Hare

Ha! Just in time for us - back from hols, nothing in the fridge, so where to go on a Tuesday evening? Yay! What wants to know what we had? Oh, go on then, you’ve twisted my arm. Here’s some pictures, since my vocabulary won’t do it justice… First, from the inside looking out - nicer not being blown down the road, especially if the weather where you’ve just come from is still warm and sunny - then the Menu (which is indeed a soft launch menu and will change, apparently). Next, starters - spring rolls and Gyoza. Love the china and cutlery, too! Better put the other pictures on a fresh post…… Now our main courses - Pad King and a Green Curry. What was left? Empty plates. Really enjoyed it - food was fragrant, creamy, fresh, tasty…. oh, and the chairs are comfy and the table doesn’t wobble!

Hurrah!

I?ve never said, or heard anyone say, ?I?m just going up Lordship? - always ?the Lane?. I imagine it?s part of a drive to root the outlet in the local community but delivered by people who either haven?t investigated prevalent usage or else don?t have a firm grasp on syntax. > Jenijenjen: Just saw Megan?s are attempting a rebrand of > Lordship Lane with a sign they?ve installed saying > ?Megan?s on the Lordship?. Hilarious > > Penguin68: Although there is an element of sense in > distinguishing - a simple 'I'll meet you at > Megan's' is open to misinterpretation - it's > likely that people might naturally use that > sobriquet anyway. Or another, worse, one.

The felling of trees for reasons including 'insurance mitigation' is a long-established reality for many councils. It is described* on page 60 of Southwark's own Tree Management Policy along with a much more detailed exposition on pages 38-39. In 2007, Tony Kirkham from Kew was involved in making a series for the BBC called 'The Trees That Made Britain'. I was invited to take part in my professional capacity to comment on tree cover in urban areas. Coincidentally, I was contacted at that time by a homeowner on Cambrwell Grove who was seeking advice about the demand by their house insurance company that the Victorian London Plane in the pavement outside should be felled. They did not want this to happen and felt that the insurance company was making an unreasonable demand, without being able to provide proper evidence that the tree was in any way affecting their house. Upon speaking to Southwark Council's lead tree officer at that time, I established that the tree was not considered to be posing a threat as it was not dead, dying or dangerous and any root growth was already being limited through a longstanding practice of regular pollarding. However, despite Southwark's defensible rejection of the claims of the insurance company, they had received advice that the cost to the public purse to fight the demand in the courts (which the insurance company was actively threatening if the tree was not removed) was prohibitive and that therefore, as the lesser of the evils, the tree would be taken down. We were able to get BBC cameras down to the site and film the felling, which was then shown as part of the series to illustrate the dilemma of councils faced with costly court action to defend a non-felling stance. I report this not because I have any insight into the case described in the original post, but to illustrate that decisions by councils to take down trees are sometimes made because the alternative is to engage in costly litigation with insurance companies, at the public expense. Like so many decisions in times of reduced funding, one set of expenditure is pitched against another and there are no winners. Fight a tree felling demand, or fund a public service already under threat? I should also add that when I made a claim for subsidence that had resulted from the collapse of old clay water pipes along the flank wall of my own house, my insurance company demanded that all trees in a certain radius of my home - including those in the public domain - be felled. It's the only time ever that I've used the 'do you know who I am?!' attack and it was only because of my friendship with the Queen's tree surgeon that I was able to force them to rethink the demand. Felling demands can be a lazy response to a more complicated problem and whilst felling may sometimes be justified, we have lost a lot of street trees that need not have gone. I firmly believe that we are losing more urban trees than necessary, whilst recognising that not all trees are the right trees, planted in the right places. Southwark launched a Tree Warden network in partnership with The Tree Council's national scheme as part of its tree management strategy in 2013 and that is still supposed to be running** but I signed up to be a volunteer Tree Warden and I've heard nothing for years. If the community were to be engaged and organised, perhaps we could save more of our important street trees... but it needs to be in partnership with Southwark, not against them. I'll be asking my candidates for election in May what their commitment will be to safeguarding our green canopy. I'll let you know the answers - and maybe you can do the same? *"Annual Felling Programme:12.1 The annual felling programme includes trees recommended for felling from condition surveys which do not require removal within short time frames on the grounds of public safety, or in association with insurance associated mitigation. The programme has been designed to take place during the September/October period in the interests of operational efficiency, planned communications with stakeholders, and to limit the time between tree removal and replacement prior to the planting season (November ? March)" **7.5.2 Tree Wardens Community involvement has the potential to provide additional resources for tree management and maintenance. Past planting projects in Southwark have demonstrated that, when local residents are involved in planting and maintenance, new planting have a better survival rate, are less likely to be vandalised and give a sense of ownership to the local community. The Council will continue to encourage greater community involvement in the care and management of Southwark?s trees through schemes such as community planting and Tree Warden programmes. Tree Wardens will work with the Council to promote trees throughout the borough and be eyes and ears for the Council on tree related issues. The programme will be implemented in 2013.

