James Barber

@If you live in East Dulwich we have a 1,000. If you live in another ward - you'll have to be very ery very patient or buy one yourself from SelectaDNA.

You were very very lucky. Southwark Police have a few Smartwater property marking kits every year. Roughly 100 per ward. This works out about 1.5% of Southwark homes per year. But chrun rate of Southwark residents a year in place like East Dulwich is 14% and more in other parts of Southwark. Residents are dramaticially more likely to be burgled within the first six months of moving. Unfortunately the Police very limited stock of Smartwater means they can't even keep up with population churn. To make a real difference property marking kits need to be done in numbers and targetted at where burglaries have occurred and radius to innoculate neighbours from repeat burglaries and offered universally to those that will install it.

Hi tommy, Adys Road forms the borders between two other wards - South Camberwell and The Lane. Every year Southwark spends around ?5M on road, pavement and street lighting repairs and upgrades. Roughly half of that spend is now decided locally by local councillors. So every year each ward has ?33,333 for road and pavement repairs beyond pot hole filling, each ward also has roughly ?25,000 for street lighting. For Adys Road you should contact South Camberwell and The Lane councillors and ask them to use some of the ?66,667 that between them they have to spend each financial year.

Via Simon Hughes MP office I've had Channel4 contact me about this issue. I've pointed their researcher to this forum. So you might get a PM from him at some point.

I've had a reply from Royal Mail. It makes you wonder why it took so long for this reply. But at least I have a reply. Mr Sxxxx you know who you are. It now appears clear that unless Royal Mail get sufficient compliants about East Dulwich that it wont stick out as having a problem that needs fixing. I suspect more problems have been highlighted and shared on this forum than with the Royal Mail. If, on this thread we all followed a rule of complaining to Royal Mail stating our complaint reference number with each post Royal Mail would soon recognise the blip on their radar and do something. Anyway, the reply: REF 1-1283752414 Dear Councillor Barber Thank you for your email to Mxxxxxx Mxxxx about problems local residents have reported with their delivery service. As you are aware I have been asked to investigate and respond directly to you. First of all I would like to offer my sincere apologies for the concern Mr XXXXX and the other residents have been caused. We aim to provide an efficient and reliable service to all of our customers and take any failures very seriously indeed. For further information I contacted the Management Team at East Dulwich Delivery Office. They have confirmed that there is a regular delivery officer on the round that covers Mr XXXXX's address and on his day off it is covered by a number of reserve officers. There have been no reported problems with deliveries and all mail received in the office is taken out each day. As a precaution a mail monitor has been implemented on Mr XXXXX's address until the end of the month, this should highlight anyissues and give us the opportunity to take any necessary action. With regard to the losses and delays mentioned by Mr XXXXX, perhaps I could explain that due to the volumes of mail we handle every day, we cannot always explain what has gone wrong when a problem occurs. Whilst we keep records of vehicle breakdowns or problems with sorting machinery which might contribute to a delay, the large volume of mail we handle means we are unable to track individual items of mail as they travel through the postal system. In the absence of any major disruption to the service, it is sometimes difficult to explain why a delay or a loss has occurred. Nevertheless, we do endeavour to provide an acceptable level of service to all of our customers and I am sorry that we have let Mr XXXXX down. If he or any of the other residents experiences any further problems please ask them to contact our Customer Services on 08457 740 740 or via our website at www.royalmail.com where they will be able to register the details and enquiries can be made. In the case of delayed mail retaining the outer packaging or envelope can also help with our enquiries. In closing, I would be grateful if you could once again extend my apologies to Mr XXXXX and the other residents for the problems they have experienced. We are certainly not complacent and I would like to stress that the safe delivery of the mail is of paramount important to us. If I can be of any further help in this or any other matter do not hesitate to come back to me. Yours sincerely Assistant to Board Members

Hi trentk69, You got it in one.

East Dulwich Police Safer Neighbouhood Team offer SelectADNA property marking kits paid for by Crime Prevention Fund organised by me. This cover East Dulwich ward. Melford Road is in College ward. College ward councillors have'nt organised such funding. I applied to Cleaner, Greener, Safer funding for them to operate similar scheme. They declined. They rightly have their own priorities for the ward they represent.

Tonight is surgery night. If you're around East Dulwich and have any issues you think I can help with feel free to pop along to the East Dulwich Community Centre on Darrell Road between 7pm and 8pm. Whatever it is I'll try to help.

Hi EDdownunder, Tell me where you live via PM and I'll get it chased for you.

Hi nutty, Southwark has kept rubbish and recycling collections going throughout the weather - they're slower than usual so not sticking to normal timetables but they are happening. However, garden rubbish and large item booked collections have been stopped and the people diverted to helped with normal rubbish and recyclnig collections. Tell me your address and I'l ask what's gone wrong for you.

With sub zero temperatures I don't believe concrete sets. Every at just above zero temperatures concrete setting must be slow. This must be severely limiting the speed of reinstatement and cause much of the delays - unless a road works conrete setting expert on the Forum can advise otherwise?

Hi nutty, Where do you live. All normal rubbish and recyclnig collections are meant to be proceeding. The only collections not proceeding are brown bins (garden waste) ones and bulk refuse collections - the staff have been diverted to help with regular rubbish and recycling collections which are taking longer than normal. Tell me your address and I'll ensure they get to you asap - and empty the brown bin that you've used for regular rubbish.

