James Barber

hi 2Sheds, IF you email me at james.barber@southwark.gov.uk I'll get copies for you and me to read.

Hi m7post, Business Rates are collected by local councils such as Southwark but all the revenue raised is passed by law to central government. That's why its called the National Non Domestic Rates. Central government then allocates the collected taxation as it sees fit. In the case of Southwark they've decided to ignore its own Office for National statistics that tells them we have many many more residetns than the outdated stats they use. This means they give us a lots less money than the number of residents we have. Eitherway, every day including Sundays a dedicated team are out from 6.30am cleaning Lordship Lane. I'm sorry its grimmier. We need more rain to wash away stains and spills.

Hi fredricketts, You made assertions that local businesses around Somerfield have seen an increase in crime since the flats above were occupied. I've checked with the East Dulwich Police and your assertion is unfounded and that they assure me they speak to shop keepers and businsess regularly and have no recorded or annecdotal evidence to remotely suggest your assertion is true. I'm sorry you've been so misinformed. Regards james

I can assure you I was furious when I found out about this delay and the political point scoring being attempted over this. Before any election a 6 week period called purdah is legally required and all politicians know this. I expect the next round of admissions to go much much more smoothly as we'll be prepared belt and braces and the stats professionals know the modelling needs serious adjusting. So to have this delayed due to purdah to beyond the local and probable national elections is to put it mildly infuriating. Purdah is meant to ensure no party gains a material advantage or disadvantage by making announcements. I've asked if the letters could be sent five weeks earlier just before purdah but apparently this isn't practicable. Very frustrating that the purdah period seems to be much more pronounced these days. If it had been realised sooner perhaps the whole process could have been brought forward but to late this time round. Something to set in motion next year which with increasing numbers of on-line regristrations should be possible to achieve for 2011.

Hi Loz, Transport stats show 92% of journeys made by road transport in billions kms - 6% bus, 84% motor vehicles, 1% motorbikes and 1% cycles. So motor vehicles on distance travelled clearly much more dangerous for pedestrians. If you allowed for time travelling then even more stunningly safer.

Southwarks secondary level schools have agreed common admissions criteria. Cllr Caroline Pidgeon was particualrly successful in achieving this when she was the cllr in charge of education. As toast suggests my concern is with the large catchment areas which means they'd have little impact helping solve 2010 problems.

Came across some fascinating UK facts. 40 pedestrians are killed every year WHILE ON PAVEMENTS by motor vehicles. Over the last 10 years 3 pedestrians have been killed by cyclists. 400 to 3. Whether a reckless motor vehicle driver or reckless cyclist the full force of the law must be excercised. Wierdly people only seem angry with cyclists on pavements even when they are not being reckless.

Hi Eileen, Hope the meeting goes really well tomorrow. The only missing villain from the 'guests' is the Department of Transport who set the strategy for Network Rail to impliment.

Do make sure you have a 'sinking fund' so that over time quite an amount is set aside for expensive items like new roofs. Suddenly getting a bill for ?10,000 each without a 'sinking fund' to cover it is very painful. Saying that councils aren't allowed to have 'sinking funds' for its leaseholders.

Hi Muley, Sorry about no advance notice and explanation about the works. Standard practice for Southwark Council is to deliver a letter telling everyone what is going on and why. No explanation why wasn't produced for these extensive works. I'm not sure if its worse now to deliver such a letter or not?

Hi Sian, I think its great that we have a diversity of school types in Southwark with community, CoE and RC schools for families to choose from. Any negativity I gave is purely about how draconian govt laws tieing local govt hands from quickly doing things. The last piece of legislation Tony Blair passed was that when planning for a new school the local authority must seek others to run it, taking 12 months doing so, and as a last resort if no other bodies come forward run any new school themselves. This means that any new school would be a religious school. The problem with a non community school is that they have their own admissions criteria. Any new school, which would most likely be religious, is unlikely to provide anywhere near the school places local families would expect but would provide greater choice for the large footprint religious schools tend to support. So any new Southwark religious school is likely to increase choice for some Lambeth and Lewisham religious parents as much as some Dulwich religious parents. Even with a new religious school we'll still have most of the same sized problem. It will be extremely hard to find one site. But having to potentially find more than one site as only some of any new schools places would be theologically available to locals leaving the majority of parents who are not religious or of a different religion without new places makes finding a solution involving new schools near impossible.

Hi Gimme, I'm afraid as an East Dulwich councillor I don't hold much if any sway with the CAA. BUT I'm personally a member of HACAN (Heathrow Action Campaign Against Noise). IF the Heathrow flights paths bother you do join. I've encouraged Southwark Council to join the 3M groups of local authorities campaigning against a 3rd runway, night flights and more flights generally at Heathrow. I've been pressing Southwark Council to formally object to London City Airport expansion and that is being worked on. London city airport plan to increase flights form 80,000 pa to 120,000 pa and are already thinking beyond these numbers.

