James Barber

- 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.

So why don't the Falkland Islands residents have British citizenship. Or St.Helena, Ascension Islands residents or Gibralterians. I think the French idea of whatever the historic quirk that leaves some distant island in Franch hands that island is well French. They even get EU grants to improve them bacuase they're part of France. Whereas the UK approach is lets try and forget them and leave them so under developed that they are dependancies. We even call them UK dependancies.

Hi Old Yeller, Your conclusions about ending WWII with nuclear weapons is incredible. It was 1945. The calculations of Allied casualties, after taking one tiny Japanese home island, was 2 million to invade mainland Japan. By using nuclear weapons it was believed 2 million allied casualties could be avoided. After dropping one nuclear bomb the Japanese command were in internal paralysis and did nothing. The second one ended the war. To liken that to terrorism seems to mis represent the moral dilemma faced. 2million vs. 1/4million. We're probably talking about avoiding the death of 10,000's of London males who would have died invading mainland Japan. The shock of those two nuclear bombs has meant they've not been used since. You've also talked about Faluja in Iraq. The lunancy of invading Iraq has nothing to do with Afghanistan. And Lib Dems stancy on that folly well known. Iran and North Korea although remarkably unpallitable countries with regards to human rights that are countries that have government and can be politically engaged. A Taliban controlled Afghanistan could not be politically engaged. Real risk that Pakistan finds it useful to have a little instability to ensure the west keeps propping it up. So we might be in position where we're trying to help Afghanistan srot its troubles out for a very long time. But as insurance aganst Pakistan nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands it makes sense. So the Obama arms reduction and talk about countries that sign up to nuclaer non proliferation helpful. I'd be interested to hear your solution to Afghanistan that preserves our security from a future nuclear 9/11.

Hi mrs f, The last parliamentary elections HH well ahead, she got 65.3% of the vote, Lib Dems 18.8%, Tories 9.8%. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/vote2005/html/115.stm Boundary changes should erode that. Also, Lib Dem fighting Labour to win Peckham Rye, Livesey and Peckham wards which should see big boost for Lib Dems. Funny leaflets from Tories claiming its between Labour and Tories. Bumped into one of the local Tory councillor candidates who was sure they could overturn HH. He was very sweet - if clearly misguided. Electoral Calculas is predicting HH wins http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/ with 53.8%, Lib Dems 19.6%, Tories 15.3%. Guess they think this due to boundary changes.

Hi sophiesofa, As you can imagine I have a lot of papers to shred. I take them into my daytime job where my colleagues think I'm a little odd and other times into the Town Hall for shredding. Eitherway, shredding bank and utilities bills seems a sensible precaution. Older shredders just shred into strips. More modern ones shred into tiny squares. Even these can be reassembled so better to shred lots together making the jigsaw truly immense. BUT what we're not hearing about is anyones identidy having actually been stolen. So suspect we're all in danger of getting carried away. Until actual identidy thefts occur not much for the Police to do. With respect ot running out of recycling bags - call 020 7525 2000 for replacements. Any problems let me know.

Southwark and Lambeth councils have an agreement that residents from each borough can use the others waste/recyclnig centres. Both are close to the others borders. If you have a problem using the Lambeth Rosendale Road site please record the time, date and email me. Ideally aks the Lambeth council officers name.

Hi DonGee, I was contacted by the developers representative saying they hadn't received the letter and some other rather unhelpful stuff but they had read about things on the forum and emailed me. I put them in touch via email with the enforcement officer and they appear now to be cooperating which is great. Well done forum for lubricating this. Thank you.

I think the Labour party idea is to merge services between Lambeth and Southwark. As Southwark Labour party can't for political reasons say anything in Southwark is well run they've effectively said that all Southwark council services would be run from Lambeth town hall in Brixton and adopt Labour Lambeth models for running things.This implies all Southwark council housing will be transferred to The Lambeth Arms Length Management Organisation - a quango - the Lambeth one increased council tenant rents by 17% while stopping even essential repairs. They've said they'd cancel the Veolia recyclnig and waste contract (cllr Gordon Nardell last council assembly). Without that waste centre can't increase recycling beyond 30%. Lambeth have consulted on an incinerating everything option which would probably be the only way forward. The improvement in Southwark schools would probably reduce to Lambeth rate of improvement. Probably more significant is the short term disruption. Merging any two organisations is painful and very disruptive. I work in the private sector and have been in mergers at operational management level. They are painful and really hard to ensure services are maintained. Longer term spending money remotely is rarely good value. That's why the Liberal Democrats want to devolve more power and money to local Community Councils. Giving local residents real influence over local spending. I guess good news is clear choice between centralising Labour parties of Lambeth and Southwark and decentralising Liberal Democrats.

