James Barber

Hi lordshilass, Deadline is tomorrow to apply to the council - this is due to the legal requirement for advertise any road closures and check with emergecny services that they don't have a problem with anything proposes. This latter point is even more important is several roads plan to close on the same day.

Hi speedbird, The collission maps do indicate a ribbon of crashes along Grove Vale, Lordship Lane and east Dulwich Road. All three roads do need changes to reduce collissions. Orignally the emphasis was going to be Lordship Lane first as clearly the worst collission ribbon and a busy high street to boot. The change in administration and the emphasis moved to Grove Vale as it represents the border between East Dulwich ward (Lib Dems) and South Camberwell ward (Labour). A large slab of the proposed works and budget are for Tintagel Crescent that has virtually no recorded collisions but does appear on Goose Green school travel plan wish list. As I suggested to officers they should be spending such money elsewhere in Southwark where collisions actually are occuring.

My eczema has been terrible in the past. A 10 or 11 years ago I felt I had to be seen right away and could'nt wait the then 12-16 weeks for a referral and went private. Lovely lady at Kings College Hospital. After the first consultation she transferred me to NHS side. Eczema resolved for 6 years after two consultations. 4 or 5 years ago another flare up and given UV light treatment. Worked a treat and only recently has the excema given me a littel grief.

Hi intexasthemoment, Apololgies I am having a bad hair day. I think it terrible if kids living in SE22 are being offered school places in schools outside Southwark, that means they'd have to travel past schools in Southwark they'd like to attend, while kids near the out of Southwark school don't attend their local school but travel to a Southwark school. Its not good for local community and its bad for the planet. Beign in SE22 I've only come across one family that have visited the Deptford school and their reaction to no other places being offered locally is to see if they can afford to go private. This is a terrible state of affairs and makes me feel angry. Harris Boys banding and its over subscription will mean some kids living near the school wont have been allocated places. It spreads the ability range but can create weird anomalies. As Renata has reiterated our local schools have become dramatically better and more families want to use local Southwark schools. One thing that would help is the previously proposed but Southwark has now cancelled new secondary school in Rotherhithe the government has funds reserved for. With the domino affect it would mean all kids in Southwark would be offered a local place and fewer others would be attending schools outside the area.

Hi Dorothy, I'm arranging to visit Harris Boys School. I'm also planning to arrange a visit to Kingsdale School. Admissions policies are not easy or quick to change.

The Grove Vale scheme has a budget of ?500,000. To mount a Judicial Review would require a solicitor and barrister/s and if costs were awarded against me could quickly mount in more than the ?21.63 in my wallet or my small bank overdraft facility could cope with! Saying that the threat of a JR usually see's Southwark climb down.

I look at Germany and see they had to cut government spending by 1%. They have balance of payments surplus, high growth for Europe all within 20 years of abosrbing 15million extra souls from E.Germany. I see Scandanvian countries doing well. It speaks volumes that we're economically closer to southern Europe in terms of national debt than our geographic location would have suggested.

Hi binary_star, Yes it's true. Once you rent a council property no follow up mean testing. During the last Lib dem Southwark led administration we amended the tenancy agreement to remove grandchildren rights. Effectively you hand down the tenancy agreement to your kids if they are living there. In the past they could then hand it down a further generation as well.

Haven't the sort of cahs and risk that might involve - we have considered it though.

This year 34 out of 213 SE22 children who applied for sceonday school places have failed to be allocated any secondary school. If you're on of the 34 families affected do get in touch with one of your local councillors - we will try and help you. Numbers who received their 1st pref - 101 2nd pref - 37 3rd pref - 23 4th pref - 9 5th pref - 7 6th pref - 2 Part of the problem is that local schools Kingsdale, Charter and Harris Boys were significantly oversubscribed this year with applications from both Southwark and out of borough residents - more than 3,100 applications for 530 places across these three schools. Largely the problem is Kingsdale and Harris Boys admissions policy not being based on distance from the school.

Hi Renata, That's a useful suggestion and some might find it acceptable but some parents I've spoken to have now visited this school and were so shocked that they're now applying for Dulwich College Prep School and working out how on earth they can afford to do this.

This year 44 Southwark children have not had any secondary school place allocation. 34 of these are from the SE22 area. This must be bewildering for the kids and presenting terrible concerns for the parents and family. IF you are one of these families or know of one of these families please do get in touch this is exactly what councillors can help with.

