Goose Green councillors - how can we help?

[CPR Dave]

I guess this guy has given up on the forum.

[first mate]

He has much more important things to do. Probably in Liverpool right now.

[ed_pete]

James - there was a serious car crash on East Dulwich Grove on Sunday (28th) morning, so serious that it required the fire service cut open one of the vehicles to remove the driver and the to road to be closed for several hours. In addition to the two cars involved I saw damage to two others that were parked nearby. I've no idea of the cause but I live fairly close by and I did hear a loud bang so imagine speed was involved.

One of the cars ended up on the pavement which could have seriously injured or worse any pedestrians that had been there at the time.

As a person that frequently cycles and walks along this road I am often concerned about the speed that a small minority of car drivers travel, in spite of the raised platforms that are present.

Are you aware of any plans to look at schemes to force traffic to travel more slowly and/or penalise those that don't ?

 

James - another accident on EDG this afternoon. Not sure what happened exactly but walked past a car (BMW ?) that was opposite JAGS heading towards the junction with Red Post Hill, completely upside down on its roof. Looks like it hit a tree a speed as a nearby tree was looking quite damaged. Police in attendance and no other vehicles that I could see involved.

East Dulwich Grove is becoming increasingly dangerous - this is two serious incidents in the space of 6 weeks,

What action are councillors taking ?

[CPR Dave]

They are painting a bicycle lane in at Dulwich Village Square which should solve all problems henceforth, forever.

[heartblock]

East Dulwich Grove doesn't matter to Southwark Council as 'not residential' and 'not a neighbourhood'. I think the money spent on Dulwich Square to allow for Morris Dancing and Victoria Sandwich competitions will help make ED Grove a much safer street for pedestrians, cyclists and the 'non-neighbourly' residents.

[CPR Dave]

Hello James, just following up on my query from September.

Do you happen to know whether Southwark Council engages the services of J Devine Civil Engineering (or Devine Group Civil Engineering) at all please?

Many thanks

[malumbu]

There is a thread about problems with a builder, councillor. Are you a conduit with trading standards. I expect since local authority finances were decimated during the unjustified programme of austerity it is difficult to speak to TS directly. In a former life I used to do this a lot.

Feel free to contact the resident directly on the thread.

[CPR Dave]

Our local councillors don't seem to engage with anyone locally at all any more on any forum. 

They've given up here, their newsletter hasn't been updated for many months, you never see them in the area and it makes me wonder they actually do for us at all.

I wish we still had James Barber looking out for us tbh 

[vladi]

12 minutes ago, CPR Dave said:

Our local councillors don't seem to engage with anyone locally at all any more on any forum. 

They've given up here, their newsletter hasn't been updated for many months, you never see them in the area and it makes me wonder they actually do for us at all.

I wish we still had James Barber looking out for us tbh 

Sure, they only come out of hiding in the run up to council elections and I agree with you, James Barber did an amazing job as a Councillor.

Please come back James!

[Penguin68]

13 hours ago, vladi said:

Sure, they only come out of hiding in the run up to council elections and I agree with you, James Barber did an amazing job as a Councillor.

Please come back James!

I'm afraid that's not his choice, but the electorate's (and his party's in choosing him as a candidate, should he care even to stand). We have the council we have locally not because of any local issues (really) but because of things like Brexit and Covid response and not liking Boris Johnson and hating the Tories. Whilst we vote locally on national issues you can understand why councillors too don't care about local issues (we don't, in the ballot box) - they care about their own political careers (which, to be fair, James did as well as he tried to move from local to national influence at the last but several General Elections). To get on in the Southwark Labour Party really not caring at all about the posh nobs in Dulwich and what they want is actually a requirement!

Edited June 24, 2023 by Penguin68

[malumbu]

Penguin I bet you'd be an excellent councillor.  And several more who are active on this forum.  I've had a few friends who have done this, mainly Labour, and they've done a lot of good things for their communities.  Even after standing down they've continued supporting the community through volunteering, acting as Trustees to schools and charities and the like.  I'm trying to look on the bright side, not always that easy, but I think this is a great outlook on life.

[Pugwash]

Councillors used to have their surgeries at set times in various premises throughout ED. East Dulwich Community Centre used to be one such venue, but the councillors decided in 2021/22  to stop this and hold 'street surgeries'. I believe Friern Rd was the last surgery but have yet to meet anyone who attended.

 

[Rockets]

The councillors are in a difficult position and have definitely taken a step back in terms of communication and engagement with their constituents but who can blame them - they created a big issue for themselves and they are politicians so they don't like to be held accountable. They all (bar Rahda Burgess) backed the controversial  Streetspace/LTN measures when they were first announced and many doubled-down and backed them despite many of their constituents being negatively affected by them and opposing them. It felt very much like a three-line whip from the powers that be and I am sure many councillors could see the negative impact the measures were having on constituents but were unable to speak their mind.

 

In the same way they used covid as the smokescreen to roll out the measures they used it as the reason not to formally engage with constituents or give constituents a platform to voice their views - councillors were happy to embrace arms-length politics because it allowed them to try to control the narrative - some would wholeheartedly endorse the views of the most rabid supporters of the measures but block and deposition anyone who dared to question them and they could because they knew constituents no longer had the platform to engage,

 

Meanwhile opposition parties would be more than happy to engage to try to create a platform but being in opposition is easy - it's when you occupy the seat that things get more difficult.

 

And post Covid the arms-length politics has stuck. Cllr McAsh, to his credit, did try to engage on here but you could see it was a thankless task and I suspect when this forum was re-birthed he took the decision not to engage via it. And why wouldn't he - as Cllr Rose found out being the figurehead of a controversial programme comes at a huge political, and no doubt personal, cost

 

And this is not isolated to this issue in this area - unfortunately politics is becoming so polarised that national, regional and local politics are all heading the same way - only engage via carefully curated and approved channels and do everything you can to avoid having to meet the people you represent.

 

Or maybe there is even a more cynical angle which is, and may go to explain why people are saying there are no longer councillor newsletters etc, councillors are only ever present when they want your vote and they don't need your vote right now! You can probably expect to see and hear from them as we head towards the Mayoral elections next year when they will be encouraged to rally support for Sadiq Khan.

[first mate]

I think there is an element of decreasing accountability.
 

For instance, Cllr McAsh gave his word that only ED streets that wanted CPZ would get CPZ. Quite how this will sit with Cllr Rose' announcement in the last scrutiny session of a borough-wide rollout of CPZ, remains to be seen. With these apparent contradictions in mind, it is little wonder Cllrs prefer not to engage with local forums.