former East Dulwich councillor - how can I help?

[ben]

Hi James

Mentioned this briefly before - the resurfaced area of Lordship Lane near Goodrich / the church was recently dug up for some pipes to be replaced and although the hole was filled the tarcmac is now starting to sink and will soon be a pothole. Why can't the contractors be made to do the job properly?

Can you also tell me when the contractors debris and steel boxes will be removed from Goodrich Road by the church? I live in the street and parking is becoming more difficult due to the items that have been left behind.

Ben

[James Barber]

Hi prickle,

I've just found out the right contactin Sainsbury's and will be contacting them about the rats.

[prickle]

Thank you so much James, hopefully things will improve. I noted this morning that the bin by DKH has collapsed completely?

[puzzled]

is that councillor the one who was a tory last time and had talks with labour before crossing to your side just in time to see labour back into power. tell me, james, how do you stand on the issue of university fees... you know, the thing all your MPs pledged to oppose?

[James Barber]

Hi puzzled,

University fees. I find it hard to understand why we're sending 45% of young people to study for degrees when we don't have 45% of jobs requiring degrees. If a smaller proportion went to university our society could afford to be more generous per student and avoid this whole debate. The Labour target had been 50% studing for degrees but they were planning to cut the amount spent on teaching by 25% if they'd kept national power.

If we keep 45% going for degrees then students will have to charged more OR we cut something else.

My solution would be smaller proportion studying for degrees.

NB my understanding is Denamrk has the smallest ratio studying for degrees in Europe but the highest per capita income. So degrees do not equal wealth. In the UK it has been assess people with degrees earn ?100,000 more during their 40 years careers. I suspect this is based no old research before nearly half out population studied for degrees.

[James Barber]

Last night we tinkered with our CGS capital funding to ensure that we have sufficient funds allocated to install the electric pop up popints on Northcross Road to avoid market traders needing to run standalone generators.

Just sufficient time to get this done by December.

[James Barber]

Hi Prickle,

I've asked Sainsbury's why can;t they maintain St.Francis park to a higher standard. I've mentioned the rats as a prime example of how low the maintenace regime is.

I've also asked why they don't aspire to achieving Green Flag award status. We have very few public parks and open spaces in Southwark so they all need to be kept to the highest possible standard. This is especially so with population growth.

I'll highlight the feedback when it arrives.

[Marmora Man]

In the UK it has been assess people with degrees earn ?100,000 more during their 40 years careers. I suspect this is based no old research before nearly half out population studied for degrees.

I think this is old and unproven research - but if even halfway true the economics don't add up. ?100,000 over a 45 year working life is just over ?2,000 a year salary improvement for three years of study and, currently, an average of ?20,000 debt. If the ?2,000 extra is taxed at higher rate of 41% then the individual has ?1,180 a year over 45 years to pay back ?20,000 from - leaving a net balance of ?34,000 or less than ?750 a year or ?15 a week as a benefit.

Given that the old research was probably conducted before the massive expansion of university places which will devalue degrees it is likely that, on average, there's no financial benefit from attending many universities. Attending a top university will probably pay dividends - in two ways. One the degree will be highly regarded and therefore ease the way into a top job, two - the student will network with other bright young things who will, in due course, be at the top end of their careers and well placed to assist each other.

Regrettably, attending the University of South DoDashire (formerly the 6th form college)with two Ds and an E to study "Waste Management & Dance" [i kid you not there was such a degree course on offer last year] will not improve earning potential. Go for an apprenticeship and become an honest tradesman - and, if you're good at it, set up in business and make a fortune or just be happy doing what you do well.

Increased tuition fees might resolve the problem thru' market forces. It's becomes worth paying (aka getting into debt) for a good university and a good degree - because it will get you a premium job that enables you to pay back the loan. If it's a lousy degree - it's not worth the money - don't go and the second rate Uni fails. A smaller population of degree qualified people will enhance their value - somewhere there should be a balance and it's not, I suspect, at 50% of all 18 year olds attending university. 25% - 30% might be more like it.

I exclude from my comments those that simply wish to expand their academic horizons and enjoy study - university shouldn't be solely about the financial reward it may bring - but that's the general tenor of much of the debate.

[James Barber]

Hi MarmoraMan,

Appears the latest study shows 20% of UK jobs require degrees but 45% of our kids are taking them. We have more than twice the numbers doing degrees than the country needs and its politically very hard to disappoint kids and their parents and grandparents by reducing the number of places paid for by the state. But it seems prudent to do that and then provide the real number of degree places the nation actually needs with all fees paid, even potentially grants again!

