legalalien

Northernmonkey - I guess because in order to be able to attribute an increase to the LTN (rather than other factors) you need to have a baseline as close as possible to before the date that the LTN goes in? I had another question about cycle counts. The LTNs move motor traffic from some streets to others; and similarly move cycles from some streets to others ie existing cyclists presumably, where they can, move from busy streets to now quiet streets. So you?d expect some of the increase on eg Calton to be cycles that previously used say Gilkes or EDG (and a corresponding decrease in cycles on those roads depending where the counter is), so presumably discerning whether there?s an overall increase or decrease in cyclists(rather than an increase or decrease on a particular route) would, in circumstances where there are only a small number of counters, be better done by something like a survey of residents rather than a count?

Reading through some of the papers for next Tuesday?s Cabinet meeting, noted this in the revenue monitoring report. ?Since the introduction of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) in some parts of the borough, and based on the financial information available to date, the department is projecting a net additional income of ?3m at this time and this is reflected in table 1. The final net additional income from LTNs will be transferred to an earmarked reserve for reinvestment in locally important schemes including highways, transport, school streets, healthy streets and with the aim of tackling the climate emergency. Recognising the new nature of this income stream, the position will be need to be closely monitored throughout the remainder of the year.? Full report at https://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/documents/s101231/Report%20Revenue%20monitor.pdf Reading the report as a whole it?s definitely the case that the Council is in need of additional income. Interesting read as to where the problem areas are. ETA for anyone interested in the state of council finances the capital report is also interesting. https://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/documents/s101232/Report%20Capital%20Monitor.pdf. There?s a section on transport etc, looks like they have some TfL funding for cycle parking and have a plan for 50 lamp OST chargers. How to fund necessary housing improvements and new homes promised without unsustainable external borrowing looks like the big challenge.

Ironically, I imagine that by withholding the data the Council is increasing the likelihood of court action by One Dulwich and an associated disclosure exercise, which would likely require disclosure of a lot more than just the raw data. first mate Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Is pointing out key data that was promised is > missing really "straining every sinew"?

I think that the more people use the available mechanisms to raise awareness with councillors and council officers the better, whatever they may be. So up to all of us to spread the world about how those mechanisms operate.

A new document has been added to the Southwark website explaining the petition process, see https://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/ecSDDisplay.aspx?NAME=SD1052&ID=1052&sch=doc. Explains what happens based on number of signatories and things you can petition about (for example you can ask for a senior officer to come to a meeting and be held to account, which I didn?t know). Worth a read, for anyone interesting in campaigning on any local issues.

The question is though, whether the reduction in the number of journeys / people using cars is offset or more than offset by the increase in the time and distance of the remaining journeys, plus any increases in deliveries etc where the former car user elects to have something delivered rather than switch to an ?active? journey. And that?s the data we just don?t seem to have. This paper is interesting re lack of data/ studies. https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/OutputFile/7520718

There was a lot of extra traffic northbound on Dulwich Village yesterday (stationary along the stretch between the two traffic lights) so I guess a fair bit of the traffic was diverted that way. Fortunately school holidays so the schools were closed.

Interesting 2019 presentation from the project team at https://www.southwark.gov.uk/assets/attach/11530/alpha-report.pdf. These guys don?t seem to be the problem. What concerns me is that there is a big problem (in Southwark and elsewhere) in tracking this stuff, while councils use developers? potentially unfulfilled promises as firm evidence of achievement of social housing goals.

I think it?s when the occupier has shared ownership with the housing association and they pay to have a bigger percentage, kind of like buying more shares in a company?

As some people will be aware there has been some discussion in various council meetings about the council?s seeming inability to keep track of whether developers are complying with their contracted obligations to provide social and affordable housing, and for how long the housing stays affordable. The council paid a couple of hundred thousand for an IT system to do this several years ago but there?s no sign of a working system Campaign group https://www.35percent.org/ seem to have been digging on this and I?ve just seen an FOI response online that people might be interested in - at https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/information_about_the_monitoring#incoming-1849828 Not the initial response (where the council failed to provide the relevant info), but the one given after a request for review - scroll down to the 6 August response. Here?s a summary by a council officer as at Jan 2020 ?Following our call on Friday afternoon, below is a summary of the situation with the AH monitoring project. 2016 - Southwark made several promises after the Ombudsman found that were had failed to properly monitor AH. 2017 - An audit of 11,999 properties found that it was not possible to link the newly created addresses of properties held by housing associations and the council, with the reference on historic planning applications and legal agreements. 2018 ? Planning department agreed to procure the services of an agency to help design and develop an AH monitoring service. This was delayed for 12 months following the award of contract. 1 2019 - The research outlined why it will never be possible to link existing properties with historic planning records - there is a disconnect between the planning and the physical / build world. Dxw and I designed and developed a service to resolve this issue and handed it over to the council in December 2019. 2021 - This service still has not been used by the planning department. 2016 - 2021 - Five years on, we are still not monitoring AH, as promised. This delay has now been picked up by the 35% campaign, councillors and the housing scrutiny committee. .... Further delay is likely to result in increased interest from the 35% campaign and the media (local news and journals such as Inside Housing), and most likely a second complaint to the ombudsman (we would be in no position to justify the five year delay and I understand that a repeat offence carries a harsher penalty). Last year we won a number awards and good press for this work, to not be using the service that we paid ?230kof public money for would be embarrassing for both the department and council. Additional embarrassment will come from spending further public money, persisting to try and do this in a way that we have proved, categorically, doesn?t work. ? There are subsequent emails regarding potential ways forward, which involve a trade off between inadequate historical data, risk of human error and much more cost, as far as I can tell. What a mess.

