James Barber

Hi northlondoner, Hmmm, the change in licensing legislation led to a big increase in licensing hours, 500% increase in emergency admissions for alcohol related problems. So your friend may have a bunch of crazy residents beign vexatious. OR a bunch of residents who came before the licensing changes and don't want people throwing up, staggering around and waking the kids up by loud talking/shouting in their streets. Really depends on the precise circumstances. Residents close to this premise are telling us its already causing them problems. I've seen some of the problems so have objected. IF they had solved the repeatedly reported problems and acted with more consideratin of othe their neighbours then of course I wouldnt have objected and not would others.

Double checking with Southwarks admissions manager - "I can confirm that Southwark's Admissions Forum is still fully active despite there no longer being a requirement for local authorities to have one." My original source was wrong and I'm sorry for misleading anyone.

Whoever parks illegal advertising trailers on pavements will see me try and stop it. I'm not fussed whether they serve pizza or whatever. Never a class thing. We have for the last 12months seen a big rise in illegal advertising from the likes of Dulwich Cars to the solicitors whose name escapes me to this pizza chain/franchise.

Hi fred, ITATM, When local secondary schools have open days do go along. I've visited them all and they are streets ahead of my 1970/80's comp experience in Essex. I think you'd be pleasantly surprised.

Hi Fred, Yes, if you have evidence of a licenced premise causing any of the following: crime or disorder, endangering public safety, causing a public nuisance or endangering children then you can ask for a licence review. Ideally evidence would come from several people. If you collect evidence let me know and I'll go through it with you and we can apply for a licence review. If a licenssed premise keep applying and being refused then that would feel vexatious.

I was visiting some friends on Ivydale yesterday. I was amazed and shocked that so far 4 months on Cheltenham and Ivydale. With letters placed on windscreens about works taking place that didn't for weeks. Whole thing a fiasco. If you live on these roads and feel you've been messed around the contract for highway maintenance is up for renewal. Tell the councillor who's accountable [email protected] what you think of the current contractors FM Conway.

Hi the-e-dealer, From quite a few PM's and other posts from skyblue that she is looking for specific information related to her circumstances which are location dependent. So yes, I would always post general infromation as I have it but absolutely no I will not post information specific to a resident or someone who has asked for help.

Hi skyblue, If you email me I'll obtain forecasts for secondary school places for you.

Hi Dorothy, I'm sorry if you feel I should not have posted this important decision and started this thread. I don't think the decision will make a big difference generally but clearly for some families it will make all the difference. I think it's best they know of this correction now than in letters about school offers much later. The Charter School is close to the Lambeth border so parochially for East Dulwich I expect the decision to dissipate its impact across its large admissions footprint and only be felt at the margins that could never have been certain of admission. NB. I'm told the council is closing down the Southwark Admissions Forum.

On the 4 January I was also chuffed to hear the East Dulwich Harris Boys Academy had been declared by Ofsted as Outstanding. Southwark has more girls than boys schools. So the co-ed schools are not as balanced between girls and boys as we'd all expect. Hence why this is a boys school and Southwark needs another boys school or two for true balance. So even if you want co-ed school plsces we need more boys schools to ensure co-ed are really co-ed. For now I'd hope we can all support East Dulwich Harris Boys Academy to keep moving from this success to further success. It will be a few more years before this school has filled all its years and it has high GCSE success. IF at a later date the Harris federation chose to go co-ed with these schools then fine but with each having 120 pupil admissions such co-ed would probably only work if they REDUCED total pupil numbers and frankly we need all those places going forward. I went to a comp with 300 pupil intake and it was very anonymous and lots of pupils sank without trace. Combining the Harris girls and boys schools would see something like a 240 pupil intake which is still huge and not a helpful scale. So if they go co-ed they'd ideally go co-ed seperately to maintain admission numbers but at the same time. It would be really complicated to make happen. Would you swap kids to accelerate things. Staged. Real minefield. This really isn't on the cards and we really don't want to distract either school from further improvements.

The East London Line phase 2 is expected to open December with the annual Network Rail timetable changes. The closure of the South London Line was explained as beign a requirement of ELL2. So doubt ELL2 will open thatm uch earlier but would be delighted if it did. London Bridge is predicted to be the worst affected station - probably as much or more to do with The Shard opening just before the Olympics as the Olympics. Avoiding London Bridge use East London Line from Honoro Oak or Forest Hill and change at Canada Water onto Jubliee Line to Stratford. Cycling. Bus to Lewisham and DLR.

Last time I asked many tress in this park had anti bite horrid tasting solution painted on.

Hi skyblue, The ED local non religious Southwark school co-ed choices are Kingsdale and The Charter. I'm afraid I don't have forecasts about secondary school places but can only assume the experienced and further forecast bulge in primary school numbers will continue and affect secondary school places. For the dulwich area this has been 60-75 children per year and looks to continue. The ED Harris Boys Academy has added 120 secondary school places. So I can see extra pressure for places but in our part of Southwark what felt a brave contentious decision about the ED Harris Boys appears to have been crucial to avoiding shortages locally. Does this answer your questions and concerns?

