Goose Green councillors - how can we help?

[katanita]

Dear Councillors,

There seems to be very little information about the paid-for garden waste bag scheme. There is no mention of this at all on the leaflets that were sent out. I can see no mention on the main page about garden waste on the Southwark website, and have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the FAQs before it appears. https://www.southwark.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/garden-waste-collection-subscriptions?chapter=2 This copy says you can order bags from the main website, but there is no apparent way to do this from the front page of the site, nor any information about how to book a collection. Is there a reason that this is so hidden? Or am I missing something?

Please can this be clarified here and on the website with more detailed information about how this scheme works and a working link to order them or book a pick up? I would also like to know if the Southwark bags I have already for garden waste will still be able to be used for this or whether they are now useless and I have to order more. I will have a bag ready to go soon and don't much fancy trying to cycle to the waste recycling centre with it.

Many thanks

[jamesmcash]

Hi all

Thanks for all your comments and questions. Let me try to respond to them.

Garden waste

Funding of public services

I believe that public services should be provided universally, free at the point of use and funded through progressive taxation. So I have a huge amount of sympathy for anyone who disagrees with the introduction of a collection charge. Unfortunately, I think that this is probably the least-bad option available to us given the dire state of local government funding after a decade of austerity.

Environmental impact

It is true that if people stop using the garden waste collection and instead put the waste in the landfill, this will have a negative environmental impact. However, this has to be weighed against potential positives:

- More efficient routes - the council currently visits many properties who do not use the service, with the charge the council will only visit subscribers

- Greater uptake of composting

There will also be a push to increase food waste collection. For instance, there is an ongoing trial into providing these bins for blocks of flats.

I will push for the council to evaluate the environmental impact of the policy and practice.

Vehicles

There is longer term pending waste legislation requiring the council to collect food and garden waste seperately and send them off to different disposal routes. However, initially the food and garden waste collections will be done by the same vehicles.

Food waste

If you currently use the food waste collection service you will not need to do anything different.

Collections

Both food waste and garden waste will be collected weekly. This may be on a different day for some residents but if so you will be informed of this change.

Paper sacks

It will still be possible to arrange for garden waste to be collected from the paper sacks provided by the council. The sacks will cost ?15 for 20. Collections will be free but have to be arranged. As far as I know anyone with existing paper sacks will continue to be able to use these but I am going to check this for certain. It should be possible to order the new ones from June.

People using neighbour?s bins

I do not know of this being a significant issue elsewhere but if it does happen here then please let me know and I will look into it.

Stickers

I am not sure when the stickers will arrive but if you have any issue with the bins not being collected after you have paid for them please do let me know and I will chase it up.

CPZ

Time of operation

In the smaller ?East Dulwich Grove? area proposed by me and my fellow councillors (not the ?Melbourne Grove? area proposed by the council officers, see previous posts above for distinction) there is a clear majority for an all day CPZ.

Prioritising views of residents regarding their own roads

The consultation asked residents if they want a CPZ on their road. It is true that it could have instead asked if residents want a CPZ in their wider area. I can see the case for the latter: it is undoubtedly true that the impact of a CPZ is felt beyond its boundaries. Nonetheless, I think the method the council adopted is preferable because it allows us to design a bespoke area which suits the maximum number of people.

Impact on Lordship Lane

A significant number of respondents to the consultation raised concerns regarding the impact of a CPZ on Lordship Lane?s businesses. We councillors listened to this and that influenced our decision to recommend the shrink the size of the proposed zone so that the vast majority of streets used by Lordship Lane customers will be unaffected.

East Dulwich station

The number of journeys started or ended at East Dulwich station has quadrupled over the past twenty years. It would have been hard for residents to have predicted this when choosing to live there.

Access to consultation data

The street-by-street data will be made publicly available as part of the final report, on which Cllr Livingstone will make his final decision.

(Ed_pete: I think you misread my sentence yourself actually! Perhaps you read ?than? as ?that?. Thanks anyway though, I have definitely made typos on here in the past! )

Pavement slabs

I am not sure how much has been spent on pavement slabs in Goose Green. There is a process for working out which pavement slabs should be replaced based on an evaluation of their deterioration and a calculation of how often they are used. I have on a few occasions had people ask me to arrange for some pavement to be replaced. This is the first time I have ever had someone complain that the pavements are too nice or too new!

If anyone has any issues with a particular bit of pavement please let me know by email with a photo and an address.

I hope that this answers your questions.

Best wishes

James

[Rockets]

James,

I not sure anyone complained about the paving slabs - perhaps you misinterpreted the post.

