kiera

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.

I too would like to know whether the William Blake oak planted in 2011 survived the festivals - I have looked for it several times without success. Does anyone know? The tree in your photograph must be one which has been planted more recently, as a tree planted in 2011 would not still have a guard and a watering bag.

In one delivery a few weeks' ago, I received a backlog of about three weeks' post. That was followed for a few days by regular daily deliveries. It was starting to look as though things may have finally been sorted, but it was short-lived. I've not been receiving my post since, so it's back to the normal service I've come to expect from Peckham office - that I'll get little or no post most of the time but I'll get it all eventually. I've been convinced that Peckham Delivery Office have been concealing the true situation from their superiors, so it's interesting to know that someone now has proof of a falsified record. The people to write to with this evidence are our MPs - Helen Hayes and Harriet Harman, who are already familiar with complaints from our area, but who are always reassured by Peckham management when they make enquiries.This example can be fobbed off by Peckham as a mistake, so, if anyone else has proof of false recording, it would be very helpful if they too would write to the MPs. As others have said, we've had to put up with this totally sub-standard service since the closure of our local East Dulwich delivery office, which was several years ago now. I'm sure Royal Mail management at a higher level would find the true situation totally unacceptable if they only knew.

The OP is querying what happens to recyclable items which are put in with the general waste instead of into the recycling bins. So the question is - does Veolia go through the general waste to extract recyclable items. Having visited Southwark's recycling centre I say the answer is "NO". Veolia staff sort the recycling by hand to try to remove items which shouldn't have been put in with the recycling and the recycling is automatically sorted into different categories, but they do NOT sort the general waste. All the general waste is bagged up, left to dry and then sent for incineration or landfill.

According to last night's zoom meeting, the reopening of Rye Lane to buses will be on 18th October. I only watched about half of it because of problem with wi-fi and then zoom using up too much of my mobile data. Most of the audience's contributions seemed to me to be from supporters of closure. I switched off at the point where one such supporter was emphasising how much better it is at the moment for the disabled, as it's much easier for a wheelchair user to use the road than the pavement. The points were made about need for connectivity of buses with the station and the council's very poor attempts at consultation.

Friernlocal Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Has anyone seen how this works in a store? Is > there a separate bin for this plastic or does it > go in the existing plastic carrier recycling bins? For clarification, I enquired of the "Flexible Plastics Initiative" (referenced from the link in the initial post on this thread) My enquiry: Do supermarket customers need to collect their flexible plastics separately or can it all go together into the one container - i.e. do crisp packets, biscuit wrappers and cat food pouches all go together into the supermarket carrier bag bin? Their reply "All of the flexible plastics can be collected together, as they all go in the one bin at the supermarket. We do ask that they are cleaned to avoid contamination." There are (& have been for some years) three bins for bags at Sainsbury's DKH, although they are all usually full to the brim.

KidKruger Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Buses pass frequently on Whateley - just to clear > that up. > If someone hasn?t seen that happen, then they just > haven?t seen that happen. > I have, often. So it does happen. > > And yes, the pseudo-science someone was sent > regarding ?increased? space for buses passing > because of wider pavements doesn?t make sense. Sorry if I didn't explain very well. I queried the plans because I was concerned that the road space around the junction was being narrowed without the provision of a space for buses to pull in to allow other vehicles to pass. However, the figures I was given by Southwark's transport engineer showed that buses should be able to pass each other at this point without the need to pull in. He explained that, although the road is approx. 9m. wide, only 5.4m was available for traffic, due to parked cars on both sides of the road. He said Government guidelines advise that buses need a minimum width of 3m in each lane. In redesigning the junction for the zebra crossing this was taken into consideration, so that each lane will be 3.2m wide. So I'm expecting the new increased available road width of 6.5m to make life easier for the bus drivers.

I believe that, when it's finished, it will make it much easier for two buses to pass each other. This is because the scheme removes some car parking space. I queried the plans around the time of the consultation because I was concerned that they hadn't considered the P13 buses, but they helpfully sent me drawings and measurements to show that two buses will be able to pass each other at the built-out curbs. The new curbs will not take up as much road space as the parked cars which they displace. It was demonstrated to me that it will actually improve the road for the P13s by providing this much needed passing place .

