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I was surprised that MPS Southwark replied on Twitter so quickly... I realised something was going on after I also heard the helicopter systematically circling around above my house for almost an hour (and saw a police van drive by), so I tweeted asking for a confirmation and they replied within minutes. The NPAS London helicopter twitter account later tweeted about a third incident in Peckham, so it sounds like everyone was busy last night! Twitter can be a hassle to sign up to, but it's a really convenient way to keep up with local information.

Yes, talk to the residents in the first instance... if you let me know the road then I'll try to have a walk around there and let you know what I think. FYI, one of the smaller trees we're trying out are small cherry trees called Sunset Boulevard. If you plant several in a row then they visually fill the road without getting too big.

Thanks for the acknowledgement, geh! I have been so astonished at what huge difference the trees make to the whole area, that I can't stop myself now... I do try to always liaise/consult with the local residents nearby all the locations and will change species or even cancel or move a location if it doesn't suit... communication is really important, as trees should be a community uniting factor, not a divisive factor.

Hi pecksniff... The maintenance/pruning budget is separate to the tree planting budget and therefore more difficult to access. Tree maintenance tends to be directed more towards larger trees lining the main roads... the schedule used to be rotated every three years, but I think it's pushed back to every five years now. I noted the Melbourne Grove cherry tree pruning issues to the tree officer a while ago after a resident spoke to me during one of the street events (possibly you?) but I'm not important enough to flag revenue expenses, so you did the right thing going to the councillor. On the other hand, I cringe when I walk down there now because they did a weird job on the trees - over cutting some of them but leaving snapped branches on others... so, I would have really liked to have known about the pruning so that I could have flagged certain issues in advance. FYI, I think the tree in front of the Pharmacy must have been removed as a result of this pruning exercise, as the pharmacist asked me to have it replaced (which is why it's on the replanting list). According to the pharmacist, the tree was only meant to be pruned, but the tree officer said that it was deemed to be too damaged by a lorry, so it was better to remove and replant. Also, FYI... you probably aren't aware that I have personally been maintaining those trees for years... I cut back the low branches blocking the pavement every year, but I can't reach the higher branches. I keep meaning to liaise better with the new councillors on the historical local tree schemes (and a couple of other things), so that we are all on the same page, but I've been buried in fighting serious Thames Water burst water main damage to my own property, which James McCash is being extremely supportive on (thanks, James!). Will try to update better slowly but surely...

Hi Cella, There's a complex legal process that the council/residents have to go through in order to demonstrate that the tree is genuinely causing subsidence before the council will agree to remove it. Therefore, once the tree is gone, the tree officers tend to steer away from replanting in that location (or there might even be a legal order in place to prevent a replanting). In some instances, one way around the problem may be to agree to plant a smaller species, hence our experimentations, but everything depends on the location and other surrounding issues. Sometimes the council could move the new treepit two or three houses away to plant a smaller species, but that depends on lots of other things as well. So, without seeing the actual location, it's hard to tell and I would guess that there will be no replanting scheme in place...

Hi Reg... profuse apologies for the delay in responding. FYI, I've been continuing to liaise with the council's tree officer on addressing these issues bit by bit... it can sometimes take a while because of layers of past political machinations, but I'm getting to know the new councillors so we'll get there slowly but surely. The Colwell stump and some of the Melbourne stumps will FINALLY get replanted in the spring. One of the ways of getting around the new specifications is to agree a smaller species of feature trees for the narrower pavements. Some of my past planting schemes (such as the splendid Japanese cherry tree Yoshino avenue on Winterbrook Road as well as the plane tree avenue on Lordship Lane) are now getting quite a bit of press coverage, so the tree officers are quite open to establishing a "Dulwich tree design scheme" that gives the area character. The stump on Colwell was going to be cancelled, but it's now going to be replaced with a Yoshino, similar to the one up at the other end of Colwell (which the resident there also campaigned in tandem with me on). One of the Colwell residents suggested a Magnolia, which I tried to get agreed, but apparently Magnolias are too big for that space. The two stumps on Melbourne between Colwell and Blackwater were going to be replaced with a smaller cherry specimen called Sunset Boulevard, but the one near Colwell is now cancelled because a resident objected, so we're going to try it out down by Blackwater to see how it works out in a narrow space. The two stumps further down Melbourne towards EDG are going to be replaced with the original Chestnut species as the pavement is wide enough, so we'll hopefully retain the Victorian "grove" character to a certain extent. Then, on the other side of Melbourne towards Grove Vale, there are two Yoshino cherries in the avenue there which were hit by lorries and both of them are going to be replaced with Yoshinos to maintain the Japanese cherry avenue. Also, FYI, three of the plane trees on Lordship Lane (which were also damaged by lorries and wind) are going to be replaced with plane trees to maintain the avenue theme... there is a fourth one that needs to be replaced but I think we might have to wait another year for funding. There's loads more information, I'll try to update better in the future...! Am also open to comments. Passiflora... I'm working in tandem with a resident near Sunray on keeping the character of the street trees going there as well. If you Google Friends of Sunray Gardens (which has recently been relaunched), you can get in touch with the chair and then we can campaign to get some of those street trees replanted as well. We're trying to form a network of residents who can work together, as unity tends to help overcome frustrating highway regulations, so will keep in touch on that as well. Let me know if anyone wants to know anything else... you can see discussions on Twitter as well.

