richfish

It is a pretty ugly looking building though isn't it, Iceland I mean. Just not pleasing on the eye. I have never been in so can't comment beyond that. I still think Iceland is the shop for people with chest freezers. I haven't got one. Looks busy enough in terms of customers so obviously still lots of people that do. And then the Police station is also tremendously ugly. I think Roy Strong, Kevin McCloud and Alain de Botton would all have a convincing argument to say that Lordship Lane would benefit from a redevelopment of both of those buildings and improve place-making. Taking a value-led appraisal though for me it would be to demolish Foxtons and Jo-Jo Maman Bebe (is that what its called?). Both vile but in different polarities. But that's my prejudice. I would also really like a Waitrose as I like their food, appreciate their stock control and staff training practices and the ones at Tower Bridge or Beckenham are a bit of hike really. But worth it if you can be bothered with the journey.

I like the new gym too ad I am very happy to add my congrats to the team that has made this happen. I agree the air conditioning/ventilation is not good. It gets very hot and stuffy in there even by 8.30am so it must be awful as the day progresses. Someone needs to look in to that. We need some more cycle parking too as it is getting increasingly difficult to park on site. I think it is good value for money and it is great having it on my doorstep. My only other suggestion is that the East Dulwich Road side needs some landscaping and trees. It looks a real forgotten spot now turned into a staff car park (should there be a staff car park at a gym?) and needs some natural features to set off what is a very attractive but rather abandoned old front. It wouldn't cost much and would be more in sympathetic keeping with the original and lovely images of the old building hung in the gym. Other than that its fab!

I am going to be joining you. What are your training plans?

James I would recommend that you ask for a proper cost benefit analysis of the more radical regional/sub-regional options. The commissioning/provision of other local authority run services on a reiognal/sub-regional model have generated significant management savings as far as I am aware and I don't see why public libraries should be any different. They have also promoted improved back office efficiencies which would further reduce costs and not increase them - you are already paying for the Finance/HR/ICT costs but I suspect they are not disaggregated and so you don't know the true cost of the service. I don't buy the argument that you need a locally run library service to enable democratic accountability. Southwark could easily retain the joint commissioning and management responsibility of a regional service and Southwark users would continue to hold you accountabiltiy for that local delivery. Although I think Southwark libraries are actually pretty good, I don't think that Councillors in general can argue that their leadership and accountability for the public library service in England has been anything other than inconsistent, inadequate and under-resourced. In my view you need to be much bolder in considering all alternatives and developing robust cost and quality options to inform you of the best course of action to take. Otherwise I think you are writing the final chapter in the history of the great British public library service.

Is that savings of ?397K per annum or is that the total level of savings required split over the 2 years? If the latter that is only a 2.5 per cent reduction in revenue funding which actually seems remarkably low given the other cuts to public services at the moment. Even at 5 per cent isn't that just reflecting the cut Southwark has had in its central government funding allocation? Lambeth are reviewing their public library service and Lewisham have transferred a couple of libraries over to community ownership. I understand Bromley and Bexley are doing similar reviews. I don't understand why each borough has to manage its own library service. Given the need to reduce costs surely serious consideration should be given to creating a sub-regional (or even Londonwide) library service which would result in pretty significant cost savings especially in management terms and which could then be used for service improvements as well as capital improvement of some of the buildings. Public libraries are dying through the effects of a thousand cuts - what we need from you and your colleagues James, on a cross party basis, is bold leadership to radically think about how library services are managed and run in the future and not just the same as.

Yes I missed it too I am afriad. I would be very interested in a plant swap, especially for perennials during the autumn split and divide season.

July opening would be great news as the development has played havoc with my waist line. I do hope we get more free weights space than in the old gym as it was very cramped under the old viewing platforms especially if you are tall.

