Rockets

That tends to come before a carpet bombing of new bikes in an area...

It would appear that Southwark think differently to you as they state that the PTAL scores are low/poor in Dulwich. And that is the measure of public transport accessibility used across the country so that seems to be a far better indication of the reality than your personal analysis. In fact, and it is worth mentioning, Southwark said that areas with low PTAL scores are not good for LTNs as there are so few alternative travel options.....

We will find out who is right at the beginning of the next calendar year. The Greeks also predicted it would not cause any problems and then, ooops, someone was left with egg on their face. Also remember that every child leaving private education to enter state not only impacts the revenue predicted from the application of VAT but also takes a place that was previously empty but being funded by the parents of said private pupil - thus costing more from the tax-payers purse in the form of a double-whammy. There is also lots of research that suggests a small shift will mean the government will be left with a big hole to fill. Let's see who is right...I know what my money is on as a lot of.privately educated children don't come from families rolling in cash (the reality is a long way from the spin put out by the government). Of course but maybe some also choose to use their hard earned money on something else...like, (ahem) for example, owning a second home in France.....they may, justfiably in some minds, also find themselves in the tax cross-hairs come October....;-)

Challenge is if you report this to your insurance company as a possible scam they log it as a potential claim on your account which impacts your premiums for three years.

Admin...probably a good time to do your thing now....;-)

Who needs their own views when articles like this sum things up so perfectly.. The Labour Party is being deliberately disingenuous over what it terms private schools, but which in realty are predominantly not-for-profit independent schools. For Labour, ‘private’ education is equated with advantaged people and their children, but the reality is vastly different. ...There is a major problem here. Labour does not like ‘private schools’ and one could argue that this is one of the party’s ideologically derived blind spots. Across the EU, educational services are exempt from VAT and this reflects a responsible and informed approach to the contribution educational services make to national economic stability and responsible and inclusive economic growth. Any nation that places taxes on the provision of educational services is a foolish nation and the same holds for any political party. For those on the left who respond to the dog whistle many don't actually take time to understand or learn about the potential consequences - that the very people that this is designed to protect may actually end-up being the ones negatively impacted the most by this blinkered ideological policy.

Yup, but that's not the issue. The issue is how much money the council has wasted spending on this junction since it was closed and why the council, and the ward councillors, refused to listen to the evidence from emergency services that their continued blocking of the junction was delaying response times. Which councillor kept advising to ignore that input? And, perhaps more importantly, why was that junction design more important than emergency vehicle response times? No one seems to be able to provide a rational explanation...why? Because there isn't one. Ideology was prioritised over emergency vehicle response times. What a sorry state of affairs and the person/s responsible should hang their head in shame. One day we will learn who it was.

Going to get worse now due to VAT on private school fees as schools like JAGs will be looking to cut costs - expect this sort of approach across the board now.

Bravo! Well said! And the council.were pleading poverty with every other word they uttered...go figure...might they have been, ahem, being a little economical with the truth...

Don't bite.....I give you the raptor truck...you're being played....

It's rank hypocrisy. Punish those who want to better their children's education whilst you do exactly what you are attacking....very left wing of him! The problem is those who send their children to private school already pay taxes that contribute towards state education - places in state schools that they do not take, so they are already doing their bit! Now with the removal of business rates relief there is going to be a lot mroe pressure on smaller private schools. This is a policy born out of Labour's hatred of private schools - like Greece it is ideological left-wing "socialism". Stuff it to those who want to strive to do the best for their family. Get used to it folks because they're coming for anyone who works hard and dares do something they don't, ideologically, agree with. All of those additional local taxes for those who have gardens or cars in Southwark is just the tip of the iceberg...watch for similar policies to be rolled out at national level. One wonders who they will upset next in October.

Errrmmm, check out the name of the poster someone is playing with you......is it LTNBooHoo or Mr Chicken back again...;-)

My money is on shenanigans.....someone will have promised something to someone and there would have been some quid pro quo involved.... One day we will find out...after all for the council to ignore the pleads of the emergency services for so long and continually delay response times the strategic reasons for keeping that junction as was must have been huge.

