The newly landscaped Dulwich Square

[Kathleen Olander]

1 hour ago, march46 said:

The hyper-focus on one tiny part of Dulwich seems to have become an obsession for some people.

The hyper-focus of Southwark Council on one tiny part of Dulwich seems to have become an obsession.

[exdulwicher]

1 hour ago, Penguin68 said:

Well, anyone interested in how Southwark is spending its limited resources, for instance - when pot holes in our roads still abound.

So according to you, Southwark Council have limited resources all being spent on Dulwich Square; meanwhile on the gas works thread, Rockets is complaining that Southwark Council have so much surplus that they have to rush out and spend it all in March.

Is it too much to ask for some sort of consistent narrative around all this?

Schrodinger clearly worked at Southwark Council where they simultaneously have so much money they can do "non-essential" work but not enough money to fill a pothole.

[first mate]

I always thought the 'council March' big spend was to ensure every last scrap of available ring-fenced money is spent, to avoid it being cut for the next budget round. Is there not some truth in this?

My own take is that councils do not have much to play with or to make an impact that separates them much from another party ( it remains to be seen what Reform get up to) so they have to spend what they do have on 'eyecatching' 'upbeat' and (groan) 'vibrant' agendas like digging up pavements and landscaping them. 

Mending potholes in the road is not 'sexy' or 'eyecatching' but, as a cyclist, I think it might save a fair few from some nasty tumbles and injury. 

 

[exdulwicher]

13 minutes ago, first mate said:

I always thought the 'council March' big spend was to ensure every last scrap of available ring-fenced money is spent, to avoid it being cut for the next budget round. Is there not some truth in this?

No, it's a popular myth though.

Doing roadworks over winter is quite challenging, the (usually) wet / cold conditions mean that tarmac doesn't set properly. Fine if you have to do emergency stuff (although you usually need to come back and re-do it later) but winter is also the time that roads degrade the most. Freeze / thaw cycles, salt and grit etc mean there's always a load of remedial work to be done as soon as it's drier and marginally warmer.

Hence a load more roadworks appear in March and everyone predictably goes "ooh, they're using the last of the budget..."  🙄
And because so many people have heard it so often, it's the one "fact" they remember. Much like how everyone knows that a swan can break your arm yet no-one actually suffers from swan-induced arm breaks.

Funding comes from a number of sources, it's not always ring-fenced or time-constrained, there's no one pot which must be spent by 31st March. 

[first mate]

The only thing is, pavement widening does not involve tarmac, other than digging it up, does it? 

[Rockets]

I think the issue is that Dulwich Square has probably had more council money spent on it than any other equivalent sized-area in the borough - the £ per square foot of tax-payer's money buried within it must be astronomical so people do have a keen interested in what happens there. There clearly will be disruption caused by the building of the new house in the garden so let's see and hope that it is kept to a minimum - the council has a lot of ROI to generate from that space.... 😉

[exdulwicher]

2 hours ago, first mate said:

The only thing is, pavement widening does not involve tarmac, other than digging it up, does it? 

Well it does, you need to dig the road up to widen the pavement...

It's not just the tarmac setting though, there's a host of related issues. More chance of bad weather delaying the work (which means it lasts longer, costs more and causes more disruption and we all know how much Rockets hates disruption...). Shorter working days because of less daylight so either you bring in lights and generators or the work just takes more days, either of which means more cost, more disruption.

If you have to do it then fair enough - emergency stuff will always need fixing there and then - but if you can avoid it then it makes sense to do it when it needs less resource and less chance of bad weather causing delays. 

Added to which, as I said, tarmac doesn't set / cure as well when it's cold and wet.

[Rockets]

So Ex- by your reckoning the sweet spot for works is June and July then? One wonders then why so much of the non-essential works always seems to happen at the same time in March....

When did the Dulwich Square works commence......they finished in November/December didn't they?

Ahem.....

[exdulwicher]

22 minutes ago, Rockets said:

So Ex- by your reckoning the sweet spot for works is June and July then?

That's right Rockets "it's a bit less desirable / more difficult doing roadworks in December" absolutely translates to "thou shalt only do roadworks in June".

🙄

[malumbu]

On 08/05/2025 at 16:20, Rockets said:

Malumbu......err sorry - it was a legitimate question. You use the Square don't you - surely there will be disruption - the entrance to the building works will be beyond the threshold of the road narrowing and very close to the cycle parking?

Not sure how you have managed to take that and link it to Reform - I can't imagine even they would run on a ticket based on the outrage caused by the building of an additional house in the garden of a house adjacent to Dulwich Square 😉 

Apparently the application was rejected once and some of the neighbours are not at all happy about it.

My post was clear.  You are talking about "supporters" and labelling a group of people.  I expect like me that there are many, if not most, who are happy/accepted the square.  But I wouldn't label us as supporters as it comes across as we are activists.  You have done this elsewhere by the assumption that most cyclists are the 'cyclist lobby'.  

Just go the whole hog and call us all wokes.  That is what is happening across the world with popularist politicians taking about the 'war on wokes'.

Edited May 9 by malumbu

[first mate]

@Malumbu

You put words into another poster's mouth and use that to accuse them of the 'crime' of labelling,  then you conflate this alleged 'crime' with the behaviour of "populist politicians", all in all making another of your inferences ( about another poster's political leanings.

Can I just point out that you are also labelling...big time. You preach peace, love and harmony but what you actually do comes over as rather divisive and underhand. 

3 hours ago, exdulwicher said:

5 hours ago, first mate said:

The only thing is, pavement widening does not involve tarmac, other than digging it up, does it? 

Well it does, you need to dig the road up to widen the pavement...

Yes, I think I established that...