former East Dulwich councillor - how can I help?

[James Barber]

Hi Victor,

Me if it's in East Dulwich.

Can you please email me the address and I'll check. It might be a leased flat and not directly rented out by the council.

[MazzyStar]

I'm on Melbourne Grove too and I often wade through old Pizza boxes, bits of old curry, takeaway and some rather unsanitary used feminine hygiene products that I dare not mention on this forum because someone outside No5 has just dumped their rubbish bags outside and NOT in a wheelie bin.

Something needs to be done as it's bloody disgusting!!!

I mean, why leave food out when they must know there are loads of foxes sniffing around?

Can someone help with this?

[MazzyStar]

James - just re-posting kateford's original:

Hello there, I wonder if you can help. We have someone on Melbourne Grove that continually leaves their rubbish on top of, or around the public street bin near the old Post Office opposite No.5. This rubbish is left out exposed on the street EVERY single week (usually on a Sunday/Monday) and because there are a lot of foxes in the area, without fail the bin's contents will be scattered across the whole area when it gets dark. Obviously this is extremely unhygienic as well as dangerous because often there are food products, sharp tins, sanitary refuse as well as broken glass strewn across the whole street attracting vermin such as rats, as well as foxes and pigeons (as seen in the picture).

Plenty of times I myself have put the bins in my own wheelie and tried to help, but sometimes I get to it too late and a hungry fox has already ripped the bags open and spilled the contents everywhere. I think that whoever is doing this is creating a lot of work for the poor litter-collector that regularly cleans the street (and does a fine job) as well as spoiling the area and making it generally unhygienic and dangerous as mentioned - basically I worry that one day a small child may be injured on this broken glass.

I would like some help with a solution - maybe a sign could go up about fly-tipping on the lamppost beside the bin, and if the residents who are doing it don't have a wheelie bin (maybe they are in a flat with no front entrance) perhaps they could be supplied with an industrial wheelie bin with a lock or be allocated with one nearby.

Please help!

[m7post]

Good evening James, - yes - please do help - if you'd be kind enough to see recent thread - "Bike steeling Scum"

[Loz]

Alex K Wrote:

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> Last year on Abbotswood Road council workers came

> by and whitewalled every hedge along every walk,

> cutting the vegetation back flush to the

> perpendicular from the edge of the paving. Front

> garden after front garden had the startled

> expression of someone whose eyebrows have been

> shaved off. No idea what prompted the

> intervention: My tenth year here and the first

> such event.

Oooh - don't complain. Saved me a job as the (shared) hedge was starting to take over the pavement. The council has my thanks for that little effort.

[Alex K]

No complaint, Loz -- came as a pleasant surprise, that hedge-trimming did.

[intexasatthe moment]

Oooh do you think Southwark will nip round to my back garden and trim my hedge for me ?

I'm too lazy/can't be arsed and didn't realise that part of my council tax is spent on offering this service .

[Alex K]

Is the hedge blocking the ginnel (or other public footpath)? No? Sorry, yer on yer own!

[Loz]

intexasatthe moment Wrote:

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> Oooh do you think Southwark will nip round to my

> back garden and trim my hedge for me ?

> I'm too lazy/can't be arsed and didn't realise

> that part of my council tax is spent on offering

> this service .

Considering that, apart from the standard bin emptying, etc, I get feck all from the council for my ?1000+ a year, so it did make a nice surprise and they were probably in the area as they do DKH park occasionally. So for an hour or two's wages they cleaned up an entire street.

What would you rather them spend the few measly pounds it cost them? I consider that less of a waste than the current drive to feed rich kids.

[Alex K]

Agreed, Loz -- once every decade (see my original post) didn't seem a lot of money spent. Are funds available for that sort of thing in this fiscal year? Can't tell you. But if James can say "Here's the number to ring to ask that hedges be trimmed where they block the pavements", those whom rampant vegetation is crowding onto the tarmac will be able to find out if the council indeed can help.

