James Barber

I found this blog interesting: Has Clegg-hatred become a substitute for political renewal? In summary it suggests: "But outside the ranks of Labour supporters, there is no such anger. A mere 2% of current Lib Dem supporters and a mere 3% of Conservative supporters rate Nick Clegg?s performance as very bad. This anger is an entirely partisan phenomenon. What it means, I think, is that there is a dialogue of the deaf. Current Lib Dems and Tories don?t understand Labour anger. Labour supporters don?t appreciate that their reaction is particular to them. Labour will no doubt feel confident that it will hang onto the support of the very unhappy. But making Nick Clegg into a human pi?ata doesn?t look like a promising way of getting many new recruits."

Hi Snowy, taper, You're correct. The GLA doesn't have such funds. I should have stated the Mayor of London. The GLA scrutinise him and other bodies such as TfL, Met, etc. I think my point still stands. London Councils started funding voluntary bodies when the GLC was disbanded (out of what appeared pique from Thatcher). When the GLA and London Mayor was created for pan London government London Councils didn't stop or hand over this. I think they should have and still should take this role on.

You, we, I need to cut our absolute carbon use by 80% by 2050. If we nationally do that then we can afford carbon prices to rise by 500% and we'll still be spending the same ratio on energy as we do now. With expected productivity growth of 1 0r 2% in real terms pa that would mean nationally we can sustain even higher global prices. The key is to start insulating now and building renewable energy generation now. Nationally the Green Deal is coming starting with insulating 3m homes for the poorest. after a couple of year green mortgages tied to homes will be in place enabling us all to invest in bigger insulating projects such as all those solid East Dulwich Victorian walls. In East Dulwich in January we'll have ?140,000 in place to offer insulation to the fifth of roofs in East Dulwich ward that don't even have loft insulation.

Hi Meadow408, I've been assured that EDF Energy did start these works but due to a number of water leaks had to cancel them. These have been repaired and I've been assured these lamp columns will be attached 1 December. I suspect your prod via me has helped. Hi Ddoublesj, Tomorrow Southwark's contractor will be visiting Copleston Road to remove the redundant lamp columns. Again I suspect your prod via me has helped move things along. Many thanks. NB. I should point out Southwark lighting team have from memory 18,000 lamp posts to keep track of and many thousands of illuminated road signs and bollards. So it is always helpful to point out anything untoward.

Hi TJ, IF a CPZ was introduced operating in the middle of the day for one hour it free up parking currently used by rail commuters for shoppers to visit. It would mean that businesses could'nt park without a business permit or they'd have to mvoe their vehicle at some point in the day. Hi Penguin68, Hopefully the irony of you whining about the assumption I've had people whining isn't lost on you. I've never said I've had people whining. For example I've had people explain real problems they have getting young kids in and out of car with shopping when they can't park anywhere near their homes or on the street they live on. I'm afraid Im on of those people that when they hear of a problem like to try finding a solution.

Thanks to the several emails pointing out other broken street light. We've finalised probably the last bit of Lib Dem devolved lighting budget for East Dulwich ward. ?50,000 worth of improvement. We?ll allocate our funds to fixing ?red? lamp posts which are 70%+ corroded at the base. Eight of them. We?ll fund the upgrade to lighting on Crystal Palace Road, Dunstans Road and Friern Road replacing old yellow SOX lighting. CPR will get SON lighting for the majority but Cosmo lights at the Lordship Lane end. SON lighting all along Dunstans Road and Cosmo on Friern Road local Police are concerned that earlier in the year it suffered a spate of car crime - hopfeully it will help deter that again. We?ll then have ensured all East Dulwich street lighting has been modernised by the end of the financial year.

Hi Bunny19, Southwark is charged ?100 for every tonne that goes to landfill. It's called Landfill Tax. I don't know how much these people collected in the 3/4 hour but suspect its cost effective compared to it going into normal rubbish. What is coming is co mingled rubbish where all recycleable materials are seperated at the Integrated Waste Transfer Facility being built on the Old Kent Road. That speeds up collections as all goes into the truack ithout having to be sorted on the streets. We had hoped this would be universal by now but new deadline is November 2011. If the food waste and fortnightly rubbish collection 'pilot' is successful - which it appears in the rounds it is so far - then you'll have that probably introduced at the same time next Autumn.

