Rockets

In the interests of balance will Malumbu be starting a "the negative things about the council thread" ;-)? I do see a pattern emerging with many of the things people do like though....anyone else see it?

We had a Sunday afternoon delivery as well which was as shocking as it was unexpected! To be fair it was obviously restoring the ying/yang balance as a couple of weeks ago we had also had a birth certificate back from the passport office that was in an envelope with Do Not Bend on it and the postie seemed to have performed origami on it to get it through the post box - which wasn't ideal!

Agree the libraries are good, the parks well maintained and also agree that the Veolia teams are, usually, very good.

A number of people have mentioned, in various threads, some of the things brought up by the Scrutiny Committee on the environment and I just watched it and it was really interesting across a number of areas. Well worth a watch from about 1 hour 30 minutes in. Consultations CPZs E-scooters and e-bikes and the problems many have been having with them Consultations I do wonder if the council is signalling a shift in the way Southwark consult and whether they are going to determine what happens at a local level based on research done at the borough level. We have seen this on the "mandate" for the CPZs where the council claimed that a research document (which had a large proportion of research done by engaging primary school children and students in the north of the borough) was what gave them the mandate for rolling out CPZs in the south of the borough. Listen to what Cllr McAsh says (1 hour 34 minutes) when he says consultations (as they are run now) don't get a cross-section of the borough as those who respond tend to be, and I quote: "whiter, wealthier and more likely to be car owners" and then says they are going ward by ward knocking on doors of 1 in 10 houses on every street. All admirable stuff but I wonder how they record that input - a consultation online has definitive proof of how people responded and look at the lengths they went to try to determine where someone lived in many of the consultations (remember the ill-fated envelope code tied to each street). You can't hide that online response and if you do you could be subject to an FOI and there is a digital trail. It will be interesting to learn how they are selecting and recording the input of those they knock on the doors - remember the council extended the LTN consultation deadline by a couple of weeks and sent Labour activists out to door knock to encourage Labour voters to respond to the consultation. Have they learned lessons from that and now decided to lean-in more on verbal testimony from the people they select for door visits? Interesting Dale Foden's comments of how difficult it is to get people in the south of the borough to give up their cars - there never seems to be any thoughts on why that might be the case and it seems ludicrous to me, if it is the case, that you apply feedback from someone living, working or being schooled, in the north of the borough near a tube station with those living in the south of the borough whose needs are completely different. CPZs Interesting to hear from Cllr McAsh that they have a moral and (perhaps more importantly - my words not his) legal obligation to listen to the views of their residents and I suspect they know the weight of public opinion is against them and I sense this is one of the reasons for the delay in the publishing of the results of the consultation and CPZ rollouts (and probably why they are suggesting the above).

My experience with Southwark planning for an Asgard cycle box in our front garden is well documented so I cannot post here as it was not positive!

Malumbu are you asking for positive things about the borough itself or the council?

But this is a council that does nothing more than to bleat on about the cost of living crisis and inflationary pressures on the money in people's pockets and then come up with this. They are such hypocrites. I think it only fair that they publish where that 50% increase has come from and I bet you it is from poorly sign posted LTN cameras. But always remember, anything this council does in relation to cars is because they think that if you own one you must be super rich and they are trying to rebalance the social injustice of that!

It is beyond shocking and one of the speakers from the affected building did ponder whether Southwark might be going the way of Birmingham and Croydon and may need emergency measures - it sounds as if the budget to rectify these mistakes is going to be huge so where is the money going to come from to do it? Are residents expected to pick up the cost of council ineptitude in the form of higher council tax? Chat to anyone in Croydon after their 15% increase in council tax to see how that feels.

Malumbu, are you bored of it because you aren't a Southwark resident? What has happened here is shameless and reflective of how Southwark treats residents. If people don't complain about it then administrations can get away with it. This only came to light because a resident complained about it, else Southwark would have got away with it. Have you watched the video? Are you happy that a council acts in this way and is there any part of you that thinks Southwark needs to be held accountable for these actions? This has put lives at risk and the residents, whom Labour purports to support, have been treated appallingly. By the way your suggestion to move if you think a council has been treating other residents badly is a joke right? To be fair your post looks like another brazen attempt to disrupt and divert a legitimate discussion thread to your own agenda and I think admin has been more than clear to everyone about that.

I will share the data when I have time but it is from the DFT annual National Travel survey.

