tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33137122011-04-22T00:39:10.213Z(Cllr John Paschoud in Perry Vale) ...partly an experiment to see whether a blog that's meant to stay this focussed (parochial?) gets kept reasonably looked-after by me. Just in case nobody in Perry Vale looks at it (except maybe other councillors and politics-nerds like them), I seem to be thinking about things of less-local interest like e-government and planning. With luck I might even get around to blogging them.Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.comBlogger451100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-58602382569204251532010-04-26T23:45:00.001Z2010-04-26T23:50:30.913Z

This blog is now located at http://egovhighways.blogspot.com/. You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds or you may click here. For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to http://egovhighways.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com0tag: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.com1tag: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 majority

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com4tag: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.com1tag: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.com0tag: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.com0tag: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.com1tag: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.com1tag: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.com2tag: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 andtrip 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.com2tag: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 Conference

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com0tag: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, before

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com0tag: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.com2tag: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 able

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com0tag: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.com0tag: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 behaving

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com0tag: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.com1tag: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.com0tag: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.com1tag: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.com0tag: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.com0tag: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.com0tag: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.com0tag: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.com2tag: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.com3tag: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.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1151920663367744532006-07-03T09:49:00.000Z2006-07-03T09:57:43.376Z

I've been nominated onto the "ALMO Shadow Board". That sounds a bit sinister until you know it's the Arms Length Management Organisation (for Lewisham social housing), and it has a "shadow board" just until it's fully constituted. Seems like a good way of managing what used to be "council housing" - within the constraints imposed on us by central government (Thatcher's central government

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1151836478173455912006-07-02T09:59:00.000Z2006-07-02T10:34:38.226Z

Cllr Andrew Milton (I don't know where he gets the time to keep up several blogs) seems to have got in first with news of Lewisham Council's landmark ruling (;->) about links to "potentially political content". Basically it says that the Council (even on web pages about individual councillors, like these two) can't include anything "political" (find long definition for yourself!); even though

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1151014516784571382006-06-22T22:04:00.000Z2006-06-22T22:27:29.020Z

For the record, here's a Streetmap.co.uk view that includes all of Perry Vale Ward (and surroundings - so don't take it as definitive, and do use the postcode search to check which ward your address is in if you're not sure).It's not GIS; but I'll try blogging casework that's about places (potholes, litter, broken streetlights, and that sort of thing) with a map. Not the addresses of people who

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1150970848777567592006-06-22T10:03:00.000Z2006-06-22T22:02:55.506Z

Alesund harbourOriginally uploaded by John Paschoud. I've been in Alesund, Norway (that "A" should have a little circle over it - but don't get me started on how hard Norwegian is!) all this week, at the annual conference of UNINETT (the Norwegian educational networking agency).I'm still managing to keep a virtual presence in Perry Vale and Lewisham, though, and I'm making some progress on the

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1150331415883697122006-06-15T00:10:00.000Z2006-06-15T00:30:15.930Z

Tonight's first ordinary Full Council meeting (the AGM doesn't really count) was a blast! A well-packed public gallery, who nearly provoked Chair Barrie into chucking them out for rowdiness. A motion (to go around the where-to-put-the-new-school loop over again) from the LibDems, which (quite predictably) all the smaller parties voted for ...and so Labour lost (shock! horror!). Ron (Labour

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1150103851158449692006-06-12T08:32:00.000Z2006-06-12T09:17:31.213Z

This may well be a shameless plug (Interest to declare here, etc, because I'm strongly associated with CFL), but...I got my up-to-date-and-paid-for copy of CFL Caseworker installed (on my desktop PC and my non-council laptop) on Sunday, and started setting up standard letters and similar; and it's genuinely much better than previous versions I've used or tested. The more casework you do (with

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1150031383146062082006-06-11T12:54:00.001Z2006-06-11T13:09:43.160Z

Oh dear! I've left it far too long now ...not for lack of things to post, just time to get around to doing it. I'll start by making a list, rather than trying to pile them all into one (yes, I know I should try a wiki instead for more structured stuff...)First meeting with the Head of IT StrategyBeing a Road-Warrior of the e-Government Highways Committee(and I hereby bag that for an

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1149635418901789012006-06-06T22:32:00.000Z2006-06-06T23:10:18.966Z

Spent today at a library project board meeting in Edinburgh... well, 3 hours of today, and the rest waiting for Easyjet and trains. So (as well as some 'proper' work) I set up a meeting with Simon Berlin (Head of IT) for Thursday to start discussing how the council can start properly resourcing IT for councillors to use effectively. Also spotted confusing words in the draft of our ward surgery

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1149444148282544462006-06-04T17:07:00.000Z2006-06-04T18:02:28.343Z

Well, I had the short break, but not for those reasons; and it was in the wettest bit of France!The ansaphone at home had picked up one personal case (a secondary school admissions appeal - the season for those is just upon us). The Head of IT Strategy decided to phone my mobile instead... for a looong time (at Euro-roaming rates)... and explain further about the website cock-up... and tell me

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1148684084460297512006-05-26T22:54:00.000Z2006-05-26T22:54:47.350Z

Spent all of today in the (differently unreal) world of refined academia, reminding myself that when local politics starts seeming like a career, it's time to take a short break.

