Zebedee Tring

Grayling doesn't seem to care much about cyclists if recent reports are true. How about a bus to Elephant and then Bakerloo or Northern? Masses of buses go to the Elephant including two from the LL area. Or a 37 or P4 to Brixton - not so good but a possibility. But I agree with the comments about the inadequacy of S London transport.

James, perhaps you could give us more detail about your involvement with the Legal Department on this issue. If you get nowhere with them, you could take the matter up with the Monitoring Officer on the ground that the Council's decision to proceed with the consultation was illegal.

Actually there was no party line at last night's meeting. Labour and Lib Dem Councillors were equally unimpressive and none seemed to know what they were doing. Although we expected our objection to be unsuccessful and at the very best hoped that next door's planning application would be deferred for further information, we were very concerned about the way in which the Sub-Committee dealt with our objection. We emailed detailed comments on the officer report to all Sub-Committee members as well as the Planning Department; however it was clear that virtually none of the members had bothered to read our comments and showed no inclination to ask us questions about them even though we had highlighted a number of ways in the officer report was inadequate and actively invited questions. It seemed as if they wanted to deal with the item quickly so that they could go home, after having wasted half the meeting discussing an application which they then deferred in some confusion! (see my OP) The only Councillor who showed any interest was one of our Ward Councillors who spoke on our behalf. I used to work in local government as a solicitor and attended numerous Planning Committee meetings, many of them deeply tedious, but last night's meeting was probably the most inept that I have attended.

Administrator, this was about a planning application relating to an ED property, so surely it should in the General ED Issues section - it affects ED residents who come into contact with Southwark's planning and democratic system. I have amended the post to refer specifically to ED. Is that good enough?

Q. What are the three most useless things in the world? A. (1) A chocolate teapot (2) A one legged man at an arse kicking party and (3) Southwark Council's Planning Sub-Committee B. I have chosen (3) after attending a three and half hour meeting of the Sub-Committee last night in which only three items were discussed, the last of which was a planning application relating to our next door property in ED to which we objected. The level of debate was almost universally abysmal, a conclusion which I reached well before our item. The Sub-Committee discussed the first item, then voted to reject the application, then voted to accept the rejection, then clearly became so confused that they finally voted to defer the matter! At least I think that was what happened, as it was difficult to work out what was going on. All this took one and half hours, with in effect no decision being made unless a deferral can be regarded as a decision. My faith in local democracy was already pretty low, but it is now even lower.

FFS, when I used the word "attacked", I meant it in the metaphorical sense of "criticised". That should have been obvious from the context - but clearly this was too difficult for at least one contributor to this thread to understand.

Typical EDF thread. Where the wrong person is attacked (i.e. the nanny) rather than (in common parlance) the perp. Why does this happen so often?

First mate, I didn't say that saving on tax bills was your main point, I said that it was one of your main priorities. There is a difference, as I think you will appreciate. Perhaps I should have said that it appeared from your post that it was one of your main priorities. Please accept my humble apologies.

First mate, you obviously don't get irony. However, when you said "we'd save on council bills too", it seems that tax saving was one of your main priorities, hence my comments.

Perhaps when the children have cleared all the leaves, they can start repairing all the uneven paving stones. That would cut council tax bills too. It's what David Cameron (who's he?) used to call the "big society". While we're at it, why don't we relieve the burden on those hardpressed top rate income tax payers and slash tax rates?

When I tripped over an uneven paving stone some weeks ago and fractured my upper shoulder and when this morning I nearly tripped again because a mound of leaves was covering another uneven paving stone, foreign aid was not exactly uppermost in my mind. If you want to sound off about foreign aid, ap bremer, then start another thread elsewhere and don't hijack this thread, which has absolutely nothing to do with foreign aid.

We shall see. Time will tell ...

What is the basis or evidence (other than pure hearsay or wishful thinking) for the information/expectation that a new M&S will be opening when another one opened only a few months ago a couple of hundred yards away? Seems unlikely. Now if that celebrated workers' co-operative Iceland could be persuaded to open there, certain local people would be delighted

Don't mention it, Kiera. But you need to get at least a second Councillor to refer the application to the Sub-Committee. Possibly a Ward Councillor for the DHFC area (?East Dulwich).

Kiera, under Southwark's constitution you can ask at least two Councillors to refer the S106 DHFC application to the Planning Sub-Committee instead of it being dealt with officers under delegated powers. James Barber would no doubt be amenable to this as would the local Ward Councillors (don't know whether JB is one of them).

James, you say that the Traffic Management Order was issued in error. If the error was a procedural error, what was that error?

My Welsh daughter in law is bilingual and was able to respond in Welsh in strong terms to a couple of women in a restaurant who were slagging off in Welsh a member of our family who had said something quite innocuous in English to which the women had for some reason taken exception. If barbers, supermarket check out people etc talk to their colleagues in a language that the customer doesn't understand, they could easily be slagging off the customer who will be none the wiser. This is unacceptable, to put it politely.

Sue Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > uncleglen Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Yes Sue. and Joni Mitchell released Big Yellow > > Taxi in 1970.....46 years ago........ > > > It seems only yesterday :)) In the original version the tree museum charged a dollar and half just to see 'em, which is pretty cheap by today's standards. In the 2007 Joni Mitchell version, they charged "an arm and a leg". That's inflation for you. In 1970 we still had lsd - the currency, not the drug.

Speaking as somebody who tripped over an uneven paving stone in Eynella Road six weeks ago and ended up having an operation for a shoulder fracture, I don't take kindly to patronising comments suggesting that people should take responsibility for their own actions when doing something as basic as walking along the streets of Dulwich. Numerous posts and threads on EDF have highlighted the bad state of local pavements and many people have recently suffered injuries caused by this. I am only just recovering my confidence in walking at more than a snail's pace because I am afraid of tripping again and the current state of the leaf strewn pavements isn't making things any easier.

Today I nearly tripped over a paving stone in Lordship Lane near the Library. A year ago I tripped over another one en route to see the Kray film at the Picturehouse and looked like a victim of a Kray beating. And, worst of all, a badly constructed/maintained pavement in Eynella Road is the reason that I'm currently wearing a sling on my arm six weeks after the accident, which necessitated an operation on my arm..

Sorry to use such difficult and challenging language but I thought that most people on the EDF could cope with it. Maybe I was wrong. "Inalienable" means a natural right that is yours forever and can?t be taken away.

So don't shop there then. That's your inalienable right. I'm sure though that M&S will be able to cope somehow with the loss of your custom

For the umpteenth time, if you don't like M&S food, you're not under a legal obligation to shop there. Some people moaned incessantly when the new cinema opened. As we are sadly aware, some people have moaned incessantly about the new M&S. No doubt if Waitrose opened in LL, people would moan about that as well.

East Dulwich Tube? We should be so lucky!

Signed.