Southwark Council's dirty habits

I went down to the Brimmington Estate this week to investigate complaints about Southwark Council leaving piles of rubbish all around the estate for hours and hours twice a week. It is a real disgrace. The video explains more.



I think this is horrible. It wouldn't be tolerated on a middle class street, yet the Council thinks it just "not ideal" on a council housing estate in Peckham. I'm writing to the Leader of Southwark Council to ask him to ensure immediate action is taken.

Nursery to relocate - new health centre to be built in its place?

The Council has recently revealed plans to relocate Nunhead Green Early Years Centre to a site at Rye Oak Primary School. The new Childrens Centre at Rye Oak will be able to offer a much wider range of services and I suspect will be a good thing.

I say I suspect because I knew nothing about the plans until a few days before the Council Executive decided to go ahead with the proposals. I believe that parents with children currently at the centre were consulted, but no other local residents. It's difficult for me to do my job of representing residents if council officers don't tell me about their plans till so late in the day. My experience is that some departments are better than others at consulting and I've now made arrangements to meet with senior officers in Childrens Services every six weeks. I've also got the agreement that the relevent officers will come and make a presentation about their plans at the Nunhead & Peckham Rye Community Council so anyone who's interested can find out more. I'll post again when I've got details of the meeting.

The thing that troubled me most when I found out about these proposals was the lack of information about the future of the site on Nunhead Green. Fortunately now the area has been declared as a Conservation Area and the Planning Department says

"there are significant limitations to the amount of development the site could sustain due to the presence of trees on site which have protection, the conservation area status of Nunhead green and the setting"

They also say they would not support development of any more that 2/3 storeys on the site.

More good news is that Southwark's Primary Care Trust (which is responsible for managing local health services, eg GP services, community nurses, preventative health) are seriously considering buying the site and building a new health centre there. It would mostly like involve the Nunhead Grove GP practise relocating to the new centre and providing more services. Sounds promising so let's hope it happens. I'm also pressing for the Council and PCT to involve local residents in developing the plans.

Nunhead Grove "Age Concern" building

Residents may have noticed the "SOLD" sign on the old Age Concern building on Nunhead Grove. The building actually belonged to the council and has been empty or squatted since Age Concern moved out a few years back.

The building has some structural problems (primarily with the roof) which is why Age Concern had to move out so I was worried that the new owners would be planning to demolish this historic chapel and put up a block of flats, but fortunately not.

I don't have much information, but according to council officers in the property department.

"The purchaser is a New Cross based “orthodox doctor”, who also deals with various therapies, and intends to turn the building into an alternative practice and ‘community’-focused space - healing, meditation, yoga - along with some performance, music, poetry, etc. He has links to www.festivaloflife.net"

I've asked the officers to put me in touch with him and I hope to find out more about his proposals.

Nunhead Green Conservation Area one step closer

Nunhead Labour Councillors
Originally uploaded by Fiona Colley.

In mid-September the planning department of the council finally brought forward proposals for a conservation area around Nunhead Green. This is something local residents have been demanding for years to protect the character of the area.

It's coming a bit late really as a number of large blocks of flats have been given planning permission - but better late than never I suppose. The council should be writing to residents in the area soon to consult them on the proposal - particularly the exact boundaries. Details can be found from page 13 onwards of this document.

I'm told that if all goes to plan the conservation area could be in force by christmas.

Traffic enforcement in Nunhead

Monitoring traffic speeds on Ivydale Road, Nunhead
Originally uploaded by Fiona Colley.

I've had quite a few complaints about speeding traffic in Nunhead, especially on Ivydale Road.

I've been taking these up with the council officers and the new Road Safety Officer included Ivydale Road in an enforcement and education exercise and invited me to come along.

We took up station near Ivydale Primary School and started measuring speeds. In wasn't a very busy time of day, but a lot of cars were doing 25 - 30mph - in a 20mph zone!

Of course the police can't be there all the time and unfortunately it's pretty much impossible to get a speed camera unless there have been lots of accidents. So what we need to do is see if we can get some more effective traffic calming measures - certainly we need more signage of the 20mph zone and perhaps a speed activated sign.

Bollard removal plans

As part of a decluttering program the council is proposing to remove some bollards from Gordon Road, Harders Road, Lugard Road and Consort Road. I'm generally in favour of this as they are ugly, but I'm a little concerned that they must have been put there for a reason (presumably to stop cars parking on the pavement).

Gordon Road - posts outside Nazareth Gardens
Harders Road - posts on the inside of the corner with Gordon Road
Lugard Road - near the junction with Queens Road
Consort Road - Queens Road end on the Clifton Estate side of the road

I've already heard from the Cossall Estate residents association who think we need to keep the ones on the corner of Harders/Gordon Road to stop cars mounting the pavement as they go round the tight bend, so I'm going to see if they could be replaced with more attractive ones rather than removed.

I'd like to hear any further views from local residents about these plans (asap please as the officers say they are going to do the work soon unless there are objections).