having said that, I'm surprised that Network Rail has given permission for a spontaneous mural to be painted on their property at all... in the past there have been convoluted planning permission layers to navigate. And I still think the public are curious as to how you got awarded this funding allocation...

The problem is that Blue Shop Cottage's work isn't anything like it. The artist we like is called Lionel Stanhope, here's a link to his Instagram page:- https://www.instagram.com/lionel_stanhope/?hl=en Argh. Edited to clarify context as per below.

Arrrrrgggghhhhhh. The Forest Hill style design is EXACTLY what we've been lobbying for in East Dulwich! It's done by the same artist that did the Herne Hill one... I think Bromley and several other locations had variations of the same design. Arrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhh! I give up...