Hi TheArtfulDogger, My council laptop is down so I can;t extract all the emails related to Dulwich Van Hire. I should have it back up with IT help mid week and will then respond. Hi Pugwash, Many thanks for raising this as I've learnt some new stuff. The Southwark Pensioner's Forum is valued and everyone wants to see it continue. Initially LGBT, Disabilities forum, etc were funded first by the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund which morphod into the Working Neiughbourhoods Fund. The funding was roughly ?40,000 pa per forum. The new incarnation from central govt is aimed at getting people into work which doesn't sit well with funding a pensioners forum. I understand last year the allocated officers were trying to help all the forum and this year is viewed as an interim transition year with continued council officers support to forums arrange other funding and become independent. Officers have found other roles within Southwark Council which has clearly complicated things. The council leader cllr Nick Stanton has raised the issue the chief executive Annie Shepperd and expects the town hall room booking issue will be resolved this coming week. The Southwark Pensioners Forum have applied for voluntary body grants from one Southwark budget but didn't meet the criteria. I'm hopeful that they'll find appropriate funding. I'm also personally hopeful that they become much more coordinated with the funded Southwark Pensioners Centre. Seems strange to have two such bodies the latter already funded I believe by Southwark Council directly and the former body funded via government funding now aimed at helping people into work. Hope this answers your question. Let me know.

Hi souc1, Burrow Road and the path behind it is in South Camberwell ward. Best to report such anti social issues to the South Camberwarl ward Police Safer Neighbourhood Team: 020 8721 2448 07920 233911 [email protected] I find it hard to believe that the SNT team can't block both ends if they so choose. If you get stuck I can take the issue up via the executive councillor responsible for Community Safety.

Hi Peckhamboy, No. (All organisations have a requirement to have prudential reserves. The Audit Commission criticise Southwark Council every year for not having enough. Very gradually reserves are being built up. Last year the sums allocated to do this were then largely spent due to changes in demands on Southwark due to the Baby P requirements amongst others. We also had a 1 in 30 year winter. Exactly the types of event reserves are for.)

I'm hopeful it wont have any impact on Southwark as New Cross is not near the border with Southwark. Its a real shame this has happened. The kids involved will feel incredible lose of a familar school. It will make Lewisham's problems much worse - talk before the fire of Lewisham having to place reception kids with 10 and 11 years whose classes have space. It makes you think about what we'd do if we lost a school. Fortunately, we've been very gradually building up the financial reserves of the council to cope with dire emergencies such as this.

Hi ladywotlunches, I beleive Primary school admissions dates are processes are being merged for next year. One application form. This should mean that parents don;t hold school places in several boroughs taking up more than one offer per child making. Hi Pecanpie, I'm sorry you believe the delay this year resulting from adding extra buldge assessment compared to last year, purdah and election resources are 'bobbins'. Hi Fuschia, I'm curious which local authority didn't face any issues by losing 1,000 staff for a few days and when your experience related to. Personally I feel this proposition is unrealistic for Southwark. We have someting like 2,000 back office staff. Duting the last 12 months we've drstically reduced duplications by merging over 40 smaller office into one office on Tooley Street. So we have many hundreds fewer officers than ever before. Admissions are part of that back office. They have been expanded. But losing half of all back office people elections related activities will mean skeleton operations for many services.

Really sad news that a huge blaze has wrecked Hatcham Temple Grove school in New Cross. It looks as though Lewisham Council no only have to find 543 reception school places more than they were expecting but also now 360 primary school places. What a disaster. Even more pressure on primary school places in South East London.

