rachp

I think the whole area is child friendly and as others have said, they just have different vibes which you need to assess for yourself, and based on what you like. I don’t know how much of a concern this is for now but it’s amazing how quickly you need to start thinking about secondary school and I think the options start to get less straightforward than at primary school age. The charter schools in east and north Dulwich are popular but have tight catchments. I don’t know much about other schools. If you want to get your kids settled into a primary and keep them there, it’s just worth thinking about. Good luck.

In my experience it depends on the nature of the request. If you’re asking them to remove a flytip it works, if you’re asking for a permanent increase in resources (which more bins is), they fob you off and you need councillor support. When you flag a bin that is routinely overflowing, the standard response is that they can’t empty more frequently it because they don’t have the resources to do so.

I’d go straight to the councillors; the people who work in the environmental team tend to fob you off on things like this. They also removed the bin outside coop and the coop have put a bucket outside to compensate but it’s permanently overflowing. And I don’t think any of these changes are temp, as someone else said, they’ve cut right back on resources and probably don’t want to have to empty so many bins as overflowing bins prompt complaints which show up on their stats. People are probably less likely to complain about dispersed litter on the ground than overflowing bins.

Southwark has definitely deprioritised this agenda and whilst a lot of people will cite ?funding cuts?, from what I can see, they don?t compare well to comparable boroughs, so there is an element of choice here. When you have the basics not being covered off, like bins overflowing in the same spot every week, this tells me that they?ve accepted this situation and have very little appetite to do anything- I?m fairly sure no one ever gets fined for littering in Southwark.

Waseley Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Is this any different to people dropping their > McDs carton in the street? A shame that we all > don't take more personal responsibility but hardly > isolated to the Gala. I'd love McDs to be > responsible to ensure that punters dispose of > their waste, and Walkers for their crisp packets > etc etc.... I think the authorities would love to be able to pass the costs of litter onto the source businesses but this is obviously a lot more complex to do in most cases- whereas it?s pretty straightforward to ask that a contained, green site is restored to its original state after a single event. The Welsh government is in fact looking to pass costs on more widely: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-60968570 Just because it?s harder to do this for the likes of McDonalds, should we level down our expectations on events like Gala? Litter costs tax payers and the environment hugely- why should all these costs be met by the public purse and volunteers who give up their time to clean up after other people who can?t be bothered to clean up after themselves?

Dogkennelhillbilly Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > That's a horrendous amount of rubbish. > > The cigarette butts aren't biodegradable (it's not > all paper) let alone the ring pulls and cable > ties. So many smokers don?t seem to register their butts as being litter. We need this to be a national campaign, not just Bristol:

Great, just what the world needs! Another Lordship Lane Estate Agent and all their cars taking up parking spaces on the surrounding roads. teddyboy23 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Lila's is closing a estate agent will be taking > the unit .

There are a lot but no more than pre-pandemic as far as I can tell. This happened to me a few years ago, I noticed then couldn?t stop noticing it. And now I?ve got used to it again.

It?s a good point you raise Spartacus, personally I am happy to see the high street thrive. On Megan?s specifically, I think not getting feedback or the chance to respond to it is a risk to their business and as I would like them to succeed, I?ve left specific feedback on Trip Advisor. I also have a concern about how many businesses are pushing out so much single use packaging so I think it?s good for them to feel pressure to keep working on the sustainability of the model.

Not for the planet! I dread to think how many single use cups ED generates each week, we seem to have totally forgotten about reusable cups since COVID! P.s. I realise this isn?t what you meant by sustainable 😀

I agree that more bins are needed but I also think the council needs to be braver about asking people to do their bit i.e. don't bring tonnes of stuff into the park for picnics etc and expect that you can always have a bin available for the waste it produces. And even if is a bit annoying that the bin is full, that's not an excuse to dump bags of rubbish next to the bins/ram stuff in so stuff falls over the floor (especially if there is an empty bin nearby you could use, which there often is). When the default is 'I will dispose of rubbish properly, as long as there are plentiful, empty bins available, at the exact point I want to need them' we will always have problems in the parks as they can never seem to do enough to stay on top of demand at very busy times. But the council won't say this because they are too scared of being criticised for not emptying the bins enough. So I think they also need to hear the message that people want other people to take some responsibility and it's ok to ask them to do so.

Agree, my experience of the food in DV was underwhelming, and I?ve never been back. Hopefully they will up their game.

Food bags- Co-op definitely take them, I take all my soft plastic there now, it?s really handy

St John?s hospice shop on Lordship Lane take them, I usually just drop them off and let them no it?s recycling so they don?t waste time going through the bag to check. It?s really easy if you live nearby and no risk that you turn up and it?s full (which can be a problem with the bins).

