Camberwell Regeneration - a Good Week now lets see some action to make it all happen!!

It has been a very interesting and I think positive week for Camberwell, staring with the "Thumbs Up" campaign for the £400K bid to the Mayors Parks Fund and rumours that we are doing very well!
Followed up with a visit from the Minister for Sport Gerry Sutcliffe MP to meet with Harriet, Exec Member Lewis Robinson, Councillors and Friends of Camberwell Leisure Centre to discuss the future of the building and it's redevelopment potential, and in the same week the Scrutiny Committee A released the first draft Report on the Regeneration of Camberwell!

I have to take it on good faith that this Tory/Lib Dem have had a "Paulian Conversion" to regenerating Camberwell even though a year ago they were not apparently interested as "there were no votes in it!" and the threat of the Leisure Centre closure seemed a constant threat.
The Tory/Lib Dem Administration are putting up a bit of a back slapping exercise motion at next week's

Council Assembly which is a bit premature to say the least and a bit presumptous because they had to be led screaming and kicking to where we are now! However we have to be pragmatic on this and let the inflated egos have their way if it is in the longer term good for Camberwell so we may have to keep quiet and support it!! Whether they see some party political advantage in it is not clear but I am sure that they will be putting out Newsletters soon claiming that they have saved Camberwell ! I am happy to hold my fire and clarify the reality of the situation come election time!!

I hope that this does represent a real and meaningful change of direction and attitude from this Administration and think that if we can progress all these areas successfully then Camberwell will really begin to change for the better and for good!!!

Obama Inauguration Inspirational and Minister for Sport visits Camberwell Leisure Centre!

It was a very special day yesterday watching the 44th President of the United States of America and the first African American President, Barack Obama swear the oath of allegiance and take over the reigns of power at the Whitehouse watched by 2 million people live in Washington and hundreds of millions across the world!
President Obama again struck exactly the right note in his Inauguration speech giving a clear message of the tough road ahead and the need for all nations and people to work together !









Good to see "Dubya" exit stage left on his helicopter hopefully never to be seen or heard of again!!!

Rumours are that President Obama's first official visit will be to the UK to meet with Gordon Brown and a good working relationship will be very helpful to both parties!




We had an early start this morning to meet Gerry Sutcliffe,MP, Minister for Sport, at Camberwell Leisure Centre together with the Friends of Camberwell Leisure Centre, Executive member Lewis Robinson, Camberwell Councillors and kids from local schools.
The purpose was to keep the pressure on this Executive to pursue a viable redevelopment of the Centre and a Government bid for funds is part of that so it was a very positive event and keeps the momentum going to give the people of Camberwell a Leisure Centre they want and deserve!!

On Saturday we publicised the Mayor's Parks Vote with the "Thumbs Up for Camberwell Green!" event in the Park and were compelled by the Press Office and the Press to done Green T Shirts and "Boris" wigs!!! Sometimes you have to do what is required so we gritted out teeth and donned the wigs!
It was all in all good fun and the inside story is that our bid is going very well as is the Burgess Park bid so hopefully we could have very good news on both fronts very soon??

REMEMBER IF YOU HAVE NOT VOTED DO IT NOW!!

Vote today:
www.londongov.uk/parksvote or text parks and your postcode to 62967

The campaign to redevelop Camberwell Baths takes another important step forward this week with a Ministerial Visit at 8am on Wednesday !
Apparently the Tory/Lib Dem Coalition will put a motion to the next Council Assembly declaring that Camberwell Baths and in fact Camberwell has in fact been saved but all the key issues are still in the balance so we will want hard guarantees before we will be putting any flags out!!
The Camberwell Scrutiny Report is due any day so things are definitely moving in the right direction but still a long way to go and a few elections in the way as well!!

Hibs had a good solid 2-0 win over St. Mirren, a team on a go0d winning run.
Hibs looked far more up for the match with Jones again playing very well, his best season since he came to us and so much better than last season when I thought he was on the way out!! Here he is scoring the first goal on Saturday with Riordan getting the second.
New signing Polish Keeper Szamotulski looked good and kept us ahead in the second half so looks a good buy!
This BBC link has the goals :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_prem/7832193.stm

Busy week in the Town Hall,Thumbs up to Camberwell Green and Hibs out of Cup!!!

It was a busy first full week back at the Town Hall with OSC (a very long OSC!), Planning(Aylesbury), Camberwell Community Council(Transport) and GOL this morning with a filmed interview with Althea Smith on radicalisation amongst young Muslims in the borough for an interactive DVD being produced for Councillors!!

