I wonder whether any one can give me an example of when the word 'u-turn' has been used as a positive phrase?fficeffice" />

A recent front page from the News Shopper carries the story of some very last minute changes that have been made to the timing of the implementation of a 20 mph zone in Blackheath village.  I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that had the changes not been made some of the traders would have found it difficult to have survive this year.  So on this occasion u-turn seems like a phrase we should embrace.

In fact we wouldn’t have been able to do the u-turn if it hadn't been for the meeting we had with the traders when the Mayor spent the day in Blackheath.  It was at that point it became clear to me that we could be endangering the businesses because of the timetable we’d set for the implementation of the 20 mph zone. 

Once we’d heard what the Traders had to say the Mayor and the local councillors were able to tell officers that they needed to make urgent changes to the plans.

So for myself I'm happy to own up to a u-turn, although on this occasion it looked more like an emergency stop.

If my throat gets better at the rate it's going at the moment I should be attending the Environment Select Committee's transport and travel awareness day on 6 November.fficeffice" />

I've been asked to help close the event and visitors to the event get to guess how many steps my pedometer tells me I made in the previous day.  I thought I’d give those of you reading this and who might turn up on Saturday a few hints:

·        I’m only just recovering from surgery.

·        I don’t drive.

·        I work in an office most of the time – which is pretty sedentary.

·        I’ve got small children so don’t go out in the evenings very often – apart from Council meetings which are pretty sedentary.

·        10,000 steps is about 5 miles.

The event is being held at Lewisham town centre and will kick off at 11 o’clock.  It’s being held in association with the Good Going campaign.

Update: I've done my duty and according to the pedometer I had walked just over 13,000 steps over the last 24 hours, that's about 6 miles.  There were three winners in the competition to guess how many I'd do, and each of them have won a month's free travel with South Eastern Trains.

As I've discussed here before one of the pressures facing Blackheath village is the tension between its use as a evening and night time drinking destination and the residential nature of the village.

This comes into sharp relief on Wednesday, when the Council’s Licensing Committee considers an application from Cave Austin to change their license once again.  In 2002 they were given a license to stay open until 1 o’clock on Fridays and Saturdays, then in December last year they got permission to extend their drinking and music license to 1 o’clock on  Wednesdays and Thursdays.

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As I understand it the extended license was only for the basement area and now the owners are looking to include the ground and first floors, so that customers can drink and have music on those floors as well.  This would (if all three floors are full to capacity) mean that instead of 100 people being able to be there until after midnight there could be up to 250.

There have been over 60 objections to the application which will be heard when the Licensing Committee meets on Wednesday at 7.30 in the Civic Suite at the Town Hall.

Update: I couldn't make the meeting on Wednesday about this application, but I know that both Gavin and Katy were there as well as members of the Blackheath Residents Association and the Blackheath Society.  I'm told that the committee decided not to grant the application in full, and that they restricted the license to the basement and ground floor on a Friday and Saturday, and will only be able to do that if they fit double glazing.

I see that the Horniman has won the regional award for Britain's Best Park, congratulations to Gordon and his team.

If you've not been to the museum and its gardens I'd urge you to do so as they are very lovely.

This is just to remind everyone that the fireworks this Saturday start at 8 o'clock and will (I'm told) go on for about 20 minutes.

Also as with every year access by car is no advisable as the roads around Blackheath will be closed from about 6.30 and there is no parking on the heath.

One of the issues that the ffice:smarttags" />Britain in Bloom judges raised with us - and they're not the only ones - has been the problem of chewing gum, or rather the manner in which it is disposed of.fficeffice" />

I was therefore intrigued to see the research that Defra have been doing into why people throw it on our streets and what they feel about what they're doing.

It appears that its at the very bottom end of what’s unacceptable.

As Defra point out we're paying (through our taxes) half a billion pounds a year nationally for local authorities to clean up litter and as they going on to say:

It is an offence under section 87 to throw or drop litter. Local authorities wardens have the power to issue fixed penalty notices to anyone caught littering. Failure to pay the fine within 14 days the offender will be prosecuted and can be fined up to £2500. The Police can also bring prosecutions.

The Guardian's Backbencher points out that the research appears to show their readers in a bad light:

among readers of all the former and current broadsheets, those who buy the Guardian are most likely to dispose of their chewing gum irresponsibly.

Yesterday evening the three ward councillors had a meeting with a few members of the Blackheath Residents Association, the local police sergeant, the head of the Council’s licensing team, and an officer from the Council’s Crime Reduction Service.

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We’d called the meeting so that residents could explain the issues that they wanted help in dealing with and so that they could explore their concerns over the new licensing powers that the Council will be exercising quite shortly.

I was quite shocked by the descriptions of the way people behave in the village late at night.  It seems that the streets of the village have become a public toilet, a place to take class A drugs and to vomit in.

I felt that the meeting went very well, with lots of productive and constructive things we can do together to improve the atmosphere in the village on those evenings when it is heavily used.

We’ve agreed to meet again in the new year to see what progress has been made and whether there are other things we might need to consider at that point.