Imagine swifts & herons

Imagine swifts & herons stalked

empty tunnels underground Parliament, or nightingales sang from the shard
what people would say?

They saw it but noticed not.

If politicians could shriek
and shrivel up in their seats
would war and terror be lost?

If that egret could get in here
anyone can and anyone will.

Fear-heroes or aspiring terrorists,
are just like our neo-pols.

Just something dodgy about a cool party hack.

SoCamJam Red Bread

Recently, I discovered a compelling urge to bake bread after wanting to make a sour-dough pizza.   The embarked upon 5-day creation of sour-dough starter for pizza has now sublimated other desires.  

Starting with a wet "sour-dough" starter or levain at 100% hydration (50 grams water for every 50 grams of flour, usually only white) my initial three variations included a 65% hydration Greek version which takes 24 days to come to maturity.   Guess I was hook, line and sinkered by then!  

I now prefer an 80% hydration levain with 1 gram of whole wheat flour for every 4 grams of white flour to 4 grams of water, refreshed every 24 hours but always used after 6 - 8 hours of refreshment.   I can make good sour-dough pizza with this levain and have ended up baking and baking bread.

Spreadsheets account for any changes and variables in temperature, time, flour, water, yeast and salt, as I test and refine new breads to bake.

Early on I decided to give away at least 1/2 of what I produce for free.   I now have some happy neighbours and friends getting whole loaves as I want the entire journey to be understood.

Ask for advice about how to get started and I can but direct you to Ken Forkish's "Flour, Salt, Water, Yeast" which sets out easy to follow guides.   The rest is up to you and the mad scientist inside.  Bread making is a bit of art and a lot of science as well.  My maths has improved by each rise.

This red bread is an assisted levain.   It uses red malt, white, whole wheat, and light rye flours to produce 2 loaves, proofed in covered wicker baskets using a 30 minute autolyse, 4 stretch and folds followed by final retarded proof in baskets to produce a wonderful bread I prefer not to grignette at all.  Assisted as in addition to levain it uses 2 grams of quick yeast.  The project I am currently with is for a perfect overnight pure levain country blond.

Below are images of early bakes.  Unfortunately, the final version looked so good it got eaten before any thought of taking a picture!   The Maillard reaction produces a caramel dark moreish crust.  Bake it until the colour is brown-violet for the best of all tastes.  Don't cut this one at all.

All People's Party gain Councillors on Southwark Council

The All People’s Party (APP) is a political party of community champions set up by Prem Goyal OBE JP and longstanding community leader and former Councillor Adedokun Lasaki.

Together with Councillor Althea Smith I have now registered  the new All People's Party Group on Southwark Council.   It is possible at least three more Councillors will join the party before May.

Like Althea, I know people's concerns are all too frequently dismissed by a governing elite.  I will stand up for all the people and not just a few by putting all our communities first before party.  We will always work to ensure nobody is excluded.

I have felt the stress of exclusion by Labour and feel for the millions who are treated with similar contempt by governing elites.

I have served one term as a City Councillor (City of Westminster) and one as a Borough Councillor (Southwark) and will make sure my knowledge is available to the many fantastic people seeking to represent the All People's Party across London.

2014 and then 2015 will see APP break the metropolitan elite stranglehold on power.  Ordinary people working side by side is all it will take.

Southwark is now one of the most dangerous places to cycle in the whole of London

 

 

I have today written to Peter John, the Leader of Southwark Council, as follows:

 

"Dear Peter,

 

I am writing to express the dire sense of emergency felt by cyclists using Southwark roads. 

 

Southwark is now one of the most dangerous places to cycle in the whole of London. 

 

There is a systematic failing in Southwark to prioritise and improve cycle safety, as I am sure you have seen from reading Southwark’s Annual report on delivery of the transport plan 2012/13. 

https://www.southwark.gov.uk/downloads/download/2873/annual_monitoring

 

Policy 5.3 - Target commuter cyclists in road safety campaigns.

Unfortunately injuries to cyclists have increased for the fourth year running as shown in figure 49 on page 106.  

This must be a major concern for us all as Councillors.

 

Pg 96

Maintain the % of principal road length in poor condition at 11.1% by 2013/14

Delivered:   2012/13: 16.7% of principal road network length – Failing (Red)

 

Pg 104 

RAG status for road safety targets:

Reduce the number of casualties by 33% by 2020 – Failing (Red)

Reduce the number of KSIs by 33% by 2020 compared with a 2004/08 baseline – Failing (Red)

Reduce all cyclist casualties by 44% by 2020 based on a 2004/08 baseline – Failing (Red)

 

The recent tragic deaths on Southwark’s streets and several serious incidents bring home just how dangerous Southwark is becoming for cyclists. 

 

Policy 5.6 - We will seek to create conditions where our roads are safe.

