James Barber

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.

Hi EDmummy, I've requested a further update on where things are and when the pool will reopen. I passed it this morning and the new entrance is definately progressing. It will never happen quickly enought for me. As soon as I hear something I'll let you know.

Fascinating to read spectrum of views. Huge shame that Southwark Council have 15,000 people on its social housing waiting lists while Southwark had, the last time I formally asked about a year ago, 5,500 empty privately owned properties. I personally don't feel comfortable with squatting but clearly the levers created by central government to discourage properties being left empty are not working. Southwark Council can and does try persuading private owners to return properties into use but the Compulsory Purchase Order process is so painful that it can only rarely be used. Equally Southwark Council can only borrow money at rates decreed by central government which are a factor more expensive than the open money market. So can't borrow the sums required to kick start those 5,500 homes coming back into use.

This shop has an extensive, long and unhappy casefile with Southwark Council enforcement officers. The immediate land outside the shop is owned by the shop. Selling cars in this way is not normally allowed. How the shop owner can afford a shop that doesn't appear to trade is a great mystery. The forecourt should have become a right of way but wasn't enforced as such before I became a councillor - hence the ridiculous looking fencing. Things do appear to have recently got worse. I'll ask council officers to investigate and hope to resolve.

Hi Oliver, I think your mean ?12m from central government lottery (Lewisham receive ?0 but has 543 reception kids without classes). Potential requirement for another ?2.1m that Southwark will need to find.

In my day job I manage a team who operational relationships for a FTSE100 company in a particualr category. Consolidating contracts can offer savings - great buying power, economies of scale. Consolidation can add cost and affect service - more stakeholder management, less flexibility. One of the biggest criticsm of local government is the lack of flexibility and service not meeting people's expectations. Consolidating services is unlikely to offer increased flexibility. Also, stakeholder management would be almost impossible with administrations of difference political values and such a huge effort for any contract changes as two council assemblies would need to agree. I think it would be more honest for Labour to propose merging the councils if the Labour belive greater scale will bring economies. Much as Ken Livngstone proposed London's 32 councils be merged into 6-8 super boroughs. I'm clear my party want to devolve more power down to Southwark's 8 Community Council's. This gets more decision making into the local community where local circumstances affect decisions and avoid local waste.

Hi Amelie, Virtually all the empty tree pits have been filled with trees. We've also made some headway putting street trees back onto streets such as Melbourne Grove - looks fab with all the blossom. Hi TheArtfulDogger, Dulwich Van Hire. Various enforcement actions taken. They're now operating from the garage from adminsitrative purposes. It seems clear some of the vans are being operated from the public highway. I've again asked officers to undertake enforcement to ensure the whole business is operated from their new garage site. Hi Nero, The blue bags should be pcked up the same day and foxes rarely come out in the middle of the day. I'll ask about the specific example you've given and the generality.

Fellbrigg Road and dog poo. Many complaints about this. After many months of street cleaners trying to cope, anti dog poo stencils placed on pavements, recognised that one of the worst roads in Southwark for dog poo. Leafletting the area is now planned. Extra Community Warden patrols. Extra Environmental Enforcement team patrols. Fingers crossed it has more impact. Tree pits. Some time ago issue raised that the tree pits in our area had been eroded and sunken and had become a trip hazard. Majority in East Dulwich have now been filled. When first deployed quite 'stark' colour but this quickly mellows. I'm assured they'll all be finished soon. IF in a couple of weeks time you spot any missed please do point them out to me.

- Free school meals are already provided for those that can't afford them. Providing them for free to those that can seems very generous. The promise makes no exceptions so presume Labour plan to provide free school meals for kids in the private schools? Many of the kids in Southwark primary schools live in other boroughs - will they all get free school meals paid for by Southwark Council tax payers? (Lib Dem promise to invest even more in schools to improve kids life chances). - Current policy is to provide a local Primary school place within 1 mile - pram push - for those that want them (some prefer religious schools). So the promise is to not change things? (Lib Dems promise in our manifest is a GOOD school within 1 mile.) - The Southwark Council waste contract with Veolia will take recycling from 21% as at end Dec'09 as used by Southwark Labour in literature to 38.6% by 2014 with incentives in place to go beyond that. It also includes food waste by 2015. So the Labour promise is to meet this contract. Cllr Gordon Nardell at the last council meeting stated publicly the contract will be cancelled. Which is it? (Lib Dem promise is to raise recycling to more than 10 times the best Labour ever achieved 3.6% in 2002) - Meals on Wheels in Southwark are priced below the London Average. For 7 years they'd had zero price rises. Those that pay for them are on national benefits and pensions. Why halve the price? Is the national pension low in the eyes of Southwark Labour and they wish to subsidise it locally via cheaper meals on wheels? I'd agree it's low but better ways to help pensioners - insulate properties to reduce fuel poverty being one of many. (Lib Dem promise to keep meals on wheels prices below the London average)

Late May.

Hi mrs f, Two of your the South Camberwell ward councillors are from the Labour Party - Veronica Ward and Peter John (Southwark Labour Party leader) and one the Green Party Jenny Jones. I don't believe the Green Party are really trying to expand in South Camberwell as little evidence of leaflets, letters or canvassing. Also, not so much from the Labour Party. At one point the Tories were talking about making it a target but no evidence this is happening. This election will seem more Lib Dem literature going out in this ward than ever before. My guess is the Labour Party expect the increased parliamentary turnout to mean they'll cruise home and take all three local councillor seats in South Camberwell.

Hi Victoria, I'm staggered that you should even mention the chaos of Lambeth housing. It privatised Lambeth council housing into an ALMO that has no money for any repairs and had to put up council rents by 17%. I've been on Southwark's Audit & Governance committee. I've seen the Audit Commission at first hand. Truly astounding pressure to do daft things to earn Audit Commission points. In Lambeth they open a 'pop up' secret library to increase the number of hours libraries were open to earn more Audit Commission points. As you know the in year council tax collection is low but the final council tax collection rate is the same as Westminster and Wandsworth. Yes, the council tax collection is being insourced but the contract agreed before 2002 when under Labour was a two year termination clause. sorry you've not seen the East Dulwich Leaflets setting out our achievements in East dulwich - new ?6.1M Dulwich Leaisure centre renovation, Dulwich Library now open 7 days a week. You'll have seen Peckham Rye Lib Dem leaflets wondering where their Labour cllrs have been for the last 4+ years.