Really sad news that a huge blaze has wrecked Hatcham Temple Grove school in New Cross. It looks as though Lewisham Council no only have to find 543 reception school places more than they were expecting but also now 360 primary school places. What a disaster. Even more pressure on primary school places in South East London.

Hi SteveT, Dulwich & West Norwood Parliamentary seat has 8 wards and roughly East Dulwich Forum covers one of them with bits of the Camberwell and Peckham parliamentary seat. He has circa 40,000 doors to knock on. And knowing Jonathan he'll be trying to ensure he knocks on them all at least once. Zillions of leaflets to support being designed, printed and delivered - apart from the fund raising to support this. He doesn't have a private office or parliamentary office or parliamentary communications budget to help with this. While you await his coming you could always email him [email protected]

Westminster City Council works to 10 May. Lambeth 24 April. Greenwich 5 May. The deadline for Southwark application was 23 January. Many other authorities had earlier deadlines for applications but correspondingly send out confirmations earlier. For example Croydon sent confirmation letters out 25 March but the deadline for applications was 4 December.

You're correct that several reasons coming together to delay the announcement by five working days. Election resources, purdah and deciding which schools to press the bulge class buttons on. The election resources at the front of my mind having spent several very long meetings talking about the detailed processes related to the elections. If I'd responded tonight then suspect after planned two hour meeting talking about bulge classes this afternoon I'd have related that reason. Some other authorities are releasing information earlier than Southwark. I've not had it confirmed but a reasonable source has told me Lewisham is short of 543 primary school places and will be spreading some reception places across school year classes to cope. Southwark has NO plans to take such drastic actions. Lewisham will be sending their letters out 20 April but they don't appear to be trying to create normal extra reception classes 'bulge classes'. The most important thing Southwark will be doing is ensuring we have all reception kids in reception classes. Having bulge classes and the distraction or purdah and supporting elections means a five working day delay is required.

Road traffic changes taking effect 12 April in East Dulwich ward: Barry Road/Underhill Road - single yellow lines changing to double yellow lines to improve visibility to hopefully resolve the collission problems this junction has had. Elsie Road close to junction with Grove Vale - loading bay so shops can be serviced. North Cross Road on north side with it juncton with Lordship Lane. This junction also pronounced collisions hot spot and hopefull this will help. Village ward changes: Townley Road - changing single to double yellow lines outside Alleyns school. Gilkes Crescent - some waiting restrictions at junction with Gilkes Place. 392 Lordship Lane disabled parking space. College ward changes: Alleyn Park - remove some signle and double yellow lines outside Dulich College Prep School. Any queries please let me know.

Hi Smiler, Responded as requested. I was initially very angry about the delay to Primary school place letters going out. I was angry as I having two young kids I know the wait for a school place is agonising. Also, that political capital will be made. However when the logistics of how impactful the elections are on council officer time I felt no real alternative. Practically many hundreds of officers will be out of action for a number of days receiving training, running polling station and then counting the votes. Hope this makes sense. Please call me if you need anything else.

The delay was decied back in Autumn 2009. I was initially fuming. The explanation is that the officers who would respond to the queires that will result from primary school place announcements are needed to help run the elections. The expectation was that Gordon Brown would plump for local and national elections on the same day Thursday 6 May. So from 7am-10pm over 100 polling stations across Southwark will be open each taking several council officers at any point in time to run each one. Then all the ballot boxes have to be verified and then counted. This will take a number of hours that night for the parliamentary elections and finish sometime after 3am. Then everyone goes home for some sleep and returns to then count local elections ballot boxes throughout Friday 7 May from 11am. I should point out that the all officers involved in the elections process will receive training, briefings and typically be experienced which all involves time during pre election days. With such huge numbers of experienced council officers diverted to running these elections means no resources left to answer queries if primary school places released 29 April. Hence the delay until Monday 10 May. Clearly Southwark Council could employ temps for a period of time to allow 29 April release but what would we cut to cover this avoidable extra expense? Equally, we don;t want inexperienced temps dealing with queries about school places.

Hi sweetgirl, I've sent you PM about this. I know this premise have had repeated enforcement issues. Equally any untaxed vehicles on the public highway can be removed and destroyed. I'll ask the Police and council officers what plans for enforcing this in East dulwich are in place.