Most road works will have stopped with the snow, then xmas, then new year and then more snow. But yes some modicum urgency would be helpful. I'll chase.

Hi Bob S, Southwark accounts are on public record and this will be in their somewhere. I'm afraid I wont be hunting it down for you though. If you email your email address I'll put you in touch with the case officer.

This is gas works to solve leaking gas into electricity ducts. Electricity and gas don't mix safely. Until southern Gas fixes all the leaks they'll keep digging. As for Boris's piggy backing onto London Councils law changes. He has no shame. Southwark has not joined the first tranche of 16/33 London councils with this new power. Would we really want ot financially incentivise a gas company to not fix gas leaks? Do we really wantto financially incentivise water companies to not fix leaks but instead impose water restrictions in summertime that cost it nothing?

Hi Bob S, Any costs would be attached to the LAnd Registration. I would expect they would be deducted from the CPO purchase price. So no, I would not expect the tax payer to foot those bills. Importantly, this is all close to finishing which will mean officers can concentrate on other issues.

I passionately care about our library service. One of the first things I did when elected councillor was meet the head of libraries at our local libraries - Grove Vale and Dulwich Library - for a full tour. After much badgering Dulwich Library was opened for a 7th day each week and is now a seven days a week service. It was great that library staff in conjunction with their union agreed staffing roster changes making this possible. This has seen a doubling in weekly baby and toddler group attendance from 125 Dec?08 to 268 Dec?09 despite the snow. Weekly films clubs. Hopefully, we?ll have some adult learning soon rather than asking East Dulwich residents to trudge over to Peckham. I?ve asked on many occasions whether a similar change for Grove Vale could be made. What days would you find it most helpful IF Grove Vale library could be open more? I?m hopeful that early in the next Financial Year something may be possible? With an expanding population we need to grow our libraries. Opening for more hours helps but physically making more space for users. I?ve proposed a modest, very cheap, increase to Dulwich Library. Fingers crossed this rearranging will come to pass

Hi Jeremy, Latest news on the Concrete House at 549 Lordship Lane. Last Thursday I sat on the Dulwioch Community Council Planning Committee to hear two planning application for this site - one for the chanes one related to change and its listed status - effectively the same thing. After a relatively swift meeting the changes were approved. This means the CPO with southwark buying the property BUT with a company recommended by English Heritage that now has planning permission to immediately buy it from Southwakr Council. So council tax payers are exposed for the smallest amount of time to this big capital outlay while the property will be amazingly sympatheticially restored into 5 flats. Goods news all round and an excellent application.

Hi Bob, I received an email on on Friday from the Assistant to Board Members. She tells me she'll be in touch after she's investigated East Dulwioch postal problems. Perhaps they prefer letters to email!

Hi dogcat, I'm sorry. As per other posts Southwark's salt replenihsment contract was ripped up by central government last Thursday which means effectively salt/grit supplies nationalised and Southwark has had to ration how and when we use salt/grit. We normally use 150-200 tonnes a day. We've cut back to 100 tonnes per day to keep main routes clear.

Hi Jaws, Unsurprisingly I don't have an emails from 'Jaws'. Could you ping me again an email so I can cross refer your regular email address and work out what I did with your original - please.

Hi Reg Smeeton, Head Teachers decide whether to open or close a school. School Governors hold heads to account and stretegically guide a head. I have found it surprising that nearly all businesses, shops, GP's, clinics, transport have been running but that quite so many schools were closed last week. It has been argued that many teachers live some distance away. Many people from such locations have travelled to non school work. Perplexing. Eitherway, today of the state schools in Southwark 2/3 Childrens' centres open - the one closed boiler has broken and has no heat. Seems reasonable. 63/64 Primary schools open. 13/14 Secondary Schools open 3/3 pupil referral units open So 83/86 open.

Hi Joel_mole, Probably a good idea to tell the South Camberwell ward Safer Neighbourhood Team about every indicent as they cover your road. They're not 24/7 but they will work is crime and anti social behaviour reduction and look for patterns etc. They'd probably benefit from any numbers plate information. Contact details for them are. 020 8721 2448 [email protected]

Hi Sue, East Dulwich Grove outside Dulwich Hospital has been kept clear of snow and ice but not all the way to Lordship Lane. Yesterday and today around 9am I walked along it. With the government cancelling the salt replinishment contract Southwark has and effectively nationalising salt suppliers the salt stocks Southwark has can't be used to clear East Dulwich Grove pavement from Melbourne grove to Lordship Lane. We would normally. Extremely frustrating.

Understand all the UK excuses but the Dockland Light Railway was extended by 2.5km at a cost of ?180M and it required much larger bore tunnelling. Almost a factor cheaper than the Jubilee line extension.Temperatre doesn't vary much 50m under ground. Tunnelling machines are an international commodity. They don't have TfL or Network Rail. The French also can build things much quicker. Their approach for compulsory purchase is to pay 125% of the genuine market value. People positively welcome schemes rather fighting blight and being ripped off. Spanish and French seem to understand the social and political requirements of building infrastructure. UK High Speed 2. Talk about it taking 20-40 years. Spain in the last 10 years decided to do it and have nearly finished 1,800km. Matter of national vision and will.