Sue

When did all this start in England? It seems to be quite recently. When I lived in Scotland there was guising every year, but I never remember it in England. I have very mixed feelings about it, as although it's obviously fun for the children whose parents are financially or otherwise able to participate, it also seems like yet another way for big businesses to take the opportunity to make money. This is an interesting article about the history etc, though North American centric in parts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trick-or-treating

Many terraced houses round here have been converted into flats, or else used to be flats and have been converted back to houses.

Good ideas! It's just to annoy ab29 🤣

I also use white noise if there are annoying noises at night (or other times). I ask Alexa to play white noise, but I'm sure there are free apps for your phone. I find it very effective. Good luck.

Exactly. It now costs £40 to buy 20 paper bags from the council to put garden waste etc in, if you don't have a need for (or space for) a permanent brown bin. And it seems you can't buy less than 20 at a time. They used to be free from the library.

The Southwark News link leads to "page not found"

Why are they suddenly doing this now? Bit late, isn't it? Since I moved in around 1990 my light and view of the sky has been greatly reduced at the back of my house by loft conversions in my own road and the road whose gardens back onto mine 😭 Also, yes, very unfair on those people who don't yet have one and want one.

I had an email from Royal Mail saying my package would be delivered on Saturday. I was going to be out all day, so I requested delivery on Monday, when I would be in all day. While I was out on Saturday, I had another email from Royal Mail saying my package had been delivered to "your safe place." I don't have a designated safe place, as there isn't one. It turned out that they had decided my safe place was behind a flower pot. I got home late on Saturday night to find that at least the package was still there. However a snail was sitting on it and was happily chomping away at the cardboard! It was only a small snail, and it had already eaten quite a lot of it 🙂 It was lucky I got home when I did, or it might have eaten right through the packaging Also, the 24 hour tracking label says "Photo only", but I never got a photo. I'm not making yet another complaint to Royal Mail, because I reckon the postie was trying his best, but honestly .....

The General ED Issues section? Southwark Council does employ street cleaners. It's just not true to say "pavements which are never cleared". In the Autumn they bag the fallen leaves up and leave them on the pavements to be collected. I expect they are composted. But you surely can't expect to see a street cleaner every day in every street? The cost would be enormous. And sorry as I am for people with disabilities, anybody can slip on leaves. My partner broke his ankle last year after slipping on leaves on a pavement in Lewisham. He was on crutches for months. He didn't blame Lewisham council for not having removed the leaves before he got there.

Are you talking about leaves? This complaint comes up every year. The problem is with the trees. It's Autumn! The trees keep dropping their leaves! Blame the trees, not the council! As soon as someone clears away the leaves, those pesky trees drop some more! Basically, the council can't provide people to clear leaves from every street in the area every day, or anywhere near that frequency, I imagine. Don't worry. Once the trees have shed all their leaves, we will be into the season of frost and ice! And btw I don't think this should be in the "What's on in East Dulwich" section, should it?

Really? Why?

I also have iD which I think uses Three, and it seems fine, but I probably haven't been to every corner of East Dulwich! They are usually very good on price.

It was me who said it looked very dark in there, but I specifically said during the DAY. Which it did. And I was clearly referring to their old place in North Cross Road. And I did eat in there. In the evening. When the darkness wasn't an issue. But sitting in the dark on a sunny day isn't my idea of the ideal setting for either a daytime meal or drinks. And yes, the food was good. As were the cocktails. Looking forward to trying out their new place.

Thanks, A good idea, but I was hoping someone on here might be able to help before I went down that route!

I thought there had recently been thefts from local churches?

I've talked to him about his garden. It's very retro (though apparently dahlias are back in fashion), but clearly lovingly cared for. He also helps at least one of his neighbours down the hill with their front garden. He's a sweetie (technical term) 👍 And Kathleen Olander, surely you don't believe everything some journalist has misunderstood and written in the Standard? I'm presuming the pre fab was built after the war, after whatever was there before it was bombed. That was surely why most pre fabs in London were built?

That's surely not anywhere near enough to get a feeling for what local people think about a particular issue?

How many local people are usually at these meetings?

But how was this thread helping anyone vulnerable to be aware of potential scams? I think it's your post which is unnecessary! Particularly as the thread title has now been changed, so clearly Malumbu's post was helpful. How do you interpret giving an opinion and contributing to a discussion as "dissing nearly every post"? Now please do feel free to have a go at me as well 🙄

Great name! https://youtu.be/hGlyFc79BUE?feature=shared

Fair enough points. I've never been to one. It wouldn't occur to me that a meeting like that was the right place to have a "quiet word" with someone! Maybe the purposes of them should be better publicised, or maybe I just haven't been paying attention. I'm a bit worried about your comment about "getting an informal look at people". Why would they need to do that? Surely it's a relatively small self selected group of people who attend these meetings?

A Zoom meeting is a great idea. It would be much more convenient, though it possibly has other downsides, eg it may exclude people who aren't familiar with Zoom or don't have the necessary technology. Though tbh - and making a huge assumption - I wouldn't have thought there were many of them in this area.

Oxfam have an online site and you can filter by size, colour etc requirements. Returns are also easy if it doesn't fit or isn't suitable.

I think it's probably both. Most people would not want to go to a pub in late evening and find it full of children. The pub would soon lose customers!