James Barber

Hi Michael Paleaologus, London Bridge Station until mid 1970's had several more platforms. These platforms were removed to make way for a train workers car park and a then new signalling box. That signalling box is now ancient - I had a tour several months ago - it works by relays clunking away. It felt like going back in time. During that visit the Network Rail managers talked about moving that singalling box into the suburbs and modernising all the signalling. This would make is very easy to return those lost platforms. QED plenty of platforms.

Hi ginarog, Cornflower Terrace is in Peckham Rye ward. I'm one of the 3 Lib Dem councillors for East Dulwich ward. I would'nt hazard a guess why your Labour Peckham Rye councillors agreed this at the local community council.

Hi bawdy nan, I'm told Southwark Council provides over 2,000 services and I wont pretend to know the law related to all those. Nor would you expect me to. We have 5,000 council officers to run such services under the policies set by councillors. The primary school places appears, from looking at the London Councils website, a pan London issue. The GLA stats purchased by Southwark and most other London councils were issued in January and subsequently revised upwards 3 times. Unprecedented. No change in nursery school places had occured other than a handful going bust. So that doesn't appear from the information I have, to have indicated a looming Primary School admissions problem. I've posted that 15% extra late applications were received after the January deadline which I believe to also be unprecedented. The extra bulge class provision is significantly less than the number of late applications. Something profound has occurred. The most profound cause I can think of is the recession. The scale of the recession is unprecendented sine the great 1930's depression and became apparent after school classes were agreed in 2008 hence the need for a bulge class. BUT I look forward to hearing more evidence at Monday's OSC meeting.

Hi Orchard, Southwark council OSC report for 12 October meeting

hi Steady Eddy, The East Dulwich Lib Dem councillors have arranged for the East Dulwich Police to have the best speed measuring cameras and automatic portable sign money can buy. They have better kit now than traffic police. But they can;t be everywhere all the time. The public conusltation will ensure the Postal Strikes don't limit full opportunity for feedback. If residents say they don't want traffic calming then fine. we can spend the money elsewhere. From the feedback I've had I'd be amazed but would be delighted if traffic speeding is not an issue. Once this is resolved one way or another we wont have the resources to review things again for some years. So determined we get it right.

Hi kford, I'm afraid I agree and disagree with you. You're right to highlight other causes of collisions including being distracted mobile phones, drink, etc. But the consequences of a collission at 20mph vs. 30mph are chalk and cheese. 20mph the victim almost always survives, 30mph they nearly always die. Hi chrism, Glad your road feels much safer. As a cyclists have you tried cycling over the sinusoidal humps - think that gap you've requested might not be required.

Latest East Dulwich crime stats taken from the mets Police stats show that in the last year August to August the crime rate has dropped such that East Dulwich has moved from 4th lowest crime rate in Southwark to having the lowest crime rate in Southwark. This is despite having 1/4 of Peckham Rye, 1/8 of Village and 1/8 of College wards most problematic areas counted against East Dulwich ward. So the real underlying story is even better than this. It?s so improved that the East Dulwich Safer Neighbourhood Team have been straying outside East Dulwich ward to help out in Dulwich Park - which has seen a resulting 37% decrease in robberies. When I became a councillor this was one of my personal ojectives - for East Dulwich to have the lowest crime rate in Southwark. We started our campaign to become East Dulwich councillors with a Crime Survey. the survey results helped us decide to target a lot of the resources we as councillors allocate. We?ve still more work to do. I want East Dulwich to be better compared to London as a whole. We?re currently just outside the best quarter for London. How can we improve it further?

Hi kford, Loz, Sinusoidal humps are rounded so much less aggressive than the older type which are angular and even painful for people driving at or below 20mph. So I believe the vertebrae wont suffer with the sinusoidal humps we now install. As they cross the whole road width if drivers are determined to speed despite the humps they'll quickly wreck their vehicles. Their choice. Humps are not magic, but they are near impossible to ignore. The alternative is to ignore the problem, the associated dangers non residents of a street are causing, and the residents call for action on this road and others. For a contrast between sinusoidal and traditional humps travel down Camberwell Grove. Starts with a sinusoidal, them 2 or 3 traditoonal humps and then a sinusoidal before the lights at McNeil Street.

One of the Cleaner, Greener Schemes we've funded is for free electricity smart meters and advice for 100 East Dulwich homes. So far 60 have been taken up leaving another 40 to go. If you'd like to participate please call GLEEN and HelpCo on 0845 450 3374

You might want to try a Mobile Phone Booster which will help with any operator. Your neighbours would love you.