A letter with a first class stamp was posted to me from a local post box last week. It took five days to be delivered. I have come to accept that that's the best I can expect from Royal Mail these days.

I find a search for 'East Dulwich Forum' on Google on my mobile phones does not access the forum at all. Using www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk as advised by Admin works on one of my phones but not on the other one, strangely, both using Virgin media. Problem initially reported on thread "logging into forum" on 6th July.

Yes. This problem was reported on the thread "logging into forum" on 6th July. Admin was trying to understand the issue and sort it out. However, I still find that a Google search does not bring up this forum.

My understanding of the background is:- When Southwark sold the land they owned near the River, they justified not using it themselves to build housing, on the grounds that they could get a high price for their land in the North of the borough, so would use the proceeds to build their own new housing on land they already owned in the south of the borough, where the land has less value.

Thank you James - I do hope you're right. It's my nearest bus stop on Lordship Lane but I have quite a long walk to get to it, without the additional walk to the Post Office when I get there. I can't see how it helps with social distancing to have us additional bus passengers waiting outside the busy post office.

I'm surprised at how few people have supported the comments which are objecting to the removal of the buses from Rye Lane. (Objections are the red pins) https://peckhamstreetspace.commonplace.is/ Plenty of cyclists are saying how great it is now and that the closure should be made permanent (supporters = green pins)

Dulwich Society news-"LTN Interim communication & engagement officer: The Council has recently advertised for a staff member to promote the new LTN programme both externally to residents and internally to staff, ?to deliver an outward facing engagement programme to ensure that local people and stakeholders are informed, listened to and involved in the project.?"

Turners Test Centre 11a Barry Road https://www.turnerstestcentre.co.uk/

What a great photo - can clearly see every detail! Thank you.

Nigello Wrote: ---------------------------------- https://twitter.com/bermondseytrees/status/1377970 > 454183444480?s=21 - no more pollarding in > Southwark till Nov. Quoting the Twitter post:- Trees For Bermondsey @BermondseyTrees Good news: Southwark Tree Section have announced that routine re-pollarding is now suspended until Nov. "Crown reduction work will continue ... however this will be postponed until the end of the nesting season where nesting birds are present following a wildlife assessment" Good news about the pollarding, but not good that crown reductions are to continue during the nesting season. The wildlife assessment is likely to be simply the contractors standing looking at the tree to see if any nests are clearly visible, before starting up their chainsaws. Generally, birds choose hidden, well covered and protected places to nest and I have witnessed council tree pruning taking place in trees and shrubs where birds are nesting. I don't consider the council should be pruning trees at all during the nesting season.

Nigello Wrote: I saw a slim, almost elongated pigeon-sized bird, perched on TV aerials and screeching/squawking raspily and with a slightly fanned tail. What coukd it be? It?s not a jay or magpie or jackdaw/crow. I think I heard two of them. & --------------------------------- > It wasn't pigeon like in any way other than its size. I thought it was a corvid but they were too light in colour. Green woodpeckers are about the length of a pigeon but slimmer, with a slightly fanned tail and have a loud call, although I wouldn't say it was rasping. Their call is likened to laughing and is reproduced on the RSPB website https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/green-woodpecker/ Could that be the bird you saw?

Spartacus Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > This is a few months old but may help explain the issues faced by the sorting offices That letter from January explains that they are prioritising vaccination letters. Presumably the service can only cope as long as there's nothing extra at any time. So we won't have a normal delivery while they have to give priority to census letters and then we can expect they won't be able to cope with normal mail when they have to give priority to postal votes during the election etc.etc.. Allowing for poor service, I posted a birthday card last month, three and a half weeks in advance of a birthday in March, but it still didn't arrive until a week after the birthday. I would sum it up by saying the service they're able to provide is inadequate and unacceptable - regular delays are now their normal service. I might have a more tolerant attitude towards Royal Mail if I hadn't been experiencing their poor service since long before the pandemic - ever since our service transferred to Peckham Office - and if they were spending their ?500,000,000/?700,000,000 profit on expanding their premises and taking on more permanent staff instead of sharing it out among their shareholders.