[intexasatthe moment]

James - in the past I believe that Southwark would attend to the problem of vegetation overhanging public footpaths etc by cutting the offending vegetation back ( presumably after some prior warning to householder ) and then seeking to recover the cost from the householder/s .

Could you tell me if this is still the case and how overhanging vegetation is dealt with now ?

Surely it can't really be the case that if you happen to live near a park or area tended by Southwark that you get a " free " trim because workers are in the area ?

[Alex K]

Bleedin' Nora! We got off easy -- no TRIM OR DIE notices, just our front gardens whitewalled -- and no bills sent in afterward!

[Penguin68]

Savage cutting back of some types of hedging/ trees will simply kill them - some types of hedging etc. need proper pruning (to growth buds etc.) to avoid death, or at the least unnecessary die back. Overhanging branches when well above head height - i.e. of trees and tall shrubs, do not cause pedestrian problems (generally) and add to the look of a locale (after all, in roads with trees planted these 'overhang' pavements and roads without any problem, when tall enough). Cutting any overhang back to the boundary is unnecessary and may detract from the visual amenity of a road. I take delight in neighbours' front gardens (I am lucky enough to live where there are some), and this includes growth which grows over boundaries without restricting passage.

Sending warning notices to householders about intrusive hedging was in the past the norm, with punitive slash-and-burn only when that warning was not heeded.

[intexasatthe moment]

Bleedin' Nora! We got off easy -- no TRIM OR DIE notices, just our front gardens whitewalled -- and no bills sent in afterward!

- but still time for Southwark to track you down and make you parade outside Sainsbury's with my handcrafted sign

" Guilty of hedge neglect and wasting tax payers monies " round your neck .

:)-D

[Alex K]

"Hedge neglect" --

I glory in my shame.

[Loz]

intexasatthe moment Wrote:

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> Surely it can't really be the case that if you

> happen to live near a park or area tended by

> Southwark that you get a " free " trim because

> workers are in the area ?

Actually, I'd have hoped that the council would be pro-active enough to do just that.

[intexasatthe moment]

But Loz why should Southwark be involved in this type of work in the first place ?

[James Barber]

In case any one asks - Dulwich Cars have placed a number of adverisiments across the road from East Dulwich station entrances, junctions of Lordship Lane with Landells and Crystal Palace Roads. Council officers have written asking them to remove all such unauthorised signs to preempt the council taking enforcement actions.

[Alex K]

InTexasatthemoment, you asked Loz, but I'll butt in.

Answer: THEY SHOULDN'T.

The council shouldn't be involved in shovelling snow away from our walks. In trimming back shrubs in our front gardens that encroach upon the public walkway. Indeed, you could make an argument that the freeholder owns her lot to the centre of the street in front, and that she is responsible for upkeep of front garden, pavement, and tarmacked road.

For ease in co-ordination of larger projects (road re-tarmackings, kerb replacements, pavement clearance, rubbish disposal, provision of town criers and night watch[wo]men...) the council was given a mandate to act on individual freeholders' behalf collectively and to exact council tax in payment for those larger projects and their administering.

That mandate is not cloisonne enamelwork but water-colour (and with a great deal of water in the wash, it seems to me). Crisp borders between responsibilities acknowledged as INDIVIDUAL and those foisted off upon the COLLECTIVE are few in the UK.

In my opinion, when considering vegetable encroachment or snow removal, the argument for "violation - notice of correction - intervention - bill to violator" is strong. Efficacy in enforcement, however, seems to call for almost Swiss civic rectitude, with a willingness to accept responsibility and write cheques that (like the Swiss) reflects the cuckoo-clockwork android rather than the brawler bundled from beef and beer that is John Bull.

Or: With compulsory trimmings-back of front-garden sprawl or walk-shovellings, as with compulsory motor-vehicle insurance, some people, the most "English" ones perhaps, won't play the game by generally agreed rules.