Comparing Southwark to other inner London boroughs, Southwark ranks third worst in terms of total and killed and seriously injured casualties and that Southwark’s casualty numbers are higher than the inner and greater London borough averages.

 

If you “cycle” across Southwark, it really is one of the most dangerous places to cycle in London, and your Administration does not appear to have, in my view, any robust plan to tackle and change this.

 

The nature of our inner London Principle A roads (or Red Routes and Borough routes) means there are many, many cyclists in close proximity to the most dangerous large vehicles (lorries and buses) and specific planning measures are needed, now as the growth in cycling inside and across our borough continues.   I call upon you and your Cabinet to act and put in place a radical overhaul of current policy, practice and procedure with and commit to investment in a safe cycling infrastructure along Dutch and Danish engineering design lines. 

 

I hope the new London Cycling Design Standards developed under Mayor Johnson will give a clear means to “measure” and assess all Southwark’s future schemes and road proposals.  If so,  there may be hope Southwark’s seemingly outdated and old-school approaches can be ended and, in my belief, lives saved. 

 

Principle inner London A roads and their junctions need higher priority and improved designs and maintenance than at present. 

 

Please match the talk about lorry bans with practical investment in saving lives and building safe space for cycling in Southwark. The healthy reserves you have built up may well provide the means.

 

Your sincerely,

 

Stephen.

 

Stephen Govier

Councillor for South Camberwell

London Borough of Southwark

SoCamJam Cilantro Crab and Saffron Jelly

For Halloween I thought it could be fun to experiment with some with my SoCamJam recipes. 

Crab apple and Saffron is a great combination – if you want to try an Award winning artisan version then I’d recommend “Gernot’s Gold” (www.gernotsgold.co.nz) – and am told it goes great with venison or reindeer meats.   

But, I tend towards jelly and cheese as a combo of choice.  Rosemary, tomatillos, chilli, sage, quince, Medlar, elderberry and most recently mahonia (the Oregon grape) all have been played into crab apples gathered from leafy Dulwich and Herne Hill (Southwark Labour run Council have terminated the Orchard Green in Camberwell so, I am afraid, nought from Camberwell this year) .

My first taste of saffron and apple jelly was in Strasbourg during a Kerstfeest market and it was just amazing with a selection of local cheese. 

Crab apple jelly is easy as high pectin content merely needs to be combined with a bit of careful preparation and patience (I always double strain my boiled apples through good muslin cloth, hard to find in England these days). 

Getting just the right touch of flavours less so!

Earlier this month, I made some crab apple with lots of lemon thyme and common thyme growing on Dog Kennel Hill. 

At first taste it seemed to edge towards a medicinal. Nnow it has settled and works perfectly with a really, really strong Wookey cheddar. 

So what for all Hallows Eve?   The hint came from the Coles-side of my family and a note I’d found in an old box of letters from Australia.

Uncle Gerald passed away recently in Adelaide so I am thinking of him tonight on this holy evening before All Hallows Day.

Cilantro Haters, it is also your Fault!  I could not find any reference to crab apple and cilantro jam or jelly (just tried Google again) so the notion of a Cilantro Crab with Saffron Jelly found no contraries at all.

To add the touch of love what then better than “Hot Lips” Salvia microphylla.

The EU required label reads:” Purely and only made from:  "Silver Spoon" Preserving Sugar, Thames Tap Water, Crab Apples (Malus x zumi "Golden Hornet" from Greendale, Dog Kennel Hill, Ruskin Park & Denmark Hill + "Rudolph" malus rudolph from Dog Kennel Hill Open Space), Saffron (imported from Afganistan), Cilantro (corriander leaf and corriander root from imported from Vietnam via Longdan, Walworth), Rosemary (Albrighton CC), Sage (4 types from the Dog Kennel Hill Estate including "Hot Lips"  Salvia microphylla), Mint (3 types from the Dog Kennel Hill Estate incluiding "Carl's Peppermint" M. balsamea Willd and Mentha spicata 'English Lamb Mint')  and some love.  

With thanks to Jasia who helped pick a few magic apples and who keeps Dog Kennel Hill such a special site of importance for nature conservation.

+++

On Monday 9^th September two high explosive bombs simultaneously hit on my estate. Dr Wolfe spoke of tragic losses as the Dulwich Society installed a plaque commemorating a killing of 29 non-combatants.

Two days afterwards the King and his Queen turned up unannounced at the scene even as bodies were extracted from the structure which would hold up to fifty people.

A standard SPARS (Surface Public Air Shelter) made from brick but with concrete slab as the roof.

The location of the site, if we take our clue from the South London Observer of 13^th September 1940, which reads: “As King and Queen came down the slope to the road, they were loudly cheered by the waiting crowd, who sang ‘Pack up your troubles’.” must be the SPAR shelter next to Wilton House at the top of what was then London County Council’s Dog Kennel Hill Estate and now Southwark Council’s East Dulwich Estate.