If you want to be really depressed about Southwark Councils snow preperations... http://jamesbarber.mycouncillor.org.uk/2012/01/31/50000-rained-away/

Hi Fred, When I see any potentially interesting licensing changes I'll post something either on this thread or if potentially VERY interesting will create a new thread for it. Hope that's the sort of answer you're looking for. Hi ed_pete, Please do complete the online survey. The more responses the better. The context. After 20 years of services being gradually removed relatively little happens on this 7 hectare site now. Lots of false starts for new facilities and when the economy felt flush they didn't happen - ie a new community hospital. So either we all pray for a miracle or we settle on a realistic plan for the site. Dereliction for another 20 years or a mix of uses for the site with a good sized proportion of any development probably being housing to fund things. Hi skyblue, The Charter School has never had a fixed catchment area. It varies from year to year with applicant numbers and with a large bulge in primary schools places just about to start applying for secondary school a contraction in the effective catchment area would be likely due to that but... Southwark has more girls schools than boys schools. When asked the ex.Waverley School governors and parents were clear they did not want the school to go from a girls school to a mixed school. Hence the 'new' Harris Boys school. BUT with the East Dulwich Harris Boys Academy recently being awarded an outstanding by Ofsted this should be become even more popular with local families. So I would expect that to make a positive difference in places at The Charter School.

The campaign was led by a group of parents living in social housing. Guess some middle class but that's not really the point. The school appeared to the adjudicator to have used the way it administered it's admissions policy to block children from Champion Hll Estate and Cleve Hall Estate - both social housing.

I can understand calling him Mr.X. EDF threads sometimes go of at tangents. Not stating the persons name ensures that if this thread did go of at a tangent the family wouldn't feel powerless and as personal for them.

Stated in the latest Elephant & Castle draft Supplementary Planning Draft that only 16% of Southwark residents comparison shopping takes place in shops located in Southwark. That internet shopping in the last 12 months has increased from 7% to 10% of all shopping. So a Waitrose or M&S on Lordship Lane wouldn't help with that BUT Rye Lane returning to some of its former glory would help keep more Southwark pounds in Southwark with all the obvious benefits of that....but that's another thread for another forum.

From memory the 100 x9' advertising things will bring in collectively ?80,000 per annum. Othe forumites in the trade have stted to me that this represents a fraction of the income. So I object to them aesthetically but it also appears rubbish deal for Southwark.

Tessa's licensing law moved the previous presumption of the applicant from needing to prove a licence or licence change wouldn't cause harm to objectors proving it would cause harm. It was a huge change and has since seen huge step increase in alcohol emergency ambulance and A&E calls. It appears to have kick started the binge drinking culture and not continental southern Europe cafe culture hoped for. Unlikely we'll get the tory part of the coalition to agree to new more restrictive licensing laws as big business wouldn't like that - and that suits the more Liberals element of the Lib Dems. We have a bad law aimed at benefiting businesses at the expense of civil society - but apart from that I hold no views on the subject. Back to Freds concern about Adventure bar enxtensing it opening to 2am Thursday and bank holiday. Email [email protected] if you wish to object or support it. The legally valid reasons to object are: - The prevention of crime and disorder - Public Safety - The prevention of public nuisance - The protection of children from harm

Hi the-e-dealer, Changing laws isn't trivial and so far the currnet government hasn't agree as a coalition or found parliamentary time to change or replace the licensing laws introduced by Tessa Jowell.

Hi fredricketts, Licence premises fall under a law organised by Tessa Jowell MP. The premise only has to place a notice on its premises about its application. Whenever I receive copies I post them hear and any key emails I have stored for that vacinity. Sorry it is a rubbish process. Hi peterstorm1985, Changing lines and signs for parking are relatively cheap but the administration and advertising/legal orders are not. Hence my desire to add the Police box parknig reoslution onto the planned Lordship Lane parking changes. This avoid around ?3-5,000 of public expense. Hi the-e-dealer, Apologies for confusing things. The horse box parknig is different to the net small increase in parking to make up for the two new crossings.

Hi skyblue, The adjudicator said The Charter might consider changing future admissions to straight line distance but equally it could keep the current safestwalking distance and that would'nt involve any change in the admissions policy - just making sure they administer it reasonably. One of the ladies told me that The Charter School uses some of the disputed routes to take its pupils to football games at the Fulwich Hamlets.

Hi fredricketts, Loz, The decision to approve two Lordship Lane crossings was taken by the Dulwich Community Council. The consultation had a majority of local residents and businesses in favour. The South Southwark Business Association attended the meeting to say traders weren't in faovur but equal number of Lordship Lane traders attended saying they wanted it and the consultation responses had a mjority in faovur of businesses. Residents have been asking me repeatedly when it would happen as shown in the consultation responses. BUT some fine tuning of yellow lines in the area is taking place to ensure overall slightly more parking at the end to replace the places that will be lost due to the crossings. I'm also expecting the horse box parking to be removed and replaced with general parking behnind the Police station. Tried repeatedly to get that resolved and no horse boxes visited in a decade.

Many thanks fairadmissions for this. Hi skyblue, The adjudicator makes it clear they expect their adjudication of how the school administer its admissions policy be used for 2012 admissions. They make it clear that the route to ignore their adjudication is via the courts which would be an appalling use of Charter School money which they would probalby lose. Equally seeking legal redress against the Secretary of State who they legally report to is unlikely to be helpful for the school. I'd hope they'd have the good grace to accept they've been shown how to administer their admissions more fairly going forward and celebrate it will be better. Hi intexasat the moment, Yes, South Camberwell ward councillors supported this - especially Cllr Govier - but it does seem strange that a letter of support from the administration was issued when the evidence was so clearly indicating Southwark Council shouldn't be supporting the status. If two of the ward councillors are the council leader and another a cabinet member you'd have expected them to have spoken to the cabinet member for education to ensure such a silly letter wasn't sent.