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
29 May 2010
30 March 2010
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
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.25 March 2010
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.
16 January 2010
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.
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.
18 October 2009
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.
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.
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.
“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.
5 October 2009
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.
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.
24 September 2009
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.
South London Line Campaign Meeting
30 Sept 2009-09-24 Institute of Psychiatry, 16, De Crespigny Park, Camberwell, 7-9pm
November 11 – Brixton Academy
To apply for tickets email:
Including your, name, address, postcode, daytime phone number and the number of tickets you require (max 6) or call 0207 983 4762
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