James Barber

Hi Curmudgeon, I'm not sure I understand. You've said they're are too many but when one avoids doing a big circuit of the area to face the other way, by undertaking a 3 point turn intead, you criticise them. Genuinely which would you prefer? I will in the mean time contact the school and ask what enforcement they will undertake about coaches leaving engines running. Edited as I got out of bed the wrong side!

Yes The Bishop as we know it but the planning application was titled as The Forresters it's historic name and what still appears on the most detailed OS maps. Which was why I just used the address.

Southwark Council has received an application for advertising consent 11-AP-2953 for 25-27 Lordship Lane for a 10m wide x 7m high hoarding. The application is for it to be externally illuminated. If you think this a good or bad idea please let the councils designated planning officer for this application know - [email protected] and also please copy me. Do we want Vegas style US advertising hoardings along Lordship Lane?

I've just received notification that the planning application for St.Anthony's was approved o the 9 September. I'm reassure that one of the conditions as I requested is that a School Travel Plan has to be agreed. This should help mitigate. The effects of expansion of this school whose pupils come from on averages further away doesn't negatively affect the local area.

Hi Gimme, Sorry, I hadn't noticed your question of me before now. My understanding is that people driving and parknig in Southwark are gradually getting more law abiding and year on year fewer tickets are beign issued. Great news. From memory Southwark makes ?3.5M profit. I'm sure I've posted the figures on the EDF somewhere...

I'm now told be reporters the event has been cancelled. I'm seeking clarification. does that mean The Colour Theif..... is cancelled but something else is now proposed. Or a total cancellation. If so what will the ?55,000 be spent on in our soutern parts of Southwark.

Hi Intexasatthemoment, If you email me the address that has zero front garden I can ask for an exemption or what more practical arrangements can be agreed.

IF you want to keep your blue boxes and bags you can. All the blue wheelie mixed up recycling and blue boxes and bag contents will all go in the truck and get mixed up and then be sorted at the new Old Kent Road waste centre. Segregated recyclnig is worth more but allowing mixed up recycling achieves a higher participation rate. If anyone find the standard 240 litre green wheelie bin oversized they can ask for a smaller 180 litre one (called 020 7525 2000 or email me) OR suggest to neighbours to share a bin and have the spare one removed. Same about sharing goes for any of your wheelie bins. Council don't do smaller sized brown wheelie bins (I've asked repeatedly). Hope that helps.

Our area lacks hotel rooms let alone decent ones'. It was a real problem when I had family and guests staying in the area for my wedding. NB some people call the Greyhound The Dog.

Hi Red Max, Sparklers, Fireworks, glass bottles will not be allowed into the park with security staff on the night searching people as they enter.

Hi RosieH, Apologies for being so direct - nasty man cold and the world feels more blakc and white when I'm under the weather. Southwark council reduced its events budget down to ?360,000. Instead of supporting 12 events including the Irish festival on Peckham Rye it planned to reduce down to 3 events - north, middle and south. From memory ?53,000 for north, ?83,000 for middle event and ?55,000 for south event. That leaves around ?169,000 for the events team officers salaries. Does that answer your question? Some events are seperately supported by the devolved Community Fund of ?15,000 per community council which works out as ?5,000 for East Dulwich ward. So from that about ?900 goes to Dulwich Festival - roughly halfo f that from the East Dulwich ward ?5,000.

The ?55K doesn't include council officer time. Today they've dropped the daft title and are now callnig it Firework event. Apparently it will have design, performance, music and dancing. Not sure how in an unlit park anyone will see the design, performances or dancing though. The Dulwich Park car park will be closed so the now predicted 2,000-3,000 visitors and those not walking will have to park near the Court Lane entrance which will be open. The event is listed in Time Out so clearly expectation of attracting more than just Dulwich residents. Don't get me wrong. I love a party. But I'm sure the money could be spent on other local events to reach more people and make a bigger impact.

Southwark's rubbish and recycling collections may be slightly disrupted this week due to an unofficial strike yesterday. Any problems please let me know. Certainly some of my reecycling was over the pavement when I reached home last night.

Hundreds?

Think what fantastic events we could hold in Dulwich with ?55,000. A Dulwich Festival 2 or 3 times the curreent size with free events for local schools. So why hold the ONE Southwark Council event for southern Southwark on the one weekend Dulwich is already full of events? Why blow the ?55,000 on that single Friday for what officers have told me will be a one hour event - please don't let it rain that night. When asked have the Police, who tell me they are alway stretched that weekend, agreed they can support it. They tell me yes. But our local Police throw their hands up in horrow not knowing how on earth they can Police another major event. It's daft. Up intil the SLP ran this as its front page story today the event was called the Colour Thief. At 8am today Southwark Council renamed it as a fireworks diplay and issued a revised consultation form. So now newspapers can see the before and after public documents making the council look even sillier and one reporter told me deceitful.

