legalalien

Hiya if you use the search function, I think the details are on this thread /forum/read.php?30,2203263,2208755#msg-2208755 Hope that works/ helps

I believe you apply for them through English Heritage, they have criteria you need to meet and then they consider whether to award one or not see https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/about-blue-plaques/

This document is on the agenda for the next Council Assembly meeting and although it is lengthy provides lots of interesting updates on a range of local issues https://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/documents/b50014035/Supplemental%20agenda%20no.2%20Wednesday%2023-Feb-2022%2019.00%20Council%20Assembly.pdf?T=9 For example - plans for external borrowing to fund house building programme. As I read it (para 106) the housing investment programme is currently under review, as with various new building safety requirements, green commitments and other things the forecast cost stands at ?2.5 billion over the next ten years which the council doesn?t have and it can?t afford to borrow that much. The costs of improving existing council stock and pursuing a green heat network strategy also seem to be much more expensive than originally budgeted for and being looked at (paragraphs 107 and 108). - description of various capital projects on the go and where they are at - Interesting note that opportunities are being explored to rationalise school buildings to rationalise running costs for schools, given oversupply of school spaces (interesting in light of the recent suggestion that the new Ivydale building would be removed, a proposal quickly removed when the local councillors objected,I do wonder whether it might be revived post local elections. One of the parents at Cobourg I spoke to recently said there was a widely held suspicion that the council were keen to close the school and sell / use the site - no idea if that?s true) - various line items about expenditure on School Streets, cycle hanger roll out, delays in road works outside Belham and pause of scheme at Cox?s Walk - a bid for capital to improve library IT infrastructure Lots of other things. There?s also a report on the Housing Revenue Account in this pdf document which outlines proposed increases in council rents for the 2022-23 year and associated charges if people are interested in that - around page 34-35. It gives an indication of average rents for anyone interested. Paragraph 19 gives an indication of the big hit that complying with new building / fire safety regs is going to have on Southwark?s finances - it has a lot of housing stock and quite a bit of it is high rise. All in all quite an interesting read and useful backdrop for assessing all candidates? promises when out canvassing, I think.

Determination of Objections to North Peckham Streetspace scheme. The EQIA and response in the report are an interesting read. https://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=50027107 Schemes now said to take 3-4 years to bed in.

I grew up there, yes :)

Attach a hook to something (fence, wall, stake in the ground?) and to the bin and use a bungie cord? (I tried to think of something involving number 8 wire, but failed).

Well, given Southwark?s planning policy is not to have hot food takeaways within 400m of a school, they see it as a health policy issue but don?t, as far as I can tell, have powers to close down existing takeaway businesses, you can see why they might not leap to the defence of any hot food takeaway businesses in Melbourne Grove.

Now imagining the owners deciding whether or not to put up a ?lost snake? poster in the street. :) At least you probably don?t have mice!

Got it! Based on my brief discussion with the LD chap who came to the door, I got the impression that while the LDs are in favour of LTNs generally, the local candidates have been given some scope to oppose this particular one. I'm not exactly sure what that means at a practical level, so will be interested to hear the outcome of any One Dulwich interrogation. Completely agree that the questions need to be searching and quite granular, otherwise we'll just get platitudes/ ambiguous statements that try to appeal to as many people as possible.

I don't think that One Dulwich and the Conservative Party is, as you suggest, one and the same. Undoubtedly there is and will be some overlap. If you mean the Conservative Party, just say that? Given the LTNs are a conservative-initiated policy, it's a strange situation where you can vote Conservative locally and actually be voting against Team Gilligan at Conservative HQ. So maybe voting Conservative locally is actually an anti-Boris vote :) Still not sure who I am going to vote for. Accountability I see as an individual thing, and it's very hard to tell who is going to step up to the plate until you see them in office. In terms of traffic reduction objectives, I'm more focused on "do no harm" than whether a viable plan is presented. It's quite possible that Southwark council can't, on its own, do much to fix the problem.

And let?s not forget the practice that has developed of ordering loads of clothes online, trying them on, and sending the ones you don?t want back. I don?t do this but you do see loads of people queued up at the post office seemingly returning goods.

For info, proposed changes to Bellenden Road as part of the continued roll out of the Southwark Spine. https://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=50028535 Good to see the council splitting out residents? responses from out of area responses and acknowledging the latter are likely to have been in response to Southwark Cyclists soliciting responses (which they are of course entitled to do). I suspect those responses may be a key contributor to the fairly skewed age and ethnicity profiles of respondents.

I?m on team crackdown on home deliveries. Get rid of unlimited delivery per month charges as opposed to per delivery charges for a start. The charge for each delivery should approximate the cost of that delivery.

There is a wider conversation, but this is a discussion about a specific LTN, and if this LTN doesn?t work to get people out of cars (or it works to reduce the number of trips but increases overall mileage) then it doesn?t make sense, regardless of whether alternatives are or are not available. If it does work, then the conversation is about whether the negative impact is worth it. You can?t just look at one policy aim in isolation. (Just like there was a trade off between health benefits of lockdown vs economic impact and negative health and educational effect of lockdown). Reduction in cars is not the be all and end all, there are other considerations (amenity of affected residents, air pollution - up or down, redistributed? Economic effect on local businesses, including those using cars and other vehicles for work, other effects, which include impact on those with disabilities and inconvenience to people). Is reducing car numbers the biggest priority? I throw that out there without expressing a view, but just to say that a wider conversation needs to go beyond the question of ?how else to get people out of cars?. Another interesting thing to consider is whether, given the high proportion of through traffic in the area, any reductions in traffic can be said to be down to this specific LTN configuration or could rather be down to road interventions elsewhere - and I don?t think there?s an easy way to untangle that information. If there is a traffic reduction, won?t that be down to a combination of loads of LTNs across different boroughs, but with each borough claiming that its own individual scheme is responsible. Is anyone counting the traffic crossing into Southwark from neighbouring boroughs I wonder? I don?t go into the Lounge as I fear there might be trolls in there? plus it would probably be addictive - same reason I don?t have a Twitter account or other social media. Would rather have those discussions IRL over a pint.

