The Vanity of the Bonfires?

Dear, oh dear, what a storm in a teacup. Only in Dulwich could Bonfire Night be transformed into a theatrical performance worthy of a media meltdown before it even hits the stage, as Southwark Council’s events department launches the “consultation” on a non-bonfire event to be held in Dulwich Park during Guy Fawkes weekend.

Entitled “The Colour Thief: A winter extravaganza celebrating the changing of the seasons”, the show promises “journeys through colours and crisis into the misty white beginnings of winter, awash with shimmering choral music and stunning silhouettes”.

Of course it’s always good sport watching the newspapers poking fun at political correctness, but we mustn’t lose sight of the bigger picture here.

Firstly, as much as we all love a party in Dulwich, is it the best use of public funds to spend £55,000 staging a one-hour performance during an already event-laden weekend? And is Dulwich Park indeed the best location for this event? Can our landmark award-winning heritage park handle the influx of thousands of people in such a short space of time, through two Victorian entry gates, without sustaining damage to its infrastructure and delicate planting schemes? To say nothing of the pyrotechnics freaking out the slumbering wildlife. And what if the one-hour timeslot gets rained out… will public money literally run down the drains?

And why are we contracting out the organisation of this event to a Greenwich-based “celebratory arts company”? Why don’t we devolve the funding down to the locally-based Dulwich Festival charity, who have been running the ever-popular Dulwich Festival here since 1993? In fact, with the support of extra top-up funding from the council, we could possibly expand the Dulwich Festival into something truly spectacular that engages a greater number of our diverse community over the period of a week, rather than a one-off ephemeral event.

But, perhaps even more frustratingly, this “consultation” comes at a time when we are in the process of outright begging council officers for just £2000 of council funding to keep our weekly Millwall Friday Night Football sessions – attended by up to 80 young people – going until March. And our Youth Club, run by Redthread, needs funding… as does our local Pensioners Club, sponsored by Dulwich Helpline.

So, while I agree that it might be nice to have a celebratory local event in these economically-challenging times, looking at it from the community perspective, this particular proposal is all a bit like telling a starving person that they can’t have a sensible weekly meal of meat and potatoes, but that they can only have a frivolous over-egged yearly pudding…

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch…

Okay, I know it’s been a while since my last update. Basically, I kept holding back because I somehow thought that I could write about my community work in an objective, non-political manner. Silly me.

But I’m back now and I’ve got lots to say.

Last Minute Reprieve for Dulwich Zelkova

Although the final result may appear unexpectedly shocking at first sight to the unprepared, the outcome was the best that we could have hoped for under the circumstances.

Concerned residents, campaigners and local amenity group representatives were relieved to learn that it had been agreed by all three authorities involved that the landmark Dulwich Zelkova wouldn’t need to be felled afterall, provided that it was declared to be safe after the crown was severely pollarded.

To this end, the contractors worked for nearly nine hours laboriously removing an estimated 15-20 tonnes of wood, leaving only the ancient trunk and the nubs of the tree’s distinctive “fingers”.

From a councillor’s perspective I was heartened to witness the impressive degree of professionalism demonstrated by Southwark, the Dulwich Estate and TfL during the negotiations – and how sensitively representatives from all three bodies engaged and interacted with residents and myself on the day, during the course of this difficult operation.

Stay of Execution for Historic Dulwich Zelkova?

It’s been a tense week for Southwark arboriculturalists and local campaigners lobbying to save an historic 400 year old Zelkova tree on Dulwich Common. Deemed to be leaning dangerously over a busy intersection of the South Circular, legal discussions have been raging over whether the tree needs to be felled completely or whether it is safe to pollard the crown to an agreed height.

We’ll find out tomorrow morning, when the chainsaws arrive, what the fate of our beloved landmark is to be…

A Bucket a Day Keeps the Chainsaws Away

As rainfall hits its lowest records in decades, I have been encouraging Village residents to ‘adopt a tree’ to water over the dry summer. The newly planted saplings are especially at risk, with inevitable budget cuts affecting the council’s tree maintenance program.

Therefore it will be even more important than ever for the community to stick together and look after ourselves as times get tough. And watering our own street trees is a good place to begin, as we strive to keep Dulwich special.

Nothing is Forever

The highlight of my past week was attending the gala opening of the South London Gallery’s stunning two million pound building project. Specialising in contemporary art exhibitions and ‘live art’, the SLG has now doubled in size with the creation of new exhibition spaces, a studio for talks, film screenings and workshops… and a much-needed café to enhance the culinary wasteland around the vicinity of our beloved Town Hall.

The SLG was originally launched as the South London Working Men’s College by Aldous Huxley’s grandfather in 1868 at Blackfriars Road. By the time it was transformed into The South London Fine Art Gallery, relocating to the current location at Peckham Road in 1891 in the process, its first president was the reknowned Pre-Raphaelite painter, Sir Frederic Leighton.

Just as the Pre-Raphaelite movement was once considered to have pushed the accepted boundaries of existing art, the South London Gallery has moved with the times and continued the tradition of bringing ‘cutting edge’ creations to the people, featuring works by Tracey Emin, Damien Hurst, and Gilbert and George in recent years.

The gallery’s current exhibition, Nothing is Forever, provides the perfect incentive for Londoners to visit this hidden Southwark gem for themselves. Consisting of paintings, drawings, and texts applied directly onto the walls of the architecture by twenty British and international artists, all the art will be painted over at the end of the exhibition on September 5th!

How I Became Liberated

Most of you will already realise that I am one of the least political politicians to have ever been elected. Therefore many of you weren’t surprised when, after four frustrating years of serving as a local ward councillor in my previous term of office, I had decided to throw in the towel, provocatively proclaiming that I would pen the ultimate exposé on the vagaries of local government to be entitled, “I’m a Councillor, Get Me Out of Here!”.

Like thousands of voters in the UK, I had lost my faith in the political process.

But then something utterly unexpected happened. After a local newspaper published an article about me standing down, people began to stop me in the streets, imploring me not to go. As I wandered the aisles in Sainsbury’s, clutching parcels of parsnips, residents related tales to me of how I had changed their lives. I was berated as I waited at bus stops.

Prevaricating wildly – should I or shouldn’t I? – I took a deep breath just before the May 2010 election and controversially changed my political affiliation to the Liberal Democrats and declared my candidacy. After improvising an impossibly brief four-week campaign with my new colleagues – which I later described as the political equivalent of speed-dating – I topped the polls in Village Ward as the first-ever Liberal Democrat councillor to represent the constituency.

But it wasn’t the political process that had restored my faith – it was the people of Dulwich who had reached out and touched me.

And that’s what this Blog is going to be about.