Could it be, per chance, because they had to as the other options to do their journey did not work for them? Throw in a lack of East/West routes across Dulwich, a smattering of awful PTAL scores and it doesn't take a genius to work out why...... Congestion is indeed caused by traffic but, in 2017, increased congestion at that junction was caused by the council's attempts to make it less congested. A bit like the displacement from the LTNs...caused solely by the council's actions. In years to come someone will expose why Southwark councillors spent so much money on that junction and why. Remember this current round of works was submitted as an £8m project that was laughed out of the room. One has to question whether Southwark councillors and the council are up to the job.

Yes they put in a special anti-forestalling clause to prevent people pre-paying that came into force yesterday. Friends of ours live in Beckenham and the local state schools are preparing to increase class sizes by, initially, two to accommodate those potentially leaving the private sector.

I had presumed it was because we had not locked it properly but they seem to have worked out that if you knock the handle down a treasure trove of goodies awaits...it seems from the mess on surrounding streets that word is spreading amongst the fox community!

Anyone else got a problem with super smart foxes who have worked out how to get into the brown caddy bins (even when locked) and rummage through, and scatter, the food waste?

Wow...the government have just announced they will apply it from Jan 1st, which just about everyone thought would not happen due to the disruption caused by doing it midway through an academic year.

But the increased congestion at that junction (and associated increased pollution) occurred after the council made their alterations. The uptick was part of the council's report into the alterations - they basically admitted they had made the problem worse (at great expense to the tax payer). It was an awful junction and is much better now but no-one has yet managed to explain why the council keeps throwing millions of tax-payer's money at it and why they are so obsessed with that junction when they overlook far more dangerous and pressing needs like the junction of Lordship Lane and East Dulwich Grove. All they have done is moved the problem on from there to other areas - the very best example of displacement actions in play.

It was downright hypocrisy and that is what the Economist journalist is highlighting with his comment about the gap between real life and ideology. He is setting up for his punchline about Mr Tsipras and it is a bit of a stretch to suggest the Economist is racist and akin to The Daily Mail in it's coverage! The journalist makes a very salient point about the gap between ideology and real life and this is what the Labour party are finding now on this policy. It's all well and good dog-whistling to the left by creating the impression that anyone who goes to private school is akin to a Bullingdon Club toff and lean-in on the Class War/Eat The Rich narrative. But real life is very different, despite what the likes of our own Cllr McAsh (an advocate to abolish private schools completely) thinks: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/labour-party-conference-abolish-eton-private-schools-boris-johnson-a9113156.html Granted, there are schools with very, very rich pupils but also many schools that are filled full of the children of "working people" who only want the best for their children (it is interesting, ahem, to note how some of the most left-leaning Labour MPs have seemingly also wanted for their children) - and it is the smaller schools that will be impacted by this. For every Dulwich College, Alleyn's and JAG's there are a host of much smaller Rosemead's, Oakfield's and Herne Hill's - where the margins are much smaller and the parents very much "working people". The Greece example shows just how difficult this is to do and how sometimes pragmatism needs to rule over ideology because very often decisions driven by ideology don't work out well at all. Even Emily Thornberry, in the run-up to the election, acknowledged this could lead to an increase in class sizes in state schools.

I believe this phase of the works is costing £1.5m and the running total of spend at that junction since the very initial OHS alterations that made congestion and pollution worse, now upwards of £5m.

The video, and the "cars kills more people than cycles" lobbyists overlook one key, but very important, point: KSIs from motor vehicles have been declining over the last 10 years KSIs from cycles have been increasing over the last 10 years As groups like TFL try to force cycles and pedestrians to co-habit spaces (like floating bus stops) then this trend will continue and the "yeah but, look what's happening over there and we're not as bad as them" approach is doing the cycle lobby no good whatsoever. I do think it is interesting that there are growing calls to better record and track injuries caused by bikes, e-bikes and e-scooters. This article from Bristol on the issue with e-scooters was very interesting: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8865env3q3o

With quality content like that you can see why Warner Bros shut down a lot of Global Cycling News (GCN) content channels...honestly it's like watching an episode of the Day Today (without the irony!) I really felt Chris Morris was going to appear on-screen with some pithy comment about cycle-clips....he would have had a field-day with "motonormativity". I presume there must also be such a thing as "cyclonormativity" - that might explain the rapid increase in bad, inconsiderate cycling. March46 - posting this stuff really does nothing to further your cause.