Thanks ex-D. The missing info from that will (I suspect- haven?t read it yet!) be about younger children (who can?t get the coach) and DPL as only a very small proportion of their pupils get the foundation school coaches - they used to have their own minibuses but not sure if they still do? I suspect parents driving younger children and to DPL are a fair proportion of school traffic. As long as parents have one ?younger? child at a Dulwich school, they tend to do the school run for all children. And then it?s the case that any children with extracurricular activities in the Dulwich area end up being driven as the coach times don?t work. So smaller catchments are a better option than more coaches, I suspect. I?ll have a read when I get a chance. In terms of their legal obligations to have their travel plans, do you know where do those stem from? Would be interested to see what the targets are and how compliance is measured.

I think the private schools could help by becoming less academically selective. They?re massively oversubscribed so there?s really no need for them to be quite so selective, at least as regards fee paying students. We currently have a situation with quite a number of local pupils being ferried to Sydenham girls, Streatham and Clapham, Croydon schools, Eltham who weren?t offered places at the more local schools. And other children coming in the other direction. It would be quite interesting to see a map of the schools? catchment areas, I wonder if it?s something Safe Routes to School have had access to or looked at. I imagine primary school aged children coming from Wandsworth make up a fair chunk of the school traffic.

I trust the evidence of my own eyes as I walk down EDG a lot. The council?s data has yet to find a real way of comparing like with like, given all the various factors that affect traffic, in my view, and given all the issues there have been with data manipulation / delays / misleading summaries and comms they?ve produced, unfortunately I?m now at the point that I don?t trust a thing they produce. I suspect many others feel the same. It?s a situation which I recognise is incredibly unhelpful, but one I think the council has created. I?m tired of having to dig through council data to try and find out what and how they?ve decided to measure things. LTN fatigue.

Heartblock - I think there are plenty of things we disagree on politically and probably some other things we do agree on but -Why do I oppose these particular LTNs - because the evidence I have read does not prove to me that pollution and traffic has been reduced by LTNs and the evidence I see on your road also informs me that traffic and congestion is now worse on your road. Can someone who knows tell me if I am hardcore or not and if so whether there are some other thoughts I am or should be thinking?

And don?t forget that Southwark has also imposed the socioeconomic duty on itself https://justfair.org.uk/southwark-council-amends-constitution-to-include-socio-economic-duty/ (Before anyone jumps in to mention any general studies, Southwark has to have regard to that duty in its own decision making. Properly, not just a mention in the decision making report to tick a box. I?m yet to be convinced that has happened). oldermum Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The possible course for further action is that it > has breached the Equalities Act by failing to > consider appropriately the needs of those who are > defined as having 'protected characteristics" > under the act. The act isn't flawless but does > include age (any age, not just the elderly) and > those with disabilities who could be thought to be > disproportionally affected because some people in > those groups will have limited mobility and won't > be able to walk for long distances, cycle and have > difficulty using public transport. There are many > other protected characteristics including gender > and race, but it is harder to see how they could > apply. Southwark has now agreed to exempt Blue > Badge holders (very strict mobility criteria - > can't walk more then 250 yards on most days), but > only those who live in Southwark. The congestion > charge is not applied to any Blue Badge holder, no > matter where they live. > There is no time like an election year to get the > interest of your local councillor. There will also > be an election within the Labour Party to decide > who succeeds Harriet Harman at some point...

Thought I had posted earlier but didn?t work, clearly. Conways are at Court / Calton this morning moving planters around to make way for ambulances etc.

Charging at Walworth bus depot it seems - this article has some other interesting info as well. With home heating charges so high I can see that a day spent on a new bus with a skylight and phone charger could be a good day out! A friend and I used to spend hours studying on a little used and well heated bus on a scenic route back in the dark ages when I was at university. https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/fleet-of-new-electric-buses-coming-to-route-63-51749/

I got mine at about 7am Saturday morning hand delivered (no envelope)

The delayed presentation/ interrogation of Cllrs Rose and Burgess about their respective portfolios is on the agenda for next Monday?s meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee https://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=7273&x=1 A good test of whether the LDs can come up with some properly incisive questions to ask - which for me is key to my vote in May. I?d like to see some properly thought out detailed questions about the whereabouts of raw data, choice of data points and presentation of data, for example.

On a related note if anyone is visited by canvassers, worth interrogating them about parking policy as well as LTNs, from earlier discussions the borough wide imposition of a CPZ is something planned but being put off until after the election. Was interested to see that the countryside charity is now also on a mission to reduce residential parking in London - even front garden parking. We have to be in compact cities to save the countryside, among other rationales. https://www.cprelondon.org.uk/news/why-boroughs-need-to-re-assess-parking-policy-now/

I think they will be moving planters and putting in cameras so that emergency services can go through. Strange they?re having to do this when the emergency services were consulted from the outset and were perfectly happy with the closures. Oh that?s right - they weren?t.