kiera

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.

I completely agree with womanofdulwich that the park should remain unlit at night to leave in peace such wildlife as still remains.

What is the area covered by your questionnaire? "Dulwich" is generally taken to refer to Dulwich Village, so is that the area you are asking about? Or, as you are asking on the East Dulwich Forum, are you asking about East Dulwich? Or are you asking about all the Dulwich area, i.e. including West Dulwich?

There's a collection box for Croydon Animal Samaritans (who rescue cats in our area) inside Forest Hill Sainsbury's.

Being interrupted in the quiet study area of Dulwich Library at 7.30pm by a member of staff entering the room and broadcasting to everyone that the library will be closing at 8pm (They do this every day, to enable them to lock up & go home at 8pm)

I agree with Sally Buying. This happened once before and Admin had to sort it out. Typing in www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk does not work in Google.

And to increase the number of attendees to 20,000 - twice as many as previously.

Fishbiscuits said - "Maybe a couple of days of noise can reasonably considered as the price we pay for living in a vibrant city." Actually three days of noise - four this year, plus fencing off the area for setting up and taking down, so taking it out of public use for about a couple of weeks. The licensing notices which have recently appeared on the park railings show that they are now applying to hold two or three events each year in the park or on the common.

Thanks Spartacus. Interesting to read in the link you provided that "Royal Mail is exempt from its targets in December, due to the volume of festive post". That goes a long way to explaining why our December's post was left in crates and not delivered.

Our outgoing post is not handled by Mount Pleasant - it has been dealt with by Croydon Mail Centre since 2012 https://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/6144 "The move, which affects mail for addresses in all SE postal districts from SE1 to SE28, is a result of the closure of the South London Mail Centre at Nine Elms. Royal Mail has spent ?10 million upgrading the Croydon Mail Centre in Beddington Farm Road to handle the extra work."

Pugwash Wrote: > Our grandson in Harlow received our Christmas card yesterday (12th) which was sent early December. > We have birthday cards to send to other children/grandchildren whose birthdays are this month and early Feb. We need to go out of Southwark to post them - any idea which area is > better? Pugwash - If you suspect that the problem is the collection office this end, rather than the delivery office in Harlow, then I think you would need to avoid posting in quite a wide area of South London in order for it not to be collected by our local centre. I would think that the nearest alternative collection/sorting office would be Mount Pleasant, so perhaps take your cards for a ride on a 63 across the river.

tomskip Wrote: --------------------------------------- > Thanks Penguin68, that's really interesting information. Where can I find it, have you got a link? A rare acknowledgement of our problems appeared in the Daily Express on December 30th:- https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/1542672/royal-mail-delays-postcodes-areas-affected-today-december-30 Relevant extract - The areas affected in the country today are listed below. ........... Chelmsford DO (CM1 to CM3) East Dulwich (SE22) Finsbury Park DO (N4 and N15) Gerrards Cross DO (SL9) Havant DO (PO9-10) Herne Hill DO (SE24)...............

I was surprised to receive a phone call yesterday, Monday, in response to a letter I'd only posted in a pillarbox in the street on Saturday morning. My letter would have been collected at 7am on Saturday, yet it was delivered to the rural address near Guildford on Monday - I'd only put a second class stamp on it! It just shows that some delivery offices are still operating an excellent service on a par with the one we were used to before our excellent East Dulwich Delivery Office in Silvester Rd was taken away from us.

Penguin68 Wrote: --------------------------------------- > Has anyone had any post (letters etc.) today ? > Yes, my postie is back from his 10 days leave....... there > is no slack at all for cover ................Hopefully things will get back to normal....... Which undoubtedly means that your postie will be dealing with new incoming post - he will not be going through the two weeks' worth of post which has accumulated during his absence, Judging by last year, the backlog of arrears will not even start to be cleared until the New Year. It was February before I got my Xmas cards which had been posted early

Renata - Thank you, but I agree with previous posters that we are not given enough information about what happens to our recycling. I suspect that Veolia burns plastic dishes and calls that recycling, as it provides fuel to heat a Southwark council estate. That would explain why they are happy to take black plastic which is generally recognised as unrecyclable. Are you able to find out? I would find it really helpful to know for sure, as water is a valuable resource and I would like to cut down on the amount of water I use to ensure my plastic dishes are perfectly clean, if they're only going to be burned.