civilservant

so are they going to put up notices, possibly at ankle height, to advise the rats to stay off the platform?

what Sue said!

A reminder that it's tomorrow, and the weather looks set to be on our side See you there!

I have been asked by my spies to say" The souvlaki I had wasn't that great it was a bit boring as it was only really halloumi and they forgot about my order"

Does anyone have a gazebo to lend on the day? We need gazebos to shelter the band and the food! Please PM me if you do!

we've finally got the ok from the Council, and we're very pleased to confirm that this year's joint Crystal Palace Road/ Ulverscroft Road street party will be next Sunday 5 July from noon Live music from the Goose Is Out! see below for details. watch out for updates over the coming week - bring a dish to share and you'll be welcome to join us!

hi, James, we are hoping to have our street party on Crystal Palace Road on 5 July but have had no luck so far in getting the ok from the events/street closure team. as you know, the Goose is Out provide the music every year, and they have booked all the musicians for the date; we applied for community council funds and were awarded them, so it's a pity that no one in the events team picks up the phone to us! Is there anything that you can do to help? thanks! ETA - it seems that the mere threat of James Barber is enough to spur the Council into motion - we have just received our OK!

purplehaze Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > thank you everyone - looks like majority view is - don't do it. The whole point of it was to > increase resale value as the back room is a bit pokey. > cs I am going to knock the wall between front and > back living rooms good luck - you'll prob need an rsj to support the wall above as SB and others have pointed out, but ultimately well worth the impact on your own amenity and resale value!

in response to the OP's question, no, I wouldn't buy a Victorian house where the stairs opened into the back sitting room. it reminds me of the time when people got rid of fireplaces and panelled doors to 'modernise' their houses. Have you thought about opening up the wall between the front and back sitting rooms as an alternative that would be more sensitive to the architectural character of your house (and maintain its future resale value)?

Crystal Palace Road Big Lunch is scheduled for 5 July let's hope the weather is just as fantastic as it has been today!

having long admired Sue's skill with smileys, i finally get to learn how they're done! :) edited to add :))

hi, Simon, I am one of the folk who organise the street party. I and the others who were involved, such as KK, were (and still are) shocked and sorry to hear about your mother. We started up the street party in the hope of building community spirit, and it has indeed brought some of us together. But I certainly wouldn't claim that it has built the kind of caring community that you've got in your village. For most people it's just something that someone organises on their street. I actually find it quite galling to see how estate agents have used it to add interest and "local colour". We work hard every year to be as inclusive as possible of everyone on CP Road, but a few of the older folk on the road prefer not to engage with the street party and it's hard to tread the line between intrusion and inclusion. In all honesty, I am not sure what we could have done on the day, given that we didn't know your mother personally. I can only hope that your sad experience reminds people that they need to look out for their neighbours - it's a lesson that I will certainly bear in mind.

Loz Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Unless you consider a nuclear missile is the same > as a hand grenade, on the basis they both go > 'boom'. :-)

MarkT, thanks! it's also good news that Renata has been involved in calling this one in for proper consideration.

um, no, Agent Orange is not the same as glyphosate...

I have a lot of sympathy for the OP. That stretch of Crystal Palace Road has so far escaped the attention of garden-grabbing developers. However sterling the qualities of the originators of the planning application, if approved this development will set a damaging precedent across all the local area. Pipsky, Renata Hamvas has every right to be involved - she is after all the councillor for the area. MarkT, you say "The end of the garden of no 51 borders onto a conservation area in which all trees are under blanket protection, regardless of the wishes of individual land owners." I wasn't aware of that and glad to hear it - do you have any more info?

Shoreham http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoreham,_Kent take the train from Denmark Hill or P/Rye towards Sevenoaks A nice day trip and you'll be home by dinner-time, Thameslink permitting

so over to Southwark - many, if not most, of the local schools are academies, so Southwark will of course have no power to influence admissions policies, but Southwark CAN publish the number of places that were allocated to non-siblings. Will they? I suspect we'll find that the number of these who got their first preference will be closer to 20% than 60%.

newboots Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Harris Boys, Harris Girls, Sydenham School, Forest Hill School - many of the hundreds of East Dulwich > children who attend these schools don't get the automatic luxury of a sibling place! Where did you get that impression? Look at their admissions citeria. ALL of these schools prioritise looked-after children, SEN children and siblings above proximity to the school. And note that reverse sibling prioritisation is also allowed - so if your younger child gets a place in a popular school, your older child will have a priority right of transfer to that school! One way forward would be to ask schools to publish the number of non-sibling places that they expect to have available each year. That would allow families to be better informed about the amount of real choice available.

I think overall you are agreeing with me,landsberger, and it would be interesting to know what your horse is in this race I too would like to know why there's an absolute need for sibling priority in secondary allocation. In families i know where the siblings are at different grammar schools, there is no problem - if it is accepted in the selective system, why not in the state system? After all secondary kids get themselves to school, they don't need mum or dad or the au pair to take them there. re your other point, none of the kids I'm talking about applied for faith schools using faith criteria but one - it was his top choice and he got in...

I looked at the survey questionnaire and decided not to respond because it didn't address any of the issues which we have faced as parents of a child looking for a secondary school this September. The real problem is the illusion of choice created by the current allocation system and actively promoted by the council and many of the schools themselves. Our daughter, no sibling priority, not looked after, no 'medical' condition, has been told she's been allocated to the school that was her least favourite choice. She's also been told that she is number 100+ on the waiting list for the top three on her list. But even so, she's lucky compared to many of her classmates who were allocated to schools that weren't even on their lists. We're lucky enough to have several good schools around ED, so this shouldn't be a problem. It becomes a problem because of the unreal expectations generated by the lack of an honest discussion about the real chances that a child will get into any particular school. "Almost everyone gets into one of their top three choices" we are told. "Put school X at number 1 and you're sure to get in", we're told. Really? How do people separate out the myth from the truth? That's what the council should be asking itself (but isn't). The only gainers in this game are the popular schools, the ones that have done the marketing and built up the reputation, deserved or not. The children (and their parents) swallow whole the myth that they've got a decent chance of getting into one of their top three choice schools and end up feeling like losers even before they've started school.

Townley Road Dentist lost their computer to burglars. They seem to have entered after smashing in one of the glass panes on their front window - this was probably on Wednesday

I don't know about hamsters' needs but guinea pigs are social animals and needs the company of other guinea pig(s) to be happy. They are lovely creatures - but get a pair as a single one is probably going to be lonely and probably irritable.

yes, happypuppy, I agree that it is a personal decision, but I don't think that all schools, doctors etc are scaremongers and I'm very happy to have been vaccinated and I had my child vaccinated too. It would be very helpful to the rest of us if you could share the info on which vaccine it was that paralysed your friend? I too know a number of people who are paralysed from the hips down, but that was because their parents didn't get them vaccinated against polio.