Tomorrow there is an event on Camberwell Green called "Thumbs up to Camberwell Green Park" to encourage everyone to vote for the £400,000 in the Mayor's Parks Fund.
The deadline is the end of the month so every vote counts!!!!
The event is from 11am until 2pm tomorrow!!


On the Hibs front the team imploded in the Homecoming Cup game against Hearts on Sunday with Stephen Fletcher being sent of in the first half hour and losing a second goal in the last minute in atrocious weather conditions to go out 2-0 to our Edinburgh rivals!!



Back to SPL action tomorrow against St. Mirren who have become a bit of a bogey team for Hibs recently so 3 points a must!!!

Back to the Grind, Tooley Street madness, OBE madness, Camberwell Green Park and Hibs Vs Hearts double header!

Well I am back to London, back to work at London Met and back to Southwark Council!!

A busy time ahead with 3 Elections in the next 15 months so important for us to be working at full tilt over that period to deliver solid Labour majorities in Camberwell, Southwark, the UK and Europe!

We will be running a full Euro Campaign in Camberwell this year and if course selecting candidates to represent Camberwell Green Ward in the 2010 Southwark Elections!

We have just put out an Excellent Seasons Greetings Card and a Newsletter and continue with our very positive regular Campaigning sessions around the ward as well as the Borough Campaigning sessions all over the borough.
Southwark Council staff will very soon start moving into the Tooley Street "Titanic" and we now hear that as well as the many millions of pounds that we will have to pay rent every year and the £2M pounds for Consultants to tell everyone where to sit there will be an extra £2M on staff furniture!!

You may think that staff will relish the move but I am told, by Lib Dem/Tory Councillors no less, that everyone will have to be crammed into large open plan areas and seated like a Call Centre with long rows of desks facing each other!! It also appears that other buildings will have to be kept and that buildings up for sale will make far less that estimated so all in all a very expensive cock-up all round!!!

But never mind cos, guess what? Nick Stanton is getting an OBE!!!!??? What?????

I recall an old episode of "Not the Nine O'Clock News" when the team sang a song after a US Election describing all the outlandish things they believed in but ending with the line "....I cant believe Ronald Reagan is President!" Now I know how they felt!!! I can only assume that he floated to the top of a very short list of Lib Dem Honours Political Nominations because I am really struggling to list his "services to local government"!!!
The voting for the Mayor's Park Fund is almost at an end and there will be an event in Camberwell Green on Saturday 17th January from 11am until 2pm to act as a last push to get those votes in!!

We really need that £400,000 investment in the Park to bring it back to something of it's former glory!!!Please Vote for Camberwell Green Park!!!!
I watched Hibs play Hearts at Tynecastle on Sunday on Setanta and they actually played quite well in a surprisingly entertaining 0-0 game, with Ma-Kalamby really pulling off some good saves but Hibs always looking dangerous in attack!

On Sunday at Easter Road they meet again in the Homecoming Cup which will be on Sky(hope to see live if I can get back from borough wide campaigning!)

Both sides are very close and very inconsistent so really impossible to call, just got to hope for the best!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM EDINBURGH FOR 2009!!!

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year for 2009 from Edinburgh where I am still with my mum and dad having a complete rest and preparing to re-enter the fray next week!!

Above are some images of Edinburgh over Christmas and the New Year!

Next year holds of course the European Elections and even the possibility of a General Election although I dont see that happening until May 2010 but who knows!! Good to see the Labour Party ending the year with good poll ratings with the Cameron's Tories and "Nick "Cameron Lite" Clegg's lib Dems seen as more and more irrelevant by the British public!!

Hibs schizophrenic season continues with a shockingly bad 2-4 home defeat to Kilmarnock who plyed most fo the second half with 10 men, a crucial game for uis to win and we blew it big time!!

With 2 games against Hearts away at Tynecastle in the next two weeks it could not come at a worst time and I really fear that we will end up out of the Cup and out of the running for 3rd place in the SPL at the hands of our Nemesis in the space of 14 days!! I am worried!!!!

STAR TREK

HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM EDINBURGH!!!

I am now back in Edinburgh for the Christmas and New Year break with my family and having a good chance to unwind and relax in my home City!

I have been going to the Edinburgh Winter Wonderland after a few trips to the London version to soak up the atmosphere of a German Christmas Market and Fair

Hibs went down 1-0 to Rangers at Ibrox on Saturday to a spectacular overhead kick from Kris Boyd. We had a bit of criticism in the press for playing so defensively which is not our usual style but I really dont know what they expect when palying away to a team with players each one virtually more that the value of the entire Hibs team (except Fletcher!) put together.

