James Barber

Hi Peter, I'm a professional buyer of services. You're a barrister. I suspect I have a little more experience of buying from suppliers and the issues involve than you or your team much as I you have infinately more experience of beign ab arrister than I have.

July. BUT it is hoped that it will complete earlier if physically possible. The delays due to the unexpectly bad winter weather.

If you live near The Bishop pub at 25-27 Lordship Lane you may want to comment on the attached premises licence change to allow the flat roof areas to be used as a drinking area. I'm keen on feedback from residents on Spurling Road, Crawthew Grove and flats above shops in that part of Lordship Lane (very northern end). Removing a condition that was presumably put in for a reason feels like a problem.

Hi buggie, I once caught a flight back from Canada. It left late afternoon and arrived at 5am. I didn't want to land at 5am and it could have left later from Canada without disturbing anyone's sleep. The reason it did these things was because it could. If this pattern was'nt allowed they would have flown it somewhere else instead. Apparently very few night flights each night around 14 but boy are they disruptive. I've read that all the orginating locations have other flgihts landing at civilised times in London. So clearly not a problem to rearrange.

Hi northlondoner, That's very kind of you but my wife and young kids patience is close to breaking point with all the current campaigning as it is. Also, I think having a normal day job helps me bring useful perspectives to how the council runs - apart from also paying the mortgage.

Hi prdarling, The legal advice given by the Southwark's lead officer on this must be different to Lewisham's. Every boroughs interpretation of purdah rules appears different. Yesterdays update was that with the extra time council officers believe they can finesse the draft allocations they've made and get another percentage point or two of parents receiving their first choice for their children. From next year one unified London allocations system helping with people who live near borough borders.

New plant - I meant new water cleaning, electric etc machinery. But the new and old entrances I believe will have new planting. Soft play not in the plans. Very little feedback in the public consultation for this. I did ask for this in the consultation. At the time my kids were 3 & 4. But little support so I'm afraid still a trek down to the Peckham Pulse for soft play (Peckham Pulse soft play ok young kids party venue as well if you're organised).

An aircraft free day once a month. Perhaps the first Sunday of every month. More urgent would be no night flights. It can;t be right to have many 100,000's of peoples sleep disturbed to allow a dozen or so planes to land to maximise airlines profits.

Fully refurbished pool. Slightly reduced length from previous 27.5m to 25m allowing the corner that you could'nt walk around to actually walkaround. No more changing cublices beside the pool so more space around the pool. Viewing area. Proper changing rooms Cafe. Insulated roof and other walls etc. Lots energy efficient feasures. New plant. New dance studios. THEN the gym gets refurbished.

Hi Gimme, That was one of the options explored. NHS Southwark would, as with any public boady, have to offer to sell it to any other public body before selling it to anyone else. The stated plans for this site are a new Dulwich Hospital so this change of land use to a school would scupper that. This would create quite a 'stir' and would potentially get significant opposition. Importantly the sale price could not be rigged and you can imagine the land value - we're talking many millions. Even more importantly, the legal process for a new school would take 5-7 years and effectively presumes against a local authority running any new school and hence most likely result in a school 'sponsored' by a religious body with religious based admissions policies which would have a far bigger catchment area than East Dulwich. ie it would'nt releif admissions pressure from our area.

Comparing cross authority purchasing and supply of energy, which comes from highly regulated industries with defined legal supply specifications, with other services where the definition of what is supplied can vary enormously is silly.

List of all candidates can be found at: http://www.southwark.gov.uk/downloads/download/2134/notice_of_election_of_borough_councillors_2010

Hi TE44, Apologies for not being clearer. Its a taking a few more days than the target to get them into re lettable conditoons after previous occupants have left. Yes. Apart from recently vacated council homes and council homes that are part of major works or projects. The odd home liek a ground floor flat on Worlingham Road that is vacant while underpinning work takes place for example. Or flats at Heygate awating the blocks to be demolished.

If you find the planes annoying then consider joining HACAN - Heathrow Action Campaign Against Noise.Or equally Plane Stupid and Fight the Flights for London City Airport flights. East Dulwich tends to be at southern end of flights going into land at Heathrow and slap bang on one of the London City Airport approach circuits. London City Airport is planning 50% expansion.

