James Barber

Hi DJKilla Queen, Mixing dementia and similar from Holmhurst with other fully capably older people at the Fred Francis Centre isn't ideal. The specialisms of each will become more blurred. This is not in the interests of the users. And at no point in the past have the wrokers at Holmhurst said please find us a different building. Sweeping our street every month is already making them look rubbish. We know from the broken window theory research that this risks more crime. Also if this decision was going to be made doing it to take affect after the Olympics would ensure our streets looked better for when London has more visitors. Thatcher eased credit. But the John Major govt was reducing national debt when he lost in 1997. Brown released credit hugely and when the economy was doing well borrowed heavily - hugely irresponsible - he even said with huge arrogance while doing it that he'd removed boom and bust from our economy. He created the huge boom and now we have the huge bust. Germany, scandinavian, australia countries have no bust going on now. The economic problems are limited to a few western countries.

Hi Nicholas Spears, I wonder if signs would be enough to discourage these occupations of cubicles. It's rather charming to have such faith that your cloths wont be stolen. But to then block other people changing. I'll ask what can be done.

This will make you laugh - I've been asked to make one of the opening speeches at 10am 25 June grand Gyn reopening. Wait 'til my kids hear this!

Both obvious solutions of putting lots of humps and/or raised platforms or tables along Barry Road - the latter are hugely expensive. Buses will be inconvenienced. They might accept more speed tables but the homes nearby get shaken. The existing Goodrich table causes no end of grief for nesrby properties. I would'nt wish what they've suffered on anybody. The other obvious solution would be improving sight lines - trouble is it would take out 1.3rd to half of the parking - 50m near each junction - and likely to result in vehicles on Barry Road feeling they can go faster. Average speed cameras would be perfect but neither the last Labour or tory component of the current govt wsant them - too anti drivers gonig at whatever speed they like! Based on collisions and crash state we hopefully wont see another crash at Barry Road/UPland Road junction. When council officers, local Police and I visited both junctions they appeared to have similar traffic volumes. With the soon to be 20mph speed limit on Whateley Road I'm hopeful the Underhill junction will also over time be shown to be also be much safer than it was.

Last time I checked Southwark had just over 5,000 empty homes (out of 107,000) and 14,000 people on the housing waiting list. I had a recent item of casework where a neighbour wanted an empty property to be lived in. After investigatino it transpired the owner visits once or twice a year to fix the garden mess and pays council tax. Truly bizarre. I think the quoted 1 week Swedish model OTT but I can sympathasise with the concept. Think what a boost if even half of those homes were sold or let to the local economy apart from the quality of life for new tenants and home owners.

This financial year Southwark Labour has had to make cut of seven % so adding an extra avoidable 2.6% onto that is a scandal. Its a real fiction that ?9M unnecessary savings put into contingency hasn't affected front line services. The streets are now swept once a month rather than fortnightly. Litter picking in Southwark is no longer daily by every other day. A dozen day centres have been closed. Holmhurst House is being closed a local day centre for Southwarks older people with dementia - with an aging population a specialist centre we'll need more of in the future. Lots and lots of other unnecessary front line cuts. NB. The Lib Dems proposed a budget signed of by the Finance Director as perfectly feasible which didn't make such cuts or put money into reserves. Even the tories proposed dramatically less cuts - so we have a Labour budget more right wing than the tories! But back to the thread. Are the tories broken. Clearly not. Labour got the nation in such a debt pickle that it will take up to a generation to fully recover - voters wont forget that quickly. With the SNP appearing to wipe out opposition support in Scotland Labour wont have sufficient MPs to take the tories on on their own making the tories much safer.

Hi Penguin68, Yes I appreciate tha the thread was started by a particular collission at Upland/Barry junction. I also appreciate DaveR that crash data wont be the whole story. But what else do we use? At this point it is most likely another crash at upland/Barry Road junction wont happen for several years. Do we work on this junction at the expense of other junctions with a higher incidence of crashes? Certainly when the Lib Dems led Southwark Council accident remedial works was based on crash data and we have other junctions with a greater incidence of crashes to fix first. Which was why Underhill Road/Barry Road has had works.

With Labour and other non SNP parties taking. Huge beating in Scotland Can Labour ever have enough MPs to form a Westminster majority? So in terms of forming a majority UK government are they broken?

