tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33137122007-11-07T18:26:42.243ZJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1165665593450908562006-12-09T11:50:00.000Z2006-12-09T12:12:08.260Z

It's Sonia Gandhi's 60th birthday today, and I never thought I'd see a politician (anywhere) being feted this much! I'll show this to Steve Bullock and see if he thinks the adoring populace of Lewisham should arrange something similar for his next...

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1165068705939652492006-12-02T13:46:00.000Z2006-12-02T14:11:45.953Z

Yes it does! Last Thursday evening saw a 'social' event for those of us on the Shadow Board ("shadow" until it formally comes into existence) of Lewisham Homes to meet candidates for the Cheif Executive's post. Then a rush downstairs to join in a slightly odd Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting (that's all the councillors who aren't in the Cabinet - so Labour has a serious lack of

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1164274119422607202006-11-23T08:42:00.000Z2006-11-23T09:28:39.433Z

It's so good having an opposition, and proper arguments in Full Council meetings! They're in danger of becoming seriously entertaining! One of the best bits last night was Stephen Padmore's contribution to the 'class war' debate (on a motion about Monson School and Aske's). He was positively evangelical, proving that there's still an overwhelming Labour majority when it comes to serious

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1164107659131617692006-11-21T11:14:00.000Z2006-11-21T11:14:19.143Z

I don't usually blog other websites (I don't have enough time to write about what I promised on R-Wote-GHC, anyway), but here's one talking about special needs education in Lewisham - Wandering Lonely

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1164044188276494832006-11-20T16:34:00.000Z2006-11-20T17:36:28.300Z

[still catching-up here...] My last Planning Committee on Thursday 9th November again attracted a large 'angry mob'* - one of those that requires an urgent import of extra chairs at the back, complaints about the PA system being too weedy (which it is), and anxious hovering around by Pat Merry and her security staff at the Civic Suite. This time people came mainly about two controversial

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1164025586943078122006-11-20T12:11:00.000Z2006-11-20T13:40:42.060Z

Saturday (18-Nov) was action-packed, starting with attending the opening of Forest Hill School's new sports centre by Steve Bullock (no doubt some of those potentially cringeworthy photos in which we were posed on bits of gym machinery will find their way into the public domain - despite my warning to avoid "Andrew Brown moments" ;->). Next I dashed to the AGM of Friends of CyberZone (their

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1162644653931747782006-11-04T12:43:00.000Z2006-11-04T12:50:53.946Z

IMGP0766 Originally uploaded by John Paschoud. Here's one of my photos, taken from a viewpoint just in front of the help-point on platform 1 of Forest Hill station, with a view of Christ Church steeple that might be affected by a development on the Finches site.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1162577311569339552006-11-03T17:46:00.000Z2006-11-03T18:08:31.583Z

Another rip-roaring Full Council meeting this Wednesday, with some yellow (as well as red) blood spilled this time. I'm sure the full not-so-biased account will be reported somewhere, so I'll save my version. Thursday night I had to divide between 3 meetings going on at the same time: one at the constituency Labour Party about selection of our parliamentary candidate; the first meeting of the

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1162116546780353912006-10-29T10:09:00.000Z2006-10-31T00:34:08.750Z

I don't use the train to commute every day, but I noticed a few days ago that someone (who?) has at least addressed one of the minor things that made it unpleasant to use. The pavement at the foot of the steps down from platform 2 has been tarmacced(sp?), and all the big puddles and trip hazards are gone! Of more potential impact on the Perry Vale side of the station is the likely development on

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1160354022368027502006-10-09T00:23:00.000Z2006-10-09T00:33:42.380Z

Oh no! A month's gap without blogging anything! Have I been in a coma? Have I been totally neglecting my councillor-ing duties? No, in fact I've done lots, but have felt short of either the time or the motivation to write about them. Right now, ironically, I have most of a week 'off' from doing anything as a councillor. My job has taken me to Dallas for the week, to the Educause 2006

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1157625699538423682006-09-07T10:06:00.000Z2006-09-07T10:44:51.780Z

An interesting Sustainable Development select committee meeting this Tuesday evening. Darren Johnson (given his other hat as a GLA member) obviously knows his transport stuff, and we're getting into the weighty business of trying to understand the needs and options for rail transport to serve Lewisham. This meeting was mainly a briefing from the Council's Head of Transport, Darien Goodwin,

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1157381516506748462006-09-04T08:16:00.000Z2006-09-04T14:51:59.933Z

It's good to see that the long-haul work on improving Forest Hill Station being done by Len Duvall - and by local councillors for the old Horniman and Forest Hill wards over many years - is getting some recognition - in the Sydenham Society's newsletter and in the Mercury (30-Aug, page 8) this week. I know I've been battering away at Network Rail and all their predecessors since at least 10

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1156519740088123732006-08-25T15:29:00.000Z2006-08-25T15:29:00.163Z

Apropos Katherine's comment on my Re-Cycling piece... I found it hard to believe that someone really managed to separate all the stuff in my green bin, into useful re-usable material. I still want to see the MRF myself (mainly just because I like big machines). But I'm convinced enough by the eye-witness reports from Robin Cross, Darren Johnson and others who did go and see it. You should be