My windows look over this berm as I write.

When the Monarch's visit happened, as it would today, word dashed around and as the same paper records: “… before their Majesties left a crowd of several hundred was present.”

Mary Phillips, Secretary of the East Dulwich Estate Tenants and Residents Association [EDERPT] (see photo insert) stands by the plaque screwed to the sidewall of the new Albrighton Community centre listing the names of those killed.

 

Remarkable technological advances since WW2 may continue to evolve attitudes towards discrimination between combatants and non-combatants but the two bombs that hit that fateful Monday, two days into the Blitz, were not modern PGMs (precision-guided munitions).

Dr Wolfe spoke of his relatives abroad and gently hit a chord for all who agonize at Allied revenge and whole Cities obliterated.

Deftly, as one expects from the Dulwich Society, any issue with the matter of the mass conventional bombing of Germany and the nuclear bombing of Japan made to resonate with more modernist morality.

Today as I look at the shelter berm, on the one hand, I think of a city like Dresden and marvel at it’s re-building after Bomber Harris in full, calculated and indiscriminate dance to Hades dropped more than a few vengeful bombs.

And, on the other, I recall a story about the site of Southdown House (due to be re-built upon despite earlier demolition to create better living space conditions after the war) retold from a childhood on the estate:

“The room I slept in was visited by a young ghost in uniform who used to walk straight out to the bomb shelters. I asked my dad about it and he said it was the ghost of a young man heading to the shelter that got a direct hit. On the green by Southdown House were two shelters - the first was intact and we used to play on top of it. The second, further up the green, was just the remains of the solid roof poking out from the ground - everything and everyone in it were just buried. I, too, used to play on that bomb site on the corner near the shops. We used to have bonfire night there and the fire brigade out every year.”

The berms have recently been opened and no human remains returned.

In a bright time of this age, we all support Public International Rules of Law so formed from such anguish.

Dulwich Society I salute questions posed as you honor that founding of God’s Gift.

Today (September 15.09.2013) a second plaque was unveiled on the estate (pictured Colin Hunte, EDERPT [East Dulwich Estate Regeneration Project Team] & EDETRA who was instrumental in the installation talking with Brian Green of the Dulwich Society about plaque locations) to recall the deaths at Goldwell House.  The plaque reads: “In commemoration of those killed in an air raid in Quorn Road during the Blitz on 15^th September 1940.”

 

Uniquely for London this plaque is placed on an original “Recycled Mortuary Children's Stretcher Railing” [RMCCSR] and the hope is the railing itself will be preserved. 

Much of the metal fencing placed on Dog Kennel Hill and in Quorn Road after WW2 were recycled metal mortuary stretchers. 

Many of the original and historic features of the estate are to be stripped away under the “Master-Plan” of the old and now new Labour Administrations of Southwark and it is a small victory if one such original stretcher survives.

 

 

(Left Brian Green, Dulwich Society & Right Councillor Govier).

 

 

 

Death of a Cyclist in Southwark

Today (04.09.2013) is a most, most despairing day. The death of a cyclist in Southwark must make other Southwark Council Members weep as responsible for this continued deadly conflict & until we all fix it, now not tomorrow, more will die.

I spent from 07.10 am till 09.50 am preparing for a meeting, worried about a possible reduction in key space for cycling and safety of cyclists in my Southwark Ward.

Next, I spent time getting persuaded by Southwark Council Officers into acceptance of much of their draft, and thereafter emailed, if only one key issue of safety and space for cycling was addressed.

Soon afterwards emails arrived with much more detailed technical support highlighting my instinctive concerns to condemn the draft.

This a pre-consultation with elected Councillors so timelines narrow.

It was then knew a weakness, I gave in far too readily.

Such have been the attacks by my fellows, using the power of party group to control the Council machine, I had been made meek and less than I should aspire and humanly hope to be

Next, I learnt of the death of a cyclist in Southwark.

I cried.

I hope my fellows are just as ashamed of the lack of actions to protect cyclists in Southwark.

I gave in so easily and, in place of the robust strength of instinct, failed to stand up for all and a totally robust cycling modal solution.

Later, when I met with a few activists complaining about Southwark Cyclists and the London Cycling Campaign being pro-Labour, I have to say the suggestion that it was now impossible to get a rational and “Dutch” infrastructure adopted in Southwark did seem just vaguely plausible.

We are in dire need of a dedicated infrastructure to remove conflict between cyclists and motorists. This cannot be a piecemeal solution and anything short of a unified solution is to kill cyclists.

My emails with Fiona Colley in 2010-11 at least suggest she wanted such conflict as segregation must not be in the Local Plan.

