Here is the response I received from the parks dept to the complaint I discussed in my previous blog. There will be a meeting at 4pm on 10th July with representatives from the Council (including the Cabinet member) to discuss this (wholly inadequate) response. I had asked for an urgent meeting to discuss the safety […]

Southwark’s Parks Department has recently completed what turns out to be “phase one” of the works to improve Mint St Park. Trouble is, the local residents don’t see it as an improvement! Plans to increase the size of the park by incorporating and greening two dead end roads have backfired – instead creating a continuous […]

Southwark’s Labour Council has closed all the cash offices, reduced the call centre hours to 9-5 Monday to Friday and is pushing everyone to use their online service. So, last week when my bin collection was missed I thought I would give “MySouthwark”  a try to see what sort of service our residents can expect. […]

I was shocked and dismayed by the behaviour of some of the Labour Councillors at Southwark’s Council Assembly meeting last night, where we were debating the budget proposals for the borough. The crass language that they used in their speeches and the utter contempt that they showed towards other democratically elected representatives was shameful. One […]

In my previous post I said that the decision of the planning committee couldn’t be overturned by the Council. However, at last week’s planning committee meeting we learned that decisions of the Head of Development Management can be overturned! Last October the planning committee granted an application on a site in the south of the borough […]

As a result of national coverage of Southwark planning committee’s decision to allow Berkley Homes not to give the social housing tenants keys to all areas of their new development, a  Southwark Council spokeswoman has said that they will “take another look at the decision”. And do what exactly? The decision was taken by the […]

Today I attended the annual Local Government Association licensing conference. It was interesting to hear how some authorities are managing the impact of their night time economy on local residents by using new powers introduced by the Coalition Government. Councils are now able to charge a levy on premises which are open late, and they can […]

This afternoon I was privileged to spend an hour at the Dragon Cafe (http://dragoncafe.co.uk) with Norman Lamb MP,  Lib Dem Minister of State for Care and Support. What a lovely man, and how patient he was with all the people he met – listening carefully to their thoughts and ideas. Here he is, joining in with a […]