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1148630360275944042006-05-26T07:45:00.000Z2006-05-26T08:10:11.770Z

When I spotted the downed website yesterday, I had sat down to add a note about the Community Payback launch I'd just visited. This is a project to get offenders who're sentenced to nn hours of community service to do work (cleaning up graffiti, clearing overgrown or littered paths, etc) that makes places feel safer for residents. One of the reasons I went was an early opportunity to meet some of

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1148560672144797722006-05-25T08:04:00.000Z2006-05-25T12:37:52.193Z

There I am, thinking, "I'm going to be away and miss the first meeting of the Sustainable Development Committee, that I've just been put on as Labour 'lead member' (the Greens and LibDems have the chair and vice-chair). So I'll send a friendly apology to the other members of it, so they don't think I'm not interested."I have a piece of paper with the list of members (5 Labour, 3 LibDems, 1

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1148512871421349962006-05-24T22:42:00.000Z2006-05-25T08:01:05.766Z

Well! The Council AGM was almost as scripted as ever when Labour was really in control (and everyone knew it!). Only the Labour Whip forgot his lines (for just a moment) - and was helped out (a bit too condescendingly) by Darren Johnson, leading Green but clearly destined to organise the Labour Party instead one day. We all voted-for and applauded lovable-Tory Barrie to be Chair of the Council,

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1148478815705612912006-05-24T13:34:00.000Z2006-05-24T13:53:35.736Z

A background discussion I've been having with some other 'new' (but not necessarily 'New') Labour councillors, about the IT facilities that the council is providing us, have already convinced me that I'm probably set to be Official Grumpy Old Man - as far as the Lewisham Council IT staff (and those of their erstwhile contractor, Fujitsu) who have to deal with members. I think I may have already

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1148458951544837212006-05-24T07:51:00.000Z2006-05-24T08:22:31.593Z

Rather a long Perrymount School meeting (at the top of the hill), so I got to the Perry Vale Labour Party branch meeting (at the bottom of the hill) just as they were all adjourning to The Telegraph. Gavin was just leaving, and I'm sorry I missed being able to talk with him at the meeting. Apparently he's now got much more time to do things locally, so I expect we'll soon see him volunteering

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1148402914929539532006-05-23T16:48:00.000Z2006-05-23T16:52:59.660Z

The Labour Group meeting last night was stunningly short! ...and relatively free of the 'traditional' tight votes. It seems that satisfactory deals, err, 'negotiations' have been concluded with the other parties over chairing scrutiny committees, and that everyone will get a fair share.I guess I shouldn't reveal what I think will be the outcome of the Council AGM tomorrow, until it magically

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1148287277621348902006-05-22T08:18:00.000Z2006-05-22T08:41:17.630Z

Part 2 of the Labour Group AGM tonight, where we all jockey for positions on a bunch of council committees that may be abolished by this Wednesday, and (just in case) on a bunch of different council committees that may be created this Wednesday. This all depends on whether we (the Labour Group) decide to support or oppose some rather radical constitutional changes (whose idea of bad-timing was

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1148229530559511312006-05-21T16:16:00.000Z2006-05-21T16:38:50.580Z

CaseworkI've been discussing how people can contact us about casework, with Alan and Susan, the other two Labour councillors in Perry Vale. (Unlike some of our comrades, at least we haven't had opposition councillors elected in the ward to complicate things.)My own view is that surgeries (where one of us sits, usually on our own, in some office on a Saturday morning, waiting for a constituent

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313712.post-1148223212525833502006-05-21T14:42:00.000Z2006-05-21T15:05:27.196Z

[I'm letting myself be parochial about Lewisham, not just Perry Vale] ...and the issue at present is mainly how the balances of power are really going to work out. This strange situation that Lewisham Councillors find themselves in, for the first time in at least 20 years, is having a balance of power between parties (rather than just between factions within the Labour Group - which of course

Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11002207429677239412noreply@blogger.com1