Interesting to see the variations. I live just by Peckham Rye and take an east City route over Tower Bridge, Commercial Street, Great Eastern, Hoxton, New North Road, Holloway Road/A1, cross the North Circular etc. Again it takes an hour in my frequent experience with the key risk area being Emirates Stadium. I find the east City return journey in paritcular much more reliable esp on a Sunday evening when west City traffic seems much worse.

I have emailed Cllr Gavin Edwards about it and he said he will look into it. It might be a good idea for others who live in Tyrrell and Hindmans and the other road which I cannot remember the name of, to email him too about it too so that it isn't just one voice. His email address is on the Council's website.

A similar problem has occured before though it is probably several years ago now. I recall that it originated with the Garages located in the mews parallel to Barry Road and accessed off Tyrrell Road. Following a complaint/s to the Council the parking of accident damaged cars as it was then improved significantly. Perhaps we could write a residents letter to the Garage raising our concerns about it and asking them to kindly stop doing this, probably cc'd to local Councillors. Happy to contribute/sign if that is the case.

Cambridge House are recruiting new trustees and they are keen to invite applications from residents in East Dulwich. Cambridge House is a wonderful multi-purpose community organisation working across Southwark. They provide a range of services in the community including advice, youth work, mental health advocacy and community development work. Cambridge graduates might be particularly interested in getting involved as there is a long and significant relationship between Cambridge colleges and CH which I know they are keen to further develop on the alumni front. See http://www.ch1889.org/jobs.php for more info and the type of skills that they need trustees to have. I was a trustee there for over 6 years so I am happy to give my view if that is useful. Just PM. It is a really interesting time to join them as they will open the new refurbished site in only a matter of months which will provide a great resource for the whole borough.

It is a terribly sad incident and I too would like to send my condolences to the families affected. We mustn't demonise young people though as I believe that only perpetuates the problem and reinforces their separation from the accepted social norms of the community. There are some young people who are violent, intolerant and unable to express themselves. The blade of the knife or the barrel of a gun becomes their means of expression and an ability to exert some control in an otherwise chaotic lifestyle. Often this is a product of poverty and learned behaviour in the family - the abused becomes the abuser syndrome. Evidence tells us that many of these young people are psychologically damaged. These features have been a part of urban life for centuries, this is not a lost generation and it is not an endemic problem although the moral authority of our profit hungry media industry would like to portray that it is. There are however the majority of young people. many many polite, caring, expressive young people who are living in South East London as elsewhere trying to do their bit. Don?t let event induced hysteria make us forget that. As others have said practical resources and support can go a long way. It takes trust to be able to do that though and that can take a very long and sustained time to achieve. The short termism that blights our over politicised welfare provision seems unable to commit to doing that though.

I would find Waitrose a very attractice proposition for LL. They tend to be well-managed, have a great commitment to staff training and have well-stocked stores. You couldn't say that about Somerfield, Co-op etc. I really like their ethical commitment to employing disabled people including people with learning disabilities who are excluded from much of the labour market. However we don't need another supermarket on LL so for me it would need to replace the absolutely useless Co-op. Whilst we are in centralist neighbourhood planning mode (is this the new Localism Bill in action?) can I also request that we have no more estate agents please. Please. No more.

Clearly we are worthy of special treatment nearer the Rye - I got a willie on the front window and a 'you suck dick' on the back one. Front/back logic lost on me on that one though.

I have just come back home and given up trying to get in. 197 is running but impossible to get on one at the Clockhouse on the Rye. No 63, 363 or 12 as far as I could tell. The pavement along the Rye is absolutely trecherous.

Thanks for the update. What are the actual departure times from ED to London Bridge then please?

I suspect they are looking at transferring the sponsorship responsibilities for The Horniman from DCMS to the Mayor as they have done with the Museum of London group. I think the Horniman was once GLC sponsored so it would be a return to its historical home so to speak. I can't see any local Council picking up that level of funding - its probably more than their entire culture budget for the year and I suspect the audience is a real borough-mix of Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark in the first instance. Hardly cultural trailblazing boroughs either.