Hi SteveT, ?6.5M is building lots of new space, renovating everything else. That's a lot of renovated space and the pool is a small eliminate of the space involved. Slightly complicated sorting out the listed parts such as the bath rooms. The gym will be temporily moved but the current gym space - the old first class 33m pool hall - will be returned to gym use once it has been fully renovated and new changing rooms installed. We're also finalising the Camberwell centre renovations. They should start once Dulwich centre completed. The remaining Southwark Council leisure/sports centres have plans around modernisation. The majority will be completed by the London Olympics.

Hi RoosterMcLooster, You asked who's signed up. I have and have had an energy audit of my home and gradually implimenting the recommendations. Southwark Council have signed up corporately. Now seeing if we can sign up for 11:11 and go a big step further. Reducing CO2 the first 10% is easy. It then gets harder and harder BUT to avoid climate catastrophe we need to reduce CO" emissions by 80% by 2050. Living in London which will mostly be submerged if sea levels do rise by 11m we all have strong selfish motives to get our acts together.

Apologies for such a long post. Southwark Council is one of 25/33 London Boroughs to purchase pupil number forecasts from the GLA stats dept. They have many many years of developing models to accurately predict these numbers. This year they got it terribly wrong. The annual January report was revised in April, May and June as more and more late applications appeared. I was really taken by surprise and shocked. I've been a councillor for 3 years and previously only had 1 secondary school appeal a year to help with. It?s believed that changes in London?s demographics, combined with the impact of the recession, have led to an extraordinary rise in demand for new reception places. Southwark's rapidly improving results are also believed to be having a strong impact. Appears fewer people are moving to the suburbs and more children are living in flats. For the Dulwich area and Southwark overall 304 and 2,370 applications respectively from Southwark residents on time with further 45 and 556 late applications. For the Dulwich and Southwark 90% had schools offered and accepted within 1mile of home for on time applications. For late applications the percentages fell to 80%. The absurd statutory requirement is to provide school places within 2 miles. Hence the concern govt is unlikely to fund extra school places when 2 miles isn't being breached. Of those who didn?t get a school within 1 mile of home many were from choice - attending religious schools or the same school as siblings. It's believed many of the late applications came from residents who were unsuccessful this year obtaining places in neighbouring boroughs. Lots of efforts behind the scenes to work out is this a blip? how long if a blip? why such a huge jump in late applications? how to prepare for next year? how long would a new school take to build? is it necessary? where would you build one if necessary? government rules would probably result in a religious school and would an Islamic, CoE or Catholic school with seperate admissions policies solve things? These questions if acted upon in series would normally take 7 years before a new school opens due to government rules, funding and procedures. Hence the emphasis on moving from existing 1.5 form entries to 2 form entry schools and finding other existing schools to expand. Equally 2 or 3 entry forms appear optimum for results. One thing is really clear. Goodrich deserve a lot of praise for its help this year with a one off bulge class that will track through. Just the right side to avoid negative results. Thank You Goodrich. A full report by council officers to the executive councillor committee in November will be ready by the end of October. I have been and continue to have frequent and regular meetings, discussions with the cllr Nick Stanton the council leader and lead on education. We will have solutions for next years admissions. Regards james barber Liberal Democrat councillor for East Dulwich james.barber@southwark.gov.uk

Hi Toast, The East Dulwich Harris Boys Academy permanent site is being built on what was formerly the Waverley lower (secondary)school.

Hi SteveT, Paris has more 50m pools than the UK. UK local government doesn't have the money to build or run 50m Olympic sized pools and really not sure we want the new best practice ones where they are minimum of 3m for the entire length. Even to keep the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre the London Developement Agency had to step in to save it. The new East Dulwich pool will have all new filtration, heating, air circulation, changing rooms, dance studios, cafe, gym, etc. Total cost ?6.5M. This is not small beer or half measures. It is a huge investment in a local East Dulwich facility.

Hi fredricketts, The East Dulwich Lib Dem councillors did not and do not know that these flats are a hostel. As for suggesting the management company is placing black plastic bags outside on the pavement how do you know this? What we do know is that historically the planning permission without any proper place for rubbish or recycling was granted by the previous labour councillors for East Dulwich. With no proper space to put rubbish or recycling it has proven exceptionally difficult for officers to resolve this problem. You'll also be aware my colleague cllr Jonathan Mitchell has been perservering with this. What are the next steps. All three East dulwich councillors will be meeting with enforcement officers during the next 4 weeks about this and other East dulwich planning enforcement issues.

