As I hope is clear from this blog the range of my brief is pretty wide and one of the things that I've been trying to do over the last six months has been to try and go an meet the people who are delivering services that I help make decisions about.

Yesterday I went to see the Council's Bereavement Service who are responsible for running a number of cemetaries across the borough, the morturary service and the crematorium.  It was at the crematorium that I met up with Shirley and Vince who manage the service and I have to say it was a facinating couple of hours.

I got to see how the crematorium works and talk to the people who are in charge of the furnaces about their work.  I'm told that on average it takes just over an hour for the casket and body to be burnt at temperatures between 800 and 1000 degrees.  Apparently you are not supposed to put additional things in the coffin but that people do, which does have a significant effect on the time it takes.  We monitor the emmissions that the crematorium makes into the air for carbon monoxide and particulates and there are targets we have for making sure that the process doesn't pollute the atmosphere.  (I was assured that we meet the targets.)  I was shown the recording process to make sure that there is never a mix up around who'se ashes are who'se and was impressed with the efforts that all the staff made to ensure the dignity of the dead and the bereaved.  I was also slightly taken aback by some of the myths that people believe about the way we handle these services; apprarently one bloke rang up asking if he could get hold of a second hand coffin (you can't they are either burried or burned), and some people seem to think that we don't care if ashes are mixed up when that is far from the case.

The other side of the work that the service does is around caring for the cemetaries, which is a significant job in itself.  I was taken to see Hither Green, Grove Park and Brockley cemetaries and each has its own atmosphere and character.  I was particularly taken by Grove Park cemetary which I understand has just been listed as an example of a particularly good 1930's style cemetary.  Certainly the planting and ambiance of the place was lovely.

I am sure that with a service like this one mistakes are made from time to time, and there are difficult decisions to make, but all the people I met were very aware of the need to be sensitive to the needs of the families and it was a pleasure to be able to spend the time learning about this side of what the council does.

At Mayor and Cabinet yesterday evening Steve took the decision that has been trailed pretty widely in the local press about where the new secondary school is going to go now that the Metropolitan Police Authority have changed their minds about selling Ladywell Police Station to the Council.

Local ward councillor, Andrew Milton, turned up and made a speech which was strong on soundbites ("why the waste, why the haste") and well delivered but we felt flawed in terms of logic or understanding of the context of the decision that we were taking.  He tried to claim that he wasn't representing the NIMBY element of his constituents but it didn't come across that way to me.  He only needed three mates to hold his coat.

Anyway in essense the decision is about priorities.  Steve and the rest of the Labour Group have accepted the argument put by parents that there are not going to be enough secondary school placements in the borough in the near future.  We've then looked at where the greatest need is situated and its clear to us that this is in the planning area that includes Blackheath, Lee Green and Lewisham Central.  Because of property prices in London land on the scale we need to build a new school is pretty scarce and only three sites have been identified - Ladywell Police Sation, Ladywell Pool and the Lewisham College site.  The first is no longer a possibility because of the decision by the MPA, the last would require us to wait for the college to move out which in our view is too long (2010 by the earliest).  Steve wants to open the new secondary school (on a temporary site) in 2006 and if we do that then Ladywell Pool is the only realistic option.

Now it is true that we have just spent a great deal of money (£1.8 million) taking asbestos out of the leisure centre, but we would have had to have spent that money whatever the future of that building.  It is also true that by making this decision we will be loosing leisure provision in the borough for a couple of years - while a new liesure centre is built in Lewisham town centre - which is regretable.  However, those are the choices we have to take and as far as I can tell the only alternatives being put forward are to defer the difficult decisions (ie lets not have a new school), lets look for a new site (ie lets not have a new school any time soon), or I wouldn't have started from here (ie "in my world there are no difficult decisions").

Unsurprisingly Steve took the decision and so in 2007 the pool will close and a new school will start to be built on that site.

Update - Peter (in the comment's section) is right of course that he broke the story and should be properly credited.  Sorry about that Peter.

For every returned consultation document the Council has said we'll give a small donation to the Lavender Trust.

One of my partner's family has been heavily involved in making One For The Road which has been getting pretty good reviews.

Go see it and help make her rich.

So you don't believe me when I say it's been getting good reviews:

Guardian

Independent

Telegraph (requires registration)

Channel 4

The FT

BBC

Empire

The exception to the general view is in The Times who think it should be on TV.

Oh and it's got Hywel Bennett in it!

I really enjoyed the park and the fact that the kids who were there could play in the river was great as well, and we saw a duck nest with an egg in it as well.