Very good point and I couldn't agree more. I think the proposed GP commissioning model will be a disaster creating even more frontline botlenecks, particularly in high pressured urban environments. I suspect it will also lead to a lower number of specialist referrals especially from profit hungry GPs. The worry is though they won't performance measure against that type of sepcialist need and the NHS ends up the health service of the lowest common denominator.

As a user of DMC Crystal Palace Road I am not really surprised by the results though I am always a little sceptical about these type of tables - look what they resulted in on school admissions. At DMC I don't think I have seen the same GP at all in the last 3 years so you never establish a relationship with anyone, the doctors seemingly always arrive late in the mornings for the first appointment that I normally request, so you are waiting a needlessly long time and there is a general feeling of a lack of patient care/interest at reception. Still it seems much better at DMC than at Melbourne Grove where according to my partner you need a PhD degree in Inventive Problem Solving to work out how to get an appointment and then when you do the GPs English is so bad you can't understand a word they say. Not a good impression from this house then. What happens as a result of this survey? Do the GPs have to put together some sort of improvement plan with targets? It would make much more interesting reading in the waiting room than the usual stuff they have on their walls which seems to entirely miss the fact that men have health problems too. Perhaps that's why their performance is so poor as they are missing out on reaching half the population.

Jolly good. I would be really grateful for clarification about what knowledge and expertise you have to comment on the relative merits or otherwise of a range of proposed traffic safety schemes and their associated cost-benefit analysis. I certainly know that I am not informed enough to comment on such matters. Neither would I want to feel personally accountable in anyway for determining such a course of action. Personally I am happy to leave it to the experts to implement the best course of action on a problem of this nature based on a study, evidence and best practice. I entirely fail to see what public consultation will add to this process. By your own admission the Council and Police are indeed aware of this problem. So I am unclear where I appear to be uninformed in this respect. I contacted the Council myself about it several years ago, shortly after the first fatal accident I seem to recall. Yet still nothing has happened. Hence it appears to me that the relevant authorities are indeed incapable of decisive action on this matter. The fact that it is a multi-agency problem is no excuse for inaction in my opinion. I hold several trusteeships which along with my job makes attending evening meetings very difficult. I do indeed take an active and constructive role in my community but in areas that I feel I have the appropriate skills in.

I am no traffic management or safety expert and I certainly don't feel qualified nor informed to be able contribute to a consultation on the best solution - surely that is why there are experts to do just that job. I don't need to be consulted with on this matter. They just need to identify the solution and get on with implementing it surely. This obsession with consultation seems to me to often be an excuse to delay doing anything.

I see there was another accident at the junction of East Dulwich Road and Peckham Rye. The motorcyclist didn't look too badly hurt thankfully. I can't recall how many incidents there have been there this year and yet the Police and Council seem incapable of tackling the problem. I guess the health service just continues to pick up the tab for putting people back together. Madness.

Perhaps we could all join up to this interesting sounding group, minimise the ever encroaching boring sameness of our high streets and support some creative local enterprise. Some spirit and spark feels intuitively more stimulating than more boring estate agents even though I know I need to sell soon. http://www.meanwhilespace.com/

I park mine in my front garden locekd to the fence, and apart from a wheel being stolen once I have had no trouble at all. Touch wood. The quality of the lock is the key thing.

I have recently started using the 78 bus during rushhour to get me from Peckham Rye to Aldgate. What a nightmare experience. The buses are unbelievably tiny single deckers that seem to roll a lot making a standing journey feel like a sickness inducing trip to the fairground. The seats have almost no leg room at all and so standing is the only option for me. To make it worse this is a hugely popular route and the buses are absolutely packed beyond belief so for 40 minutes or longer we all roll around standing on each others feet with no room to breathe, feeling terrifed by the experience and yet merrily passing every packed busstop from the Old Kent Road onwards. Crazy. How can this happen? Does anyone know how I can alert LT to this problem? Even better has anyone on here got the power to change it and give us a bigger bus?