Sue

😮

But Thatcher is dead. Nobody since has brought the utilities back under public ownership (if that's the right term). So there are many people who could be blamed. Meanwhile the shareholders get richer and everyone else gets increasing bills and a poorer service. Plus as said above, a massive waste of a limited resource like water. Not to mention the polluted rivers and seas. At least the privatisation of the railways is being reversed. Hopefully water may be on the list somewhere.

That's really helpful. Do the Community Councils still exist? It sounds to me that whoever the contact is on the council who has sorted out the North Cross Road notice board and put the new list of councillors in it must at least have access to the key for that one? Unless it was one of the unlocked ones. And of course if somebody knows where the keys are, they may have no idea that people are looking for them or that this forum thread exists. Which are the notice boards which are not locked? The very helpful locksmith near the station (?Callows?) might be able to provide keys for them, or if not, new locks, in return for some local publicity? In fact, they may be able to advise in general, rather than keep trying unresponsive people at the council. But then of course there is still the question of who is going to take responsibility for putting appropriate East Dulwich community information into them and updating it as necessary.

The coiffure!

I'm intrigued. What does a Lithuanian doorman look like?

Like legs Oh sorry, they don't have wheels. Ignore that.

Blame privatisation. Every additional member of staff employed is less money for the shareholders 🤬

There were street parties in Crystal Palace Road in the summer, with live music from local bands etc. Could you be thinking of those? Unfortunately some of the organisers moved out of the area, and nobody stepped up to replace them. There was too much work involved for the remaining organisers to do alone.

That has completely gone over my head!

I think you have misunderstood the nature of the job. You have to write underneath things, not underline things. Neat handwriting is a good start, though. Good luck!

No I didn't "mean" that. I was commenting on a post about the prices of goods on stalls in North Cross Road market. If you want to expand the discussion to the effects of gentrification on people who can't now afford to live here, that's certainly an important issue, but it applies to many areas other than East Dulwich, and is something for a whole other thread.

I didn't think it required an explanation, but surely it's obvious. I moved here around 1991, can't remember exactly. The area has very considerably changed since then. Surely just a walk down Lordship Lane on a Saturday would show you that? House prices have shot up, as have loft extensions and kitchen extensions. People are buying houses which are already extended, and in some cases extending into the cellar as well, if there is one. There are expensive cars the size of small buses lining the side streets, loads of "wellness" places, people wearing expensive designer clothes. Relatively expensive places to eat like Kokum have appeared. There are two cheese shops, opticians selling very expensive frames and top of the range lenses. An M&S food shop has replaced Iceland. So it's not surprising that market stallholders would want to aim their merchandise at those people who can afford to spend more, surely? It's hardly going to be worth their while to spend all day in all weathers selling cheap items for virtually no profit? As said above, there are stalls within walking distance in Peckham which sell cheaper things. For the moment, at least. Herne Hill market has also changed out of all recognition. Have you been down there lately?

£2 ? Bargain!

Hope the swifts survived the storm 😮 And other birds.

Well the rain and hail won't have helped 🤣

The thing is, their staff seem to be very thinly spread across a wide area. When our road had one of the leaks, the first TW guy on the scene (who had come to assess the situation) had come from miles away. I can't remember where now, but it was nowhere near ED, not even in Southwark. And he said the reason the leak couldn't be immediately fixed was because the people who would do it were presently dealing with other emergencies (well, not strictly emergencies).

But without knowing the cause of the repeated leaks, it's impossible to comment really. Poor repairs? Something wrong further up the system? Lack of maintenance? When one of the leaks in our road recurred shortly after it had been repaired, a TW guy said to me that the repairers must have jumped too hard on the asphalt (?) laid above the point of the repair when they were getting it to settle (?) and broken the repair. I wasn't sure if he was joking or not 🤣

Many of the stalls are aimed at the changed local demographic (not sure that's grammatical) who won't blink twice at those prices. But also, a small artisan (sorry) loaf is bound to cost more than a sliced white from Lidl. But will probably be very much nicer to eat. Plus ingredient prices have probably gone up, and other expenses such as energy to bake the loaf. And the hire charge for the stall has to be paid. If people will pay the prices, you can't blame stallholders for charging them. They aren't charities. And the people on the stall are there all day in pouring rain, freezing cold or scorching heat. Having said that, I once paid (what felt like) a lot for two different slices of cake as a special treat. They both looked absolutely beautiful, but they both tasted more or less the same, which was of nothing much apart from sugar. But the plant stall and many of the food and other stalls are excellent! We are really lucky to have the market here.

Thank you, Pugwash. That's really useful information. Do you know who was responsible for the locks and keys, or which council department? Could you PM me if you don't want to put someone's personal details on here? It may save me having to speak to Monica. Thanks.

Does anybody know why? Trees aren't cut down for no reason. There must have been something wrong with it (I hope that was the reason). A child was recently killed and another one injured when a tree fell in a park (not in this area). It isn't always obvious from the outside when a tree is diseased or whatever, and I imagine the council would give safety considerations priority when deciding what to do, if there was any doubt at all.

Different people will be involved within Thames Water. The people dealing with the leaks aren't the people encouraging less water usage. How many people have reported the Barry Road leak? By what channels? What response have they had? When we had a leak in our road which meant we had no water, several people reported it, there was good communication with TW, they explained why they couldn't come out immediately (other urgent jobs elsewhere in the area) , kept in touch with us and fixed the leak within a reasonable timescale (hours). Someone from TW also contacted me later to make sure my water was back. But does Thames Water know about it? They aren't psychic (I presume). If nobody reports it, I also presume they won't even know the leaks are there, unless they have some kind of central monitoring system which tells them when there are leaks in the system. To make it clear, I am not defending Thames Water as a company, which I think should never have been privatised. But there are some things they can't be blamed for (old and disintegrating water pipe system in London) and some they can (possibly, lack of sufficient staff to deal with leaks, maybe due to trying to save money to give their shareholders more. But this is just surmise on my part - I know nothing about Thames Water).

For one minute there I thought you were passing yourself off as an air conditioning installer, PGC 🤣

Sounds like the whole management team (assuming there is one) needs to be replaced with people who have at least the bare minimum of competence for their jobs.

I agree that someone somewhere must at one point decided on their purpose, however if anything was ever written down it is probably long lost, given the turnover of councillors and council staff . The Crofton Park noticeboards I mentioned above are solely for information about the council and various community groups and activities, plus various community related things such as the library times and services. I think they are very bright, interesting and inviting, however I am not going back there solely in order to take a photo The ones in East Dulwich don't have much on them because ... well, for the reasons on this thread 🤣 Quite apart from the fact that these are supposed to be community notice boards, there are all sorts of reasons why they should not be used for private businesses to advertise, as I and others have already said. Yes there have been huge changes in the area, but I can't see how those changes affect the purpose of community noticeboards, unless you think that the changes mean that there is no longer a "community" in East Dulwich. Which would be very sad indeed. Anyway, I am stepping away from this thread now, I have other things to do 🙄

There has already been pages of discussion about this. Please read the whole thread if you haven't already. These are community notice boards and not for the use of local commercial businesses. I need this to be quite clear before I spend time on it, because if they are to be used for commercial purposes then I am not willing to be involved at all, and shan't be speaking to Monica