Peter John proclaims Southwark will one day be the most cycle friendly borough and this is an aspiration I will work for.

Dearest Peter, these are great words but when the need actions?

I will now ask in Council Assembly just what the actions to make Southwark go Dutch are.

It is after all about making sure journeys are not made longer and less convenient as who wants to spend more of their time cycling around junctions with motor vehicles speeding ahead?  

No-one should have to choose between "safe" and "convenient.  

No-one should ever be encouraged to choose a less safe route across any junction that will kill if they're in a hurry.

I cannot comprehend why we still make the mistake of separating "less confident" cyclists and thereby promoting inferior cycling solutions that force people into such devil's bargains.

Build the infrastructure and cycle they will. But we must avoid the costly mistake of building infrastructure which facilitates conflict, danger and inconvenience.

How will all Southwark's Councillors be reassured about Southwark’s future for cycling?

Cyclists want to obey

Recent press coverage in Southwark about citizen cyclists not obeying the rules finds the problem rooted in individuals.

This simply fails to understand that fear of other traffic creates the behaviour.

No enforcement can address this fear.

Cyclists do not have adequate infrastructure, never mind the fact that they are forced to abide by a traffic culture and traffic rules promulgated to serve the car, a completely different transport form.

In Copenhagen, in the morning rush hour when a couple of hundred thousand people ride bikes to work it is very different.  At each and every traffic light cycle you see great groups of citizen cyclists doing something really weird.

They wait for the lights to turn green.

No need to break the rules because they have a well-designed infrastructure, and a whole network of it.

Few seek to break the law; they don’t want to be rogues of the urban landscape. All they ask is to go about daily life, get from A to B quickly, efficiently and safety.

I just wish that at the junction in question some basic observation and human design principles, as requested by me the Ward Councillor, were undertaken.

Cycling is not inherently dangerous and if word got out that 1.2 million people a year are killed in car accidents, just think about it that is a 9/11 every month year in and year out, people might start riding a bike.

The hackneyed view, supported by Southwark Labour, that the non-cycling public need to be persuaded cycling is safe through more enforcement and nervous individuals can be taught to cope through the medium of cycle training simply leaves open the question of what to do with motorists.

To demand all cyclists adhere to a car-centric status quo and obey rules designed to manage motor vehicle flow and parking is utterly wrong minded if we want to improve modal share for cycling.

Southwark Council invests in the issuing of tickets to those cycling on the pavement.

This treats naughty cyclists who have had to adapt to a deeply hostile cycling environment with utter contempt.

Build a safe and respectful environment for cycling and cycle people will.

What parent or lover is going to ask him or her to share the road with any HGV?

Cyclists have to pay full observation to motorists encased and protected by a missile-mass of hardened plastic, glass and metal. Can it be any wonder that they are mercilessly bullied onto the curb side and pavement just to survive
the road?

I refuse to call for the trivialisation of the constant killing of cyclists by implying an equivalent to cycling on the pavement and enforcement.

 

Stephen Govier

Independa(e)nt Councillor for Southwark.

 

Pu-erh Discovery Part One

Pu-erh Discovery

Pu-erh tea from Yunnan is a discovery never ending.  It is a type of tea in a category all of it's own.  In the past tea has been something I almost liked but never could be passionate about.  All that has changed since I discovered Pu-erh.

My partner drinks nothing but PG Tips and for me drinking a cuppa can even be a bit of a chore.  Think of the number of times you have sipped away and smiled through the awfulness!

This discovery continues on so many levels I doubt one blog will be enough.  It is worth beginning with a classification of tea as what we Brits tend to call "black" tea is classed by the Chinese as a red.  There are at least six types of tea: white, yellow, wulong, red and black.  And in many ways blending is an historical hangover from the days when expensive teas were added to cheaper ones to make money.  

Tea drinking around the world takes on a cultural dimension speaking volumes about place.  The British cuppa is seen as part of our cultural landscape and is the beverage central to afternoon and, especially in Scotland, evening meals.  Ceremony exists but lacks the understanding of the nature of tea found in the ceremonial of other places.

There is a scene in Director John Woo's "Red Cliffe - Three Kingdoms - One fate" when the outcome of war is determined by a tea ceremony.  You have to know tea at a fundamental level to appreciate just how likely it was for a General to hold off attending to battle!  

Some of the more alarming abuse to which noble tea is subjected does little but bring out the tannin in tea in much the same way as brewing for too long will.  Ruined!  So go ahead squeeze the last drops out of a tea bag of tea dust and prove you are a mad dog English person!! 

Today I am drinking 2012 Autumn sheng cha Yi Wu from the Canton Tea Co.  I can't tell you more than that based on the packaging and blurb.  This should be from Yi Wu mountain in Xishuangbanna prefecture. Looking at the cake I guess it is the purple varietal of Camellia sinensis.  Tea, like wine, digs into the earth and terroir, as the French call it, shapes tea just as much as it does wine.  