So glad to have heard this - reduced to ordering full doorbell and chimes set online but when they arrived today, found they were barely audible, even at full volume. Sent them back, went round to Shaun?s and bought additional doorbell chimes to my existing set-up, bought there last year. Excellent customer service and a commitment to return in the unlikely event that they were not compatible. They are. Must go now - someone at the door??

Information (although some similar to that offered elsewhere) about the Highshore Road delivery service and a question relating to the second part, for the purpose of deciding whether there is a wider issue that I should pursue or if it is an isolated incident. Information: 1. On the Monday before Christmas, I was sweeping leaves at the front of the house when I heard what sounded like a vehicle engine in severe distress. It was a postal delivery van and it stopped on the road by me. As the driver got out, I commented that Royal Mail needed to get the van to a garage before it caused any harm. The driver was very good-humoured and told me that he actually did a domestic round on foot, but that the sorting office was so far behind with parcel deliveries that on his return that morning, he had been asked to take this van out and work a driving shift. He explained that even this van was in constant use and that he?d taken it over from a worker who?d just finished their shift so there was no chance they were going to put it in the garage. He described the wider postal service as being in chaos as a result of covid infection and other, seasonal, absences but believed that relative to other sorting offices, Highshore Road was just about managing to cope. 2. Close friends in Germany called a couple of days ago to tell us that the parcel they had sent to us on 5th December, with perishable Christmas goodies inside, had just been returned to them. It had travelled all the way to the sorting office, then had a label attached to say that it couldn?t be delivered and that no-one had come to collect it so was being returned to the senders. There has not been a moment in the last two months when the house hasn?t had someone in, and since anything that is put through the letter box is really easy to see in the hallway (no hiding places) it?s clear that no delivery note was actually completed and delivered. Added to this, our neighbour across the road works from a desk that looks straight at our front door and in the past, has regularly received unexpected postal deliveries on our behalf; they saw no failed delivery during this time period either. Question: is anyone else aware of packages that were destined for them but have been returned by the sorting office to sender, with no apparent attempt having been made to deliver?

Corroboration of Siduhe?s observation: fireworks, appearing to be simultaneously igniting from low level, possibly accidentally ignited in a store somewhere around the area of Dulwich College Squash Courts on the South Circular.

St Christopher?s Hospice have indeed been appealing for PPE items....... http://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2020/04/st-christophers-hospice-post-urgent-appeal-for-protective-gear-can-you-help/ siousxiesue Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > St Christopher's Hospice might like

Good news for us all - dependable quality and cheery staff. Heroic to be reopening though I believe it?s only the Grove Vale Shop for now.

Farmers have been open for essential cleaning/disinfecting materials and deffo had chalk on the display at the very back of the shop when I went looking a couple of weeks ago. I bought the last big box but there were small boxes and they may have restocked by now. twinhunters Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Didn?t realise they would be open great I?ll have > a look :)

Yes, at the Grove Vale end of Oglander Road so some way away from PR

From the Guardian online today, a very hard-hitting example of imagery that educates and warns.....

Peckham West https://consultations.southwark.gov.uk/environment-leisure/peckhamwestparking/results/peckhamwestparking-interimreportfinal.pdf East Dulwich https://consultations.southwark.gov.uk/environment-leisure/eastdulwichparking/results/eastdulwichparkingconsultation-interimreportfinal.pdf