James Barber

Hi bawdy-nan, I think you asked did Southwark meet its legal obligation to ensure sufficient pre school childcare in place. Yes it did. Is their a direct relationship between ensuring sufficient pre school childcare places and schools admissions. No their isn't. The school admissions rates are related to pre school chilcare rates but the variables are numerous between the two and it has been suggested vary wildly in times of turmoil as we've been experiencing. Hope that more succintly answers your points.

Request. Schools are managed by the head teacher and governors working together with the support of Southwark LEA. As a councillor I appoint Southwark LEA Primary school governors at the Dulwich Community Council and as chair of Southwark's Voluntary Appointment Panel appont secondary and special schools governors. We have a shortage of applicants. On Tuesday we filled a governor role left vacant for 12 months. A good governor can really help shape how quickly a school improves. Eaxample. About 18 months ago a school governor was in touch with me about a capital spend they wanted help with. I helped arrange an advance on their capital grant so the works could happen early. But the point is the governor made a huge difference by highlighting the issue. If any parents on this thread or friends or family would like to apply to be a Southwark LEA Governor please do get in touch with me. We need more people putting themselves forward who have a passion for improving schools in our area.

Hi bawdy-nan, Hopefully I can now explain a little more Southwark's duty related to nursery places/chilcare provision and how it undertakes it. Southwark is required to undertake a sufficiency survey every three years to ensure enough childcare places for those wanting them are in place. Southwark undertakes a questionaire survey on a representative sample of residents. Contacting every family would be hugely expensive and duplicating the job of the ten yearly full national census. The survey covers more than simply childcare for under 5s. It also asks questions about aspirations as well as solid intentions of parents for childcare and is a planning tool. Its purpose is not to provide information for school place planning but for managing the childcare market so it is a measure of likely demand for pre school childcare. This is clearly a very different activity from school place predictions. Connected but with potentially huge variables depending on rate of families leaving the area, families entering the area, use of private education, home learning rates, etc. Does this answer your question?

Hi m7post, Its the chewing gum that really annoys me. Agree we need occassional deep clean of grim that litter picking, manual sweeping and rain just doesn't seem to shift. I'll ask a question at full council assembly to get a definitive answer.

Fascinating reading. So Labour DfT said to Tory TfL if you want ELL2 you'll have to find the money. Tory TfL said if we have to make tough decision then please Labour DfT cancel Victoria-Bellingham planned services ameliorating SLL closure. BUT Labour DfT told Network Rail how big and what services it wants at London Bridge which resulted in insufficient spaces for SLL which started the whole mess. "A plague on both your houses"

Hi Jeremy, My understanding is that they are rolling 12 months to that point.

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.