Hi fredricketts, The planning permission to convert the premises above the Somerfield on Lordship Lane was granted by the previous Labour councillors for East Dulwich BEFORE 2006 when East Dulwich voted in Lib Dem councillors. I'm amazed you didn't realise this. The planning permission granted appears to have wholly insufficient thought given to rubbish and recycling facilities for the residents of those flats. You will be aware that my colleague cllr Jonathan Mitchell has been persevering with officers and various enforcement actions have been taken. He hasn't finished and we will reach a successful resolution.

What I was hoping to convey was it will take significantly less energy to maintain after the renovation and the air circulation will meet modern standards. So it should'nt feel as stuffy.

Hi EDmummy, The Dulwich Pool on East Dulwich Road is a ?6.5M rebuil/renovation project. The new entrance on Crystal Palace Road and complete rebuilt pool and new studios should be opening late winter/early spring 2010. The pool will be slightly shortened from 27m to 25m so it can hold school swimming events. This will also result in being able to walk around all sides of the pool. The pool roof will also be insulated along with all the other roof spaces, windows etc. So considerable more energy efficient. The gym will then be moved to the new dance studios so the gym hall and building facing East dulwich Road can then be renovated. This will take until January 2011. Hi SteveT, As the main building is listed it can't be demolished and started afresh. Equally, as the Peckham Pool leaked like a sieve and costs ?2M and 2 years to fix it isn't a set of events I'd wish to repeat. The project has been complicated by finding some asbestos buried away in the building which obviously has to removed in a completely safe way. Which it has. It also means the work has to be done very carefully in case further is found. Not something to be rushed.

Primary School Places This summer has seen problems with Primary school places in London as a whole and the Dulwich area. It?s believed that changes in London?s demographics, combined with the impact of the recession, have led to an extraordinary rise in demand for new reception places, leaving many schools with little or no capacity to take on extra pupils. Southwark purchases school population predictions, as do 25/33 London Boroughs, from the Greater London Authority and have done so for a number of years. The models appear suddenly wrong. The figures were revised by the GLA on 7 April, then 18 May and then 17 June. Each time upwards. This is unheard of. But how has this impacted on how things have gone overall as only unhappy families contact local councillors? This was the first year East Dulwich families had reported problems. Frankly, it came as a bit of a shock. For the Dulwich area and Southwark overall 304 and 2,370 applications respectively from Southwark residents on time with further 45 and 556 late applications. For the Dulwich area and Southwark 90% had schools offered and accepted within 1 mile of home for on time applications. For late applications the percentages fell to 80%. Of those who didn?t get a school within 1 mile of home many were from choice - attending religious schools or the same school as siblings. This appears a success but I dont? yet know how many families had their first or second choices. Once we have that information we?ll have a clearer idea how successful things have really been overall. BUT to make this happen in the Dulwich area an emergency extra class has been created at Goodrich. HUGE THANKS to Goodwich School. Lots of efforts behind the scenes to work out is this a blip? how long if a blip? how to prepare for next year? how long would a new school take to build? is it necessary? where would you build one if necessary? government rules would probably result in a religious school and would an Islamic, CoE or Catholic school solve things? These questions if acted upon in series would normally take 7 years before a new school opens due to government rules and procedures. What do you think has caused this blip and is it long lasting? What do you think would solve the problem?

Hi Loz, will ask why this is happening. seems pretty silly from what you've described and creates avoidable work.

Hi huncamunca, The Controlled Drinking Zone was agreed at full council assembly. The local councillors for Peckham Rye ward voted for the CDZ if memory serves me correctly. They din'nt ask for exceptions. However, I would hope that the Peckham Rye Safer Nrighbourhood Team would be more considered. Perhaps something for Peckham Rose to take up at the next Peckham Rye Police ward meeting. So having a picnic in Dulwich Park doesn't run any risk of PCSO's taking a bottle of wine away. As for inconsiderate licensed premises in East Dulwich. I suspect the establishment you're thinking about owns the land this is taking place on. The local MP Tessa Jowell instigated new licensing laws where it has to be proven a license request will cause harm. Reversing the previous burden of proof and making all licences have to be reappleid for has caused reall harm across Southwark and the country. If you email me the specifics I'll see what can be done - potentially seekin a licence review james.barber@southwark.gov.uk

Hi Steady Eddy, GRove Vale crossing. A new zebra crossing will be installed on the Grove Vale exit from Goose Green Roundabout. The other two zebra crossings will be improved to ensure they work even better. The public conulstation for these changes took place earlier this year and involved letters to residents for some distnace around this site. Hope that clarifies things.