Ah, thanks for letting us know, I've been keeping my eye on it but haven't been down there today... there has been a series of discussions about this over the months. The tree and the memorial are separate, albeit interacting (as we try to do whenever possible). I had a Foxglove tree planted there a few years ago as an experiment to replace the previous dead tree when I was a councillor and then the Dulwich Society applied for a CGS bid for the bench and plaque, so it all fit together (FYI, Conways implemented the granite setts around the tree and bench for free to make the area more useable and visually enhanced). Just as the Foxglove was really beginning to look amazing over the past couple of years (the purple blossoms are spectacular, hence our decision to plant one in this prime location), the tree suddenly died at the beginning of last spring. We think the road junction works in the Village and the subsequent salting of the pavements during the snow was too much for the fragile tree to cope with. After we gave the tree a chance to see if it would re-establish over the summer, the council's tree officer agreed to replant another Foxglove in the spring of 2019. But the shopkeepers campaigned in discussions with the Dulwich Estate to have a large specimen spruce Christmas tree planted there which would still have the bench and plaque set up around it, but could be decorated at Christmas to give the area around the parade character. But after objections from other residents, the Dulwich Estate cancelled the spruce due to the memorial bench (which I don't think they realised would be reinstated), so I arranged a meeting last week between the shopkeepers and the council tree officer, as technically this is Southwark Council's land and the Estate don't have the final say. But, after a technical discussion on site, the traders agreed to keep with a new Foxglove to be planted in the spring... but it transpired that there was going to be a Christmas event in this location on Dec 2nd, which was just before the tree was meant to be cut down, and they wanted to put lights in the tree for Christmas. So the tree officer agreed to have the tree cut down at the end of November, but it sounds like the council felling team had a slot today...? The idea is that the traders will insert a live Christmas tree into the trunk of the felled tree trunk and decorate that in order to circumvent council contractor time constraints. FYI, the bench was removed some time ago in preparation for the felling and will be reinstated after the new tree is planted, but synchronising everything is difficult due to council contractor schedules. BTW, I had another Foxglove planted on the grass verge next to Gail's to visually bookend that section of the Village where the dead Foxglove will be replanted, so that there will be continuity to the landscaping. This is probably more information than you wanted to know... but there's quite a complex planting scheme that has been developed in the Village and East Dulwich over the past decade (starting with the avenue of plane trees in Lordship Lane), some of which have been noted in books and magazines as this makes Dulwich unique. I have been liaising with local councillors over the years so that they are aware of the bigger picture and post on this forum when I have time, and have set up a group of residents to help me water the new specimens during the droughts... you can often see me walking around with my Red Bucket.

I was working with Monica on this, but the key we have is old and doesn't fit all the noticeboards. The best thing to do is to contact the ward councillors, assuming you're in Goose Green ward... it looks like Charlie Smith has been doing a good job keeping the noticeboards updated. The council admin are utterly hopeless in these matters, which is why some of us keep trying to put together a community group to work together.

It's good to see that these local police community meetings are being launched in a convenient East Dulwich location. With all the concerns about burglaries and moped crimes in the area, I hope that residents will attend tonight to meet the new team and voice their concerns to the local police. In the past, I've heard senior police officers say that no one ever complains or reports crime in East Dulwich, so they assume that nothing is happening down here... whereas residents say there's no point as the police don't listen. So I really hope that residents begin to attend these community meetings and speak out in person!

The other problem with diverting the 40 away from London Bridge is that this current route also makes it easier for residents in Dulwich to get to the council's main office in Tooley Street for planning and licensing meetings, as well as meetings with council officers. The 40's route up Lordship Lane straight to London Bridge, without having to change buses, is far more reliable and economical than using the trains or ping-ponging bus routes. So, those of us in the south of the borough will suffer most... especially since we don't have any council offices or meeting facilities down here (and Peckham is another nightmare to get to by bus). On one hand the council keeps saying that they want to get Dulwich/East Dulwich residents out of their cars but, on the other hand, public transportation is becoming increasingly more obtuse.