Hi Bobby P, I'm in opposition. I'm not in the administration so I'm absolustely not proposing this to raise revenue. Even when my party was in power I would'nt have proposed this as revenue earning. It wouldn't be worth the grief if residents didn't want it! My interest stems from residents who live in the Grove Vale, Melbourne Grove, East Dulwich Grove triangle raising the issue repeatedly with me during and since the May elections - and having recently sat on a committee where residents pleaded for the Herne Hill scheme to be extended to them. A smaller number in the triangle Lorship Lane, Melbourne Grove East Dulwich Grove have raised such concerns but this seem related to Lordship Lane businesses rather than commuting so a small CPZ window wouldn't in my mind help much with this. I'd hope the increasing numbers of Car Club cars we've been getting and continue pushing for will help but I'd still like to find a solution for residents car parking problems. So, if we think CPZ isn't the solution what is?

Hi apmuso, Apologies. I had imagined we'd have reached more homes by now. When we've been out we've been rather to chatty. PM me your address and I'll ensure your next.

Hi AllyCat, Residents are required to keep their gardens from overspilling onto the public footpath/highway - ie. keep hedges and trees cut back. Happilly this also is excellent crime prevention advice - more open a front garden the more neighbours can keep an eye on things. Rubbish bins and boxes should also be kept within the curtilage a home. Realistically this isn't piossible on all roads for all homes so some commonsense is needed. If a home could keep its bins in its grounds and isn't the council can insist - but hopefully a sensible conversation would precede this to point out they have the option of being more sociable. Which road are you specifically talking about? Can I help?

Hi Loz, Do you live on Melbourne, Derwent, Elsie or Tintagel? Do you park a car and commute by train? I ask as people's responses seem very different depending upon the answers to these two questions.

This years leaf collections, for me, feel worse than previous years. I formally asked this question to the director for Environment. She was clear no change since last year. I asked whether the same number of temps employed to augment the workforce and to help with autumn as last year - she said yes. But it doesn't feel as effective. I wished I'd asked how many hours are available for street cleaning just to kill this concern. If you feel a street isn't being cleaned sufficiently - ask your councillor/s about it. For closest houses to Good Green playground that would be The Lane ward and one of the councillors for that ward is also the cabinet member for environment Barrie Hargrove.

Southwark visitor permits are ?1.20 each. Seems to be two arguments. Full on CPZ that nearly everyone things just would not be suitable for the area. CPZ lite a la Herne Hill that appears 50:50 whether it would be suitable BUT people near the station seem much more favourable for and those further away not so interested. Or have I missed something?

According to train station usage figures - the latest I can find on the web date from financial year 08/09: http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.1529 Herne Hill station had 2,686,386 entries and exits whereas East Dulwich station 'only' had 1,515,942. So realistically it would only take a tiny proportion of those exits and entries to drive and park nearby to cause a significant problem. Which is what residents who want to use their cars during Mon-Fri or have visitors who drive are reporting.

Hi Meadow408, I've reported Peirmont Road lights 05 & 06 as not working and asked when they can be fixed. Hi WrightC, Last night I reported all Crystal Palace Road broken street lights - all 5 of them - lamp column asset no's 2598 - 07, 09, 14, 29 and 39. These reports have been formally acknowledged. Hi Ddoublesj, I've reported these and asked when will they be removed.

I spent last night checking council officer street lighting records for Friern, Dunstans, Goodrich and Cryala Rpalace Roads. I was amazed to see so many street lights not working - 6 on Crystal Palace Road, 1 on Crebor, 3 on Friern Road. Southwark has a full time employee who patrols the borough looking for broken street lights. Seems surprising so many, which get proactively replaced before end of design life, should have failed. Can you please look at the street light outside your home and tell me if yours is broken (with the 6 digit number on the lamp post)? We'll then get an idea where those patrols have failed to reach.

Hi 5imon, Those 3 news flats look good. Lets see what happens with those garages and ex.carpentry workshop. Hopefully they'll be sold and new owner will put them to good use which will result in them being cleared up.

But what if we had the Hern Hill type system? Lots of people sagainst the usualy blanket all day long schemes - I agree they're painful and I've lived in one and having visitors was a nightmare. But the Herne Hill type scheme operating for 1 or 2 hours a day for streets within 5 mins walk of East Dulwich railway station would surely help residents on those streets.

Hi Fuschia, I'm not sure that many mums drive to Melbourne, Derwent, Elsie, tintagel or Matham to have lunch between 11am and noon. If a scheme were to ever happen would noon-1pm be better for mums. I don't think so. As a dad I've always used push chair or bus - bus didn't work with our double buggy but everywhere locally seems within 10mins push. I kind of see your point about Grove Vale library morning session but surely people walk/push buggies there?

Which road?

