former East Dulwich councillor - how can I help?

[fredricketts]

The planning permission for the flats above Somerfield`s was given in 2005,(and it was questioned at the time and was found that there was not enough consultation with local people,) it was not discovered until 2007 that tenants did not have any where to put their rubbish. Two years, and it had to be noticed by the residents of Ashbourne Grove, not the Council, who imposed the Conditions, under which they would allow tenants to move in. How many other Planning rules have been broken and not looked at again, after allowing planning permission?

I also think that the Council should put weight restrictions on all side roads that are residential only.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Come on Fred - someone with such a finger on the pulse would make an uber-councillor. You can obviously do it much better than anyone else. Stand for election I say

Has anything the council done ever been any good enough for you?

[Gimme]

"I also think that the Council should put weight restrictions on all side roads that are residential only."

You think that fat people should be banned from residential roads Fred? I like it.

What would be your cut-off point? 20 stone? 30 stone? Surely not less than 20 stone?

And would you give residents radar-guns that calculate weight to allow the streets to police themselves?

[fredricketts]

Hi Gimme and Sean

5 tons, No never, I have lived in Dulwich since 1963, and I have never known the Council to do what the local residence want, I have had a lot to do with them over the years, and one thing for sure is "None of them is ever accountable to the public, they bring in bright ideas, and when they go wrong, one dept blames the other, and your complaint then gets lost, and ultimately, you get the chance to take you complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman, who works for the government, What chances do we stand. Joined the Labour party once and got expelled for Nominating someone, they did not want for Mayor,

[James Barber]

Hi fredricketts,

You made assertions that local businesses around Somerfield have seen an increase in crime since the flats above were occupied.

I've checked with the East Dulwich Police and your assertion is unfounded and that they assure me they speak to shop keepers and businsess regularly and have no recorded or annecdotal evidence to remotely suggest your assertion is true.

I'm sorry you've been so misinformed.

Regards james

[James Barber]

Hi m7post,

Business Rates are collected by local councils such as Southwark but all the revenue raised is passed by law to central government. That's why its called the National Non Domestic Rates. Central government then allocates the collected taxation as it sees fit.

In the case of Southwark they've decided to ignore its own Office for National statistics that tells them we have many many more residetns than the outdated stats they use. This means they give us a lots less money than the number of residents we have.

Eitherway, every day including Sundays a dedicated team are out from 6.30am cleaning Lordship Lane.

I'm sorry its grimmier. We need more rain to wash away stains and spills.

[James Barber]

hi 2Sheds,

IF you email me at [email protected] I'll get copies for you and me to read.

[Gimme]

Big thanks to Councillor Barber!

The council have finally taken away the sign directing A-road traffic down our narrow residential street thanks to his intervention!. Well done Councillor Barber.

We just need to get the council to take the other steps needed to eliminate the street as a rat run. Good start though.

[James Barber]

Hi Gimme,

Attached is the number of vehicles counted against mean average speed and 85th percentile speed.

Matham Grove wins most cars but not highest speeds.

to me it says Matham Grove is part of a cluster of people turning right from East Dulwich Grove along with Chesterfield and Ashbourne.

Another of very high speeds around Landells Road.

I'll be talking to officers about recommendations to improve the situation.

[intexasatthe moment]

James - firstly all credit to you for coming on to this forum ,though seems a bit of a mammoth undertaking.

Over on the Family Discussion threads I had raised the issue of all Southwark's Secondary schools no longer being LEA schools and all being Academies,Faith or Foundation schools.

My concern is that as such, one of the freedoms they enjoy is that they can determine their own admissions ctiteria.

You had responded to say that Caroline Pidgeon had negotiated a common admissions policy.

But looking at the individual schools admission policies ,I can't see this ,as they are all so different.

The Harris Academies require children to sit a test for banding purposes ,but their banding ( 9 bands ) is different from the system of 3 bands used by Kingsdale.

Throw into this mix the purely geographical crtieria used by Charter and sibling priority being lower than sport and music aptitude at Kingsdale plus the different again policies of faith schools and Academies that aren't sponsored by Harris and I'm struggling to see what the common bit is.

And if the schools are using different admissions criteria then surely that would make their results/league tables difficult to compare/give a misleading picture ?

Also do you have any light to shed on the banding systems used ?

I've always found this a bit confusing - one of the Harris Academies says that their banding is with reference to National banding values. So presumably that means that they are striving to have an intake that reflects ...what?

Why national and not based on values for Southwark /London?

How do they work the bands out - is there a measurement of national aptitude/IQ for year 6 which is then divided up into 9 bands ?

If you have a banding system how do you avoid a situation where if you fall in the top bands ( presumably fewer people )

you get in even if you live a long away from the school and if you're average and fall in the middle bands ( presumably lots of applicants )pressure of numbers will mean that you'll only get in if you live very near the school?

Sorry for length and if not very clear - maths not my strong point.

[fredricketts]

Hi Mr Barber, I think you should talk to the shopkeepers next to Somerfield?s, i.e. the John Lewis Chemist, was broken into a few weeks ago, and the card shop, had to put up new iron bars at the back of their shop, I think it?s you that has been misinformed, I only spoke to them last week, and besides, that does not excuse your party from doing nothing about the rubbish outside Somerfield?s, and the fact that it has been turned into a Hostel without any of the residence knowing.

The rubbish is still being put there every day.

[James Barber]

Hi intexasatthe moment,

I was distinctly under the impression I related.

I'm asking for a full explanation before make further comments.

Apologies it taking a little while to pin this down.

