kiera

I too have been on a tour of the waste management centre. When Sue says people are employed specifically to remove non-recyclables, that's right - as the recycling goes along on a conveyor belt, employees have to remove by hand the carrier bags and anything else which shouldn't be in with the recycling. That's what they're employed to do, and they have to pay attention and be quick, as the conveyor belts keep running. The council have proudly promoted this as a recycling centre, so I had unrealistic expectations of it being more sophisticated. I must say I was underwhelmed, but I agree it's worth going on a tour. It's an incredibly noisy environment and must use a huge amount of electricity to separate the different recyclables. Magnets remove the steel cans and air is blown onto the conveyor belts to try to separate the paper, but some of the sorting is done by hand e.g. drinks cartons. It's quite difficult to find out exactly where it all goes after. All we were told on my tour was that the cardboard went to China to be re used for packaging. I don't know what they're doing with it now that China no longer wants to take rubbish from other countries.

It's the only waste which is actually recycled at the "recycling" centre - it's turned into compost which can be purchased from them.

Saw the postman still delivering letters at 7pm last night.

The staff at Lambeth Archives would probably be interested in your documents, particularly in relation to Brixton roller rink. The archives are in the Minet Library, Knatchbull Rd SE5 and are open to the public.

Not at the same time as the funfair and not to that part of the common, so near to residents, no. Note - I'm not personally affected, but I've seen the set-up on the Rye, so can appreciate what DanMaitland is saying and why he's rather taken aback by Southwark's new enthusiasm for renting out the park and common with, it seems, scant consideration for residents/park users.

East Dulwich parking zone (incorporating Lordship Lane bus mitigation measures & Lordship Lane safety improvements) affecting Goose Green and Dulwich Hill wards. Can you give more information about this please & is it only Lordship Lane which is affected?

The phone number on the website is the customer call centre number which is the number the council want the public to ring. Over the years, the staffing levels in the libraries have been reduced. Library staff are no longer required to deal with phone calls from the public and are no longer staffed adequately to enable them to do so, so the direct dial numbers are not publicly available.

I'm rather shocked that everyone thinks it's o.k. to put a terrapin in a pond. It most certainly is not. It's at least irresponsible and probably illegal to release a terrapin into the wild by dumping it in a pond. They are an exotic invasive species which eat our own native wildlife. Depending on the species of terrapin, they may eat ducklings and the young of other waterbirds, such as moorhens. Unwanted terrapins are a problem. The answer is to find someone who will take it and care for it in a sanctuary or as a pet. So if you rescue one which has been dumped in the wild, which is a kind thing to do, you are giving yourself a big problem. There is information and advice on the internet, such as from the RSPCA on how to keep a terrapin as a pet (quite a lot of work and equipment) and other websites which can help with advertising for a home or finding a sanctuary. It's delightful to watch the moorhen parents looking after their baby in the pond in Peckham Rye Park. Please do not jeopardise our wildlife by putting any predatory terrapin in that pond, the pond by Dulwich College or any other of our ponds.

The council do not put on these events to raise money for the parks. The council have said that the purpose of holding these commercial events is to raise the funds to finance more events.

Thank you JohnL for clarifying

So no-one has any evidence that any of the music events are cancelled? Is that right?

Thanks James. I think it may have been quite some time ago that you visited the Recycling centre. 'Help for Heroes' used to have wheelie bin collection points for milk bottle caps in the recycling centre, but when I last took a bagful of milk bottle tops there, the staff took them from me and flung them in the ordinary waste, saying they were no longer collecting them. What I saw on my tours of the centre, was small items like bottle caps, although they are made of recyclable plastic, being sifted out on the conveyor belts and sent for incineration with the ordinary waste. Contaminated recyclables are also wasted - the biggest cause of contamination being food waste left in containers, milk left in milk bottles etc.. They also had to take out by hand and waste all the carrier bags people put in their recycling bins, as they don't recycle carrier bags. I don't think they give residents anywhere near enough information about how the recyclables are used - it's all very vague. You say glass is obvious, but I don't consider it is. Residents used to have to separate the different colours, but now they all go in together, so what is it used for now? - presumably not for new glass containers. And paper - is it made into products which can again be recycled, such as stationery or newspapers, or something which can't, like toilet rolls or cat litter? As China is discontinuing taking other countries' rubbish, do you know what effect that's going to have?

I'm commenting on Alan Medic's question yesterday (above) on what happens to our recycling. I too would like to know. I have twice been on a guided tour of Southwark's Recycling centre and I still don't know. As residents, we used to sort our recycling ourselves into glass, paper etc. but we now have to throw it all in together and it's sorted by a mostly automated system at the Recycling centre. I thought that by visiting the Recycling Centre I would find out where it ends up, but all I saw was it being sorted, using a huge amount of electricity to run conveyor belts, air blowers etc, in order to achieve what we used to do ourselves, manually. It's a sorting centre. They were showing films on how new products can be made from waste products, but nothing at all about how Southwark's is used. All I could find out about precisely where our Southwark recycling ends up and what it's actually used for, is that the cardboard is shipped to China to make new product packaging.

The P13 diversion ended yesterday evening.

The new Dog Control Orders are coming in next Monday, replacing the old byelaws in the parks and cemeteries. The new rules for each Park are here http://www.southwark.gov.uk/assets/attach/2229/Composite_Dog_Ban_Byelaws.pdf

I wish people wouldn't keep saying that this event is going to be on the common - it is going to be in the Park - setting a precedent. The first post in this thread gives the site map, which is of the fields in Peckham Rye Park opposite Harris Boys school. All day events until 11pm with very loud,amplified music. In this week's Southwark News, the council state they have sought and been granted permission to use the park in this way but the council have been unable to prove this - the licence they quoted as proof was only for the common. At tomorrow's Licensing Committee, the council are not allowing objectors to query the choice of siting the event in the park.

The meter reader who came to me recently can genuinely claim not to have ID, as I've found his ID on the floor in my cellar.

Sue, your baby birds will be at their most vulnerable when they first leave the nest. It will take them a week or two to learn to fly and to feed themselves, so they will be staying around their home and carry on needing the protection of your climbers for a while longer following their first flight.

When you can remember the 78 bus going up Barry Rd to The Plough and when you could go from Croydon to Shepherds Bush on a number 12.