John and I were working on quite a lot of community projects together, which is why I was in the loop. I was trying to talk him into becoming the chair of a proper East Dulwich community group, which residents have never been able to permanently pull off (the East Dulwich Society was a bit of a red herring). One of our campaigns was to convince the council to turn the (now empty) council property at 22 Lordship Lane into a community hub with a community meeting room, a basic police office, and a council housing office so that residents wouldn't have to traipse all the way to Peckham on the appalling bus services. As noted above, he was planning to retire, whereupon he'd have more time to commit to community work... he was already cutting back his hours, handing over to Miranda. Miranda has now taken over the shop completely, so I hope all of you will introduce yourselves to her and give her your support. (Apologies for naming names in public, but I really appreciate what she's doing and genuinely want to help.) A silver birch tree, to match John's hair, would be an amusing tribute... but a lot of people are allergic to Birches, so they tend not to be used as high footfall shopping parade trees. Part of me is thinking of planting a Foxglove (Paulownia) as we did for the round bench memorial for Mark Evison in Dulwich Village, but this tree was recently murdered by the salting of the pavement during the cold winter, so we need to think about it. Unfortunately, this treepit isn't on the current tree planting list, but I'm not sure why not, so I'm having to bug the tree officer to get it agreed before we can choose a species. Will keep updating!

Thanks for all of your input and support regarding the tree idea. FYI, I've flagged it with the council's tree officer with a view towards having something planted in the spring. I'm not sure what species yet... although Lordship Lane has a distinctive plane avenue (which I planted with one of the very first CGS budgets), we may be able to plant something more distinctive. Let me know if you have any specific ideas as I'm working on some possibilities to discuss with the officer. I don't think we'll be able to mount a plaque on the tree itself, due to council protocol and vandalism probabilities, but let's try to do something special... Will stay in touch!

Another way to help with this would be to request that the council Community Wardens do more frequent patrols in the area, separate to the reduced local police teams. It would help if several of you contacted the relevant local ward councillor or else reported to the council's 7525 5777 anti social behaviour number (which channels information into SASBU), giving relevant times and locations so that extra Warden patrols can be coordinated. A higher visible presence from various authorities will almost certainly simply displace the activities but, as long as people keep reporting, the patrols can also be varied and redirected. With the issues of budget cuts, there isn't one solution to everything... but getting the right hand and the left hand to coordinate resources can sometimes help.

I worked quite closely with John on some stuff, so I was in the loop, but was asked not to go public as the family needed the space. I've been trying to think of a suitable way to remember him and have come up with the idea of planting a special tree on the pavement across the street from the book shop, where the previous plane tree was removed after being hit by a car. Am speaking to tree officers about this, so let me know what you guys think and I'll try to keep you all updated so that you can say hi to The John Tree every time you walk by.

Argh. My favourite horse is called Excalibur... I really wish I could have met you guys!

OMG, singalto... it's a shame you didn't get someone to point me out to you when you were there, as I could have at least updated you and introduced you to our local team. Apparently the horse transport box broke down in the morning, so they couldn't attend. The PC who worked for weeks to organise this event got a last minute phone call at 10.15am cancelling the horses, so we were all gutted. Rocky the police dog and the response motorbike were new, though, and a great success. Plus, the police cadets and the council community wardens attended, as well.

When we did the Roadwatch monitoring on Barry Road a couple of years ago over a period of months, we noticed that the speeds and locations changed over the time of day and time of year. It was definitely faster down the hill towards the Rye, although the signalled junction of Barry and Lordship has been dangerous and dysfunctional for years (last week I actually spoke to an engineer replacing a damaged signal light that had been bent over by a car running into it). The council put down speed measuring cables on the road at the top of Barry for the Quietway assessment, which is the best way of measuring speeding over a period of time... but I'm not sure if they did the whole road. The purpose of our original Roadwatch monitoring was specifically to get the council to put down the wires along the whole length of Barry Road by highlighting the problem sections with police witnesses. Having said that, the highway engineer cited in my link above has come up with possibly the best way of addressing the speeding, without using speed humps that will cause the usual noise and vibration problems or average speed cameras won't work because of the stopping and starting nature of the road. But there will be a loss of parking as a result of these proposed measures... so residents will have to decide whether they want to control the speeding (and also prioritise pedestrians) or lose a bit of parking. This is what will be consulted on in the autumn, which I think is a really productive way forward.

That's half the battle, singalto... maybe the solution is to have a variety of different types of police events over the year, that appeal to different age groups? My problem is that I love the police horses, which I'm guessing most Normal People aren't that bothered about... part of the joy of living near the old police stables in ED was seeing the horses trotting by my house twice a day.