What i suspect he means to say is that they will put everything on hold until after the election and when Labour get in they'll start painting the lines safe in the knowledge there will be no scrutiny and that they'll have the "mandate" to do whatever they want. I found this in a Southwark News article so August next year was Southwark's goal for area-wide CPZs... Southwark Council has hit back, citing its “ambitious plans to enhance the streets”, including 100 per cent controlled park zone (CPZ) coverage by August 2024.

They were giving free food away on Wednesday apparently.

No chance of that in London...cycling down again in London in the latest annual DFT stats...not quite at pre-Covid levels (like it is nationally) but getting closer each year.

I very much suspect they are here for the delivery market, hence the huge kitchen. Not sure that they should be leaving their five green bins leaning against their shopfront, hardly entices you in! It's a shame to see another soulless chain moving in, its all getting a bit Little Islington now.

Dulwich Park cafe looking from the cinder track near the Court Lane entrance area.

Oh my goodness - that is horrific and absolutely shocking - no wonder none of the council leadership joined the meeting. There are so many parallels (pasted below) to the problems highlighted in that video that many have accused the council's LTN programme suffering from - makes you wonder if the problems are systemic: Lack of accountability A systemic failure by the council Leaning more on consultants and outside parties because the council officers don't know what they are doing and want the cover of consultants for someone to blame if it goes wrong Running tick-box consultation exercises (often after the decision has already been made) Council decisions putting lives at risk The council not learning from previous issues (the same thing in this case was happening 10 years ago apparently and has just been repeated) The council lying to residents Where is the money going, why is everything costing so much money? The council blocking the sharing of information and transparency because "they know the house of cards could come tumbling down" The council is losing things when people leave the council (they lost the lessons-learned document from the previous time these issues came to light) The council's own KPIs that told them 99% of residents affected were "satisfied" - the councillor said the information was clearly "rubbish" and challenged the committee to determine where it was coming from and how it ended up in the council report Council officers leaving the council to get out before the house of cards come tumbling down The dire need to rebuild the relationship with residents Why should anyone trust the council It seems this only came to light because one of the residents who lives in one of the blocks is a planning officer and could see what what going on and knew something wasn't right - my goodness me. Everyone in that meeting acknowledged that things had been going wrong.

Is this linked to the Cllr Leo Pollak scandal?

Snowy, trips through the filters are limited and you are wrong as there is no facility to pay for other permits. You have to apply for a permit to get 100 passes if you live in the Oxford permit area, 25 if you live in the Oxfordshire permit area - there is no facility to buy more passes beyond those 100 or 25. Here is an excerpt from Oxford council's website: https://www.oxford.gov.uk/news/article/2332/joint_statement_from_oxfordshire_county_council_and_oxford_city_council_on_oxford_s_traffic_filters If residents in the permit areas are not using a permit or run out of permits, they will still be able to drive to any destination in Oxford or elsewhere, whenever they like, as often as they like. Depending on their location and destination, they might have to use a different route to avoid the filters, which would usually be the ring road. And their brochure acknowledges that this may mean longer journeys and journey times: Some car journeys will need to find a different route, usually using the ring road. This may result in longer journey times, mainly for trips between Oxford’s suburbs and across the city. Bad news for those on the displacement routes but what is it Cllr Leeming kept saying about A-roads.... Also, I very much suspect local residents got confused about the filters and their role in 15-minute cities as the council cabinet member for travel appeared to have done interviews telling everyone that the filters would create 15-minute cities! No wonder everyone got confused....looks very much a case of "that's not what I meant to say" 😉 ROAD blocks stopping most motorists from driving through Oxford city centre will divide the city into six "15 minute" neighbourhoods, a county council travel chief has said. Duncan Enright, Oxfordshire County Council's cabinet member for travel and development strategy, explained the authority's traffic filter proposals in an interview in The Sunday Times. He said the filters would turn Oxford into "a 15-minute city" with local services within a small walking radius. https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23079671.anger-travel-chief-announces-traffic-filters-going-happen-definitely-ahead-decision/