Yi wu is one of the more popular mountains for pu-erh lovers.  Autumn is a particular harvest due to anthocyanin, which changes colour along with cell sap acidity.  In order to resist damage from shortwave radiation, tea leaves produce anthocyanin, which can reflect away a portion of the UV light hitting the leaves.  High levels of acidity lead to red colour, while medium acidity is more purple, and high alkalinity tends toward indigo.  Ultraviolet light encourages the reaction as a natural selection at high elevations. 

Lu Yu in the "Cha Jing" evaluating the color of tea leaves, came to the early conclusion: "bright cliffs and gloomy forests, purple is the highest and green the second". 

This Yi Wu has a prominent fragrance and rich flavor.   Steep for 20 - 30 seconds and the third, forth and fifth steeping, so far, open the nature of this tea to relax, regenerate, and reclaim profoundly the world 

The deep experience of tea makes something else out of the mundane cuppa.

Trying to stop a garden grab at Planning

To very slightly paraphrase Planning Policy Statement 5 (PPS5), historic environment is central to our cultural heritage, and hence, a cultural, socio-economic and environmental (and I stress the word environmental) resource that should be sustained for the benefit of present and future generations.
Therefore, I have no hesitation whatsoever in agreeing with the Camberwell Society and local residents in asking that you refuse this application.
The design of the build is out of character and of poor quality and should be refused under policy 3.12 and 3.13 of the Southwark Plan and of course Planning Policy Statement 3 (PPS3) and Planning Policy Statement 5 (PPS5).
It is a rather low, mean and cramped scheme which does not integrate successfully into the Conservation area.
The proposal is out of place and incongruous. It will seriously harm and not preserve or enhance the character or appearance of the Conservation Area. As such it is contrary to policies 3.13, 3.15 and 3.16 in the Southwark plan.
The one vital feature of Grove Park, its central green square and long gardens, will be destroyed if this scheme is approved.
Southwark has adopted a Conservation Statement and nowhere in that statement is this location identified as a site appropriate for development and a change of land use.
Other sites duly identified in the plan have been developed without the overwhelming opposition of those whose direct amenity is affected.
There is little presumption that there is any appropriate development for this site in particular as it can no longer be in any way in planning law be regarded as a brownfield site.
It is green and it should stay green if we are simply to do our statutory duty to protect and enhance the historic and future amenity of Grove Park as a key element, perhaps even the very heart and green soul of the conservation area.
Comrades, Planning Policy Statement 1 (PPS1) says any development should improve the way places look and work.
Nothing about this design improves the look of the conservation area.
Our statutory duty is to ensure all developments protect or enhance the character or appearance of this conservation area, therefore a refusal of planning permission should automatically follow from any correct interpretation of Planning Policy Guidance 15 (PPG15).
It is the approach I ask you to take today. Please protect the existing recognized and highly valued qualities of Grove Hill as are clearly set down in the Conservation Area Statement and the Camber Well that springs forth from it’s summit.

Two of South Camberwell’s Councillors are Southwark Cabinet Members. Peter John is Leader of the Council and Veronica is Cabinet member for culture, leisure, sport and the Olympics. I know they will serve our Southwark with passion and excellence.

Some of the immediate challenges for the Cabinet include the terms on which Southwark enters into any deal for the regeneration of the Elephant and Castle; making every council home warm, dry and safe, and finding funding so that we can implement the pledge to introduce free healthy school meals for all primary school children in the borough.

I was elected by the Southwark Labour Group as a deputy whip and at the first full Council meeting appointed as Vice-Chair of the Planning Committee. Much of the first few weeks have been taken up with training and induction.

A number of organisations and individuals, on and off the record, have commented about how difficult it was to get a meeting with the old administration.

One essential for any elected representative is to listen and to know when to “shut up and listen”. As a community campaigner with strong views I know this will be my biggest challenge.

Southwark’s Labour administration are committed to building a fair future for all and they will be listening to what the people of Southwark have to say as we look to deliver in some key priority areas. I am very keen to see our green spaces protected and we must double recycling as an essential contribution to working for a non-carbon future. We will need to cut back on wasteful spending and protect frontline services and there will be many tough decisions ahead.

So with this in mind, we have decided to hold some Planning Committee meetings at Southwark’s Tooley Street offices rather than at the Town Hall. Many applications come from the north of the borough and it makes sense to hold meetings to deal with these applications at Tooley Street so that local residents can easily attend and take part in the process. The Planning Committee meeting scheduled for 29th June 2010 will take place at Tooley Street on the ground floor in a space that can accommodate the large numbers who turn up and are otherwise uncomfortably crammed into the traditional space at the Town Hall.