Yes, SNT stands for Safer Neighbourhood Team... it's the old name for our local ward based officers. They're now called DWOs, for Dedicated Ward Officers, but I can't get used to the new name. The purpose of the events is partly to reach out to young people early on, in a strategy to encourage communication later on in student life, and also to make contact with concerned residents who feel frustrated at the way reporting crime concerns has become so restricted. The team also holds regular Contact Sessions at the Dulwich Leisure Centre, listed on the team's Met webpage. We tried to reach more adults within a week or so notice, and even older student persons, but the resources were restrictive. Ironically, the pensioners mostly came from some of the housing estates that we tried to reach out to. And, yes, the timing during lunchtime before August Bank Holiday Weekend was extremely challenging, but everyone saw it as a useful experiment as this sort of thing usually tends not to happen in East Dulwich, so it was better than nothing... they've done it next to the cafe in Dulwich Park, they're doing it next Friday afternoon in Burgess Park and later on in Camberwell Green, which I expect will get better attendance as everyone will be back from holidays and both locations are more visible/high profile. Also, weekends are more difficult for police to attend due to more intense crime intervention patrols, so we need to find a compromise on timing. One of the next local steps will be to form a residents public police Panel to meet every 3-4 months in the ward to have more direct engagement. I personally still think we need a council supported "community hub" with a local police office, a local housing office outlet, and a community meeting room on Lordship Lane...

I hear what you're saying, singalto... a few pensioners came later on, and I specifically introduced them to our local police team and the local councillor so that they could discuss some of their concerns... but it would have been good to have done more. The local SNT are liaising with the councillors to order some crime prevention items with CGS funds, so I'm thinking that a table with bits and pieces to handout/discuss might be good in the future. Any other suggestions would be appreciated...

Shame I didn't get to meet you, Foxy. There were loads of residents between 11am and noon, then everyone seemed to go off to lunch. The horses sadly cancelled at the last minute but Rocky the Police Dog arrived around 12.45 and did some searching demonstrations. The Police Cadets were there and the response motorcycle was popular. Our local ward councillor/past Mayor, Charlie Smith, attended so I was able to introduce residents to both the local SNT and a local councillor so that they could discuss concerns. It was quite a good experiment and we're in discussions about doing it again, maybe in the autumn or in the spring, but possibly changing the time to mid afternoon. If anyone has any suggestions, please let us know...

Our specific GG SNT (PC Mike Hughes, PC Tibor Fodor, and PCSO Teresa Staples) covers Goose Green ward, but we are now twinned with the Peckham Rye ward Sergeant (Sgt Helen Williamson), who will hopefully attend, so there is a useful overlap. Officers and residents/councillors from the three Dulwich wards have been invited, so this is hopefully a general overlap there as well. Plus, senior officers who oversee the borough have indicated that they will try to attend and the South Joint Enforcement Team covers the whole south of the borough. Also, general Traffic officers and Public Order officers have been invited, but attendance depends on availability. Plus cross-borough dogs and horses...

Brilliant! If you figure out who I am, please say hi and introduce yourself, as I've had lots of interesting discussions with people on this forum, but I have no idea who any of you are...

Reading all of the recent threads on the forum about concerning activities, I just wanted to remind everyone that our new Local Safer Neighbourhood Police Team will be available at Goose Green tomorrow for three hours around lunchtime (11am-2pm). As we don't have a local police office and the 101 number takes so long to answer, it's very difficult to have regular direct contact with our local officers. So, I'm hoping that residents will be able to attend the event to make contact with our new team in person, with a view towards discussing local concerns and setting up easier ways to stay in touch in the future. The police horses and the police dogs are scheduled to attend, which is meant to make the event more fun, but the most important aspect is to introduce our new Goose Green SNT to local residents. I can see that a thread about this event was moved to the What's On section, but I hope that we can have a discussion about how we can positively interact and support our local officers within a system that's suffering from budget cuts.

Everyone should report plant thefts to the local police or 101... you can try to do it online, but I find the Met website dysfunctional. This is a common pattern that's been going around for years now - a previous local sergeant used to call the thieves The Flowerpot Men. They steal residents' plants and then sell them at pop up plant stalls (sometimes as far away as Chelsea). As soon as one area becomes aware, The Flowerpot Men simply move to another area. I tend to keep ugly plants outside my house, which no one would want to buy... The main reasons for everyone to report in tandem are a) once the police are aware that The Flowerpot Men are back, they can request night car patrols from the burglary unit. b) the police have actually found the plants in the past, so if they have a list of residents who have reported, they'll contact them to view the stash in order to reclaim plants that match the description of the stolen items. The thefts usually stop when I've posted this message on the Forum in the past...