Greeting to all.

[star13uk]

Hello all. Thought I should introduce myself. I live fairly locally, but just in the other side of boarder ( L word). I work for the South East 2 Reassurance Team as a Traffic PCSO based at the Oval. Our team covers all of Southwark ? and for good behaviour and long service, myself and two colleagues have a particular responsibility for East Dulwich, College and Village wards. We work for the buses primarily but like the Safer Neighbourhood Teams will turn our hands to anything we can help with. I am only a lowly cog in very large and bureaucratic machine so can only promise to do what I can, when I can. Weird shift patterns and Southwark based taskings. This a purely personal and in no way official. Just seems like a useful way to interact with the Community I am trying to support.

I have already seen some interesting things here, and would like to find more. Any bus/bustop/traffic/roads/general anti social behaviour problems ? we would like to hear about them and would like to try and do something about them. Even it is only to pass such information onto the relevant authorities as local concerns.

I am 50, ex Army, ex traveller, ex IT support and have been doing this job (although in a different role) for nearly six years now. I am also happy to try and answer anything you care to ask.

[siousxiesue]

Welcome!

[computedshorty]

?

[SteveT]

Star13uk wrote:- I am also happy to try and answer anything you care to ask.

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Dulce et decorum est....

What does 'Dulce et decorum est'...er mean?

[Gimme]

SteveT - see ComputedShorty's mail - translation is there...

For further reading see poem "Dulce et decorum est" by Wilfred Owen.

Welcome to the Forum Star13uk.

If you have a look at the thread on St Anthony's School... this could be the first thing for you to try your hand at.

Sounds like big complaints about inconsiderate (and possibly illegal) parking.

[Curmudgeon]

I have a bus comment.

I cycle quite regularly down East Dulwich Grove and the 37 bus drivers constantly drive far too closely to me .. they do swing out to avoid the cycle but then swing back in really tightly before they have cleared so the back end follows really close to the cycle making me feel that one day I'm going to end up under their wheels.

Anything that could be done in terms of asking the drivers to take a bit more care of cyclists would be appreciated.

[Nero]

Hello,

A large minority of drivers disregard red lights. Most disregard amber lights, speeding up rather than slowing down. I have told at least three of them that I witnessed their going through a red, but they all denied it.

Buses are heavy, potentially lethal objects. Do your best to get the supervisors to tell the drivers that driving dangerously is wrong.

I used buses on a daily basis, taking on average three a day.

[star13uk]

Gimme :

St Anthony's School - indeed. Already noted and we had a quick look around and a chat with some bus drivers this Saturday morning. Really an issue for the local PA's but we intend to try and get there on an early turn. A few photos would help make our case, and hopefully we will have a few "words of advice". If the problem persists we can certainly do a bit of enforcement - which for us would be the ?40 "52" offences. The PA's can hit them harder. We can also pass it on to the SNT Schools team to have a word from that end. We shall see.

[star13uk]

computedshorty :

Been doing this nearly 6 years as a response unit to accident scnenes. Too many squashed bike riders (12 so far). I don't do "cycling on the pavement" offences cos I have no intention of telling anybody to ride in the road. We need proper cycle lanes in this country.

[star13uk]

SteveT :

I always loved the poem - as an ex Squaddie - and it's tone. Dulce et decroum est, pro patria mori. Said with the proper irony, of course.

[star13uk]

Curmudgeon :

Bus comment and the 37 bus drivers - most certainly. If you can get an index (number plate) and the running number - sometimes in front window, sometimes on the side - it would help us get to the specific driver, specific vehicle. We do have sessions with the various bus garages, and would be only too happy to pass on your comments to the drivers and their supervisors. Any issues with specific buses, or their drivers - we can pass onto them. Like I said - this is nothing official and I am a mere lowly cog. I can promise to pass on the complaint... but I can't promise that the drivers start acting on it overnight. But, the more you beat them over the head, the more it tends to sink in.

[star13uk]

Nero :

Drivers going through red lights. Indeed they do - and I have been with police officers when they issue the tickets for it. (Who me officer? You must be mistaken!) Most traffic laws in this country are policed "by consent", not enforcement - good manners and good example. But times they are a changin. More enforcement seems to be the only way to go, but not sure who is doing it. You need to have a police officer (in the right frame of mind for the paperwork involved) to witness it, and then be bothered to stop the offender. We (TPCSO's) have no "moving offence" powers. Pointed fingers and glowers. To my mind, bicycles are the biggest offenders for failing to stop at red lights - and I have seen the growth in scooters copying them. Cars seem to be doing it more and more these days. Good/bad examples seem to set the trends.

Buses driving dangerously - they need to be reported. Bus route number, running number, index - the driver is obliged to give you his driver number (in theory) to allow you to make a complaint. However cynical you might feel about it, such complaints are not treated lightly. The driver would be forced to defend himself to his supervisors. Repeated complaints would not be swept under the carpet and build up against him. Again, not an immediate response, but still worth doing. Tell us who and when and we would be happy to pass it on in the surgeries we hold.

[UncleAlbert]

What are you going to do about all of the drug users on this forum?.

If you want to help the community close down the dealers, but as I can see a bus going through a red light is more important.

[????]

FLOG THEM AND PUT THEM IN STOCKS

[Steady Eddy]

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[star13uk]

UncleAlbert : Drug dealers are out of our remit unless we come across them. The Safter Neighbouhood Teams are responsible for dealing with drug dealers, shop lifters and other things of an anti social behairvoir line that go on in their wards. PCSO's are not Police. They are civilians doing what all good civilians should be doing - supporting the Police and Community. You see drug dealers? Get as much detail as you can and report it to the SNT or Police. Drug dealers operate where they feel safe, the Police need evidence to get any kind of conviction. Our own remit is funded by Tfl to travel on buses, along the bus routes and help make them a better, safer place - we find a drug dealer on a bus or at a bus stop we would certainly deal with them. Point out a drug dealer to me and we will get action taken. Over the last 3 months of working in the Dulwich area, no body has said a word to us about drug dealers in the area.

[star13uk]

Steady Eddy - we are trying to "piggy back" on the SNT surgeries. The two we attended so far had a zero turnout from the public - but we hope to attend all that our weird shift pattern and postings allow. The Surgeries I mentioned are held in the Bus Garages (our remit) with the bus drivers. Dulwich itself lacks a bus garage so we attend at Camberwell and Peckham along with their own Ward Teams.

[Steady Eddy]

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[matty]

Hello there! Can we have an extra zebra crossing, say, in front of Somerfields, or near as dammit please? Am fed up with the selfish drivers on LL, half of whom should have their licences revoked for bad/aggressive driving...

[star13uk]

Well - can certainly pass it on to the powers that be - its a matter for you Local Council. People like yourself need to be getting onto them and putting the case for it. Getting as many people as possible to agree with you would help. I will do my best to make a case - usually helps if we can provide evidence, near misses and the like. I can also bring it up with the bus drivers as to whether or not they have noticed an issue - Health & Safety is all powerful these days. (Somebody might sue!) Did I not see a Local Councillor with a thread on here? He might a guy to approach.