Speed humps cost ?1,400 on average and cover the whole road width. The variability being road width.No proposals for speed cushions that have gaps allowing larger vehciels to straddle the cushions and ignore them. I've provided mean average speed, 85th percentile and mean averaged vehicle volumes per day on this forum. The speeds of the non 85th percentile can be very high. I don't have that data for the recent speed counts but has included 99mph (only measures upto that) along Barry Road for past counts. Reference London ambulance 'campaign'. I don't believe any measures are implimented in Southwark without the agreement of the emergency services. Irony is reducing speeds reduces the number of emergency call outs for the emergency services. Final point. No one every admits to speeding. But from the data we know that every day around 250 vehicles speed down Matham Grove. Why should those residents have to suffer this anti social behaviour? Roughly 2 x sinusoidal speed humps would solve this Matham Grove speeding for cost of ?2,800. This would seem a reasonable price to stop ninety thousand speeding incidents a year. Seems like cheap policing to me. But importantly the residents of Matham Grove would choose whether they want this or not.

Hi northernmoney, If you haven't received the consultation yet then either you're not on the electoral roll or it has yet arrived and is imminent. You will have opportunity to give clear feedback. Once this zone is finalised it wont be reviewed for several years.

Hi Bawdy nan, I don't believe Southwark has a statutory duty to provide universal nursery provision for all 3 & 4 year olds. Vast majority of nursery and childminding places are provided privately. Over the period in question a number have gone into administration and some failed. So no clear correlation that nursery provision had increased giving clues that primary school application would increase and so many would be made so late. Talking to two local estate agents. They say people can't buy which means they are not selling and moving out of the area. This is good news for stability in the area. But I think we've seen the implications of this in sudden step increase in primary school demand. Will it continue once the housing market starts moving again?

Melbourne Grove between Grove Vale and East Dulwich Grove.

Hi fredricketts, If the Police categorically on the record tell me no increae in crime around Somerfield and they are in regular contact with those shops then I believe them. You know we've been trying to deal with the rubbish that has been illegally left outside the flats entrance. Living in a democracy limits how fast we can deal with these issues. My colleague Cllr Jonathan Mitchell is leading on behalf of the three East Dulwich cllrs and I know you are both in regular communication.

Hi intexasatthe moment, I was distinctly under the impression I related. I'm asking for a full explanation before make further comments. Apologies it taking a little while to pin this down.

Hi Sue K, The type of phyiscal obstacle you refer to are 'speed cushions'. The proposals for East Dulwich roads included in the 'North Dulwich 20mph zone' are Melbourne, Derwent and Elsie and proposals are for 'sinusiodal humps' that go across the whole road width.

After January many more applications came in - late applications. For the Dulwich area 304 applications made on time and another 45 late applications. So no, Southwark Council could not forecast an extra 15% late applications would arrive after January. I genuinely believe that what we've witnessed has been completely against any trend, or predictable pattern based on the previous 50 years admissions.

Hi Gimme, Attached is the number of vehicles counted against mean average speed and 85th percentile speed. Matham Grove wins most cars but not highest speeds. to me it says Matham Grove is part of a cluster of people turning right from East Dulwich Grove along with Chesterfield and Ashbourne. Another of very high speeds around Landells Road. I'll be talking to officers about recommendations to improve the situation.

Southwark Council now only puts sinusiodal speed humps in. I'm not aware of insurance claims against the council due to speed humps.

As one of the three East Dulwich ward councillors I can explain why we leaflet. Elections are the tip of the iceberg. Election time is typically 6 weeks which leaves another 198 weeks between local elections. The leaflets are to tell people what we've done and seek views of where we should consider putting our next efforts. Its great when people offer to help but mostly its a way of staying in touch. The painful part. Even though we'll have delivered around 40-50 Focus newsletters from when elected to standing again we'll be asked where have we been as they 'have'nt heard from you for four years'.

Hi everyman, education is too important for it NOT to be political. Lib Dem policy based on various research reports is that all children upto and including 7 years old should be taught in classes of 20 or less. Labour has made achievements reducing such classes to 30 or less from the time they took over from the Tories. Pushing 20 or less class sizes is political.

Hi alfie, Purdah applies to all elections - even by elections. Can cause real catch 22. By-elections are great for Lib Dems making gains but when you're running things such as Southwark Council everything grinds to a halt during purdah. With fixed terms purday from by-elections really eats into the time avialable to make changes to improve things. The purday rules are interpreted locally by monitoring officers. Who have a statutory role effectively to ensure fair play. With over 600 counils each with seperate monotiroing officers surprising amount of variability how the purday laws.rules are implimented. If you google Purdah you don't find one definitive set of rules.

please pleasep please report such incidents to the Police. Going on a forum and not reporting it is frankly irresponsible.

Hi dogkennel, 1970's signal box was built at London Bridge station blocking the lines to platforms 17-20 which were removed. That signal box is moving to the suburbs. Rebuilding those terminating platforms under the existing train shed is the obvious solution. It would in money terms be very cheap to build as foundations, alignments etc must all be their or possible. That's what should be done. Take a look via google earth at London Bridge station, also see old station plans at the Local History library.