Southwark Council - 4 July assembly focus on health

Thanks Jan, I'll have a look at that ruling.

Jan the old one wrote:

Aunti Pat, yesterday the Supreme Court ruled that local authority resources should not be taken into account when assessing disabled peoples needs.

An interesting approach to austerity...

The venue for the July 4 assembly has been confirmed. It will be held at Southwark College (Bermondsey Site). The campus is located off Jamaica Road and is less than 5 minutes walk from Bermondsey underground station.

Buses: 1, P12, 47, 188, 225, 381

Address
Bermondsey Centre
Keetons Road
London, SE16 4EE

In response to these two questions:

How can we support families to improve their levels of health and wellbeing, especially the young?

How can we promote healthy weight and exercise?

The council can make a big difference by encouraging walking and cycling over motorised means of transport.

The great thing about walking and cycling is that they're easy to integrate into every-day life - you don't need to make a special effort to go to a gym or exercise class. It can even help save money and time.

Walking/cycling don't create noise and pollution, so there's the extra health benefit to everyone of living in a calmer and more pleasant area.

So anything the council invests in helping people chose walking/cycling over driving is money very well spent.

I suggest the following concrete measures:

1) Cycle training

a) Schools:
According to Southwark Council's website cycle training is already delivered at every school, which is great.

To get the best outcome (i.e. most people actually cycling, safely, in the long term) the training should be done over an extended period of time, and should also involve the parents as much as possible. Reaching out to parents and offering to train them as well, perhaps at a different time of day, ensures that families can take up cycling together, and that parents who currently chose to drive their child to school might opt to accompany them on a bike instead.

b) Adults:
Southwark Council offers a free 2-hour session to any adult who lives, works or studies in the borough. Again, I think this is excellent and I hope it continues to get funding.

I feel the Council could do even more to promote this - by actively encouraging all its own staff to get trained, by reaching out to parents via schools (see above), by working with businesses, residents' organisations, doctor's surgeries... Does the Council offer any active outreach to businesses and organisations who want to promote cycling among their staff?

2) Infrastructure

Wherever the council has influence on the design of streets or public spaces, the aim should be to make them pleasant and convenient for walking/cycling first and foremost.

Look into all one-way roads: Could they allow counterflow cycling? This helps traffic calming and creates shortcuts for cycling (example: Bermondsey Street).

Are walking routes direct, fast, and feel pleasant and safe? Railings that kettle people in or prevent them from using the natural line should be removed. Pedestrian traffic flow should have priority over motor traffic flow.
Dimly-lit, smelly, cumbersome and unsafe underpasses should be replaced by level crossings.

(NB: I am in favour of enforcement action against inconsiderate and dangerous driving or cycling, though I'm not sure if this falls into the council's remit.)

Thanks SEnic for such a comprehensive response. And thanks to everyone for their contributions so far.

Next Friday, June 15, is our deadline for gathering so please do keep them coming.

As ever, SE1 is proving to be a rich vein.

WRONG EMAIL ADDRESS!

Apologies to anyone who's been trying to send any comments to the democracy email address but it should be ...

democracy@southwark.gov.uk