Weird, hope you get a helpful response!

If the bin repeatedly fills up more quickly than the ones around it, simplest solution would be to put another bin next to it. Convincing Southwark of that will no doubt be a mission but worth a go. It?s taken well over a year to convince them they should empty the bins on northcross road on a Saturday morning so that people have somewhere to put their rubbish from buying food and drink at the market. James McAsh is helpful but hamstrung by those around him.

I agree with Sue, I recently made a complaint after a long chain of inaction and that did prompt a pretty quick response.

That all sounds horrible, I can?t believe people that represent household name companies like Deliveroo, can behave like this and there?s nothing to be done about it, either by the companies themselves or by the authorities. I do recall a long time ago that one of my neighbours was complaining about the riders on our street (I think they were sitting on her wall etc) and I know she was trying to escalate it. I will try to find out if she ever got anywhere with it and if so, who she dealt with.

If you haven?t already, I would approach your councillors (probably James McAsh is your best bet as he?s a Goose Green councillor and by far the most responsive in my experience). I?m sure the restaurants won?t take on the behaviour of drivers but the companies such as Deliveroo can?t wash their hands of it- either if you approach them directly, or if the council has links in- I?m not sure how it all works. I live off lordship Lane too but thankfully we just get the odd lone driver parked up, rather than large groups congregating causing the kinds of problems you?ve experienced. And I wouldn?t worry about people not being able to do their job because you complain, the model is far too successful for that to be an outcome, but these orgs do need to find a way of managing the anti-social behaviour.

Rockets Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > So it is sanctioned by the council.......a list of > rules...my goodness...if it turns out the > portaloos have been provided by the council at tax > payers' expense then we really do know the council > is utterly out of control. This sounds far preferable to what happened over lockdown when our parks were regularly trashed with litter and human excrement, used tampons etc and we still had to fund retrospective clear ups from taxpayers money.

I find that night time noise is possible to block out with the right ear plugs, wax ones are more effective than the sponge ones. It won?t solve all your problems but it will mean you get a good night?s sleep at least. I know you said you?ve tried ear plugs already but they do vary so worth experimenting if you haven?t already done so. I can barely hear my own children in the same house when I?m wearing them!

Hi James, what are the next steps on the back of this meeting? Thanks

Hi Dulwichlass, the meeting only covered specific cases raised by people on the call, and even then we ran of time (there were a lot of issues raised). I don?t think there was much in the way of clear answers offered, it was more of an exercise in issue gathering, for one of the senior officers to go away and look into them and hopefully, come back with some resolutions or solutions (at least that was what I took from it). Given that you are talking about a very specific scenario, I would contact your councillors (if it?s goose green, James McAsh), and ask them to investigate. Have they broken a rule or are you challenging the rule they have in place?

James, thanks for setting up the meeting. I think participants will have felt heard so looking forward to seeing what happens next!

I?m not a fan of SUVs either but if someone is parking on Court Lane with kids and bikes, there is a good chance that they are headed to the park. And herein lies the problem, lots of people, especially with kids don?t cycle on roads because there is insufficient cycling infrastructure to encourage people out of their cars altogether for local journeys. So they drive and add to the problem and so it continues. I can just about getting to Dulwich Park on a combination of quiet residential roads and LTNs but it?s still sketchy in parts and can be pretty stressful with kids in tow. I?m not sure which active travel supporters would seriously hail the example cited as an example of active travel to be celebrated, it?s a symptom of the problem they are campaigning against. sand12 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > This is sadly very dangerous at the moment. I?ve > seen three different cyclists take nasty spills on > court lane in the past few days. Each time it was > male adult cyclists speeding over the traffic > calming humps in the road. > > The pavements and roads are covered in frost/ice > in the mornings. Saw a little one slip down just > this morning on the pavement as her younger > sibling scooted and the childminder pushed the > pram with an infant. All after they had emptied > out of a car in the Court Lane cul de sac. > > The hill is steep and icy. Pavements are meant to > be for pedestrians. I?d advise parents who are > cycling with their kids to have them get off and > walk their cycles downhill. It isn?t safe > especially in the morning. If the road isn?t safe > for a stretch, then we were always taught to get > off our bikes and walk for a bit till we could get > back on the road. > > Unfortunately, much of the parent/childminder and > child cyclists and scooter groups I see are > rushing around to get from one place to another > and pretty oblivious to others on the pavements. > > My favourite though is seeing the lovely parents > parking their SUVs on Court Lane, popping the boot > to retrieve a cycle or scooter and a dog and or a > pram. This is then seen by the local ?Active > Travel? and ?Clean Air? folks as somehow better > for the environment and health of locals.