Hi TTT3, The fence across Goose Green was a. Capital funding not revenue funding and b. Was allocated by the 9 Camberwell Community Council Labour Councillors from the devolve Cleaner, Greener, Safer capital budget. The Dulwich Leisure centre rebuild/renovation - which made as part of a borough wide promise to save and modernise all Southwark leisure centres - was a 2006 manifesto pledge at a time when East Dulwich had had Labour Councillors to eons. So standing for may first time and going into that election it certainly didn't feel a sure thing. Nb I'm against sure thing elections and safe seats it leads to complacency a d taking residents for granted which hopefully ill never succumb to. Hi DJKilla queen, ?100m! How on earth on earth do you make that figure? The call centre is designed to leave most officers concentrating on their work. It generally work ok and I don't get any casework complaining about it. More people knocking on doors at different times would have helped with the census. More work via faith groupd

anna_r, that sounds a sensible if radical option.

Hi TTT3, Livesey Children's Museum - sadly we did need at that time to save ?168k of revenue costs. Labour's manifesto pledge last year was that they would reopen it.... Due to the appalling run 2001 census that 'lost' many ten of thousands of residents Southwark Council for some time hasn't received the correct grant for its actual population. So since 2008/09 yearly savings have had to be made. Virtually all of those savings have been from closing multiple council offices and concentrating back office functions in one place on Tooley Street. This saved ?35M of revenue savings AFTER paying Tooley Street rent of 35M pa. It also avoided significant capital to bring a multitude of council offices up to a half decent standard. Another painful cut we had to make was the the criteria for social care. We were one of the last to do this. Disappiontingly Labour have just run another disastrous census this year. As for Lib Dems only running 4. whatever it was of councils. We still have thousands of Lib Dem councillors. And where those councillors run councils they are keeping all libraries and sure starts open. Looknig at the finances for Southwark we would do the same here. Hi DJKilla Queen, As for reserves and contingencies. Southwark already has the London average reserves. Over the next 3 years Labout Southwark will add ?27M to them. when the Laboue leader and the cross party delegation went to see the relevant minister Grant Shapps HE SAID you have decent reserves so you don't need more money. Next time he'll be able to say we're giving you too much money because you've increased your reserves andcontingencies. Weridly this increasisng of reserves has only be occuring in Labour held councils across the country. A cynic might suggest they've been told to do it from Labour HQ. ?100k from councillor allowances. Speical Responsibility Allowances did go up in line with the Standards Committe recommendations and accoridng to external London Council guidance. Those increases were across the board for all councillors with extra responsibility both in and outside the administration. Labour has cut allowances but almost universally from scrutiny posts mostly held by opposition councillors while ring fencing expensive Cabinet posts which in fact has seen a 1% increase in allowances. So the Lib Dems are quite clear cuts needed to be made but not almost exclusively on councillors leading the scurtiny of a the administration - ironically you need better and more scrutiny at a time of greater economy and cuts. The sad departure of Cllr John Friary was also a great chance to reduce allowances. Instead its being used as a fig leaf to introduce 8 new deputy cabinet postseach with a close to ?3K SRA. We now have the situation of 27/35 labour councillors with SRA's, 8 of them non jobs.

Wood Vale/Melford Road mini roundabout - I've been assured repainting of the white lines and mini roundabout will occur within 28 days. Loading bay signage outside 36 Barry Road area should be fixed in next 8-10 weeks. it needs legal Traffic Management Order hence the delay.

Hi Marmora Man, I'll happily help you knock and drop - knock on the door and explain what the survey is for and how to reply. That boosts replies significantly. I'll also happily sit and enter replies onto any online survey so all replies in one place even if paper replies. I can borrow a freepost address. I'm sure others on this thread would also be happy to help knock on doors, etc. I think just referring the problem to council officials sounds nice but without some feeling of real support could be using those limited officials time unwisely - it will sit at the bottom of a tall tray of other work. Whereas presenting a survey with 20% to 30% response rate - unheard of when council officals undertake a survey - with fair and balanced questions would make a very compelling case to undertake whatever the results suggest.

I'm also sorry to hear of not just your loss but also the callouds way the driver drove on. Traffic calming with humps would reduce speeds but doesn't always get universal support. Making roads reisdential access only - effectively cul de sacs - is much cheaper than humps, takes more effort to get everyone to buy in it but would be very effective. MarmoraMan could you design a residents survey to test the waters on potential options? I'll hapilly print and help deliver if you need a hand. HennyPenny, Fellbrig road has speed cushions already. Adjacent roads Bawdale etc had them as well but then residents asked ofr them to be removed. Beefing up speed cushions to full humps would be ideal but we have many other local roads without any traffic calming that would need it before Fellbrigg Road. Sorry.

