former East Dulwich councillor - how can I help?

[first mate]

James, I was not suggesting they turn the bin with the rubbish in it upside down, thereby covering the street in rubbish. Havng emptied it out once my assumption was the OP might do the same again BEFORE turning it upside down or covering it to prevent further use. Dearie me.

[edhistory]

> Hi first mate,

> i'd rather people didn't empty such bins on the road - possibly gets things resolved but what a res and work for > the street cleaners to clear-up. Not good.

?

[worldwiser]

Hi James, do we have a response from the council re. Crawthew Grove? Rubbish is still there...

[KrackersMaracas]

...and growing

[Robert Poste's Child]

Hi James

Quietways work on the junction of Dulwich Village and Calton Ave is due to start in a week's time. According to the works schedule handed out to residents in the area they are scheduled to take an unbelievable six and a half months - assuming they finish on time - with multiway lights and some road closures from early Nov to Christmas. And that appears to be just for this small section of the Quietway.

This seems astonishingly slow. The junction is very busy and aggressive ay peak times and given the concentration of schools, and parents and coaches driving children to them, I fear this will cause massive stress and disruption in this area, as well as to local businesses. Can anything be done to speed it up?

Not sure this is on your patch but Village ward councillors only seem visible at election time.

Thanks.

[apmuso]

Hi James - as you know from previous correspondence, we back on to the site of the new health centre/school behind Melbourne Grove. We are still occasionally disturbed by generator noise in the night, but it's not generally too much of an issue. Last night, however, we were woken up at 4am by noise from the site - either them being robbed or, more likely, taking delivery of some materials. Can you let me know what's going on and get some assurances from the contractor that that will never happen again?

Thanks.

Andy

[James Barber]

Hi Andy,

Sorry to hear this.

Are you sure its the part for the new school or the new super clinic?

Former is the bit closest to the railway line and the latter nearer East Dulwich Grove.

I'm at work taking a quick sandwich - so ideally you'd email me at [email protected] so I get cracking on this on the way home from work.

Hi Robert Poste's Child,

The proposed works do seem incredibly slow. They were also proposed to start before the official governance and decision making process hadn't finished - jumping the gun. I think my lot have stopped that now.

I will ask to see the project plan and be walked through the timescales.

[ianr]

There's been no generator noise on the Hospital site at night for at least a week. That came from the personnel cabin that was in the middle of the whole plot, which was used by a night watchman. Syd Bishop removed it last week, and their last bit of plant was I think removed yesterday. The signs put up now that Kier have taken over speak of security via CCTV monitoring. Kier are working on the school side of the fence. Their own cabin has a generator that backs onto Melbourne Grove, and is substantially louder in my estimation. It's been waking me up when switched on at seven or even earlier, even with window and curtains closed. In the daytime, if there's other random engine noise that it merges with, it's usually no problem. But if on its own it's difficult to ignore. Attached is a small sample, recorded at 7.17 this morning with a mic between the curtain and the window pane. The mic was probably unsuitable, so I've amplified the recording a bit. For comparison, the radio in the background was at lowish listening volume.

I understand that Kier have actually been setting up a communication channel for local residents, that I was going to go through. But as the matter's been raised I might as well add my own twopenn'orth of information here as well.

[Robert Poste's Child]

James Barber Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> Hi Robert Poste's Child,

> The proposed works do seem incredibly slow. They

> were also proposed to start before the official

> governance and decision making process hadn't

> finished - jumping the gun. I think my lot have

> stopped that now.

> I will ask to see the project plan and be walked

> through the timescales.

Thanks very much, James. I really feel for the small businesses at that junction and the infants school, which would effectively have works noise going on outside it all term.

[dulwichrich]

Hi James

Please could you let me know who approved the current road works on Lordship Lane/South circular junction by the grove tavern.

Seemingly it's been approved that extremely noisy and disruptive works can take place all night. The last few nights we have had pneumatic drills and slab cutting machines until 3 or 4am which is quite ridiculous in a very residential area. Especially with no prior warning from the council.

Why do these very noisy works need to take place so late? Previously during the road resurfacing works the noisy works finished at 2300 and after that no heavy machinery could be operated.

Richard

[James Barber]

Hi dulwichrich,

These road works would have been approved by TfL consulting with Southwark Council.

TfL ignore the noise problem for residents and minimise the inconvenience for south circular road users by having the works undertaken at night. Those earlier works involved some Southwakr COuncil works and were as a result more influenced to have some regard to local residents.

Philosphocially do we want as a society to maxmimise traffic regardless of local people - the TfL approach. Or do we consider local people sleep as more important than TfL road users beign delayed udirng the day. The social and economic evidence suggests the latter is better for society but portrayed as part of a 'war on cars'. The car, lorry, petrol/diesel lobbies are extremely well funded and newspaper owners support them.

