former East Dulwich councillor - how can I help?

[bawdy-nan]

A chance for big society in action, James? Disregard the council and put up our own signs? I'd like to see more of the stencils on the pavement myself.

[James Barber]

When will the Dulwich Leisure centre renovations finally finish. The last revised date I had was March. Its now 30 May handing the building over from the builders to the council and fusion and then within a fortnight it will reopen fully.

So before 13 June.

Hi bawdy-nan,

I wouldn't want to encourage anyone to stick stickers onto lamp posts unless approved by the council who can take into account the painting regime of the lamp posts and what damage the stickers might do.

But I wont pretend it isn't tempting.

[James Barber]

Royal Wedding

The deadline for applying to Southwark Council events teams ([email protected]) 020 7525 3422 to close a Southwark street as part of a Royal Wedding street party on 29 April is 17 March.

Any problems let me know and I'll try and help.

Gallery Road

The council will close Gallery Road starting 7 March for two weeks. Amazingly this isn't taking place during school holidays.

Lordship Lane 21 March - 3 July Gas works.

The section between Friern Road and Melford Road will have the bus lane closed to allow more gas works. The section of Friern Road between Lordship Lane and Etherow will be one way anti clockwise. Overhill Road at its junction with Lordship Lane will be closed. They will finish one day.

[Loz]

James Barber Wrote:

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

>

> Gallery Road

> The council will close Gallery Road starting 7

> March for two weeks. Amazingly this isn't taking

> place during school holidays.

>

has Southwark entered Gallery Road into some sort of "Most Dug Up Road" competition?

[ruffers]

James Barber Wrote:

> Lordship Lane 21 March - 3 July Gas works.

> The section between Friern Road and Melford Road

> will have the bus lane closed to allow more gas

> works. The section of Friern Road between Lordship

> Lane and Etherow will be one way anti clockwise.

> Overhill Road at its junction with Lordship Lane

> will be closed. They will finish one day.

Please tell me there won't be unnecessary lights on this, sounds like there'll still be a two lane road.

[Fuschia]

James, the buikding site on the corner of Barry RD and Underhill has had a huge concrete mixer sticking out into the road each time I passed yesterday and today, not allowing space for buses to pass and making it pretty impossible for cars. Surely this isn't allowed?

[aspidistra]

James Barber Wrote:

-------

>

> Lordship Lane 21 March - 3 July Gas works.

> The section between Friern Road and Melford Road

> will have the bus lane closed to allow more gas

> works. The section of Friern Road between Lordship

> Lane and Etherow will be one way anti clockwise.

> Overhill Road at its junction with Lordship Lane

> will be closed. They will finish one day.

They may finish one day. But we seem to have had roadworks, bus stops closed and all the rest on this stretch on and off for the best part of 18 months. Bus stops closed this week again, after they had only just reopened last week after the last lot of roadworks. It just seems to be endless. Hhumpf!

[Alex K]

Which governmental body monitors shops for sales of alcohol / tobacco to the underaged? Does Southwark have a "teenage secret shopper" programme -- double meaning of "shopper" acknowledged -- to find out if customer ages are being verified before restricted items are sold?

[James Barber]

Hi Loz,

I've had further clarification that Gallery Road resurfacng will take place at night time.

Hi ruffers,

The description of road closures etc doesn't sound like temporary traffic lights will be required.

Hi aspidistra,

I could'nt agree more.

Hi Alex K,

Licenses to sell alcohol are issued by local authorities - Southwark Council for our area.

Southwark Council certainly used to have a programme to test shops to see if they would sell alcohol and knives to underage people.

[bigdavid]

James,

While I understand the need to maintain the gas network, the section that is being dug up at the Overhill Road bus stop is exactly the same section (not adjacent to, or a bit further along, but exactly the same section) that was dug up in November. Would it be possible to get some explanation from the contractors as to why the same section of road has to be dug up twice within this period of time, and if it is down to bad planning or some mistake that was made the first time round that we as taxpayers aren't footing the bill, especially in light of all the belt tightening going on elsewhere. Not to mention the relentless inconvenience this is causing to our daily lives.

Thanks,

Dave.

[aspidistra]

bigdavid, that is exactly what Thames Water just did too (on LL a little further along).

I'm getting deja vu all over again :(

[Penguin68]

If the utilities dig up roads they have to pay for their restoration - so it is the utility customers who pay for their mistakes, rather than the council tax payer - but these two groups do have substantial overlaps so it does come to the same thing - curiously it is rarely the shareholders who suffer diminution of dividend when their companies cock-up.

