SE22 Councillors Councillor Jon Hartley | Dulwich Hill Ward | jon.hartley@southwark.gov.uk
Empowering Communities Local Meetings
Our most recent Empowering Communities meeting took place on 5th Feb 2020 at Christ Church on Barry Rd and focused on the theme of ‘Health and Wellbeing’. It was also the first meeting that we have held in Dulwich Hill as a single ward, rather than joint with other wards or as part of a multiword forum. The meeting was chaired by my colleague Maggie Browning and I and included a presentation from a council officer who gave an overview of the services and support the council provides to encourage residents to live an active lifestyle, including free Swim and Gym and the Cycle with Confidence programme. We then heard from residents who spoke about action they had taken to foster a sense of community and well-being in their road or estate - such as a street party or community club. We also looked at the ways the council had supported them with this, usually through the help of a small grant from the Cleaner Greener Safer, Highways or Neighbourhood Fund, which we determine locally. Our next Empowering Communities meeting will be on 10th March and will focus on road safety and air pollution, if you’re a Dulwich Hill resident do come along.
Traffic Around Goodrich School
Concerns about the level of traffic in the roads around Goodrich School have been growing amongst local residents, parents and school staff. Numbers of vehicles, along with some inconsiderate driving and parking are causing difficulties and safety concerns, particularly at the start and end of the school day. At a recent meeting at the school, there were many examples given of the upset caused and agreement from all of us present that this problem needs to be fixed. As local councillors we are working with school staff and parents to get potential solutions from council traffic officers; such as crossings, patrols or short period street closures like Southwark’s School Streets scheme that have worked well around other local schools. 34 | SE22 - March 2020
Southwark Budget 2020/21
Over the past few weeks councillors have been working through the council’s budget for the next financial year. Despite some additional funding being provided by the (then) Chancellor in his Spending Review last November we are still having to find some savings this year. However, once again we have worked to ensure that these savings have little or no impact on front-line services for our most vulnerable residents. In order to set a balanced budget we do need to raise council tax by 1.99% and levy a 2% precept for Adult Social Care, this is in line with other London councils. The impact will be to raise the average Southwark element of the council tax bill by 82p per week or 12p if you are on the our Council Tax Reduction Scheme, which remains one of the most generous in London. Before the next budget in 2020/21 we expect the government to have introduced a new Fair Funding Formula for all councils, as well as undertaking a business rate revaluation. The combined impact of these changes is currently unknown, but they are likely to mean further savings will be needed in next year’s budget.
Council Housing Repairs
I’m a member of the Southwark Housing Scrutiny Commission and this year we’ve been looking at how best to improve the council’s housing repairs service. Following the bringing back in-house of the repairs service, Southwark is now directly providing the vast majority of repairs to our council housing stock. We have looked at how effectively and efficiently these repairs are done. We’ve talked to local residents about how the current system can be improved. Whilst standards are better than under previous contractors, too many residents have a negative experience trying to arrange repairs. We are now recommending that Southwark ends its internal client/contractor split and returns to a more traditional service model. We have also found more ways to make the service more responsive to our residents, including involving them in the sign off of the repair’s completion.
