former East Dulwich councillor - how can I help?

[expat]

We see the memorial every day and it is not up to us to have it removed. We lucikly did not loose a child in the crossing! If it stops one car going to fast and/or through a red light so much the better.

[apmuso]

Found this in another thread about the hospital. Like me, wondering what the state of play is?

James Barber

In mid June you stated your intention of meeting with the head of the local NHS to find out what is happening to the hospital. Can you please update us as to any progress?

I was there this morning and came back wondering why we have to put up with facilities such as these in the UK which are in such a desperate need of rebuilding, even after a long-term and high-spending Labour government!

Thanks

gh

[Fuschia]

tfayers Wrote:

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

> I find it extremely difficult to find a parking

> space near my house (near East Dulwich Station /

> top end of lordship lane), especially during the

> daytimes. I really hope they will make the area a

> controlled parking zone (residents' parking) soon.

I hope if they do it's purely something to deter commuters from all day parking, like 11-12.

Would hate never to be able to park in that area!

[.......]

I hope it's just the top of Melbourne Grove and not the bottom. But then, if people can't park at the top, they'll just move down and it doesn't solve the problem at all.

[James Barber]

Hi apmuso,

So far I've been unableto meet the PCT. I'll keep trying.

Hi Fuschia, Squ1rr31,

Herne Hill area thwy have controlled parking zone covering noon-2pm. THat would seem to kit lunch time trade and deter friend from visits the area for lunch etc. So something like 11-12 would seem to fit the bill IF people want it. And yes some displacement would occur. Its the degree befreo they park near another station OR don't drive to our local station. Does it have the risk of creaping. Yes, I'm afraid if people near East Dulwich did want controlled parking it would have that risk of creaping as new streets experienced the problem.

[bels123]

.

[James Barber]

Hi bels123,

One way streets see a marked increase in average speeds as drivers don't have to consider cars coming the other way. Collissions go up and the severity of collissions goes up. So I'd need a lot of convincing about this.

I'm hoping you're seeing few big vans and lorries going down your road and instead sticking to main roads.

[Moos]

Moos Wrote:

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

> James, could you please advise what the agreements

> are with the bin men and recycling men in

> Southwark? On our street, no-one puts bins out

> (are we supposed to?) so the guys have to come

> into the yards and get them, but they don't put

> them back. The guys don't look as though they

> have much time, they race through the streets, so

> I can understand that asking them to put bins back

> where they find them may mess up their timetable

> but the trouble is that bins left in the middle of

> the front yard path or skewed in the street make

> it very clear twice a week whether a house is

> empty during the day. Would it be possible to

> address this security concern?

Hello James

Not sure whether my post may have been overlooked - however, if you're not the right person to be asking I'd be grateful if you could point me in the right direction.

cheers

Moos

[peckhamboy]

Just seen the comments earlier on this thread about the lights at ED station. As someone who uses both ED and Denmark Hill stations, I'm often either crossing there as a pedestrian or going through on the bus at about 8am so feel reasonably well qualified to comment from both viewpoints. As a bus user, I have never found those lights to add any significant delay to the journey since traffic is so heavy anyway. The greater delays are caused by the Sainsburys lights, which is unavoidable in my opinion since that is a 4-way junction. In any case, the Sainsburys lights clearly have different phasing at different times of the day/week which mostly seems to work reasonably well.

As a pedestrian, however, I think the suggestion of preventing a green light more frequently than every 2-3 minutes is not going to work. For starters, a lot of people walk to the station and a 3 minute delay there will often mean the difference between catching a train or not catching a train. Second, since traffic is so slow, long waits for a green man would simply lead to pedestrians taking their chances through the traffic, which would increase the risks of accidents, especially given the reduced visibility for drivers coming down the hill.

On a side note, I have several times had or witnessed near misses (whilst crossing on a green man) with cyclists coming downhill at high speed and jumping the lights. Not sure if there is anything that can be done about that, though. A small minority of cyclists will always consider themselves above the law. Maybe when there's a red light, it could trigger a "Stinger" style device on the road???

[James Barber]

Hi Moos,

Apologies I didn't see your post in this thread.

It is expected for people to put bins out ready for the bin people on collection days. Occassionally when I've forgotten this they have fetched them but I wouldn't expect them to put them back.

If the pavement is narrow I would expect the bins to be placed at the mouth of any homes footpath and be placed back there after being emptied.

Hope that answers your question.

Hi PeckhamBoy,

I made a point of stopping and watching these lights around 8am end of last week. Afraid I don't recall the day.

They are on demand and frequently used. The tail back was between 20m-200m.

I can see a delay of 5-10 seconds might help but beyond that pedestrians would lose patience and cross - which would be denagerous. Is it so bad that we must take acton immediately. Its doesn't feel like it and as it would require TfL traffic light people who have huge backlog of work....

I know one set of lights waits 46s between green phases and it is so long many people ignore the crossing. When asked why the huge delay I was amased to discover it was 'only' 46s between cycles and a lot less if not used for a while ie close to on demand. It felt like a lifetime.

[Moos]

James Barber Wrote:

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

> Hi Moos,

> Apologies I didn't see your post in this thread.

> It is expected for people to put bins out ready

> for the bin people on collection days.

> Occassionally when I've forgotten this they have

> fetched them but I wouldn't expect them to put

> them back.

> If the pavement is narrow I would expect the bins

> to be placed at the mouth of any homes footpath

> and be placed back there after being emptied.

> Hope that answers your question.

Hi, thanks for getting back to me.

I will put my bin out in future.

However, my point was more a concern with regard to the replacement of the bins. When a bin is left in the footpath of the house blocking the way to the front door, it clearly indicates that the house is empty. Should the bin men not replace bins in the storage areas, or at least tidily to the side?