Numerous times you have posted on here (in defence of raising revenues via a CPZ) that the council has lost central government funding and now has to raise revenues by other means to protect essential services - yet at the same time the council manages to find money to replace huge swaths of paving slabs across the wards. And these are not one or two slabs but whole streets - take a walk around the area next time you are here to see for yourself - we received notification that our street will be having the works done in a couple of weeks.

Could you find out how much has been spent on this project that Conway is executing on behalf of the council?

[katanita]

Thank you for answering on garden waste bags James. It would be good if details about this service were more prominent on the council website, including whether we can use existing bags.

On a related note, what do we do with our food bags from next week? I have yet to receive the new caddy and it sounds like others haven't received theirs yet either?

[jamesmcash]

Dear Rockets and Katanita

Katanita - I agree, it's not as clear as it should be. It took me a fair while to work out the answer to everyone's questions.

Can you email me with your name and address? I will look into where your food waste bin is and see if I can hurry it along.

Rockets - email me with your name and address and I will look into the pavement works on your street, find out why they are being done, and look into how much they cost. I appreciate that you are making a more general political point but if in addition there are any concerns with how the roadwork are being carried out then do make sure you note that too.

Best wishes

James

[first mate]

Katanita,

You are not alone. Having paid ?25 for the new garden waste service, I have yet to hear anything that makes sense about delivery of brown bin and sticker. James Barber posted that they will take 60 days to arrive. Surely this is not true?

James ( McAsh) Is there any clarity on when the bins and sticker will be delivered and until then what happens to garden waste collection for those, like me, who have paid up for the service?

[rollflick]

At this rate the government's proposed ban on garden waste charges will have come in by the time we get the stickers! see: https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,2016023,2034657#msg-2034657

With Southwark now having the 2nd highest number of reported garden waste fly tipping in the whole of the UK, wonder how much worse it will get? https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/high-numbers-of-london-residents-illegally-dumping-garden-waste-a4138031.html

So a right mess on the garden waste as well as the CPZ plans, definitely living in a 'you could not make this up' borough.

[ed_pete]

James - so you originally said that the street-by-street CPZ data couldn't be made public because of "due to data protection concerns." Now you say it is to be included in the final report. I don't get this. It looks as though you are deliberately withholding information that will be released after the recommendation has been made so that you can make your argument unchallenged.

It's also interesting that your recommendation of the "East Dulwich Grove Area" rather than the "Melbourne Grove Area" was made partly on the basis that "it contains a group of roads where most residents oppose controlled parking", to quote your article in SE22 magazine. You have yet to demonstrate the group of roads west of the Melbourne Grove / EDG junction have a majority in favour. As I have said before, in that area we have a group of roads where we have 4 for, 6 against and 4 undecided. Hardly a majority.

[jamesmcash]

Hi ed_pete

I am not a data protection expert so I do not know exactly why these data have not yet been released. The version I have is in a different format to that which has been used for the final report for previous consultations so that might be something to do with it. As I say, you will get the figures eventually though.

Best wishes

James

[ed_pete]

James - I'm not looking for a conspiracy but this really stinks from my perspective.

The street-by-street data was available for the collation of the consultation report but someone must have decided it shouldn't be included. No reason creditable reason has been given. It was made available to yourself and the other councillors and you have used it to make your recommendations. Concerns about data protection were used as an excuse for not releasing the information to the public to enable them to counter your proposals, concerns that must now be seen as false on the basis that this information - though we do not know in what form - will be included in Richard Livingstone's final report.

[TheArtfulDogger]

James

Having dealt with data protection for many years in various guises, the rules are that individuals can not be identified by the data released but summarised views of anonymous data can be released.(this is also true for councillors who should not be able to identify individuals in the data they see)

For example this allows for a street by street summary of how the responses stack up, but not how an individual responded.

As ed_pete points out, this does raise concerns that the council are using the data to support their argument, and not allowing the public access to the same summary data to allow counter arguments to be put forward.

[Rockets]

James,

The paving replacement works have been taking place along the length of Goodrich Road and have now reached the junction with Hillcourt Road.

[Abe_froeman]

James, is the redacted data in the final CPZ report going to be the same data you privately sent to select individuals or will it be different?

[AylwardS]

Abe_froeman if I?ve understood correctly the CPZ data publicly available is in the report, Cllr McNash has other data but has not shared it. Its unclear what the final data will be, from experience dealing with Councils I?d say that will depend on the person putting it together.