Hi alexsmith565, I've been assured me that the parks people can resolve such issues on ad hoc basis and that someone will be along in the day or two to inspect and arrange new nets and lining as required. Please keep me posted as things fixed so I can pass on my thanks to council officials - also useful to know when a problem fully resolved for my records. Many thanks for highlighting this problem.

Just call 020 7525 2000 and ask to arrange a bulk rubbish collection. The council will then arrange for the fridge to be collected - it's still a free service.

Hi alexsmith565, I'll contact the head of parks and what what the plans are for maintaining Beliar Park tennis courts - I've often reported graffiti on the wall facing the railway line but never had the sense to look at the tennis court lining!

Hi james84 & MDP, I was reporting what local Police tell me. The Safer Neighbourhood Teams are not 24/7 or even every day. If it's that urgent by the time you've found the number and called them it could be all over. I have had a similar experience and the Police officer who came was annoyed I had not called 999 as he was clear they would have arrived earlier and the description I gave fitted in with other information they had. 999 operators are trained to filter out rubbish calls. But what you described sounds suspicious in the extreme.

Please if anyone spots suspicious activity - call the Police first if necessary 999 - and THEN create a thread at your leisure. The Police regularly tell me how incredinl;y fristrating it is that people don't immediately tell them but instead create debates on places like EDF.

Alastair Darling said he was going to introduce 20% cuts and increase VAT. The coalition have introduced 19% cuts. I presume the reference to children;s libraris and surestart were aimed at me? Bit hard to tell. No Lib Dem run council has cut libraries or sure starts. Local govt still have sufficient money to keep them IF they choose. Our own Labour run Southwark Council is choosing to stash away an extra ?9M every year for the next 3 years into reservs and contingency funds. Therefore needing to make much more cuts than actually required. This is a Labour trend across the country.

Have requested a new Wood Vale street name plate for the junction Wood Vale with Lordship Lane. Also asked for the mini roundabout at junction of Melford Road with Wood Vale to be repainted. Hope the person who PM'd me will be happy when completed. Person who asked why council flat 8A Worlingham Road has remained empty so long - I've been told its been empty since 8 November 2009. It had structural faults so the council tenant had to be moved out and structural work completed. This work cost so much and finished in the new year that the council now plans to sell the property to pay for the works. It will use the surplus to renew other council properties.

Hi peckhamboy, Some years ago I volunteered to be a technical trainer 2 days a week. I had a little bit of trian the trainer training and then had groups of 16 well paid colleagues from across the UK who had asked to attend the training. At the end of the each training day at 5pm I had to go home and lie down thoroughly exhausted. My respect for teachers rose significantly from my two years of doing that. I onlt rtrained for 50 days during the 2 years. I could not imagine doing it day in day out for decades on end. It would kill me. That's where my perspective comes from. Equally I suspect many indistries could do with recharged employees and colleagues.

TTT3, Which Liberal morals do you think we've burnt? Just a smidgen of context but the Lib Dems have 70% of our promises in the coalition agreement - the tories 60% of theri promises in the coalition agreement.

Hi TonyQuinn, You have a curious way of engaging people to do your bidding. The junction of Upland Road with Barry Road in the last 3 years had zero reported collisions and crashes. So we used that as a template for changes to the Underhill Road with Barry Road junction. So far it appears to have had zero reported crashes or collisions. Money is supposed to be coming as per the three year plan to improve safety on Barry Road - and the obvious speeding. But how do you reduce the speeding while avoiding mega humps affecting the buses that use Barry Road? Where humps and have been placed - a la speed table junction Goodrich Road junction with Barry Road neighoburing properties suffer terrible vibrations. In the past we were hoping that average speed cameras would have been type approved by now but they still haven't been. And frankly if a Labour govt had the heebie jeebies over them then the tory part of the coalition will have a fit at the suggestion that illegal speeding should be contained. BUT I can get a question asked. I'd welcome constructive ideas.

Hi binary star, I had meant to mention it but yes research has shown that definite discrepancies between actual and officially reported collisions and crashes. But it is extremely hard to extrapolate the level of crashes factoring in the researched under reporting rates by set severity of crash types if literarily none have been reported!