Just received this email from Cllr McAsh....looks like they may be kicking a can down the road on these plans....probably no surprise there but one wonders why they hadn't done things like traffic surveys before spending money on the consultation. Dear resident, I wanted to write to you to thank you for your contribution to a recent consultation which sought views on controlled parking in your neighbourhood. We wrote to every home in your area and we invited residents to respond to our consultations on proposed schemes. The intention was to understand local views in each area. We received a large number of responses to the consultations, and before progressing further with any of the proposals, we will now: 1. consider the responses to the consultation and previous requests from residents 2. continue to engage with other stakeholders 3. conduct traffic surveys We will consider all relevant information before coming back to you with what we propose to do next. We need to carefully consider all the evidence. Timeframes for next steps are still being finalised, but we appreciate that you may have been waiting to hear from us and the purpose of this email is to keep you up to date. We will be in touch with you again as soon as we can. Once again, I would like to thank you and your neighbours for engaging with our consultation so far. It has been a really helpful process so far, and we are confident that your feedback, alongside other evidence, will help us find local solutions that respond to local circumstances, and help make your neighbourhood an even better place to live. Yours faithfully, Cllr James McAsh Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency, Clean Air and Streets

Malumbu - the BBC article highlights exactly the point I am making - that it is the lack of clear communication and engagement with communities that leads to these wild stories. It is clear that fringe right-wing and conspiracy groups try to leverage the information vacuum but it is also true that those who support the measures use this to create a trope that anyone anti the measures is some sort of far-right, anti-vax, conspiracy theorist (we have seen it a lot from posters on here) - which they are clearly not. Penguin explained what was happening in Oxford with the limits on journeys and then you said: And the very article you flag confirms (clip below) the plan for Oxford to limit journeys to 100 days a year for private cars in six locations - is that not a local authority enforcing restrictions in travel between neighbourhoods? Now this has nothing to do with their separate plans for 15-minute cities but can you now see how people could easily conflate the two things, especially if the communication from the council is poor, scepticism about the council's motives and objectives are strong and there are those who are happy to stoke the fire for their own fringe/conspiracy theory ends? It was in Oxford where this idea truly sparked a misinformation storm. Last November, Oxfordshire County Council approved the creation of traffic filters, enforced through cameras in six key locations. Private cars would not be allowed through without a permit (which they could use up to 100 days per year), but all other vehicles would be exempt - to incentivise the use of public transport and cycling. The BBC understands that Oxford was one of the places Mr Harper had in mind when he spoke of councils that "ration who uses the roads and when". But, while some people may find this "controlling", it is definitely not the same as a "15-minute city". The traffic filters scheme attracted significant opposition from people worried about the impact the measures might have on their mobility and livelihoods. But online, a separate conversation appeared to be taking place - one that tapped into genuine grievances against the trial, blending them with rumours pushed by far-right blogs and fringe media outlets around the world. On social media, some users suggested this was part of a sinister plot to confine people to their local areas for the sake of the environment. Others wrongly linked the traffic filters scheme to a separate council proposal to introduce 15-minute neighbourhoods in Oxford. Oxfordshire County Council publicly dismissed claims suggesting a link between the two, as well as the claim that traffic filters will be used to confine people to their local area. But soon the social media frenzy also began having a real impact offline: councillors received death threats. Others were faced with anxious questions from residents. "People have come up to me and said: is it true that we're not going to be allowed out of our houses, that it's going to be just like the coronavirus lockdown?", Emily Kerr, from Oxford City Council, told the BBC at the time.

First Mate - there's a lot of tropes to unpack from that! 😉 My point to Froggy was that if their comment was aimed at a fellow poster then they would be falling foul of the new forum rules (which admin I commend you on as they have created a much better discussion forum as the aggressive posters seem to have been muted so well done for implementing it) Does anyone know who was out soliciting input on the CPZs - is someone doing an area-wide survey like the ones that were done around the LTNs to help counter the council's "you all said you wanted CPZs for x hours a day as we didn't give you any option to object in our consultation"? Or was this just a resident on a particular street canvassing local opinions?

Who, the people knocking on doors to solicit opinion on whether residents support the council's plans for the CPZs or me?

Yes I am pretty sure I read it would be as soon as they could (if not 2024). Going to be very interesting to see if that shifts until after any elections and whether that has a knock-on effect on the things they were planning to spend the revenue on (which of course has to go back into road and street infrastructure). Cllr McAsh's get out on his statement in 2019 is very interesting - basically then we can't believe anything any elected official tells us for fear there's a change in "policy" at any point? The policy change has clearly also included the removal of any ability for constituents to object to the measures they plan to implement on them. Is it any wonder people have lost faith in politicians?

Ha ha, that would be the council's new policy to ignore resident views and input!!! Hilarious. BTW, can anyone remember the timeline of rollouts the council put forward for all of the CPZs - was it more specific than 2024?

Froggy - does that also suggest perhaps that the majority of other people she had been calling upon were against it perhaps? And is your assertion that you wouldn't do the rounds with a pro-CPZ petition on safety grounds just another trope?