In his post on 1 May (page 13) Cllr McNash said

??I can see why the post from ed_moots (23 April, page 12) made you think that I have shared the dataset with others but I can assure you that all I shared there were the handful of percentages included in their post above. As far as I know, the only people with access to the full dataset are the councillors and council officers.?

Looks like there is at least another month before any more will be known. The decision, to go to formal consultation, has been published in the forward plan for July. http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=50020432&Opt=0 Until the associated papers are published there?ll be no more information available.

[MarkT]

James, on the subject of the Council?s plan to introduce a borough-wide CPZ:

May 6 I quoted Southwark?s Local Implementation Plan, dated October 2018

?? To enable us to better manage limited space, we will introduce more Controlled Parking Zones with the aim of covering the whole borough by 2025.?

May 15th, you responded:

MarkT and TheArtfullDogger

Thanks for raising this with me. I have looked it into and am still confused by the reference in this document. Cllr Livingstone is looking into it further but assures me that nothing borough-wide is currently planned. Looking at trends across London and other major cities, it is believed that demand for controls will increase over the coming decades but that is not consistent with the 2025 date you quoted. I will find out more and let you know.

Hi MarkT

Just realised that the document you linked was a consultation document and not the final version. The final version includes no reference to 2025 and instead talks about a general strategy to reduce car use by 13% by 2041.

James,

I see now that you are correct in that the document I had previously quoted was the draft and not the final version.

Southwark?s Local Implementation Plan 3 Final March 2019, states on page 25,

Mission 4 Reduce Traffic - How ? ?Introduce Borough wide CPZ?

So, Cllr Livingstone assures you that nothing borough-wide is planned.

So, you apparently read the relevant section in the final version, noted the removal of the 2025 date, but you did not confirm the retention of the words ?Introduce Borough wide CPZ?.

So, between the draft plan published in October 2018, and the final version published in March 2019, the Council carried out an elaborate ?consultation? on local CPZs, promising selective introduction, while the outcome is already determined by the Local Implementation Plan to introduce a Borough wide CPZ.

James, in your responses above, you focussed on the date of 2025, which is of course irrelevant to our line of inquiry. The relevant fact, which is now clear to me, if not to you and Cllr Livingstone, that Southwark Council Plans to introduce a Borough-wide CPZ.

[Abe_froeman]

Unbelievable.

[Penguin68]

Unbelievable.

Inevitable

https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,2015611,2027910#msg-2027910

[singalto]

If I understand correctly the government wants to ban garden waste collection charges so why is Southwark spending loads on stickers and caddies ( which they don?t, in fact, have)? I have paid my ?25 but like everyone else I have no sticker or caddie!

[first mate]

I assume that James McAsh will clarify what, on the face of it, looks to be an appalling shambles. Does this mean the consultations have been a waste of time - not to mention money- or are they necessary to trigger a borough-wide CPZ?

MarkT Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> James, on the subject of the Council?s plan to

> introduce a borough-wide CPZ:

>

> May 6 I quoted Southwark?s Local Implementation

> Plan, dated October 2018

> ?? To enable us to better manage limited space, we

> will introduce more Controlled Parking Zones with

> the aim of covering the whole borough by 2025.?

>

> May 15th, you responded:

> MarkT and TheArtfullDogger

> Thanks for raising this with me. I have looked it

> into and am still confused by the reference in

> this document. Cllr Livingstone is looking into it

> further but assures me that nothing borough-wide

> is currently planned. Looking at trends across

> London and other major cities, it is believed that

> demand for controls will increase over the coming

> decades but that is not consistent with the 2025

> date you quoted. I will find out more and let you

> know.

>

> Hi MarkT

> Just realised that the document you linked was a

> consultation document and not the final version.

> The final version includes no reference to 2025

> and instead talks about a general strategy to

> reduce car use by 13% by 2041.

>

> James,

> I see now that you are correct in that the

> document I had previously quoted was the draft and

> not the final version.

>

> Southwark?s Local Implementation Plan 3 Final

> March 2019, states on page 25,

> Mission 4 Reduce Traffic - How ? ?Introduce

> Borough wide CPZ?

>

> So, Cllr Livingstone assures you that nothing

> borough-wide is planned.

>

> So, you apparently read the relevant section in

> the final version, noted the removal of the 2025

> date, but you did not confirm the retention of the

> words ?Introduce Borough wide CPZ?.

>

> So, between the draft plan published in October

> 2018, and the final version published in March

> 2019, the Council carried out an elaborate

> ?consultation? on local CPZs, promising selective

> introduction, while the outcome is already

> determined by the Local Implementation Plan to

> introduce a Borough wide CPZ.