Back to the stocks and ducking-stool? Well, since you ask... I'm all for occasions on which the East Dulwich community can unite, pro bono contra malum, and if hedge-neglecters are at the head of the social-opprobrium queue, so be it. Ripe fruit and riper dead cats only, please. Save brickbats for the inhabitants of Melbourne Grove who put their rubbish out in plastic sacks rather than in wheelie-bins.

[intexasatthe moment]

Thanks , but I think I'll reserve the right to lob my brickbats in a direction of my own choosing .

[ceefer99]

ceefer99 Wrote:

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> Dear James,

> There have been road works on East Dulwich road

> since Easter Sunday, there initially appeared to

> be an emergency outside Locale (Italian

> restaurant) which required the pavement, then road

> to be dug up. Drilling started at 11pm & continued

> for about an hour. Over the past two weeks there

> has been ongoing late night drilling, humming

> machinery and on one occasion workmen shouting

> jokes to each other at approximately 2am. On

> Thursday 5th May, the gas work appeared to have

> ruptured a water pipe, resulting in another

> (different) machine humming loudly throughout the

> night to deal with the excess water. All of these

> events have impacted on my ability to sleep as I

> live in very close proximity.

>

> Is there anyway you could liaise with Southern Gas

> (the utility company responsible for the works) to

> ascertain the expected length of the works as it

> is becoming an issue?

>

> Thanks.

Tuesday 10th May 2011:

Had a call from Mel, Deputising Team Leader for the job outside Locale.

His comments: Its still an Emergency Job. The Gas Main is leaking. The

Main is 2.5 metres deep. They had problems, with the water main

bursting, this didnt help, the ground is very unstable. Safety issues,

kids playground etc.

He assured me that from today (Tuesday 10th May) there will be nobody working past 10pm.

He was very clear on this point and re-iterated 3 or 4 times - no work

past 10pm ("unless deterioration")

If we need to call him he is on 0207 840 1079 - ask for either Mel or

Tommy Smith

Most nights theyll be done by 7pm but tonight it may be 9.30 ish.

Again, he re-iterated that as long as it doesn't deteriorate the latest

they will work till is 10 o clock.

Mentioned to him the lads shouting jokes to each other at 3am and he

said he will speak to the team and get them to tone it down. Also,

work will not go on after 10pm at the very latest so this wont be an

issue.

The above details were taken today & it's now 10pm, tonight the ground crew are still working, with the same level of noise from machinery & loud/joky conversations! Yet with no work going on yesterday!

Please help!!!!

Thanks.

[ceefer99]

Oops!

[Rusty12]

Dear James

Wonder if you can help, there is a house in Ondine road, that I presume is empty, there is a big crack in the side wall, the roof is really slumped and the front garden is very overgrown causing the front garden wall to crack and bulge outwards, it looks like its getting pretty unsafe?

Not sure if I need to contact someone?

[Peckham native]

You could try the empty homes manager for Southwark. [email protected] I know in the past she has done some good work tracking owners and getting properties back into use.

Or if it appears dangerous contact dangerous structures team on 020 7525 5397/5582/5596

Southwark dangerous structures

[James Barber]

Hi ceefer99,

I've contacted the ehad of highways in the council to ask why these works are taking so long and being done with such a lack of resident consideration.

Hi Rusty12,

Southwark has just over 5,000 privately owned empty properties. Sadly the council is unable to borrow sufficient money and the compulsory purchase order process is so long to largely resolve this. The disincentives available are flawed because making a home uninhabitable removes any council tax payment. But as Peckham native said if you think it a dangerous structure do let Southwark know and they'll visit and ensure it is made safe - still probably ugly but safe. My experience of bringing empty homes back into use is that its at the very margins we're talking a handful a year. Worth a try but realistically they're not making a dent in the over 5,000 empty homes.