This might then stop the silly situation where so many are now taking postgraduate qualifications to stand out from the 45% crowd where once their degree would have been enough.

We have a pension crisis - how can taking 25% of our young people out of work for 3 years + the excessive postgraduate numbers help resolve this.

[Penguin68]

James

I absolutely agree with you that there will be more graduates in the future than jobs that require graduates (we have only recently upped the intake to 45% of 18 year-olds so it won't be until the now 25-30 or so year-olds are 67 that 45% of aspirant workers will be graduates) - the problem is that if undergraduate places are restricted there will be people unable to attend university who would be as readily able to get a degree and do those jobs as the people who do attend. This is an issue of faireness - are you happy that talented individuals should be excluded from opportunity?

The problem with the current and proposed system is the concept that all graduates will earn a graduate premium - evidently and eventually about half of them won't. Ideally we should set pay-back as occuring when graduates start earning the 'graduate' median wage (or even the wage that differentiates graduates from non graduates) - that could well be age related - so that the 'target' payment figure increases with age.

That way those lucky enough to be payed a graduate premium would then pay back their 'debt' - the others, who lost out on the availability of graduate jobs, would not have to pay based on just having been to university, rather than against the option of earning more.

Of course, as a country we can no longer afford to do what is 'right' but must do what is expedient to pay down our debts. Maybe the cuts to be announced on Wednesday will force the public sector to adopt the economies already forced onto the private sector - to deliver the same or better levels of service using fewer resources. If you compare public with private levels of sickness absences, for instance, it is possible to suggest that if the public sector achieved private sector levels staff cost savings of 15% or more could readily be achieved (and yes, I have worked in both sectors, and I do know what I am talking about).

[Fuschia]

Marmora Man Wrote:

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

>

> Regrettably, attending the University of South

> DoDashire (formerly the 6th form college)with two

> Ds and an E to study "Waste Management & Dance"

> will not improve earning potential.

MM, as I've said on the firefighter thread, you don't want to believe everything you read in the press.

I saw the article in the Telegraph too, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/7981792/Quango-opposes-crackdown-on-Mickey-Mouse-degrees.html but google doesn't bear this out, have a look at the Universiry of Northampton's site. No such course is visible... http://www.northampton.ac.uk/courses/search/waste/

The far less dramatic truth, I think, is to do with places offered via clearing a few weeks back for vacancies where dual honours are possible if desired. Search hard enough and I suppose the clearng system would throw up all sorts of odd things. Not such a good story, though...

[James Barber]

Hi Fuschia, MarmoraMan,

I remember reading a National Audit Office report about the UK fire service from about 12 years ago.

It highlighted that pensions are paid from current budgets and as such no pension fund existed. At that time 35% of budget was spent on pensions. It also highlighted that the minimum call out then for a 'shout' was 6 fire fighters but that the standard disposition was 5 firefighters on each appliance so two appliances sent. What was so damning then was that we had highest number of professional fire fighters per 100,000 population in the western world but also highest rate of fire deaths and injuries. So clearly an industry then that needed restructuring. I have no knowledge of the current situation but suspect less than one might hope has changed.

hi Fuschia,

It may take another 40 years for the whole workforce to have 45% gradutates but we're incurring the costs now. It also means as a society that we're much less able to be generous to the far fewer undergraduates we need. As for able people missing out on degrees. Surely we want the most able from whatever social background to be subsidised for this tertiary education. If we pay for everyone capable then we postpone their disappointment from 18 to 21 when they'll feel really aggrieved to have incurred personal debt and have not graduate level job. What's sadly missing is higher regard for high quality apprenticeships.

[Penguin68]

James

I think it was I rather than Fuschia who made the point about the time-lag before 45% of the working population was educated to degree level (apologies if I've missed an earlier point made by Fuschia). The subsequent point I made was that perhaps those not achieving graduate levels of pay, being themselves graduates, should be excused the debt. But I also made the point that economically we are where we are, not where we would like to be.

I absolutely agree that as a nation we are fixated on academic achievement (hence the grammar/ technical school split never worked, even though in e.g. Germany a technical education is well esteemed, leading to the creation in the UK of comprehensives - where, still, the academic stream is still the target).

To that end the changing of Polytechnics to Universities in the 1990s didn't help, although there were numbers of other genuine benefits which did flow from that change.