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1155922306532808072006-08-18T17:24:00.000Z2006-08-18T17:31:46.533Z

I mustn't (certainly haven't) forgotten yesterday's other important event, which was visiting Christ the King College in the morning with Daniel, to collect his A-level results. Being amongst so many teenagers, being so massively overjoyed, is a genuinely heart-warming experience - which I'm definitely not poetic enough to describe in words. I failed to spot any who were actually looking

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1155921817042317542006-08-18T16:54:00.000Z2006-08-18T17:40:07.536Z

Too much to catch up with... again... Planning C last night, and in contrast to the last agenda we had (with only 2 items, both nice and simple), this one was hard-going, with a full house in the public seats. Most people had come to object to a seemingly innoccuous, if ugly, rear extension on a pair of houses in Lee Green. Having listened, carefully to their spokesman (who started off

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1155132904943102432006-08-09T14:02:00.000Z2006-08-09T14:15:05.006Z

Yesterday morning Mrs P spotted part of the wall in front of a house, seeming to be in some danger of collapse onto the pavement on Stanstead Road. The 'boundaries' between "our" (Lewisham Council's) roads, and someone else's roads (in this case, Transport for London's, as it's the South Circular) ....and the 'boundaries' between public property (like the pavement) and private property (like

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1154522890116787682006-08-02T12:47:00.000Z2006-08-02T12:48:10.116Z

I'd like to make it VERY CLEAR that this blog reflects my own personal views, opinions and experiences; and in particular that nothing contained within it should be interpreted as representing Lewisham Council policy, nor the views (etc) of any other member or officer of Lewisham Council. Silly me, for thinking that was obvious! There is also, as it happens, no evidence of which I've ever been

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1153748507189614822006-07-24T13:41:00.000Z2006-07-24T13:41:48.170Z

Sadly, I'm going to miss the Labour Group discussion tonight, to help inform the plans being developed by Heidi Alexander (Deputy Mayor) to improve on our waste recycling targets. I did send her a suggestion about split street bins - good not just because a lot of litter collected is cans and bottles (assuming not too many kebabs get put in with them); but as a visible reminder to people of our

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1153688903808605162006-07-23T21:08:00.000Z2006-07-23T21:08:23.853Z

A rather hectic week, filled mostly with wearing my 'real job' hat, publicising the new national access management federation for education (which we're not supposed to acronym-ise... but I can see some possibilities), and negotiating for the next lot of grants that will keep my team at LSE working on this sort of stuff.The street surgery in Elsinore Road last Sunday went well; 4 or 5 substantial

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1152992840673475962006-07-15T19:17:00.000Z2006-07-15T19:47:20.763Z

Back home from the CFL Conference, slightly inspired by high-level assurances that the Labour Party is indeed becoming more open to free thought. ...and by a fortuitous open bottle of wine found in the Media Centre kitchen at lunchtime by my friend Nick Trier (I'm not recommending that blog at all, but I can't find a definitive website for Nick and he was definitely the Labour candidate for

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1152968513188392902006-07-15T13:01:00.000Z2006-07-15T13:01:53.253Z

I'm at an interesting conference today, and Tom Geldart is now speaking about future methods of e-campaigning. I'm not going to blog what the Labour Party's next tranche of secret techno-weaponry will be; but one of the 'problems' Tom identifies is people's disengagement with 'traditional' party-based politics, and I can't help thinking this means that we (Labour Party elected representatives)

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1152603604162761262006-07-11T07:05:00.000Z2006-08-02T12:38:56.750Z

I'm not vain enough to expect anyone noticed, but I've been offline (totally, 404, etc) since sometime on Friday. This was because I decided to ditch the over-priced, under-capable web-hosting company I've been using and switch to a new one. I thought I'd manage to do it all in the early hours of Saturday morning, but (following my very polite request to 'take my business elsewhere') they decided

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1152141007249006882006-07-05T22:53:00.000Z2006-07-05T23:10:07.326Z

Had a great meeting early this morning - Robert Massey, Lewisham Cabinet Member for Children & Young People came to visit the School Council at Perrymount (about time the School Council got its' own bit of the school website...), who've been bending my ear about places to play (not enough of them) around the school and where they live. They kept him talking for about an hour in the school

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1152138708962052212006-07-05T22:10:00.000Z2006-07-05T22:31:49.023Z

What I missed last night (because the ALMO board meeting went on a bit) was getting to the Children (etc) Select Committee to hear the item about reorganising Special Needs Education. Perrymount School (where I'm chair of govs) is a mainsteam school, but with quite a few kids who have mobility and medical needs (and a very nice accessible building). Meadowgate (where my wife Jacq is chair of

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1152137430426842872006-07-05T21:57:00.000Z2006-07-05T22:10:30.443Z

The ALMO ('council' housing management) meeting last night held no big surprises - although it (oops - we!) face a tough job getting most of Lewisham's housing services (including repairs) up to the "two star" standard needed to bag the essential government grant. As luck would have it, this morning I got a housing case on the phone (the first one - surprising!) - some poor woman with a

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com