For the first time in ages I wont be able to catch a Hibs matches they have 3 matches away from home on the trot!! Really unfair to returning ex pats like me!! I wonder if Celtic or Rangers would ever be timetabled for 3 away matches over the Christmas/New Year Holidays? Somehow I think not!!

A quieter time in the Town Hall but yesterday I spoke to over 50 14 year olds at Walworth Academy about being a Councillor.
It is part of their citizenship studies and they certainly asked all the right questions! I really enjoyed it and hope to do more in the future! The image is of the new school and how it will look by 2010.
Tomorrow I am attending the Southwark Violent Crime Summit with some of the Key players so that should be interesting to see what arises and develops for the broader Community Summit in January!

The rest of the past week has been Christmas Dinners and parties at London Met and the Labour Group and of course another visit to the Winter Wonderland Festival in Hyde Park with Clair, Shauna, Sophie and Charlie!!










Hibs had another comfortable home win on Saturday beating Hamilton Accies 2-0 and look like they are on a good run of form with confidence high! Rumours abound about Fletcher and even Dean Sheils going in the January window but at the moment all is looking good and the 3rd place spot is a real possibility this season!!

Council Assembly, a Campaigning Weekend, Camberwell Green Park and Hibs great Victory over the "Lesser Greens"!!!

We had a heavy night last night with a full OSC Committe starting at 5pm moving on to an Extraordinary Council Assembly straight after to discuss our no confidence motion in the Executive Member for Health & Social Care.

The Lib Dem/Tory coalition stood shoulder to shoulder on this describing it as "party political" and a "personal attack" which of course was exactly what the motion was not!

It was about the way in which information was shared and it is clear that if the SLP had not revealed that they were going to go with the story there would not have been the hastily released council statement and that was wrong!! And much as we all like and respect David Noakes it was under his watch and "with great power comes great responsibility!"

And true to Lib Dem from it did not take Stanton or Noblet long to conclude who was really to blame....you guessed it the horrible Labour Government!!!
Tonight is a night of lighter relief with the Labour Group Christmas Dinner at Caravaggio's in Camberwell and I will, as ever, be on Facebook Photo duty!

I had a very good Campaigning weekend with an excellent session on the Brandon Estate in my own ward on Saturday and a positive session in Chaucer Ward on Sunday as part of the Borough wide Campaigning programme.

Sandra Rhule and I went to Kings to see our friend and colleague Tony Squires and the good news is that he is recovering well and should be home this week! We were there for a visit from the salvation Army band so it was a very Christmassy time!!

I am working hard to get as many people as I know to vote for Camberwell Green Park to receive the £400K award from the Mayor and we are now down to a shortlist for the 10 awards.

Whilst absolutely not the right way to go about it, he and his staff are paid to make decisions based on research and need, not on a public vote based on how well people can lobby!

The Banner is up on the Green and we need to work as hard as we can over the next couple of months to get the votes in for Camberwell Green!!

The Link : Vote for Camberwell Green Park

Hibs had a fantastic 2-0 victory over Celtic at Easter Road on Sunday with John Rankin scoring a quite extraordinary goal from 45 yards, he was in the centre circle when he hit it!!

The ball bounced right in front of Boric and over him into the net!

A great team performance all round with an unusually solid looking defence so long may it continue!!

Burgess, Peckham Rye and Camberwell Green Park, Winter Wonderland and Hibs get Hearts in the Scottish Cup!

I will be Chairing Scrutiny A tonight and signing off the Peckham Rye Park Scrutiny and taking evidence on Burgess Park.
I hope that rumours are true in that Burgess Park is the front runner for the £2M Mayor's award as it will really make a difference to the whole area!
I have also been encouraging everyone to vote for Camberwell Green for one of the smaller £400,000 awards so it would be fantastic if both came in so here's hoping!!
I took Shauna to the Winter Wonderland Festival at Hyde Park on Saturday and a good (but expensive!) time was had by all!!
My big mistake was taking her to Hamleys afterwards!!! Oh my Lord that was not fun!!!

It was a good way to kick off the Christmas season and the lunches and parties kick off with the Labour Group Dinner at Caravaggio's next Monday!


Hibs got a last minute equaliser against Falkirk away at the weekend but the big news is that we have drawn Hearts in the first Round proper of the Scottish Cup !