So... moving to cars as a service would presumably reduce the number of cars in existence, as each car would be used more each day. Which would free up on road space currently used for parking. But in the absence of improved public transport, would it reduce miles driven, or increase them ( with eg Uber the number of miles increases presumably as the vehicle has to drive to the pick up destination - the journey is no longer a door to door journey, there are extra miles). Similarly in areas with poor public transport does banning private car ownership lead to an increase in reliance on home delivery services? Once consumers become more used to requesting home deliveries, do they start to use them for increasingly local deliveries / to purchase items that they would previously have walked to collect? I have a suspicion that the answer to the latter is yes, given increased availability of deliveries of small grocery items during lockdowns etc.)p - and look how successful deliveroo and just eat are. I am guessing we don?t know the answer to this yet and it?s a question of trying to predict behavioural change?

I?m happy for the council to stop funding other things that most people would consider ?nice to have? rather than necessary at a time when by their own admission things are tight financially. I don?t think expressing a preference for money to be put into food banks and schools rather than spent on relatively high brow concerts in the leafy part of the borough has any ?chip on shoulder? overtones at all. Perhaps your sneering at Daily Mail readers says more about you, together with earlier comments about they type of people who live in Bromley...

Just walked past the ?square?. There are nearly as many people with hi vis jackets (I assume volunteers preventing cycle/ pedestrian collisions) as there are other attendees, and I?m including patrons of au ciel and those heading into the bookshop. Complete and utter waste of council funds at at time when they?re not exactly flush with money.

Yes, seemingly another epic failure to engage with the community. I?d urge people to look at @peckham_green on Twitter to get a feel for what?s going on there. dulwichfolk Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > To their credit they are concreting over some > grass and trees to build some flats. That is in > Peckham though so no white middle class lobby > group complainers for the council to worry about > so happy to carry on regardless.

I think this is the website https://theadventureaunt.com/adventures/ I so wish I?d known about this/ this had been around when my son was younger - looks awesome.

Anyone else received a flyer for ?Harmony on the Square?? See attached. Programme at https://friendsofdulwichsquare.co.uk/ How much is this costing the council - was it ?3k?

Just looking t this month?s forward plan. It?s still showing a decision on the Dulwich experimental measures as due in September 2021. There?s also a new item called ?Determination of Objections? in relation to the measures, described as ? Consider objections made during statutory consultation for Dulwich Streetspace review measures?, due in November 2021. See https://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/mgListPlanItems.aspx?PlanId=674 Not quite sure how the two timeframes fit together. Surely the Council consider the objections before making the decision? It could be a reference to anticipated objections made after/ in response to the September decision? But that?s not how it is worded?

Interesting article in the Argus - Brighton and Hove Council voted to remove a cycle lane which they?ve decided is in the wrong place and central government threatens a funding cut if they do. I get central govt has a role to make sure funding is properly spent, but is it appropriate for it to intervene in local implementation in this way? I?d have thought not. For context the decision to remove seems to be the result of a combination of Labour and Conservative councillors opposing the Green majority. https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/19481796.funding-cycle-lanes-brighton-hove-halted/

Now I have The Goons in my head.

Article about response from environmental groups to Southwark strategy https://www.southwarknews.co.uk/news/environmental-campaigners-tear-into-southwark-councils-long-awaited-climate-strategy/

You're OK driving up Burbage Road from Half Moon Lane and then right at the roundabout onto Gallery. The various closures are directional in nature. You can't drive up Burbage Road in the other direction during the periods of timed closure (8-10 and 3-6 on weekdays).

On the boiler issue I think most people are waiting for a solution to become more ?mass produced? and therefore cheaper/ understand whether hybrid / air source/ heat source is going to be the way forward (like VHS / Beta and CDMA/GSM, it?s good to know what the generally accepted new technology is going to be). It would be good to have a thread on this in the lounge. If I get a chance I?ll try and find some useful sources of info and start one if no one else does.

Even if they don?t have capacity to improve their system they could eg encourage people to make requests through a site like https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/. Although that would then expose delays in responding to requests which is probably not what they?d want! (Just came across an interesting looking Open Democracy report on the state of FoI in the U.K. - https://cdn-prod.opendemocracy.net/media/documents/art-of-darkness-opendemocracy.pdf). Apparently ?stonewalling? by completely failing to reply to requests is on the rise.

Yes, they put them on the website, which makes their life easier as people can check the website before making a new request. https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transparency/freedom-of-information A surprising number of people request sound files of bus and tube announcements.

Sounds like a job for Boris? fluorescent-jacketed chain gangs. In seriousness though I do think it?s a good idea. I?d rather have council money spent on that than on the various banners etc that they put up around the place. ETA I wonder if there?s a way to apply for funding for this kind of thing out of the cleaner/ greener or neighbourhoods fund. Maybe through a small business association or something? The grants are structured so that independent organisations apply for funding rather than asking Southwark to do a task, I wonder if there?s a way around it. Maybe a residents assn, small business group or something set up to deal with local graffiti.