The licensing committee sat last night. Due to family things I couldn't attend. The licensing committee is a semi judicial committee and is not legally allowed to be whipped along any party lines. I'm told that the licensing committee Labour members tried to ignore all the recommendations of the Dulwich Community Council that were formed after a very frank public meeting with residents, market traders, shop owners, council officers and local councillors. They then realised thy'd thrown out any expansion and had an ajournment. Alledgely the Labour members of the committe met privately with council officers. They then found a way to re vote on the issue and voted to review sunday operations in 6 months time. Quite disturbing in that the committee apparently gave the impression to some that it might have been voting along party lines. Equally after so much local East Dulwich consultation to have local views thrown out is very frustrating. So we will have to ensure the administration gets the message Sunday market operations is bitterly opposed by local residents. [Amended to correct revote to re vote.]

Really chuffed to see so much thinking into what Grove Vale might be. But we have the immediate problem of the administration imposing something now that is far short of anything discussed so far.

Who has the latest update on this? Can you see through the water clearly? whenever I've been it looked clear but I have'nt been for a few weeks.

Hi flocker spotter, They have and after months of chasing I've yet to receive a response from officers. I'll chase again. NB. During the next three years Southwark Council plan to increase its unallocated reservces and contingency funds from ?22.2M to ?49.2M. Saving for a riany day while its raining!

Hi henryb, The East London Line phase 2 linking Denmark Hill to Clapham junction is happening during 2012. Generally, I'm not keen on raised areas on buy roads as per Walworth Road they are really uncomfortable to bus passengers, neighbouring properties with the vibrations and dangerous to people on two wheels. I'm sure smarter ways having a similar affect can be found - and have. Also such raised areas costs a small fortune each and rarely stand the test of time without frequent expensive maintenance. Replacing the two stage pelican crossing is useful to create local parking but replacing it with the flawed Puffin crossing concept which as often causes more collissions than it reduces is clearly a waste of money. As a local councillor I was asked for my views. Those views have been ignored and the Dulwich Community Council has been bypassed. so what is proposed to happen has no local democratic mandate and large parts of what is proposed are an expensive waste of money. Of all the times to waste any money now isn't one of them.

Southwark offers free cycle training and will practice a cycle route with some one to get to school or work. Carrying a saxophone. either rucksack as suggested OR get a pannier rack and pannier. London Recumbents based in Dulwich Park would give some good advice or Herne Hill Cycles.

Yes, the council is planning to spend a lot of money on Grove Vale to reduce the number and severity of collissions. The raised treatments along Grove Vale will make bus and cycle jounrneys particularly unpleasant and cause considerable vibration to adjacent homes. A huge amount of money is also going to spent replacing speed cushions currently on Tintagel Crescent with sinusoidal humps and a speed table (raised area) outside Goose Green school on Tintagel Crescent. Both seem unnecessary. Frankly I see half the money being spent as a total waste and have asked that they not undertake that half of the works. I've also asked why the plans haven't been presented to the Dulwich Community Council for our formal input. Officers and the Cabinet member appear to be ploughing on regardless. ALso plans to replace a pelican crossing with a Puffin crossing and at best ambivalent evidence puffic crossings are more dangerous at some locations and safer at others. Frankly the whole thing feels like a screw up.

Hi bigdavid, aspidistra, I'll try and find out but please don't hold your breath. Hi Penguin68, Sadly that's my understanding.

Hi Loz, I've had further clarification that Gallery Road resurfacng will take place at night time. Hi ruffers, The description of road closures etc doesn't sound like temporary traffic lights will be required. Hi aspidistra, I could'nt agree more. Hi Alex K, Licenses to sell alcohol are issued by local authorities - Southwark Council for our area. Southwark Council certainly used to have a programme to test shops to see if they would sell alcohol and knives to underage people.

Royal Wedding The deadline for applying to Southwark Council events teams ([email protected]) 020 7525 3422 to close a Southwark street as part of a Royal Wedding street party on 29 April is 17 March. Any problems let me know and I'll try and help. Gallery Road The council will close Gallery Road starting 7 March for two weeks. Amazingly this isn't taking place during school holidays. Lordship Lane 21 March - 3 July Gas works. The section between Friern Road and Melford Road will have the bus lane closed to allow more gas works. The section of Friern Road between Lordship Lane and Etherow will be one way anti clockwise. Overhill Road at its junction with Lordship Lane will be closed. They will finish one day.

The deadline to hold a street party that involves closing a Southwark street is 17 March. Any problems let me know.

I obtained a couple of years ago the bullet points from criminologists Prof Felson's UK lectures - see attached. It's in criminologists speak and shorthand but I've found useful insights that I've tried using locally.

Every mugging is a mini horror story of long term fear and intimidation. The increasing incidence of highly valuable smartphones after a long period of mobile phones becoming less valuable is the prime cause. Highly portable expensive items. Rash of such crime when mobile phone were originally expensive and had just become popular. Even TV ads telling people how valuable 2nd hand phones are.