It’s been a busy week of ward work with great efforts by residents to improve our community. On Tuesday, the Shad Thames conservation area management partnership of residents, businesses and the council met and we are making brilliant progress on greening and celebrating the unique heritage of this area. There is a culture trail on Saturday organised by the brilliant resident Chair and other details about the group are at www.loveshadthames.org.

I then hosted a further meeting last night with Shad Thames residents and the council about noisy vehicles collecting waste and making deliveries at unacceptable hours. The council agreed to be tougher and residents will collect more details of the companies and the buildings they are servicing. If you have any examples of this then please let me know.

Over the last couple of years, local Lib Dem councillors have worked tirelessly with residents and Simon Hughes MP to battle Thames Water. We have always been clear that we want a cleaner river, but there is an easy way to minimise disruption to residents around Chambers Wharf and that is to reverse the tunnelling direction. Frustratingly, our evidence persuaded the planning inspector that this alternative should be considered but the two Conservative Ministers completely ignored this. We are not giving up though and had a really good meeting with council officers and Simon Hughes this week to explore all the options. We will continue to support residents and fight for a solution that will help all the community.

I also went along to our ward Safer Neighbourhood police meeting to raise serious concern about the area around Bermondsey tube station. It seems to have become a location for street drinking, begging and littering instead of the proud entrance to our area it should be. The police team agreed this as their priority for the next six weeks, our panel chair (another marvellous local resident) is writing to the Borough Commander and I am also raising the matter with the council.

And the week isn’t over just yet. Our Lib Dem Council Group has our away day on Saturday and then on Sunday afternoon we will be out doing a mobile advice surgery on the Dickens Estate. There is always more we can do, though, so please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any local concerns or ideas to improve the community.