Why would you not call a fireworks event on 4 November a fireworks party? The original bonfire was a catholic being. This proposed Southwark event is titled The Colour Thief and the environment director and team have pointeldy and repeatedly stated its not a firework party. So why on bonfire weekned would you have a non fireworks party costing over ?55,000 that involves fireworks? Truely bizarre. This contrasts with the ?900 support for the Dulwich festival and the fact lcoally we have numerous firework events already in the area. Wouldn't you rather see such money either spent on local events such as the Dulwich Festival or not be spent at all?

Yes horrified and amazed that despite everyone's efforts this is still going on. All right under the noses of the Police station. I'll see if I can get the ball rolling again to address these issues. I'm really sorry that after all that chasing and action this private business is still causing such grief.

Hi Greengod, Do you know for fact that Southwark waste contractor Veolia sub contracts in the way you've described? If they did they'd be wiped out commercially when discovered. No, I don't agree with how the Labour council are implementing fortnightly rubbish and recycling collections but I don't believe for a second the recycling is ending up in the 3rd world etc. Your scare mongering can only deter people from proper recycling.

Hi gig girl, Even better is to email me so I can forward the email to the head of service to ensure I don't miss type anything.

At the Dulwich Community Council local Police told us that dramatic blip in burglaries in East Dulwich - 22 in 8 weeks. All were homes where residents didn't use their mortice locks but were relying solely on Yale locals and the burglar used plastic cards to open the doors and get in. They've caught the burglar who is now on remand and expecting a long prison sentence. So please do use your mortice locks.

Hi Coach Beth & Townleygreen green, The Puffin crossing of Grove Vale near to Goose Green School will apparently be ready I two weeks time. During half term the road will be resurfaced and a raised treatment like a giant wide hump bringing the road to pavement level will be installed. It should be good when finished but it is running late. When the Puffin crossing is finished you will need to take extra care with it. I've yet to find a correctly installed Puffin crossing in Southwark and the administration has decide a,l new crossing will be Puffin crossing. Needless to say wrongly installed Puffin crossings are more dangerous than the Pelicans vein replaced. And yes I am trying to get Southwark to either install Puffins correctly or give us more popular Pelican crossings.

Hi Ko & the-e-dealer, Have recessed the weeds on Landells and Friern Roads + Landcroft and asked if any change to the weed management. The new bus drivers toilet at the south end of Friern Road being installed after a long campaign to eliminate the anti social bus drivers using local gardens to relive themselves. Apparently the sewage connection, water connection and electric connections have been made. Unfortunately the electric meter wasn't orders which has just been realised and is now on order so the bus drivers toilet won't be in operations until mid October. All the rubbish, rubble, etc around it I've asked council officers to remove. We are really close to solving this problem.

Hi ilondoner, Peckham Rye high street is a lo way from East Dulwich but i do agree some shops have unappealing smells and I'm not yet a vegetarian. The council fpFood Safety Business Plan for 2011-2012 is about ot be decided. Sadly it's already halfway through the financial year but no earlier than we September the cllr Rcihard Livingstone will authorise the plan. It on my lists of things to review this weekend but I would encourage you to take a look at http://moderngov.southwarksites.com/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=13195 and please do give feedback to cllr Livingstone and me.

Father Gerry was very generous with his time this morning. He is certain that the Thomas Moore Hall is absolutely not viable in it's present form. The hall is owned by the diocese and not the parish, so I'm sure he would only be taking the actions so far with the authority of the diocese. During the next 3 months he plans to undertake a feasibility for the hall. He is absolutely clear that the Thomas Moore Hall is very run down. I asked if he would welcome ideas and offers of help and he was clear that at this time he doesn't want to opern those potential flood gates or make his contact details more public. I highlighted that local East Dulwich Councillors have helped arrange capital funding for religious centres that host community activities - from memory Christchurch bread of life ?100,0000, URC on East Dulwich Grove ?30,000, Mosque on North Cross Road ?20,0000, Christchurch ?30,0000. And that we'd like to keep the Thomas Moore Hall improve and thrive. I've offered to show him and any of his colleagues other church halls in the Dulwich area that have nurseries during week days and other community activities at the weekends and evenings. A great example of this is is on Half Moon Lane - they gave me a tour recently and it was an incredibly well run ship. He suggested the Thomas Moore Hall is run as a social club and has very few members. That maybe but it serves a useful function hosting so many other community activities. From a planning permission perspective I'd be surprised if the site would quickly gain planning consent for other uses whether shops, offices or housing. Normally such a change of use would require several years of marketing for a new owner under it's current designation. I'm sure many could show no effort at engaging the community to make this site viable had taken place.... Unless things suddenly change. I did counsel Father Gerry that ideally he'd share as much information publicly as possible to show why the decision to close in the current format had been taken. Fingers crossed he does this.

Hi Coach Beth & Townleygreen, I'm also surprised how long this is taking. I was assure it would be finished before schools returned. I've contacted council officers to ask when they're now planning to complete the works and to ask what is causing the unacceptable delays.