Hi Tut tut, I've attached Southwark Councils leaflet about bed bugs which can be found on the Southwark Council website with other leaflets on pests - Bedbugs, Coackroaches, Ghost ants, Mice, Pharoah abnts and Rate: http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/431/pest_control/1343/preventing_pest_problems I hadn't heard that we're a hotspot for them but after reading these leaflet s I certainly feel itchy! The council pest control service is free to council tenants but can also be used for a charge by general residents call - 0800 952 4444. The general advice is you need professinoal help to get rid of bedbugs. Hope this helps.

Testing residents about whether they want a CPZ and if the initial research shows they do and its' implimented costs around ?50,000. AS reported around Herne Hill they've created controlled parking that instead of operating 7am-6pm operates from noon to 2pm. So it has the effect of killing commuter parking but trying to minimise the effect for visitors etc with options for visitor parking. No reason why a CPZ near ED station could'nt be created that operated 11am to noon - this minimises impact on passing trade for shops. Would mean visitors coming for lunch wouldn't be impacted and local residents could park on their streets - which currently many report they find almost impossible. In fact another street Holmdene has successfully pleaded to join the Herne Hill CPZ. The implimentation resulting in zero reduction in car parking spaces and no additional yellow lines. So, Loz don't know why you'd think lots more yellow lines would go in. Some considerable time ago a consultation was run in the ED area - we must be talking 8-10 years ago. What was proposed was the full CPZ operating from 7am-6pm which I think really heavy handed opertating hours. Since that time the idea of operating just in the middle of the day has been developed and appears to have been very successful in the Herne Hill area to fight commuter parking. Short term though we've tried to reduce the parking pressure by using CGS funds to triple the number of Car Club cars in East Dulwich from 4 to 15. Otto, TRRL research shows you need to place cycle parking maximum of 20-50m from the front door. I've spoken to council officers and the train operating company about could we have mopre cycle lockers and we couldn't think of wher to put them that met this criteria. Beside ED station is various bits of woodland which I'm told are privately owned or have no access or the access would be a couple of hundred metres walk away.

I spent Thursday evening walking the streets of East Dulwich with the lead officers boss for street lighting. We're in the process of finalising where to spend this financial years devolved budget for street lighting renewals - ?50,000. This is one policy that probably wont survive the Labour running the council. We have 18 lampposts whose steel at the base has eroded by over 70%. Due to EDF Energy having a monopoly of local connections it costs ?2,000 to replace lampposts. The remaining ?14,000. Would like to replace the very few yellow SOX lighting. Apart from the yellow being rather dim it uses twice the energy of brighter SON whiter lighting and slightly more than twice than the super bright Cosmo lighting. We could use recycle SON lighting at ?200 a go or ?500 for new Cosmo lighting. The priority is Friern Road, Crystal Palace Road and Dunstans Road where the SOX lighting is still present - but after the 'red' status lamp posts. Also talked about remote controlled lighting etc. So I learnt loads. If anyone wants to discuss street lighting please do get in touch.

I think I've found out the cause of this confusion and others. They've reopened the Dulwich Leisure Centre and not changed the phone messages. On the phone messages it states 27m x 3 lane pool - wheras it changes to 25m x 4 lanes. It states the entrance is on East Dulwich Road - but it now Crystala Palace Road. It mentions direct buses and indirect buses via Lordship Lane but not those running via Peckham Rye. Needless to say I've reported this but pretty miffed council officers and fusion haven't the sense to check these lines and the messages.

I met local Police and council officers about this junction. Many thanks to them. Reviewing the crash data council officers explained that they only receive details where personal injuries are concerned. Local Police don't have access to crash data - just incident reports for the last 6 months they have to trawl through manually ie. every crime. Clearly no intention for local Police to help council officers on a local level. Anyway, we compared the Underhill junction with Upland Road junction with Barry Road. The former has now had 10 personal injury crashes in the last 3 years. The latter zero on the junction and 1 on the adjacent Pelican crossing. The sightlines from the eastern side of Underhill looked fine. Those from the western arm appear the problem. We thought that the Underhill Road junction road marking had nearly completely gone. Near immediately - officers will be arranging for the road markings to be completely renewed. Short term - when the next Traffic Management Order in Dulwich is raised (we're due one in the next month or two) that they include changing the Give Way signs to STOP signs - as Upland Road junction has. Medium term - build a raised entry treatment on the western side of Underhill Raod with potentially more kerb build out on the sw side of Barry Road to increase sightlines - as Upland Road junction has. Each of these measures should make it clearer it's a junction and attempt to get drivers to take more care. Other thoughts explored were mini roundabout, raised junction, lots of double yellow lines, average speed cameras, speed activated signs. Various reasons they didn't seem suitable. Have to 'talk' those through with anyone by email.