[James Barber]

Hi fredricketts,

If the Police categorically on the record tell me no increae in crime around Somerfield and they are in regular contact with those shops then I believe them.

You know we've been trying to deal with the rubbish that has been illegally left outside the flats entrance.

Living in a democracy limits how fast we can deal with these issues. My colleague Cllr Jonathan Mitchell is leading on behalf of the three East Dulwich cllrs and I know you are both in regular communication.

[Jeremy]

A recently reported crime does not equal a rise in crime.

It seems to be a common mistake on this forum.

[James Barber]

One of the Cleaner, Greener Schemes we've funded is for free electricity smart meters and advice for 100 East Dulwich homes. So far 60 have been taken up leaving another 40 to go.

If you'd like to participate please call GLEEN and HelpCo on 0845 450 3374

[James Barber]

Latest East Dulwich crime stats taken from the mets Police stats show that in the last year August to August the crime rate has dropped such that East Dulwich has moved from 4th lowest crime rate in Southwark to having the lowest crime rate in Southwark.

This is despite having 1/4 of Peckham Rye, 1/8 of Village and 1/8 of College wards most problematic areas counted against East Dulwich ward. So the real underlying story is even better than this.

It?s so improved that the East Dulwich Safer Neighbourhood Team have been straying outside East Dulwich ward to help out in Dulwich Park - which has seen a resulting 37% decrease in robberies.

When I became a councillor this was one of my personal ojectives - for East Dulwich to have the lowest crime rate in Southwark. We started our campaign to become East Dulwich councillors with a Crime Survey. the survey results helped us decide to target a lot of the resources we as councillors allocate. We?ve still more work to do. I want East Dulwich to be better compared to London as a whole. We?re currently just outside the best quarter for London.

How can we improve it further?

[m7post]

Hi James, Thanks for your note. ( Re: East Dulwich councillor - can I help?)

Thanks for the info on funding - unfortunately I'm all to aware of how the system dose and doesn't work.

Back to the point though - the grubbiness of L.L..

The out each morning - they are not cleaning though are they - they're just picking up litter and alike.

The pavements really need cleaning - as mentioned - around all the bins, buss stops, take awakes, late night shops, fish stalls etc - there is thick blackening grime - that then gets walked out across the pavements - rain will not wash this away - even if it would - surely we can not rely on the vagaries of the weather to determine weather we live in a clean environment - we need to clear and clean up after our selves.

Please could we have some action in changing the regime - so at least occasionally the pavements are washed/pressure washed in the most needy areas.

Please could come back to us with what can be done.

Thanks

Martin.

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

JBARBER Wrote:

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

> Hi m7post,

>

>- every day including Sundays a dedicated

> team are out from 6.30am cleaning Lordship Lane.

> I'm sorry its grimmier. We need more rain to wash

> away stains and spills.

[Jeremy]

James - useful stats which are contrary to the common perception that crime is escalating dramatically.

Can we clarify... the figures under Aug-09 are for the whole year?

[James Barber]

Hi Jeremy,

My understanding is that they are rolling 12 months to that point.

[James Barber]

Hi m7post,

Its the chewing gum that really annoys me.

Agree we need occassional deep clean of grim that litter picking, manual sweeping and rain just doesn't seem to shift.

I'll ask a question at full council assembly to get a definitive answer.

[peckhamboy]

Can you shed any light on what the statistics actually relate to, though? As far as I can see there is no actual "rate" shown. What is the basis of calculation? Reported, investigated, or prosecuted crime, for example? What is the rate per capita? What is the year on year change? Has there been any change in the way in which crimes are classified in the last few years?

I'm afraid that the figures shown are useless without any of this information.

[m7post]

Thank you Mr Barber - Please do keep us updated on future plans that hopefully this 'Assembly Question' will result in. Let's hope we can have a clean centre to out community - if we can't achieve that as a council / community, what can we, it's a basic really isn't it.

Regards,

Martin.

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

JBARBER Wrote:

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

> Hi m7post,

> Its the chewing gum that really annoys me.

> Agree we need occassional deep clean of grim that

> litter picking, manual sweeping and rain just

> doesn't seem to shift.

>

> I'll ask a question at full council assembly to

> get a definitive answer.

[intexasatthe moment]

James - just wondering if you'd made any progress on my query about describing the admission policies for Southwark's secondary schools as being a common admissions policy. ( If that makes sense )

I'm guessing it's something to do with the application being made on one common form.

Though as many of the schools ( ? 9 ) require applicants to complete a seperate supplementary form this rather makes a nonsensense of the notion of a common form.

And my linked enquiry about banding ,particularly why the Harris Federation has banding referenced to National ( and not local ) values ?

[Nero]

Dear Councillor,

I agree that it is good news about ED moving down the crime hot-spot charts* but since most people are not affected by crime either directly or indirectly, I would prefer that any crowing be kept to a minimum and any effort used therein be put into the myriad other problems that do touch people on a regular basis. By that I mean poor schools, bad transport, traffic woes etc.

* whether you believe in them or not

[James Barber]

Hi Nero,

I'm sorry if the crime states I posted several days ago weren't clear enough.

The reported crime rate for the 12 months up until and including August 2008 were 169 crimes per 1,000 population and the 12 months period upto and including August 2009 was 122 crimes per 1,000 population.

The population of East Dulwich ward is around 10,000 people. So 470 fewer crimes have been reported affecting more than 470 people. I'm proud of the part I played in achieving this.

Crime is directly affecting around 10-15% of East Dulwich residents every year and indirectly many more.

I'm sorry my posts didn't give that context.