Another resident asked me about this and I referred this to Southwark Enforcement Officers on Monday. Late yesterday they referred me onto the H&S Executive. I've reported the incident and have been given reference number 02855374 and will apparently be emailed a report about this incident in the next 3-5 days.

Its been so long since I last went for a swim I'll probably need lessons! I've been assured that the contractor has as many people on site working to catch up on the delays as they safely can have.

Hi Judy2, Latest on Dulwich Leisure centre swimming pool is reopen in July. ?12M. ?5M on permanent expansion of Lyndhurst from 1.5form entry to 2 FE. ?2M for bulge classes. No plans currently for new school as no land free in council ownership. Remaining ?5M being reviewed as several options but need to ensure it see increase in school places.

Hi TE44, No I don't have that to hand but the last report I read, about 2 months ago, stated from memory that empty council properties was we're slightly over the target for re letting them and they are staying empty for average of 37 calendar days. This would'nt include properties kept empty on places like the Heygate estate where it is in the process of being knocked down and for empty blocks stuff already being stripped out.

My kids are getting an extra 30 minutes sleep at present. Fab.

Hi Oliver, The Veolia contract delivers your manifest pledge. But Cllr Gordon Nardell stated quite clearly one of the first acts of a Labour adminsitration would be to cancel the Veolia contract. Can you confirm you'll double recycling by changing nothing and keep the existing Veolia contract OR do you have a master plan that cancels the Veolia contract and clear plans to double recycling? The doubling of recycling rate. Is that based on the recycling rate when your elected which will be 24% or another figure from the past?

Hi PeckhamRose, I don't understand your post. Who is brinding Southwark into just north and south? Regards james.

Hi Jenny1840, Don't know who told you the Livesey Children's museum was closed to fund East Dulwich projects. Nonsense. It was closed because budget cuts had to be made and officers assured us relatively few Southwark residents visited it compared to the revenue cost. It was also not open the whole year. It is now being transferred to Peckham Theatre a children's theatre which with the much larger space than they currently have can work with many more children than ever before. They also undertake their work year round. Why were we short of funds. Southwark has many more residents than the census reported. Central government funding is laregely based on population. Also, the government has decided to raise Southwark's funding allocation by less than inflation for quite a few years while increasing the responsibilities Southwark has to fulfil. We also raised Southwark's meals on wheels, after 7 years of zero rises, to just below the London average prices. If it wasn't for centralising 30+ back offices into one bigger single back office near London Bridge saving so far ?35m the minimal front line cuts would have been much more severe. I'm sorry if my summary of the ending of WWII in any way suggested the consequences of using atomic weapons wasn't catastrophic for the people it killed, seriously injured at the time and since due to radiation. But not using them was viewed at the time and by historians since as probably having larger consequences by around a factor. Equally the limited use they had, being used twice, but the harm being so demonstrable, has probably contributed to the world never seeing them used in anger since. US seriously considered ending the Korean war with atomic weapons on China but western world abhored this prospect probably as a result of seeing what happens when they're used.

'new' lampost Lordship Lane. Spotted that a new lamp post was still after about 6 months standing next to working old one. Transpires the order on EDF Energy has not been raised and will be now. I've requested a trawl of Southwark's lighting records to proactively hunt for any other examples. But if you spot two lamp posts next ot each other - one working and one not - please do let me know. Exceptions would be roads between Lordship Lane, Whateley Road and Barry Road which are being upgraded at present.

One of my team is stuck in London and can't get home to Munich. And yes we've tried booking his via Eurostar and sleeper from Paris.

Tetrapaks. I had a pleasant email from a Tetrapak person assuring me that shipping tetrapaks to Sweden was still environmentally ok. That I should rest assured the life cycle analysis was ok. She isn't able to send me a copy of the maths for this. tetrapaks are 70-90% cardboard + plastics + aluminium. She had no idea of when or if a UK recyclnig facility will be in place. Currently Southwark collects around 14kg of Tetrapaks a week at 6 recycling points in big supermarkets. This represents <1% of all Southwarks waste. Amazing how such an item could become a totem for recycling when the maths isn't clear its a good idea.