James Barber

Tomorrow is the councils budget setting assembly. If anyone has a particular issue they'd like me to raise please do let me know. The proposed budget can be seen here: http://moderngov.southwarksites.com/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=132&MId=3454&Ver=4 The Lib Dem proposed amendments which will fail are attached....but always a chance Labour councillors, as per the 8 in Lambeth, wont have been paying council tax and therefore can;t vote....

Southwark Council has many great officers who are exceptionally helpful. It also has some processes which are immensely frustrating and lock some officers into not feeling able to see and act on any bigger pictures. I still feel its corporatist centralist structure stiffles initiative and real deep efficiency while making the senior managers feel its ever more efficient. With each problem the reaction is to centralise to control more. Whereas the right motivation, devolvement and training would give a more solid long term answer. I tied in vain to get the multiple quote increased from ?5,000 to ?10k or ?20k. Lots of reasons given for not increasing it. But the transaction costs of 3 or more quotes for tiny work and projects means the council often looks exceptionally poor value. We have a local scheme to traffic calm with humps Matham, Chesterfield and Ashbourne Groves. The actual humps cost ?11,000 but the overheads mean it will actually cost ?37,000. So many examples where Southwark Council are poor value for money. Equally, very very few people praise anything or anyone when things go well. But boy does the council and officers get brickbats when it goes badly. Unsuprisingly this can make council officers very cautious and wary of outsiders. And caution can result in lack of initiative leading to poor service and poorer preceptions of value for money.

Hi Alex K, No plans that I'm aware of to create parish council/s for the area. Parish Councils I believe charge a precept - extra council tax - to pay for extra local things. The trouble is how do you define East Dulwich if that is the size of a potential parish council. However, a slightly bigger remit is the current Dulwich Community Council whihc includes 3 council wards - East dulwich, College and (Dulwich) Village wards. The next meeting is 8 March 7pm at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Wroth coming along even if its only to enjoy the pictures. This particular meeting will be focused on the Village ward area which includes the heart of Dulwich Village, western edge of East Dulwich, large part of Herne Hill. If you do decide to pop along please do make yourself known to me.

Southwark has over 6,000 car clubs members. It is the most rapidly expanding car club in the UK and had just won an award for this.

Hi Alex K, I would say almost all responsibilities could be devolved - bit messy as no clear boundary between areas - but I can se very real merit in parish type councils in that more decisions would be takne very locally with more local scrutiny. That extra scurtiny would help improve many of the current decisions. Suspect the 'system' would anything could be so devolved. One example is the Youth budget. We allocated ?4.5M pa. Our election manifesto was to devolve this budget to community councils to spend. In practice much of the Dulwich Community Council spend is done in thirds ie by ward. Then when people say nothing for kids to do they would have had an opportunity to decide how ?215,000 would have been spent. Currently huge overheads which moving to parish or very much more devolved budgetting would largely remove. does this answer your query?

Hi intexasatthe moment, Lane rental is the idea that whenever someone digs up the road they rent the road (not sure if it applies ot pavements as well) that they're taking out of use for the duration of the road works. The idea is this will incentivise people to minimise the time road is our of commission. The hope is that more imaginative methods will be use. Currently little incentive while occupying the road with road works is free. Hope this makes more sense.

Hi Alex K, Futher to Snow Code details I highlighted earlier this week. Your ideas about making home and business owners liable for clearing snow and ice outside their premises on public footways I believe would require national legislation. One avenue to try pushing for this is via our local MP: [email protected] Another is via the government Barrier Busting: http://barrierbusting.communities.gov.uk/form

hi Alex K, I know you VERY keen for a reponse from me. So first thought is the government has given advice about clearing the path outside homes - The Snow Code: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_191868 I've another angle I'll come to you tomorrow on.

The whole academy experiment is just that. No one knows whether it will serve children well or not. It's a hunch by the Secretary of state for Education. Sadly one of the compromises of the coalition. I can confirm I checked earlier whether Southwark council is promoting schools to convery to academies - after an email query earlier today. It is NOT. The council is weirdly staying neutral. I certianly don't feel neutral on this. Even local independent schools partake of an equivalent to Ofsted for private schools. The academy concept is the antithesis of what I believe in as a Lib Dem. It is schools being seperated from local political input and parent power and reporting in some manner to the national Dept of Education. The exact opposite of localism and public accounability. Even if schools convert I'd be amazed if they survive ANY change of national government. Its not as if any parents are going to vehemently defend schools they have less to zero influence over and that Ofsted aren't reporting on.

What's particularly gratifying is that council School Improvement Partners (council officers) predicted this from the work they'd been doing with the school. I met the head last year and she impressed me. Great result for all the hard work of kids, parents, governors, teachers, support staff, council officers and the head and her management team.

Hi H&M, The council officer who leads this is called Tim Walker - [email protected] Lovely chap. Let him know if you have any other locations that you think would benefit from a Car Club car. Hi Sue, Lots of consultation took place at the Dulwich Community Council. Notices in newspapers and on lamp posts. I also twice posted a map of East Duwlich with where they were proposed to go. Great scheme that I'm proud started under a Lib Dem with over 6,000 members so far in Southwark. East Dulwich has extra density of them as we think really does help give people alternatives to owning their own car.

