Peckham Rye Labour

It's been a very hectic first year for the Peckham Rye Labour and the blog is going from strength to strength. There's been lots of news about our area from your local councillors, but we have to admit that over the last 12 months we have not been the star attraction. Oh no. Unsurprisingly, in a sea of council and election related updates, one of the most popular posts on this blog over the last 12 months had very little to do with local government. Top of the pops was when the Ivydale cats - Noel and Liam - wished everyone a happy new year. So, we'll try the trick once again. A big merry Christmas from Victoria, Renata and I, but more importantly, Happy New Year from Noel (right) and Liam (left). They will do weddings, bar mitzvahs and any other social gatherings for three cans of Sheba and pinch of cat nip!

Congratulations to all the staff and students at Bredinghurst School on Stuart Road, Nunhead on their Ofsted Report. They are a "rapidly improving school". I'm a governor at Bredinghurst which is a special community school for boys aged 11-16. All the students have a statement of special educational needs for social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. The vast majority also have further special educational needs and/or disabilities including dyslexia, attention deficit disorders, autistic spectrum disorders and a variety of medical issues. This means that the school can be a challenging place. We welcomed a new Headteacher in July and if that wasn't change enough, the school is about to be rebuilt under Building School for the Future. You can read the full report here but here's a bit of an idea of how well the school did: "This is a satisfactory and rapidly improving school. It has undergone several significant changes in recent years including changes...

A while ago I posted a short case study giving an example of the kind of work we do in Peckham Rye as your local councillors. Well, I thought it was time for another example... Residents from the lower part of Friern Road recently approached me about consistent traffic and parking problems outside their homes, partly as a result of the opening of the Harris Boys Academy nearby. Among other things they were finding parking spaces outside their homes were being taken up and that some pupils crossing Friern Road were not seeing cars turning right from Peckham Rye, raising the possibility of an accident. They were also worried about the general level of traffic on their road. Since hearing of their concerns I set up a joint meeting between the relevant traffic and parking officers from the council, representatives from the school and the Friern Road residents themselves. Last Thursday night we held the meeting at the school and started to get to the bottom of some of these problems. Offi...

Simon Hughes has just appeared on Newsnight to say that he is now undecided on whether he will abstain or vote against the government's tuition fees policy. Abstaining on a policy which will do so much to prevent young people from less privileged backgrounds from attending university is clearly not enough. Hughes has always presented himself as a progressive politician: now he needs to live up to that image. Anyone tempted by Nick Clegg's rhetoric about how "progressive" this policy is should consider these facts and figures from universities Think Tank million+ "...The Coalition has set out a very narrow vision of 'social mobility'. Social mobility through higher education is about enabling students from disadvantaged backgrounds to enter higher socio-economic occupations and improve their earnings compared with their backgrounds, whichever university they study at. The real risk from the current proposals is that they will damage participation...

An issue that I know will be of concern to many young people living in Peckham Rye, and their parents, will be the forthcoming vote on the Coalition plans to triple tuition fees for university students. Southwark's Labour MPs, Harriet Harman and Tessa Jowell , have written to Liberal Democrat Simon Hughes to insist that he keeps to the pledge he made before the election that he would not vote to raise fees. The text of the letter is below. ________________________________________ 7th December 2010 Dear Simon, One of the most important changes over the last 10 years is the big increase in the number of young people from Southwark going to university. University used to be just for people from better off families. But that was changed by the last government. Nearly three times as many Southwark young people now go on to university compared to 1997 - and that means opportunities for people from Southwark that they never had before. When you asked for the votes of people in Southwark...

Click on the letter below to see the letter which Southwark council has submitted to Transport for London (TfL) regarding, among other things, the 343 bus route. Some readers will recall our submission to the consultation on changes to the bus route. Whilst welcoming the increase in frequency of the buses we wanted the council to make it clear to TfL that 343 buses need to slow down when they go through residential areas. The letter above is from the Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment, Barrie Hargrove to Gary Murphy at the Consultation and Engagement Centre at Transport for London. Councillor Hargrove concludes his letter by writing: "I would be grateful for an assurance that the timetable acknowledges this and that there is no imperative for drivers to exceed this speed in order to maintain timetabled headways." I've asked Cllr Hargrove to keep me updated on whether or not he gets the assurance he asks for. We hope that the message will start to get through to...