Yesterday, I attended the pre-hearing by the Inspector on Southwark’s Core Strategy. It was interesting to see so many familiar faces all keen to improve on the soundness of the Core Strategy.

Finally, it was a great joy to watch Tayo Situ installed as Mayor of Southwark. He has chosen Macmillan Cancer Support as his charity appeal

Cross border and Tom

Campaigning has stepped up a gear as we fast approach both general and local elections on May 6th.  But, in a break from campaigning on Thursday night I did attend the fun packed election fundraiser for Camberwell and Peckham Constituency Labour Party.  We raised a tidy sum to top up the campaign coffers! 

The highlight of the evening was meeting, for the first time offline, Labour blogger Tom Scholes-Fogg (Here is the link to his take on the evening:(www.tomscholesfogg.com).   Significantly, the event took place in Cambwerwell just on the border between Labour run Lambeth and Lib-Dem / Tory run Southwark at the Sun and Doves  Last year at a Camberwell Community Council meeting Lambeth offered to work cross-border with Southwark to cuts costs and protect frontline services.  The Southwark Lib-Dem leader simply dismissed the offer.  So it was very good to see announced this week, as Labour victories fast approach on May 6th in both Lambeth and in Southwark, that Cllr Steve Reed, Leader of Lambeth Council, and Cllr Peter John, Leader of Southwark’s Labour Councillors, have agreed to offer residents better value for money by sharing management costs and merging some services across both councils. Residents in other cross-border areas like Waterloo and Herne Hill will also benefit from more consistent services whichever side of the border they live on. 

When we win the elections on 6 May, Steve and Peter will bring senior managers from both councils together in a summit to identify where closer working will benefit residents and save money.  Savings could run into millions of pounds at a time when the government is expected to cut funding to local councils.  Lambeth and Southwark councils both provide many services that are identical, but do we really need to pay twice for separate sets of senior management and back-office support?  By merging some services we can save money to reinvest in the frontline, protecting services and helping keep council tax down. Labour is all about quality services.  In Southwark, we’ve seen the Lib Dems and Tories drive service standards down.  By working more closely with neighbouring councils like Lambeth we can guarantee better services that cost less, and that means a better deal for local local people.

On Wednesday (24 March 2010) I met up with Housing Minister John Healy, MP to discuss building and improving Council homes.  John is a very likeable man and he outlined some of the changes was he due to announce on Thursday.  I was able to tell him that locally Labour has pledged to make every one of 47,000 Council homes warm, dry and safe and outlined parts of our plan for improving housing services run down under the Lib-Dems and Tories.
Nationally, the bold new deal on council housing means councils can now keep all of the proceeds of social rents and council house sales. This will give councils some leeway to invest in building, improving and acquiring properties for social use. We desperately need more good quality, well managed and maintained council homes.
John told me that is a once and for all settlement seeking to bring council house funding into the 21st century. By giving local authorities the freedom to fund and run their council homes, without central Government subsidy, not a single penny from rents or sales will go to Whitehall and not a single penny will subsidize other councils as the current system dictates. The deal will release at least ten per cent more money in every council for maintaining and managing their homes. And it will create the funding capacity to build over 10,000 new council homes a year.

Connecting the whole community in an understanding of the change needed and huge challenge of creating the real opportunities of the 21st century is vital.  Speaking to residents of South Camberwell it is clear that they know their council is not doing enough to save and reuse important resources and contribute directly towards a sustainable and green future.
Last year, following up on concerns expressed by residents, I asked our Council about its plans for bulk food waste recycling.   There are no plans under the Liberal Democrats and Tories to even consider this until 2014.  Not only is this indicative of the dire state of affairs across housing, social services and elsewhere but, it shows that under the Liberal Democrats and Tories there is simply no vision, no desire to plan for the growth, sustainability and build the opportunities the vast majority of the people of Southwark are demanding.
Some 40% of household waste is food waste and this goes directly into landfill. When food breaks down in landfill sites it creates the climate changing gas methane. Southwark Council by continuing to send food waste to landfill is damaging our environment.
Together with Hillary Evans and Brendan Keown, I want to enable action by the whole community to save our planet.  Food waste should be recycled and not dumped into harmful landfill and should be reused locally including, for example, at the 32 allotments managed by the Camberwell Gardens Guild.
Any reduction in food waste sent to landfill protects our environment.
So, Southwark having thus far failed to take food waste recycling seriously, we have submitted an application to the Camberwell Community Council Cleaner Greener Fund for a pilot project to recycle the food wastes generated households in South Camberwell. This can be done by residents of an estate or a street using a “Rocket® In-Vessel Composter.” And, with the added benefit that costs would be offset up reductions in landfill tax.
The pilot could be for as few as 50 households using an A500 Rocket In-Vessel Composter or up to 750 households. We think it is time for planning and giving back to the residents of Camberwell and Peckham the options they are demanding for working towards a non-carbon future.