One problem we do face is the belief that higher education (as a partially funded activity) is only valid for 18-22 year olds. Set up a system where anyone can apply for a University Education, and get access to the loan funds and grants etc., whenever they are ready for it - and you would get established adult joiners - looking for the qualifications that might assist an existing career, rather than late teenagers desperate for their one chance, making course decisions based on guesswork rather than knowledge, and unsure (often) 'what next?'. I write as a University teacher in a Business School who finds teaching the few mature BA students who do get in often far more rewarding than sheep dipping jejune teenagers through a course they may only be half-heartedly committed to.

The further advantage from this is that 'the next step after A levels is a degree' might cease to be the standard aspirational position of parents for their youngsters - over time - thus re-validating non academic training post 18 (and post 16) as a valid and admirable career choice, not a badge of 'failure'.

[James Barber]

Hi Penguin68,

I agree with you.

[prickle]

Thank you, James for following up with Sainsburys. Let's hope they will take some action!

[pebbles]

Thank you James for getting the recycling bins moved from corner of Whatley Rd and Lordship Lane - much easier to turn right now - thank you

[Gimme]

Hi James,

Any news on the Matham Grove speedbump consultation?

Was the general feedback positive for speedbumps or did the 'not in front of my house' brigade win the day?

And are you running the consultation on potential new crossing(s) on Lordship Lane? Did that get the go-ahead?

Gimme

[James Barber]

Hi Prickle,

I've been told by Sainsbury's that the contact Southwark has been using is wrong and given a different contact by Sainsbury's. Hopefully this is some kind of progress. I'm encouraged not an instant stock answer which hopefully means some thought in a response.

Hi Gimme,

I was strolling along Matham Grove last Friday and had the same thought. I'll find out about that consultation which seems to have gone very quiet. I've also asked about how Lordship Lane crossings consultation has gone and Northcross Market consultation.

[James Barber]

Hi Gimme,

The analysis is complete. Bizarre I had to request it but never mind.

86% of all street were in favour of 20mph speed limit - Matham, Ashbourne, Chesterfield, Bassano and Blackwater.

Matham, Ashbourne and Chesterfield were in favour of sinusoidal speed humps. But Bassano and Blackwater were not in favour of speed humps.

What I proposed was speed humps in Matham, Ashbourne and Chesterfield with 20mph singage and speed limit in all these roads plus Bassano and Blackwater. Chuffed that residents are thinking along the same lines.

Weirdly the estimate of the costs of works from December 2009 of ?25,000 to do this has jumped to ?37,000. So I've asked for a detailed breakdown as unsurprisingly the East Dulwoich councillors have budgetted ?25,000.

Will keep you posted.

[James Barber]

Just heard that the no.78 bus route in Spring 2011 will become a double decker bus route. So people on the very eatern edges of East Dulwich will see some benefit from that.

[James Barber]

Hi Gimme,

The actual speed humps would cost ?17,000 for Matham, Ashbourne and Chesterfield. The paperwork and signs would cost another ?20,000. Truly astounding.

Dec 2009 when I talked such a scheme through with officers came out at ?25,000 = ?20,000 for the humps + signs and ?5,000 for the paperwork.

I can't use the funding to choose a different supplier than via regular council officers and term contractors.

Real dilemma.

[James Barber]

Have received the estimate for the gates for Shawbury Court.

If you know of any alleyways or lanes in East Dulwich that would ideally be gated please get in touch with me.

Where we've gated things less anti social behaviour takes place.

[James Barber]

Dulwich Hamlet Football Club - the Licensing Committee meets next Wednesday 10am at Southwark Town Hall on Peckham Road to decide on increasinng licensing hours for this club.

To see the reports:

http://moderngov.southwarksites.com/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=3683&x=1#AI13155&

In summary they've applied to sell alcohol and have recorded music on Fridays and Saturdays to extend from current end of 11pm by two hours until 1am the follows day and on Suuday from 10.30pm until 11pm.

[Gimme]

James,

Why don't they just put in the speedbumps on Matham, Ashbourne and Chesterfield and forget about the paperwork and signs. I don't remember any application being made for paperwork and I'm quite sure the signs aren't going to slow anyone down.

Gimme

[ruffers]

Been meaning to say for a while how pleased I am that as the roadworks edge nearer the Harvester there's now no lights, the realisation seems to have been made the road is wide enough which I'd banged on about earlier in the thread. And they painted one of the mini roundabouts on Wood Vale at least so, step by step, progress of sorts.