[peckhamboy]

Thanks James - I think you're agreeing with me! Even when tailbacks are 200m (and I accept that traffic in the mornings often tails back almost to Goose Green), I doubt that these lights make any real difference to that As mentioned above, the primary cause appears to be the Sainsburys lights, plus the fact that there is a bend in the road by the parade of shops with parking on both sides (and frequent antisocial stopping on double yellows) that means traffic through there is reduced to a single lane whenever buses are trying to get through.

[James Barber]

Hi Moos,

When I canvass I tend to put bins carefuly to one side for that very reason but as different bin people get bins ready to those that empty them into the truck not sure what can done without significantly more resources. The Police have never suggested to me that bin days see increase in crime.

Hi peckhamboy,

Guess I do!

[James Barber]

Elephant&Castle roundabout closed from 8pm this Friday 8 October until 5am Monday 11 October.

Buses will be diverted:

Route 12 will be diverted by Kennington Park Road, Brixton Road and Camberwell New Road.

Routes 35, 40, 45, 68, 148, 171, 176, 468, P5, N35, N68, N89, N171, 343 and N343 will be diverted by New Kent Road, Rodney Place and Heygate Street.

Personally, I'll avoid the area this weekend.

[prickle]

Hi James,

I am not sure if this is something that you have been involved with before, but I would like to ask you to look into the problem of rats at St Francis park (there is a thread on this on the forum).

I walk through the park to Sainsburys almost every day and have regularly seen rats there, particularly near the shrubs around the edge of the park. I have also seen them coming out of these shrubs and on to the pavement of Dog Kennel Hill. The last straw for me was when a large rat nearly ran across my foot as I was entering the park yesterday.

I heard that the park was the responsibility of Sainsburys so I complained to the service desk there. They acknowledged the park was their's. I also logged this as an issue with Southwark pest control who also said that it was a Southwark park and hence their responsibility. But no one seems to be dealing with it!!

It is a major problem and a public health risk. I have never seen any measures for dealing with the rats and I fear that there are some nests in the undergrowth. I think the whole area going up to the adventure playground is infested as I have seen rats in there too.

I hope you can put a word in with the right people to deal with this problem.

Many thanks

[yeknomyeknom]

Hello, thanks to James for helping us to sort out a streetlight issue quickly and efficiently. Great to have someone so visible and accesable.

[James Barber]

Thompson Road new street lighting - EDF energy have caused inordinate delays but will be back on site 27 October to finish the works.

[James Barber]

Wednesday night I attended the Save the Herne Hill Velodrome meeting. It is amazing good fortune that we have a historic Velodrome on our doorsteps. So far over 3,500 people have joined the Facebook group.

The Save the Veoldrome committee went through the maths. Predicted costs of ?120,000 a year with revenue of ?70,000.

How to close that gap?

Once a way of closing that gap is identified the capital costs of resurfacing the track of ?190,000 to ?240,000 can be found and then around ?2M to fully develope the Velodrome to last another 112 years. One idea would be to pay capital to obtainthe site on a minimal peppercorn rent. That could help bridge ?15,000 of the revenue gap.

I've been really impressed with the committee, set up to save the Velodrome, and also the Dulwich Estate for its continued patience and not looking for a quick unsustainable fix. But also the huge ground swell of support. We just need to turn that ground swell into real visits now.

Six years ago the veoldrome was in a similar position but the fix was short term. I'm sure this time round everyone involved will ensure we don't fall for a short term fix again.

[James Barber]

Goose Green School has two planning applications to remodel the ground floor and develop its annexe.

Unusually as chair of the local planning committee i've emailed my support.

As the chair of the local Dulwich Community Council Planning Committee i normally chair meetings that decide local Planning Applications.

Goose Green School would be even better with these changes. they are a pre requisite for any bulge class tyhey might be able to provide next year. Holding a bulge class would potentially be the method of funding.

The changes include a kitchen enabling great school lunches to be produced.

Hopefully, the planning applications will be GRANTED. Obvsiouly I wont be able to chair or decide these applicatinos having stated a view on them.

[melbourne groover]

Hi James,

Sorry if this has been raised already but I was wondering if there were any plans to lay some matting or the like down on the formerly grassy bit on the new Goose Green playground. It seems such a shame to have it basically a mud bath for the whole of winter.

Kind regards,

Amy

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

James, any news on the chimney balloons, please?

[James Barber]

Hi Amy,

I'll find out.

The revamped playground is great but the grass hasn't lasted long.

[prickle]

Hi James,

I wondered if you had time to consider my request about rats in St Francis Park/Sainsburys. If this is not your jurisdiction, then I would be grateful if you could point me in the right direction.

Thanks

[melbourne groover]

Hi James,

That would be great.

Thanks

[James Barber]

Hi Amy,

I've had a really useful council officer response saying that turfing and topsoiling was completed to required standards. That the turf grew well before opening to the public but its had far more use than expected and his has compacted the soil and been too much for the turf.

In quiter areas the turf is doing fine but on reflection turf wont ever survive the busiest areas. Grass mat wont work on the mounds as it really needs flat areas.

So a replacement for the turf is being considered and pricing obtained for artifical grass turf on the high wear areas. A small soakaway would be needed to drain the area in the middle of the mounds.

To fund this I'm hopeful a CGS application and funding can be allocated by the local councillors or parks maintenance funding as the Phase 3 funding for this play area wont cover this without changing and reducing the spec of phase3 which isn't easy as from memory some of this comes from external sources.

I've contacted the head of parks as asked whether she can fund via maintenance funding as if it gets to muddy she'll probably have to have parts of the playground closed which could get very cmplicated and weather dependant.