SoCam Jam and Climate Change

Some parts of South Camberwell are blessed with fruit trees. In Abbotswood Road an old and some more recently planted crab-apple trees seem almost overburdened at this time of year. Grove Park has pear and apple trees of such size they must date back many decades, if not to the time when it was part of Dr. John Coakley Lettsom’s villa.

Botany, we are told in a publication of 1801, was one of Dr. Lettsom’s philanthropies and, “Grove-hill, his rural retreat at Camberwell, about three miles from London, where he has formed a museum of natural history, consisting of many rare and valuable specimens in that walk of science as well as a botanic garden, enriched with the choicest plants, brought at a vast expense from the four quarters of the globe, all correctly arranged according to the Linnaean system.” (p.536, Public Characters of 1800-1801).

I’m hoping my longstanding suggestion for a grove of fruit trees at the end of the now agreed long green vista through the centre of the East Dulwich Estate will continue such great tradition as part of our regeneration environmental works.

We have already decided on a wild meadow full of grasses and wild flowers and our environmental planning now looks to include plots for residents to care for and tend as part on an ongoing and future management plan that involves rather than excludes. Michelle Obama calls these “People’s Gardens” and it is a concept earlier in the year I was able to get Harriet Harman, MP to endorse during an estate walkabout.

The Albrighton Youth Club has survived despite the very tragic cuts in funding from the Tory/Lib-Dem run Southwark Council. The resulting staff redundancies have been met by a flowering of volunteers and a determination to provide when local authority ignores our children’s futures.
So, SoCam jam, taking the abundance of South Camberwell fruit windfalls and turning it into jam and jelly to raise funds for the youth services at the winter fete, is just one way we are seeking to ensure our kids have something to do in a structured and safe environment.
SoCam pear and apple jelly, SoCam jam with a hint of rosemary, pear and redcurrant, bramble and apple and, I’m about to make the first trial batch, crab-apple, quince, fuchsia and pear. Any jam jars anyone would like to recycle?
Grow your own is a concept I favour and in our “people’s garden” sage, rosemary, thyme and mint (English, Peppermint, Russian and lemon) grow with some other less obvious herbs and all seem to have survived the regeneration grit blasting! Redcurrant and blackcurrant were stomped upon so crops were very limited.
Now, the use of sugar to make jam did get me thinking about climate change and working towards a non carbon future and the huge challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.
Just where does our jam sugar come from?
I know sugar is an intensively irrigated crop and beet sugar (30% of the world’s sugar production) burns a fossil fuel such as coal, oil or gas during processing.

A gentle wander around the internet found this synthetic sugar-monster (see image) and the SIBC (Sugar Industry Biotech Council) who tell us:
“Whether from sugar beets or sugar cane, or from sugar crops grown using conventional, biotech or organic methods, sugar is pure and natural and has identical nutritional value, composition and wholesomeness. The sugar is the same no matter its original plant source or growing practice.” It turns out genetic modification of beets and cane is well advanced in the Americas.
In terms of using solar energy for a low carbon future sugar cane can grow very quickly and can fix sunlight with an efficiency greater than the planetary average for wild plants. Originally the drive to increase sugar cane growth was to produce sugar, but increasingly to make ethanol. In Brazil this is being done. Over 50% of vehicles in Brazil run on ethanol-based fuels. These fuels should be more or less carbon neutral, but, as with all carbon questions the devil can be in the detail.
Biofuels need countries with large landmass and although the fuels themselves are carbon neutral, their processing is not. Converting crops into fuel requires energy and fertilizer, both of which produce significant greenhouse gas emissions.
Brazil’s sugar cane comes out fairly well compared to fossil fuels. But others, notably the corn-based fuel favoured in the US, can be almost as bad as the petrol they claim to replace. Indeed, much of the biofuel imported into Europe from countries such as Indonesia suffers from the same problem. The rainforests that are cut down and burned to clear the land for planting cause more emissions than the fuels themselves save.
Emerging technology, does offer the prospect of “second-generation” biofuels such as switchgrass (for bioethanol) and jatropha (for biodiesel) with the added benefit of tremendous opportunities for those developing countries already suffering disproportionately from climate change.
So, given food demand over the next two decades is expected rise by 50%, my Silver Spoon sugar packet does not tell me much about where it came from or its carbon emissions.
British Sugar Plc claims to have been the first sugar business to certify the carbon footprint of its granulated sugar using something called “the new PAS 2050 method.” [This is all explained here: http://www.silverspoon.co.uk/home/about-us/news/carbon-footprint-pr] and at [http://www.silverspoon.co.uk/home/about-us/carbon-footprint].
Nevertheless, just how do I, or should I, buy UK produced sugar from “established UK arable farmers … from assured supply chains” and “with minimal ‘food-miles’: average transport distance is only 30 miles”?
Is all the silver spoon sugar I buy from the UK?
If I give up sugar will I save the world from climate change?
Equally, I simple can’t imagine a world without the pure delight of homemade jam!
2009 is when the EU opens up sugar markets to competition from overseas, ending subsidies to ensure developing countries fair access to our markets and this may well make beet sugar production in Europe unsustainable.
Add to this a natural desire to support developing countries and my question about sugar and any carbon neutral, let alone non carbon, future seems more far more complicated than imagined.
Many people are green in aspiration but wholly bemused by the science and rival posturing for a low-carbon future. For me, the real question is truthfully working to change lifestyle options incrementally to secure the real buy-in to the change we all recognize is needed.
Yet, changing culture is never going to be at all easy when values clash. Sooner or later we will all have to live within the planet’s means and use no more resources than the environment can produce and sustain.
I know a little bit about jam – it is one of the simple things in life to produce and enjoy – but, I’m not sure I know enough about sugar.
So two reasons why I’m going to carry on making SoCam jam. First, we need youth services and if the local authority won’t provide we will make jam! Second, locally produced jam confers an  immunity to allergies so, if you want to do at least one good thing buy a jar of SoCam Jam in December.
I’m not sure if it will help save the planet but, I am sure it will help produce a generation of kids who will want to consider the choices rather than kill each other. We can’t hope for social justice if we are parochial and the spectacular trust provided us by nature demands we think deeply about all future generations.

