James Barber

Hi intexasthe moment, In various posts I have responded about the costs of Southwark Life and our requirements to produce such a magazine. I've posted the documents stating how roads are assessed, the costs, what proportion is spent on roads and lighting. It was then suggested I'd been 'slippery' and Steveo wanted more information. You added that you wanted more information which I thought I'd provided. What is the issue you want persued? Is it related to Cort Lane?

Hi intexasatthe moment, Southwark needs new secondary level schools. Each school, apart from land costs, costs around ?30M to build. Southwark doesn't have the ?90-?120M as spare cash to build these schools. UIt can be rejigging various bits of land find space for the necessary news schools. The only way central government pays for new secondary school building is if you allow them to be Academies. So could the local Lib Dem led administration have dug its heels in and said no we don't wont locally unaccountable academies and are happy for Southwark kids to travel far and wide for find school places. No, we bit our tongues to ensure the best for our Southwark kids in these central government led circumstances. Back to admissions criteria. In 2002 every school you applied to requried a differnt application form at secondary level. These wer unified under Carolines direction. We paid for one test that all schools used the results of. Am I personally happy that Harris Academies have since opted out of that, of course not. Can we make Harris Academies join in no. But hopefully they eventually be persuaded.

Hi ryedalema, I'm sorry about the overgritting you experienced. I haven't recently checked but suspect the salt/grit short rationing is over with little further propspect of snow in the SE..... However, the weekend was bitterly cold - especially yesterday. Even spotted icy puddles. It was a lovely sunny but bitterly cold weekend.

With elections coming Thursday 6 May I'm pounding the East Dulwich streets more than usual. They seemed clearer this and last weekend that before.

Hi elliescott, Speed humps and bumps are not likely due to Barry Road serving a number of bus routes. I'll try and check what house number this sign is outside and report this malfunctioned active speed sign so it can be fixed. Agree some vehicles drive at excessive speeds. Have you noticed any particular time of day this occurs?

Hi Steveo, I'm sorry you feel I'm being 'slippery'. I'm trying to answer your queries without becoming the councillor solely for Steveo. Hi intexatthe moment, With regards to secondary school admissions policy. I did take to long to answer and I hope I apologised at the time for that delay. It didn't feel like an urgent piece of casework compared to others. I had thought I'd answered your queries about this and corrected my original response. If you wish me to respond further then please PM me. Road renewals. Residents in community council areas were asked via the community council take note newsletters, letters/emails sent to all community council attendees and also posters to various community groups across Southwark. Southwark website I'm assured also referenced it. I don't have back copies of Southwark Life to check if that reported this consultation and I'm not clear any public value of asking council officers to check. And yes this is a small subset of all residents but reaching all residents would have been dispraportionality expensive compared to the funds being allocated. If anyone is keen to receive such documents for the Dulwich Community Council area, which includes East Dulwich, then email the committee secretary [email protected]

I travel to Birmingham 2-4 times a month. I've found the most relaxing way to do this is bus or walking to by Denmark Hill then train to St.Pancras. Then walk 5mins to Euston. Then train from Euston to Birmingham. I've generally found the cheapest way is to buy seperate train tickets and really get a cheap deal from Virgin TRains for the Euston to Birmingham part.

Report this scary incident to the Police.

Hi sophiesofa, Francis Park is in South Camberwell ward. It was provided by Sainsburys are part of the Section 106 agreement - Sainsuburys are supposed to maintain it and I believe that includes locking it at night. South Camberwell councillors are - Green Party Jenny Jones, Labour Party Peter John and Veronica Ward. However, I'm interested as many East Dulwich residents access Sainsburys via this pocket park. Hence my involvement in the direct path replacing the muddy track - admitedly too narrow.

Hi Steveo, The report describes the british standards that all our roads and lighting are measured against before prioritising them. The fact that all our roads are assessed using a british standard method of assessment I find reassuring. Clearly that standard doesn't always correspond to how a road superficially looks to you or me. Hi Jeremy, The principles are Southwark wide. But agree not sure how much value trying to get beyond such a report will yield.

Hi Ant, I've asked officers to see the complete list of all the 19km of principal and 329km of non principal road condition reports. We can then see where Landells, Pellatt, Landcroft, etc are relative to all other Southwark Roads.