[Penguin68]

Or do we consider local people sleep as more important than TfL road users beign delayed udirng the day. The social and economic evidence suggests the latter is better for society but portrayed as part of a 'war on cars'.

Actually that isn't true - there is a real economic hit from traffic delays (and an environmental one if delayed traffic is expelling i.e. NO2 fumes as it is delayed) - if the 'social' impact of sleep deprivation - actually more like disturbance - is limited by time (only a few days) its long-term impact, even socially, is limited and it has virtually no short or long-term economic effect. I do consider that disturbing local people's sleep (however annoying it is) for a short period (under a week) - and avoiding exhaust fumes caused by queuing day time traffic - is a price worth paying even locally, and clearly we know (because studies have shown us) that lengthy queuing traffic does have an economic impact as transport costs increase. There are very strong arguments in favour of moving traffic quickly through residential areas (outwith arguments about safe speeds to travel - and I am very happy about the 20mph limits on local residential roads) for both economic and environmental reasons.

[johnhinton]

James, this is a ludicrous and self-serving conspiratorial fantasy: "..part of a 'war on cars'. The car, lorry, petrol/diesel lobbies are extremely well funded and newspaper owners support them." There is no such thing: your claim is just a lame rhetorical appeal when you run out of rational arguments.

All sorts of people need roads: pedestrians, cyclists, freight, tradesmen, public transport and individual motorists; and it is in everyone's interests for any necessary works to be carried out swiftly and efficiently. Not all works seem to be necessary and not all are either undertaken swiftly of efficiently, but that doesn't mean there is a vast conspiracy undermining our democratic freedoms - not when we have a Tory government that was able to co-opt the LibDems to do precisely that.

[James Barber]

Hi johnhinton, P68,

Also a real economic hit when people don't get a proper nights sleep. Most car journeys in London are optional. Not all but most. Sleeping isn't optional.

The works could have been programmed for a Saturday or Sunday day time for example.

[worldwiser]

James, can you advise what the response was from the council about the refuse dumped outside the new Foxton flats? No sooner was it collected then the pile was replaced by 5 or 6 more bags. A few days later that was collected... Surely the point is that the bags shouldn't be left there in the first place? Being a new development, provision should have been made for occupants' refuse and I think local residents should be able to demand that an alternative to the public pavement be found immediately.

[Penguin68]

Also a real economic hit when people don't get a proper nights sleep. Over an extended period, I would agree, but for a few nights only I can find no evidence to support this assertion. It is often the case that those with already disrupted sleep patterns will look to an outside factor to blame. Which doesn't mean that this outside factor is actually to blame. Most studies now suggest that 6-7 hours sleep is more than adequate for adults and possibly less - the old 'eight hours' is now seen as actually deleterious in some cases. If you don't already have sleep problems you will sleep when you are tired. If you do have sleep problems, noise and distractions may appear to exacerbate this, but will not be the primary cause.

[gabys1st]

I still don't know if we are going to be able to get our car close enough to Peckham Rye cafe for me to walk to cafe as I could prior to the alterations. As I pointed out in my original email I can't be the only one to find the distance from the new allocated disabled bays too far to acces the cafe from.

[Sue]

James, please could you tell me who I should contact re emptying a dog poo bin at the end of Ulverscroft Road, which is overflowing.

It isn't exactly encouraging people to pick up after their dog if they can't then put their bag in a bin.

[dulwichrich]

Penguin68

Extremely noisy road works going on until 4am, using tools such as slab cutters and pneumatic drills are not really conducive to getting 6-7 hours sleep... I am not against works during the night. But the works that were completed earlier in the year were far more sensitive to local residents, as the works commenced around 7pm with noisy works stopping at 11pm and less noisy works continued through the night.

[Penguin68]

I was not arguing that such noise is not disruptive to sleep, it clearly is. My argument was that such noise for a short period, i.e. under a week didn't have a serious (or calculable) economic impact, as hypothesised by Mr Barber.

[Sally Eva]

Have you got a link for the East Dulwich Bike Hangars? This is one of the things we get asked about/for the most and it would be good to be able to tell people how to get one

thanks

Sally

[edhistory]

> This is one of the things we get asked about/for the most

Who is "we"?

[first mate]

Sally Eva appears to be involved in the highly proactive group, Southwark Cyclists, and seems to be responsible for their blog page. The group has been actively campaigning for cycle hangars and are trying to encourage all local cyclists to get bike hangars installed on their streets by approaching Southwark 6 at a time. The organisation is touting the line:

The first rule of bike hangars is to tell everyone about bike hangars...or something like that.

Judging by reports from the Community Council on use of devolved funds this is a very influential organisation with our local decision makers.

[rch]

Bingo, firstmate. You've hit the nail on the head.

[mynamehere]

"very influential" what does that mean rch and first mate? As opposed to people killing the planet in heavily subsidised motor vehicles who control all the countries in the world with their industrial demands?

Do either of you cycle btw? If not why are you weighing in