[James Barber]

Hi bigdavid, aspidistra,

I'll try and find out but please don't hold your breath.

Hi Penguin68,

Sadly that's my understanding.

[flocker spotter]

Dear James

Has anyone contacted you about the threatened closure of STAX Saturday Morning Music School, run by Southwark Music Service? This marvellous facility, which has just been ofsteded as outstanding is apparently going to lose its funding. Parents of children who attend the school have been asked to contact their local councillors to see if you can do anything to keep the Music School going. The school provides subsidised tuition to primary school aged children living in the borough of Southwark and teaches a wide range of brass, string and keyboard instruments as well as drumming, composing and singing. When opportunities to learn instruments in school is limited (my son has been on his school's waiting list for three years), STAX fills the gap. Moreover, children learn in their own time, so are not taken out of class for tuition, missing lessons.

Please, please, please can you work your wonders to keep STAX open!!!

[James Barber]

Hi flocker spotter,

They have and after months of chasing I've yet to receive a response from officers.

I'll chase again.

NB. During the next three years Southwark Council plan to increase its unallocated reservces and contingency funds from ?22.2M to ?49.2M. Saving for a riany day while its raining!

[James Barber]

This year 44 Southwark children have not had any secondary school place allocation.

34 of these are from the SE22 area.

This must be bewildering for the kids and presenting terrible concerns for the parents and family.

IF you are one of these families or know of one of these families please do get in touch this is exactly what councillors can help with.

[James Barber]

The licensing sub-committee that will undertake the Dulwich Hamlet Footbal Club license review will meet 10am 28 March at Southwark Town Hall, Peckham Road/Havil Street junction.

[James Barber]

Emergency road works reported to me on East Dulwich Road close to Goose Green starting on 14 March.

Apologies I didnt notice this email in the daily deluge.

Not clear when it will end but the emergency notice is for 21 days.

[James Barber]

We've finalised the budgets for traffic calming with humps for Matham Grove, Ashbourne Grove, Chesterfield Grove and 20mph speed limits for Bassano, Blackwater, Heber, Goodrich (between Lordship Lane and Barry Road), Jennings, Landells, Landcroft, Pellatt, Silvester and Thompson.

The total cost of this is ?50,000 + ?2,000 contigency.

Without the contingency in place it couldn't proceed. So we've decided to reallocated ?2,000 from the ?8,000 remaining in our Crime Prevention Fund and hope to be able to return it.

The works shouldn't take more than a couple of months from now before completed.

Any questions or concerns please do get in touch with me.

[James Barber]

This Tuesday 7pm Dulwich College Great Hall the latest public meeting of the Save The Velodrome campaign.

They've some good new in agreeing a 15 year lease with Dulwich Estate for the track but the grounds still on much shorter rolling lease. So still lots to be done to secure a long term future.

If cycling and youth facilities are your thing please do pop along.

[James Barber]

We've recently had a 50 trees planted in East Dulwich under the Cleaner, Greener, Safer funding.

Several on Fellbrigg Road have been vandalised and now removed.

We've arranged to replace them in the next 10-14 days. It is outside the normal tree planting season but hopefully these replacements wont be vandalised and will survive despite the late planting.

This has been made possible by the suppliers Street Tree Care only charging cost price for the trees and planting them for free.

[cassidy]

Hi James,

Just a query i was wondering if you could help me with in regards to Adys road. I witnessed some children trying to cross by the filtering system and their view of the road was badly obscured by parked cars/vans right up against the filtering system.

I did hear a while ago at a local meeting that there would be yellow lines to prevent this however i have not heard anything since and was wondering if this was still happening as the traffic often speeds along there and more visibility would be beneficial in preventing accidents.

[James Barber]

Hi cassidy,

I'm afraid I've not understood your post.

ARe you saying the Adys Road arm of its junction with East Dulwich Road and Crystal Palace Road needs to have more double yellow lines going northwards to increase sightlines for littler people/children?

[Ridgley]

Hi James

Its great in regards to the new Busses 484 when are they going to change the 78?

[James Barber]

From what I can see "Trident 9.9m/Enviro400 double deckers introduced (from route 38)" will be introduced during April.

The bus route is considered a high frequency routes with buses going every 7 mins in the rush hour and 7 an hour at other times mon-Fri.

I guess this is what our bus fare rises are helping to pay for.