>

> James, in your responses above, you focussed on

> the date of 2025, which is of course irrelevant to

> our line of inquiry. The relevant fact, which is

> now clear to me, if not to you and Cllr

> Livingstone, that Southwark Council Plans to

> introduce a Borough-wide CPZ.

[Borderlands]

Just seen the correspondence on this.

Rang Southwark Council "customer services" and they said to obtain paper garden waste bags I needed to send an email to [email protected]. I did this in the full knowledge that this will be completely pointless. Why didn't someone proof-read the webpage and notice there was no link to place an order + payment?

And why do we have to ring up to then arrange a special collection? Does this mean paper bags can't be picked up at the same time that garden waste in big brown bins are collected from my neighbours?

I've paid the ?25 but I really can't see why I can't just leave any garden waste bags I've filled up in the way I have done for the past few years (having bought the bags from a commercial online supplier). Why is a special phone call needed for the one or two bags I might fill in a month? Idiotic.

Are you listening Southwark Council? I don't want or need another huge unsightly plastic bin to add to the pavement clutter that already exists. What is to be done?

katanita Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Dear Councillors,

>

> There seems to be very little information about

> the paid-for garden waste bag scheme. There is no

> mention of this at all on the leaflets that were

> sent out. I can see no mention on the main page

> about garden waste on the Southwark website, and

> have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the

> FAQs before it appears.

> https://www.southwark.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/ga

> rden-waste-collection-subscriptions?chapter=2 This

> copy says you can order bags from the main

> website, but there is no apparent way to do this

> from the front page of the site, nor any

> information about how to book a collection. Is

> there a reason that this is so hidden? Or am I

> missing something?

>

> Please can this be clarified here and on the

> website with more detailed information about how

> this scheme works and a working link to order them

> or book a pick up? I would also like to know if

> the Southwark bags I have already for garden waste

> will still be able to be used for this or whether

> they are now useless and I have to order more. I

> will have a bag ready to go soon and don't much

> fancy trying to cycle to the waste recycling

> centre with it.

>

> Many thanks

[jamesmcash]

Dear all

Thanks for your comments and questions.

Garden waste

There has been an ICT issue which has led to a delay in the distribution of stickers. They will be sent out next week. There is a grace period before collections cease so this should not affect anyone.

I am still chasing up information about the bags. Sorry it is taking so long!

Data for CPZ consultation

AylwardS is right - I have not shared the dataset with anyone. A fuller picture of the data will be available when the final report is released next month.

Borough-wide CPZ

The Southwark Local Implementation Plan 3 states that the council wants to reduce trips made by car/motorbike to 13% by 2041. It further states that introducing a borough-wide CPZ would be a means of achieving this. Personally, I do not think that this is necessary. I think that the council's current policy - to be led by requests from local people - is the right one. But there are 22 years (and 5 local elections!) to discuss this before we reach that deadline.

Of course, there are definitely some people who would like to see this happen and want to see it sooner. I am not one of them though - and I will continue to argue in favour of existing policy

Rockets - Please email me with your name and address, and if you are in Goose Green I will be happy to take on this casework. If not, I will pass your concern onto the relevant councillors.

Best wishes

James

[jamesmcash]

How can we improve East Dulwich train station?

The government has forced Govia Thameslink Railway to introduce a ?15m fund for passenger benefit.

?30,000 will be spent on improving train stations in Southwark. East Dulwich is one of the ones on the list.

You can submit your ideas until 31st July. Just email [email protected]

Other Southwark train stations eligible are: Denmark Hill, North Dulwich, Nunhead, Peckham Rye, Queen?s Road Peckham, South Bermondsey

More information on how to submit your idea is on GTR?s website: https://www.passengerbenefitfund.co.uk/

[first mate]

Thanks for your reply James,

In regard to garden waste, some like me have paid up the ?25 but have no brown bin or sticker! At the time of signing up and paying, I asked for and ordered both a brown bin and a sticker. You say the stickers are on the way but what about the bins?

Historically I have used brown bags so I take it the waste company will continue to collect these until the mystery bins and stickers finally appear?

I have tried and failed on four separate occasions to phone into the relevant department and get any coherent explanation of what is going on or a timeframe for delivery of the bins.

Why has Southwark taken payment for a system that has not yet been properly setup and organised?

[jamesmcash]

Hi First Mate

I think your bin should arrive at the same time as the sticker. Let me know if it doesn't arrive within two weeks and I will chase it up!

Best wishes

James

[first mate]

Thanks James and fingers crossed.