kiera

Reported by Southwark News today:- "Southwark’s Council Leader, Cllr Kieron Williams, has seen off an internal Labour challenge within his group – winning 28 votes to 23 from challenger Cllr James McAsh. Southwark News exclusively revealed the challenge earlier this month, coming from the Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency, Streets and Clean Air, McAsh. The vote was held today, Saturday March 23rd, at Southwark Labour’s Annual General Meeting. The close call of the vote means Cllr Williams now faces a tricky decision whether to keep Cllr McAsh in the fold, given his support, or remove him from the Cabinet."

Barclays may be quite happy about it - it gives them a good excuse to close the Peckham branch.

It's up to the owners to ensure their dogs are only off-lead where it is allowed in the Park - i.e. on the perimeter path. https://www.southwark.gov.uk/parks-and-open-spaces/parks/dulwich-park dog walking area - dogs may be walked off the lead on the perimeter path around the park

This application is still open for comment today. Today's date is the one given by the council as the final date for comments on this application and a number of comments have already been submitted today, so it is still open at the moment.

I've received 3 emails today, all said to be from the leader of Southwark council. The first two were identical, headed "Seasons Greetings from the Leader of Southwark Council" wishing 'me' - i.e. just a general greeting to residents, I assume - a Happy Christmas & New Year and exhorting me to shop local. The third one was "Dyer, Lovern would like to recall the message, "Seasons Grettings from the Leader of Southwark Council". Nothing since - no explanation. It's a first for me - to be wished a Happy Christmas and then the greeting is taken back, but I won't take it personally!

Was in Sainsbury's yesterday evening and it's all settled down now. Most of the items I wanted were close to where they were originally, with some exceptions, e.g. chilled cakes & desserts now in aisle 25. Shelves were well stocked. There are only 4 cashier aisles & only 2 of them were manned, but they did not have queues. I use the cashier aisles when they're available (they generally close them at 9pm.) The customer in front of me didn't have a Nectar card, so I offered mine - that way I got the points for his shopping & he benefitted by getting Nectar discounts, so all good.

I can recommend Croydon Animal Samaritans. Their main cat rescuer lives in Catford and does rescue work in our area. I've known her for years. I would expect her to be able to help you, but let me know if you still have problems.

Sue - I'm under the impression that Highshore Rd is two delivery offices in one building. I assume they each have different staffing and resources. I don't believe the customers of the Peckham Delivery office in Highshore Rd receive the same appalling service as we do from the East Dulwich office.

It's reassuring to read other people's accounts and to know that I'm not the only one waiting for post from August - I'd begun to think they'd singled me out as not worthy of deliveries. I thought perhaps they'd put my address down as "property inaccessible" as I too got that excuse on tracked post last month. I 'phoned and registered a complaint with customer services on Monday and that produced a few letters yesterday, so I suppose they think the complaint's resolved, which it isn't, as I still have letters and parcels outstanding from weeks ago. The tracked parcels have been noted as missing, but I was just advised to contact the senders if I want the disappearance investigated. Frustrating and worrying. I'm relieved nowadays when any of my post reaches me.

Was surprised to see a P4 going up Forest Hill Road yesterday (Monday) evening, so I took the opportunity to get a rare ride from Forest Hill Road to Honor Oak Park station & beyond to Stondon Park. It was then a shorter journey to Catford on a 171 than it is going through Forest Hill on a 185. I've no idea why the P4 was/is on diversion - nothing on TFL website.

Plus they've made it more difficult to pick up post from the delivery office. Opening hours reduced to 8am-10am weekdays - only open longer on Saturdays & then only until midday. You can't go the next day after a notification of a non-delivery as they now attempt to redeliver the next day. It may be possible to arrange a redelivery online. The card they left told me to do so, but on both occasions this happened to me I was unable to book a delivery online because the next day redelivery didn't happen, so I was obliged to go to the office. The staff there were very upset about the reduced opening hours, saying it wasn't long enough & that they were losing jobs over it. Customer services were unhelpful - just invented excuses and were very reluctant to actually record a complaint.

Southwark's Licensing Committee met today to make the decision on Gala's Premises licence application. The council had received only 23 objections, as opposed to 56 in support. Gala's application to hold events over 6 days was approved with very little amendment. The council will publish the full decision within a week.

Just a reminder for those who object to the extension of the event that the deadline for submitting an objection to the premises licence is tomorrow - Monday. Extract from the link to the council's website (given by 'fishboy', above, on 8th Feb) "Please note that the Premises Licence application process is different to the Event Licence application process. A premises licence permits the provision of regulated activity at a premises, whereas an event licence allows the use of a premises. The premises is an area of Peckham Rye Park in this instance. If you require more information about the premises licence application, please check the Blue notices which have gone up around the park for details or check the Licensing Register or contact the Licensing team directly: [email protected]"

I'm resting my hopes on our local councillors. Although the site of the Festival is in Peckham Rye ward, Dulwich Hill residents are among those who live closest and are most affected. A number of us have contacted our councillors and Maggie Browning has responded by informing us that she agrees with our objections. She has now formally objected to the extension of the Gala Festival. Her support should be influential in representing us and possibly even more so, as she is the Labour whip.

At the public meetings before the first Gala festival, the council's representatives from their Events Team explained that all the revenue would go into that team to finance further events, enabling them to provide free events. They hoped to eventually make enough from paid events to be able to totally fund the Events Team, including their salaries. So we were left in no doubt that the only council service which is subsidised by Gala and other similar Park festivals is Southwark's Events.