It does create a major choke-point especially is they have customers eyeing up the kumquats!

Not sure where you are getting your info from but below is the Economist article from 2015 that highlights what actually happened in Greece - the similarities with the UK are clear. As the article I linked to in a previous post highlights - it is going to be very difficult for the government to be VAT prejudicial against private schools without dragging a whole load of other VAT-exempt private education establishments (nurseries, academies, sports clubs, universities, SEND schools, Faith schools etc) into the mess. VAT law is incredibly complicated and nuanced...as the Tories found out to their cost during the pasty-tax saga! Additionally, Starmer got himself into a bit of a pickle ahead of the election by declaring that anyone with an ECHP at private school would be exempt from the VAT. But the ECHP system is cumbersome, incredibly slow and massively flawed and a large percentage of children who have SEND issues at private schools (and are often funded by local authorities because they cannot be taught in the state system) do not have ECHPs. And there are more challenges and complications ahead... https://inews.co.uk/news/education/nine-reasons-taxing-private-school-fees-not-straightforward-3158472 Unfortunately soundbites, ideology and left-wing dog whistles won't unravel the potential mess this could create.....as the Greeks found to their cost...read below... https://www.economist.com/europe/2015/10/30/greece-reconsiders-a-tax-on-private-education BEFORE Greece’s snap elections in September, the outgoing left-wing government laid out plans for a value-added tax of 23% on private education. The measure, dreamed up by the governing Syriza party as an alternative to raising tax on beef, featured in their manifesto as a blow against plutocracy. It looked like a double win that would simultaneously please creditors and demonstrate the government’s commitment to helping the underprivileged. Unsurprisingly, it did neither. Some of the country’s reasonably priced private schools were forced to close, leaving staff jobless. Elsewhere, fees rose. Those affected were not just rich families. Greece has more than 300 full-time private schools, attended by about 6% of school-age children, many of whom come from middle- and lower-income families. With tuition fees as low as €2,500 ($2,750) a year, some operate in working-class areas and attract parents who are keen to give their children a leg up. Those whose parents were unable to pay higher fees moved into the already overwhelmed state system. At the beginning of term in September, Greek schools were short of some 12,000 teachers, according to the ministry of education. Some predict the shortfall will soon exceed 20,000. The tax was imposed on almost all types of private educational establishments, including language and music schools and technical colleges. It even applies to evening schools, which are a huge social phenomenon in Greece and an integral part of the education system. Full-time private education is a minority choice, but for hundreds of thousands of Greeks, evening schools (known by the ancient Greek name of frontisterion) have served as an indispensable supplement to state schooling. For low-paid teachers in the state sector, these schools are a way to boost their monthly income, and for countless pupils they have served as a vital gateway for university entrance exams. The country’s 9,000 language and evening schools employ more than 80,000 teaching and administrative staff. In the new climate, “lay-offs are inevitable, but so is tax avoidance,” says Christos Georgousopoulos, owner of Diakrotima, an evening school in the town of Lamia. Charging lower prices under the table, or employing uninsured staff may become more widespread. The general mayhem caused by the tax is forcing the government to reconsider. Indeed, Alexis Tsipras, the prime minister, had already thought better of the move before the recent election and promised to reverse it. But that has proved difficult: the deadline for the government to find an alternative revenue-raising measure passed on October 23rd, putting the 23% VAT rate into automatic effect. A new deadline has been set for November. The government is reported to be scrapping the idea of taxing private tuition and imposing higher road taxes instead. As in so many areas of Greek life, the dispute has highlighted a gap between theory and practice. There is a strong ideological antipathy in Greece to the idea of education as a profitable enterprise. In deference to that ideology, state universities, which account for most higher education, offer free tuition. Private campuses exist, but the degrees they offer are not recognised by the state. But a gap between ideology and real life is something with which many Greeks seem to live quite contentedly. Take Mr Tsipras: despite his professed admiration for state provision, he has enrolled his son in a well-known Athenian private school.