Network Rail has now told campaigners  that “stacking” (sharing of platforms) at London Bridge from 2015 is feasible so the South London Line could continue to run.  In Network Rail’s view this was “not ideal” and they would not recommend. Transport for London / London Rail (Peter Field) refused to state whether the Mayor’s view would be any different when questioned at the public meeting.
200 plus people packed the Institute of Psychiatry for the SE5 Forum public meeting attended by Chris Rowley for Network Rail, Peter Field, Director London Rail (Transport for London) and Tim Bellenger, Research Director, London TravelWatch (LTW). Residents, user groups, staff and employers all spoke about the South London “life-line”. Professor John Moxham for Kings College Hospital said the problem was not waiting times at the hospital but how long it took to get to the hospital. It was bad enough already but losing the South London Line service would make things much worse for patients, staff and the local community. He said patients’ being able to get to hospital was a pretty fundamental right. It had been a long fight to get disabled access at Denmark Hill station. When we lose the South London Line the alternative of changing trains at Peckham would put things back for patients. Kings, Guy’s, South London and Maudsley and now University College London are demanding retention of the South London Line service into London Bridge.

Pyjama Protest to Save Your South London Line

I joined other campaigners including Valerie Shawcross, AM, Councillor Fiona Colley and Councillor Veronica Ward for a sleepy protest to save the South London Line outside Denmark Hill station in South Camberwell. The decision to axe the line which provides a vital transport link for South Camberwell means no service to Victoria from Denmark Hill station after 7.30pm.

As we gathered in our night-gear commuters going and in and out of the station kept asking what we were doing and many were shocked to discover that the very service they were about to use was going to be cut back.

What strikes me most about the community led campaign to fight against cuts to transport under Major Johnson is the growing sense of anger and frustration over a “black hole” in London’s transport services. We surely must be entitled to the same transport infrastructure regardless of where we live? In so many ways the South London Line is our tube line and it makes no sense at all to cut it.

Campaign Dates:

South London Line Campaign Meeting

30 Sept 2009-09-24 Institute of Psychiatry, 16, De Crespigny Park, Camberwell, 7-9pm

Peoples Question Time with Mayor Johnson

November 11 – Brixton Academy

To apply for tickets email:

Peoplesquestiontime@london.gov.uk

Including your, name, address, postcode, daytime phone number and the number of tickets you require (max 6) or call 0207 983 4762

South London Line Latest – Mayor says NO to meeting

Tory Mayor Boris Johnson has refused to meet with South London Line campaigners and claimed that the future of the service is nothing to do with him, despite being in control of Transport for London. This decision came as a great shock to those of us campaigning to Save the South London Line between London Bridge and Victoria.
If the Mayor persists in seeking reductions from the levels of service specified by Government, with the ditching such a key service, many thousands of angry passengers will face significantly longer journey times and inconvenient interchanges causing dangerous overcrowding on other rail services, local buses and on the already crammed Northern and Victoria tube lines.
He has lost the plot if he thinks we can just lose the South London Line and simply cram more people on other trains, buses and the Northern Line! He can save this service if he wanted to – and it is time that he started to listen to South Londoners!

You can support the community-led campaign to Save the South London Line between London Bridge and Victoria by signing the petition at: http://tinyurl.com/SouthLondonLine or join the facebook group at http://tiny.cc/SeMRp .