Nothing Freudian just terrible spelling and a word I've rarely if ever type before. Thanks for teaching me something clearly. Perhaps it was freudian slip. I remember one gang. told to follow the road line. They interpreted this as follow a straight line, incentivised by being paid by the metre. I don't remember the details other than it taking some time to correct and sort out. Not much navigating went on with that particualr gang. Anyway, thanks for correcting me.

Please see attached report.

I'll try and get a copy of the officers report that highlighted what should be done and post it here.

Crystal Palace Road resurfacing will start in urnest Monday 22 March for two weeks. It will be completed in fours phases: 1. East Dulwich Road - Upland Road 2. Upland Road - Underhill Road 3. Underhill Road - Goodrich Road 4. Goodrich Road - Lordship Lane The works will take place during the hours of 8am-5pm Mon-Fri. Any problems or concerns please contact me.

Apparently, the works to realign the kerb line and traffic island and changes to loading bay and motorbike parking will start from today. So presume those trenches to get electrics to where the new realigned islands will be. Normally any road surfaces get fully fixed after such works completed.

What a cynical bunch! A whole host of reasons why 'knocking off' might be appropriate. Perhaps the day went really well and they reached the limits of homes that had been warned? Perhaps some material deliveries were delayed? Perhaps some machinery went faulty? Perhaps another job needed extra help? Perhaps they had an accident? This type of work must be phyiscally hard. I was once seconded to help manage teams of knavies for a week. Amazing insight into London. It is really hard physical work. Southwark doesn't pay for these teams by the hour. They pay by results.

Hi simonl, Tell me where and I'll ask enforcement officers to visit.

The ward based Police Safer Neighbourhood Teams are not 24/7. They work shifts to be around Policing proactively. They try and find patterns and change things to reduce crime. So these team don't often work beyond 11pm. The fast reaction type Police or 999 Police are around 24/7. Yesterday I was reading licensing report that ncluded a full Police report on their fast responses. For East Dulwich 84 fast responses in last 6 months. This is the loewest number for any part of Southwark. If anyone's interested I'll dig out the link.

I feel the need to clarify how roads are chosen for renewal. Council officers obtain surveys of all roads and how well they're wearing. How a road superficially looks apparently is not a good indicator of its sub surface condition - or foundations as I think of them. The roads are then prioritised taking into account usage, indicating when they'll could fully fail, complaints, claims, etc. Officers then recommend the priority for spend. This year each of Southwark's community councils was awarded ?100,000 to spend on road renewals. That equates to roughly ?33,333 for each ward. Residents in each community council area were asked to comment on roads that needed renewing. So the vast bulk, ?3.2M, is spent in order based on technical advice from officers. This coming financial year I'm hopeful that Lordship Lanes turn in the centre where the shops are will be renewed and await officers technical reports about this.

I think the nearest sinusoidal humps are on Camberwell Grove. From the south, 1 angular humps then 3 sinusoidal humps then angular humps then the funny single lane bridge thing. Try them some time. On a bicycle you REALLY can tell the difference. In a car you can quite tell the difference.

Court Lane is in Village ward but I thought it would be useful to tell East Dulwich residents as any journeys planned along Court Lane will be disrupted. I believe with the junction improvements of Court Lane with Eynella and in the village end means this road will have to have some resurfacing. All works were planned at the start of the financial year ie 11 months ago.

Court Lane footway renewals have been completed. Starting Tuesday 9 March and finishing 19 March the road will be resurfaced by Conways. Works will take place between 8am-4pm Mon-fir and 8am-1pm Sats. Any problems during the works please let the contractors rep. Matt Hoel know on 020 8636 8822 or Southwark officer Alwyn Samuel [email protected].

Fire in some Bermondsey railway arches. 10 fire engines and 50 firefighters at the scene for some hours. All trains into London Bridge dramatically affected.

My understanding is that School Keep Clear markings have two main purposes. To ensure clear line of sight for parents and chilren crossing roads. To also ensure that if a fire ever happens Fire Appliances have reserved places to park up and operate from. Any conscious parking in these designated areas during term time places children at risk. To park where you know many many mnay children will be crossing roads and their safety placed at risk is supremely selfish. BUT with respect to the Goodrich School drop offs on the mini rounabout. I suspect many parents have just been caught unawares by the Dunstans Road renewals and knee jerk dropped their kids off. I'm hopeful that most have'nt consciously been thoughtless about it but probably caught be surprise and with uncertainty humans don't always think clearly about the big picture.