James Barber

Hi RobMiller, A reasonable reqest that I will pass on.

Hi BrandNew Guy, We've planted many native trees but have largely run out of big open streetscapes to plant them. These trees are intended to be in smaller more confined locations on the street but not species that will grow big and cause problems for residents. They have the happy extra of blossoming beautifully. If you'd like to be involved in next years round of street trees in East Dulwich please email me direct. I did ask for any thoughts or volunteers but this request regretabbly missed you. So please do step forward ot help us next year.

Hi Tony Rabbit, I have already asked for details. I get the impression, which I will check, that Thames Water were told a section 58 notice (barring utilities from digging up the road for two years) would be served and for whatever reason didn't act on that to highlight they might needed to replace a 42" water mains BEFORE Dunstans Road we renewed. It might be worth while if I get a map of such mains and their age so that when other future roads get renewed the bleeding. Council officers has insisted that any reinstatement where they put the road back is a whole half carriageway or where they stray across the centre line the whole carriageway. I can only reiterate apologies to residents of Dunstans Road.

I'm appalled to report this but after Dunstans Road was completely renewed at the start of this year its going to be dug up to allow Thames Water to replace a 42" water mains pipe. Sorry. Council officers and Thames Water officials have obviously completely failed to coordinate and Thames Water are insisting they must NOW replace the 42" water pipe that runs down Dunstans Road as they've now tested it and think this 100+ year pipe is leaking - no kidding! I noticed an advertisement placed in yesterdays Southwark News newspaper and contacted council officers. For whatever reason they hadn't told ward councillors. A section 58 notice had been served after Dunstans Road renewal that legally blocks out all road works but Thames Water have trumped that by stating its critical work that they;ve just discussed from recent testing. Why Thames Water didn't test this pipe WHEN Southwark council officers told them they were going to renew the road surface and serve a section 58 notice is beyond me. Thames Water have stated the works will start NOW and go on until March 2011. If you have any problems with this please email. Again, I can only apologise for Thames Water arrogance and that they and council officers have so patently not worked together to avoid this shambles.

New East Dulwich trees. We're about to order 30 new East Dulwich ward street trees. If you want to see the details - please see attached.

Perhaps you should contact Dulwich Helpline. They have numerous clients who the help and know the area. They would be able to ensure all volunteers are CRB checked.

Apologies dbboy. I didn't mean to twist anything. Joining the Green chain walk rightly required promises and assurances that we were going to do a good job and have a high quality route. otherwise it just becomes as doted line on a map and means nothing.

Hi dbboy, I'm proud that when the Lib Dems led Southwark Council we decided Southwark should join the Green Chain walk. To achieve this we had to agree to some quite reasonable expectations of what Southwark part of the Green Chain would look like and these gates are part of that. Take a walk along the green chain and then tells us if a complete waste of money in your opinion.

Hi hpsaucey, Email me and I'll ask what is happening.

Hi PGC, I asked about the diagonal path on Tuesday. Hi cate, I've queried why leaf blowers and not grit or your suggestino of horse track sand at least. Hi Applespider, I agree. This is not how I would decide to hold back salt and grit. Strange situation when 1 DEcember stated by the amdinistration had 1,000 tonnes in stock - which I suspect was number from 29 November before snow fell. On Friday after only doing very main resiliency roads stating they had 400 tonnes. Where had it all gone? So far the lead officer has blanked my questinos around this - which appears even more suspcious and he has a normally very proactive PA when he's not around.

TUPE is a very specialised area of employment law. I would recommend you get professional advice. Whenever, I've led projects involving TUPE in or out, using a full time TUPE HR specialists to guide me, huge care taken to ensure the overall packages are the same or better for the total compensation package for each employee. The following link gives good basic grounding in TUPE http://www.out-law.com/page-448 which touches on opting out of a TUPE transfer. TUPE would clearly apply to anyone solely working on a contract or for a particular customer. It gets even more complicated when only some of their time is worknig for a particualr customer. TUPE has been claimed or denied for ranges 20%-80% of the time on a particualr customer. Good luck.

Hi tamblynhirst, Its all part of the Green Chain walk improvements. You should see the signing revert back to the regular route now. Please let me know if you don't.