Hi spanglysteve, I believe the Rye Lane works are to completely resurface it after all the gas and water works replacing over century old pipes. So a few weeks time should see the end of roadworks for at least several years on this road. In fact the council could issue a notice 58 to block any works for two years. At which point lane rental comes into play in Sotuhwark which should act as a strong disincentive to road works. With the current state of the road this will be a great finish to all those years of tribulations. Regards james.

Camberwell Pool reopens after lots of renovations 28 February. Lyndhurst School is having ?5m spent modernising it. Butterfly Tennis club. South London Gallery. Clearly its not East Dulwich but Camberwell also has lots going for it.

Spot on Pickle. Kidkruger- see attached picture. Talking to local Police it has significantly helped reduced the problem of missing and lost children. Great for the kids and families. I've only known this feeling of dread once but unforgettable - amazing how long 10 minutes can be in slow motion. Helpful for the Police as you can imagine the numbers of Police officers taken from other Policing duties when a child goes missing.

Hi malleymoo, God, that junction having road works makes me feel sick. It was less than a year ago that young girl died. I've contacted the two leading council managers to ask: - for assurance that pedestrian phase will be part of any temporary traffic lights. - that the works be deferred until half term or Easter school holidays. - that if the works proceed during term time lollypop people be employed by the utility to maximise safety for kids.

Even with the change of title my heart sank on reading this posts title. How incredibly terrifying. Dulwich Park has a missing children post in it and the Police say it has hugely reduced missing children call outs which must mean a lot less stress for kids and parents. I don't remember seeing this is Peckham Rye. I'll ask if one can be installed for Peckham Rye park.

Hi Emily, Contextual Value Added - is a "score which measures the progress made by pupils from the end of KS1 to the end of KS2 using their test results. It takes into account the varying starting points of each pupil?s KS1 test results, and also adjusts for factors which are outside a school?s control (such as gender, mobility and levels of deprivation) that have been observed to impact on pupil results" I'm not aware of the great results from the previous head you talk about. Can you point me to those please. I'm hoping to have the last 3 years KS1 results today and will post them here. The slur you've mentioned sounds like a terrible misunderstanding which with temperatures rising is more likely to happen. That temperature rising is partly from people on this forum asking for the heads head. All the professional advice is she is doing a good job for the kids. So the only way she will leave is through being wrongfully sacked - which would cost the school many hundreds of thousands of pounds for illegal wrongful dismissal. As this would be against any councils advice or normal employment actions the governors might be personally liable. How would the school or governors pay for this. OR the head is put under so much pressure and can quote so much professional back-up that she could choose to leave and claim contributory dismissal and again the school would be financially wiped out. Posting on this forum can have much higher stakes than anyone bargains for and the unintended consequences for local kids and families attending this school could be catastrophic. The latest parent governors meeting I believe had people stating the results were going down when all the expert advice (including that purchased externally by the governors) is saying their is no such clear overal picture. The number of parents attending was much higher than usual at I understand 60 attended covering 713 children on the school roll. BUT a public meeting to go through the schools performance is going to take place 1 March. I would encourage people to attend to have the whole story explained and ask questions.

Hi Terry Thomas esq, I can see this being tricky to resolve. If some of the uncontrolled parking is removed and replaced by loading/unloading bay/s then suspect will always be full of shop customers parking. I'll seek officer advice about what they think can be done.

Many thanks for all the kinds words. This is one piece of mantle furniture you definitely wont see at the new boot sale!

I've hada query from Japanese telly about whether I know of any royal wedding street parties. I've not found out about any yet....unless you know better.....in which case Japanese telly beckons.

I've asked for a list of all the properties added in December - without any reference or notice ot councillors - but after two days have'nt received such a list. Sadly it all feels rather shambolic. NB. and I do think the principle good just the execution is the problem.

Hi Emily, I'm afraid I don't know the circumstances of what has happened to a democratically elected parent governor you've referred to. I can see that the KS2 value added has for the last 3 years indicated that Goodrich is doing really well with its KS2 results. Clearly that's not the total story but its results are not declining it value added has gone up. That's what the independent expert brought in by the governors is saying and what the council expert is saying. That's what other heads are telling me. But as I've said before I think other non results issues need to be worked on quickly. I'd be really greatful Emily to have a private chat to talk through all the issues you've obviously got with the school so I can try and understand what else you feel is going on. I'm also sorry if my conclusion that some parents are frustrated the school isn't classified yet as Outstanding or KS2 results are above the national or London average. But the value added for the intake means its doing really well. Hope we can arrange a private chat.

It's an excellent start by Nick Clegg.

Hi Michael, Why not pop over to them when they're in and ask if they can point the light more downwards. If they wont or get shirty email me and we can see how else to approach this.

Goodrich School is holding a parents meeting 1 March 6.30-8.30pm. I believe the head and others will present, discuss and answer questinos about how the school is doing. Fingers crossed I can attend.