The Mirror - back!

Here it is again, professionally erected by a couple of Skanska guys in full safety gear.

It has suffered a small dent and see few scuffs in the course of being handled by 'the professionals'...

At Mayor & Cabinet for several items

Wed 30-May, 18:00 to...

The item about "removal of an LEA governor" (apparently a deeply flawed process) has been postponed until about 20-Jun.

(Closure of 3) Early Years Centres

"Housing Issues" (about street housing properties for disposal)

Lewisham Gateway proposed loan.

Advice surgery issue

I spoke too soon (about 2 minutes too soon) in my post on Saturday whilst waiting for advice clients. I did get one person, who was really hoping to see Cllr Wise (who's Chair of the Local Assembly for the coming year), mainly to urge her to bring forward the launch of this year's LA funding bids, so they can be in time for the project she wants to propose. I tend to agree that this would be a good idea - although the LA coordinator has made the point to me that this might inhibit bids from people who hadn't been involved in the LA previously.

meeting about Forest Hill subway

11:00 to about 12:00, with Richard Hibbert and Ilse Towler (FH Soc), John Bishop (LBL Highways) and Ian Ransom (LBL Regen programme manager). Agreed to proceed with within-budget quote from Conway, including the ceiling cladding but omitting work on the stairs - which would cost another £24K-ish and is definitely Network Rail's safety problem. Will make a time-limited (by our/Conway's works timetable) offer to NR which they can accept/fund to get the stairs done cheaper (with a possible £4K contribution from LBL plus saving from coordination with our works); or ignore, so we will have to use publicity to highlight the one unfinished (and dangerous) aspect of the subway and press them to do it anyway.

I also mentioned the Skanska lighting issues to Ian Ransom, as he is taking over looking after the street lighting project from Steve Gough.

Don't forget to put the bulbs in!

Just got in from following up casework re the street lighting in Trilby Road and the alley connecting it with Sunderland Road. I've had several emails about this during the weekend.

After I'd waited there since about 00:50, and reported it again, the Skanska guy called me to say he'd been there, that "apparently the numpties forgot to put the bulbs in", and that he couldn't fix that safely in the dark, but it would be done first thing in the morning.

I was told by the call operator (Steve Barnes) that their call centre doesn't get feedback from the crews on the streets; so this may be another systemic problem they (or we the client) need to fix - as well as getting smarter electricians!

Advice surgery at St George's

About 10:15 until 12noon. Just me, as Alan is away visiting an aunt in Germany, and Susan is fully occupied all morning doing something with Sydenham Garden Soc.

There was also an induction course for new school governors being run in the church, so I did get to meet the new Head of Governors Support Services.

Sadly, no takers for f2f advice today - balanced by at least 3 cases I've dealt with by email in the past week (and forgotten to blog at the time)... and another I've had by email this morning (boundary fencing by L&Q, Colfe Rd, chase up).

Politics Outside In - speed dating

Wed 09-May, 18:00 to 19:30
Event organised by Bridget Prentice for young people to learn about how politics and politicians work.

networkED seminar at LSE

Wed 09-May, 15:00 to 16:30.
Part work but part relevant to CYP matters, David White discussing issues of provenance and how academia differs from 'learning and teaching' in use of 'low authenticity' materials like Wikipedia. Provenance of information sources is still a topic that (I think) will be essential at primary key stages - not just later. If we don't get more proactive about teaching it, kids will just grow up like most adults today, with very inaccurate ideas about information.

Some catch-ups, now the election's over

I'll need to add a few back-dated posts, now we've finished with that election...

I don't think Blogger will let me fake the date/time of a post, so I'll try and include the approx date/time of an activity in a consistent way.