I can not imagine in my wildest nightmares Southwark Council being involved in any door to door salesperson scheme. If anyone hears anything to the contrary let me know - I would put good money on it being dodgy - and we'd want to root it out.

Hi cate, The head of parks assures me that they've had people working again today clearing ice and gritting paths. I wont get a chance to visit Dulwich Park before the weekend. Will you and can you feed back to me please?

I find the Wikileaks very sad - they've revealed deep lies of British politicians and civil servants e.g. Diego Garcia. Of spineless sucking up to the US by Tories before the elections. I suspect most would assume diplomacy has an unseemly side but the scale of it takes my breath away. Very sad that our world is so badly run. You couldn't make it up. So, for what its worth I think the Wikeleaks has been a good thing. In future every government official and politician will wonder if what they're saying and doing will find its way in the public domain. That can only be a useful brake on the undoubted past excess.

Sorry to disullusion you, but Somerfied/Coop roof is covered in mobile phone aerials. Orange and T-Mobile in the UK are merging into Everything Everywhere and will be sharing infrastructure. Some of thier customers should already have noticed this change and improved service coverage. Vodagone and O2 are also asset sharing. Both mergers should see more universal mobile services across East Dulwich.

Hi PeckhamRose, The government has relaxed the numbers of hours HGV lorry drivers can work by one hour each day for four days above the current 9 hour daily limit. Apparently their was a risk of forecourts running out of fuel, shop stocks running low and grit not being moved around sufficiently. It's hoped this temporary hours derogation will enable some catch up with this. As this is a very temporary measure for four days only it seems sensible to me. What do you think PR, adding one hour a day for four days seems very measured?

Hi cate, I've asked.

Hi Michael, I will lobby for the plan to be adhered to i.e. side roads done once the main roads done. If anyone has specific stories I can add to a narrative about how painful the lack of gritting of side roads that would help the case.

We were all very lucky that Friday and Saturday nights were so mild in the end and some rain to clear much snow. The implimentation this year of Southwark Winter Service Plan seems problematic. It's meant to be that gritting moves from the resilience roads to others roads but this didn't seem to happen this time round with salt rationed to 40 tonnes a day but needs to be used at 160 tonnes a day to remove snow and ice from side roads. Street cleaners were told to go litter picking in the snow as without salt being released for side roads and pavements Southwark managers were concerned clearing the snow might result in ice [if not cleared thoroughly enough]. Fear of litigation. Friday afternoon rubbish and recycling collections started up again with significant catching up over the weekend.

A thread had popped up suggesting Lib Dem councillor has recieved special treatment from council employees. I can assure everyone the only snow and ice cleared outside my home has been by me. The only salt used outside my home is from 3kg dishwasher salt packs bought by me in local shops.

Hi Louisiana, I've reported that empty salt bin. I've also reported the following empty salt bins - Goodrich School corner of Goodrich and Dunstans Road, corner of Dusntan's road with Forest Hill Road, and corner of Barry Road with Upland Road. If anyone spots other empty salt bins I'll also TRY getting them refilled. It does appear that salt in Southwakr is already running low.

Just received councillor update. Rubbish and recycling services suspended yesterday and today. Only one day centre is open - not told which one. Southwark salt stocks now down at 400 tonnes but with restocking not expected until mid December. Sticking solely to major priority roads 40 tonnes of salt being used a day. The winter plan says to do side streets when main roads cleared but now being told solely main priority roads will be salted. So clearly concern that the administration will run out of salt before restocking. So no chance now of side roads being done. Last winter we used 160 tonnes a day as a minimum. Overnight temperatures down to -7 degrees C expected with more gritting tonight and tomorrow morning. BUT on Sunday it is expected the road temperature will rise above zero so no gritting expected on Sunday.

Southwark Councils experience of grit/salt bins is that most winters they're not needed - so the one's it has are usually vandalished, littered into or set alight. Some all three. Last winter and this winter they've seen whole grit bins stolen - especially when full of grit. Last winter to get round this 1 tonne sacks of grit were dropped of across Southwark so the street cleaners who should ALL be working on clearing streets of snow and ice had grit/salt to deploy on side roads and pavements. Southwark had a large number of street cleaners (from memory its 500 or 600) so plenty of people to spread salt/grit around.

You could ring them on 020 8693 1833 and ask them and then let us all know.