As reported in the local papers, we have just received the devastating news that the Government has announced that the proposed new school for Boys will not now be opened for at least another two years.  

The Government had promised local parents a temporary school from September 2007 with a permanent school ready for September 2009.  This was promised not just by the Education Minister but by Tony Blair who came to East Dulwich to launch his academy programme last summer.  So much for high level political support.  The temporary school has  now been abandoned altogether. 

 I reported that this decision was threatened in the summer but staved off after the council leader met with the Schools minister and local MP.   Southwark Council has done everything asked of it by the Academy Project Board and the Government. We identified a temporary site which they agreed as being suitable and we provided a dedicated planning consultant  to help overcome any difficulties.  It has all come to nothing.  A Government that was serious about progressing this plan would have raised concerns about the identified sites much earlier.  They would have given active consideration to ALL SIX sites that the council identified. They have not done so.  

The Government is making a number of completely untrue statements about this decision. They claim that a ‘risk assessment’ shows the plan to be unsafe.  We have provided plans to mitigate against any risks yet these were not even considered before a decision was made.

They Government is even claiming that the decision was taken by a Project Board meeting last Friday. Yet the Council Leader was  rung by the Minister while the meeting was still going on and told that the decision had been taken!

This is an shabby, insulting treatment. But more importantly it is a disgraceful way of making decisions that have such an effect on local children.

I wonder if any ‘risk assessment’ was made of the impact on local children,on local families and on the local community of not providing the schooling promised? 

Even now,  we are clear that  we think that it is still possible to put the temporary school on the Bredinghurst site and we are seeking urgent meetings with the Minister to find out why he has pulled the plug. The Borough Commander has said he is willing to attend such a meeting. Let Tessa Jowell and the Minister explain their ‘risk assessment’ to him. In the meantime we’ll go on reminding people of just what  weight a promise from Tony Blair and Tessa Jowell carries….

The rumours about a possible closure of East Dulwich Police Station have circulating for weeks now.  I and my colleagues have avoided fuelling those rumours  whilst we  sought reassurances from the Borough commander. But those reassurances have not come  and on Friday my fellow East Dulwich Councillor, Jonathan Mitchell, went public in the South London Press with our belief that the police station has already been ear-marked for closure.

The rumours stem from the fact that the Labour-run Metropolitan Police Authority has ordered a review of all stations with a view to selling existing premises to fund new custody centres in London.

We also know that Police Officers and others have been tasked to go around actively looking for accommodation that the Police can relocate to  if and when they move out of East Dulwich Police Station.

We wrote  to the Borough Commander about this matter during the summer but we did not receive a very reassuring response. The opportunity to quosh  the persistent rumours that the East Dulwich Police Station may close was conspicuous by its absence.  

Hundreds  of East Dulwich residents have been supporting the Lib Dem campaign to make East Dulwich a proper working police station – open 24hours a day, 7 days a week. As local councillors,  we have been pressing the for the police to look at ways of making it more viable –like using the station as a base for the council run Community Warden scheme. 

No doubt a decision to flog off the police station will be accompanied by some half baked proposal for a ’safer neighbourhood team base’    The Liberal Democrats are clear that a we need a proper working, staffed police station in our neighbourhood that will make reporting crime easier.  This is what we will continue to fight for. An Peckham based operation with a tokenistic Dulwich outpost will never provide the service this community deserves.

Yesterday morning, James Barber, Jonathan Mitchell and I were able to show the Council’s new Chief Executive, Annie Shepperd around East Dulwich.

We started at the train station -noting that 10 years into a Labour Government we still don’t have a station with disabled access – and cycled our way through the area finishing off at the Bread of Life cafe and Fair Trade centre at Christ Church.

It was excellent to give Annie a real idea of the issues of concern to local people. For example, we were able to visit Dulwich Baths and talk of the important need to refurbish the pool bringing it up to a 21st Century Standard. We even saw the now defunct baths -which I’m told were still in use up to fifteen years ago.

The visit to East Dulwich Community Centre was particularly useful as she  was able to see the centre being used  (in this instance by an Elderly Black Group) and to discuss ways of ensuring a stable future for the centre.

She was impressed by the range of independent  shops – and the quality of the cake in Blue Mountain cafe –  and we talked about the need to make sure the area didn’t fall victm to a late night drinking culture.

We were also able to impress on her the importance local people put on opening a new secondary school for boys by 2007 and ensuring that the character of the area is not changed by allowing ‘urban’ high rise developments as the Mayor of London wants. 

Coming to an area like Southwark it would be all too easy for a new Chief Execuitve to become obsessed by the high profile areas like Bankside, the Elephant & Castle or Peckham for example. It is to her credit that she wanted to discover all of Southwark and we were delighted to show her our neighbourhood!