malumbu

There was an nice article on a rescue of a dog that had fallen down on a cliff walk onto a ledge. The locals following a WhatsApp post all helped to look for it then mountain rescue volunteers climbed down to rescue it. In terms of time and effort you could argue not worth it, but life would be rather sad without the occasional good news story.

Not really sure how useful this is as, from my understanding, dogs can't read.....

Wow

Sadly I have no life and did delve into this. If it's gone to planning committee and been passed unless you are very rich and have a good case then you are not going to do anything about it. For Judicial Review you are talking maybe £20k including Lewisham's costs if you are not successful. There have been representations by the local community group which is a good way of opposing if this is not your immediate neighbourhood. There is a mass of documents including ecological surveys, and although the sound was not good councillors had what appears to be a good discussion. There is a shortage of homes and slithers of green will be built on. Why not celebrate the good environmental initiatives in the borough, numerous small and large parks, Blackehath, cemeteries with abundant wildlife, Waterlink Way, the railway cutting nature centres - Devonshire Road, Buckthorne Road, New Cross Cutting, Garthorne, Dacres Wood etc etc https://lewisham.gov.uk/inmyarea/openspaces/nature-reserves And visit the wonderful cafe at Manor house Gardens park. Lewisham must be the envy of other local authorities in the area in this respect. If you want a good cause, how about Aquarius Golf Course, the lack of public access and looks rather unwelcoming to nature.

Ah, so many experts on the subject. I simply use the facts when I know them, or if not do my research and refer to the experts. I don't have my own theories on 'global warming' ie climate change or the melting of the ice caps/rising of sea water. This will be one of the biggest issues to humanity and nature, and contribute to further geopolitical insecurity, as in parts of the world where it will be difficult to live due to changes in weather, increase in disease, drout, excess temperatures, impact on food and the like, and more and more despots getting involved. But if you know better, heard/saw something on GB news/Twitter/FB etc well then you know better than me.

Oh no not another LTN thread.....

What is this thread about? Brazil? Dubai? Singapore? All countries subject to habitat destruction due to overdevelopment

Thread seems to confuse two issues. Firstly use of a resource. Water meters encourage lower use which is a good thing. We did a trial with Thames first, which showed that we would save money. By chance we had a mains leak a few months after, only identified due to the meter, which Thames sorted by replacing the lead mains into the house with plastic. They don't advertise that they do this and try to push you into their emergency/insurance scheme. They even refunded us for the excess cost when the leak was ongoing. Secondly the selling off of national assets. I very much agree with the criticism of the privatisation of utilities. Sadly many of us made a short term gain from this. Apart from replacing my old lead mains I am no fan of Thames Water.

The vast majority of atmospheric scientists believe that climate change is occurring. National governments collectively agreed in 2015 to to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels (Paris Agreement). Meanwhile the industrialised nations and oil producing nations are not rushing to phase out fossil fuels. And we appear to have breached the 1.5 degrees. Emissions from industry and motor vehicles are down, due to a mix of cleaner technologies, a reduction in fossil fuel burning to produce electricity and a reduction in heavy manufacturing. Controls on domestic combustion, particularly the Clean Air Act, and a move from fossil fuel for our domestic heating (fireplaces) has, as you say, improved our air quality, Nitogen dioxide levels from motor vehicles remain too high, and government was ordered by the supreme court to sort it out, which it hasn't. Other sources of poor air quality remain, such as ammonia principally from agriculture, Poor air quality is estimated to still lead to the equivalent of 40,000 deaths a year. As well as impacting on natural ecosystems. This isn't doom mongering, this is fact. Future generations will wonder why we didn't act sooner/faster rather than argue about the impact that it may have on our personal finances (pretty minimal for SE22 for most) and our freedom to drive. It's not just driving of course, microplastics, fast fashion, consumerism, shipping large volumes of products from China and elsewhere that we may be able to live without, aforementioned clean electricity generation etc. It could and probably will get worse after the American presidential elections, which will at the end of the day mean our politics/government pale into insignificance. That is a discussion for another thread/day.

Climate change, loss of species, habitat destruction, air quality, geopolitical volatility are real and worsening this century. I am sure you are not a climate change skeptic but those who are will point to different eras where it was warmer, colder, wetter, drier.

In deed, I use the terms interchangably- no doubt wrongly - but celebrating a life rather than their departure. Not have a pop at someone. Pilger was a great journalist, but at times got it wrong, perhaps more in later life. Camilia Batmanghelidhjh was exonerated. www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/09/the-hidden-life-of-camila-batmanghelidjh-why-was-her-exoneration-so-widely-ignored Not sure why you had to make a couple of jibes. Was it the time or place?

If it's GK I will avoid. The worst of all pub estates. In my informed opinion of course.

Its a long article covering many aspects of e rental bikes, what did you particularly want to discuss, this being a forum? I was drawn to the comments about too many cars littering our streets parked by the pavement. I agree and Lime bikes, with incentives and appropriate charges for parked cars could help address this. What do you reckon?

Some stuff on the history of the "war on entitled motorists" www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/28/the-war-on-motorists-the-secret-history-of-a-myth-as-old-as-cars-themselves Sunkak reinvigorated the term when standing against Truss https://road.cc/content/news/sunak-pledges-end-war-motorists-and-review-ltns-295365 And then again at conference: He has no time for public transport or bikes. He's got a lot of disciples on this site, whether you think you are or not.

Not withstanding it could be a couple, the bored housewife with her impotent husband. Meanwhile whilst you get offended by semantics, the world has never been so hot. Why not do something about it rather than congratulating the entitled motorist.

Oh dear, are people living on Burbage Road so hard up they can't afford parking fees? Perhaps we could do some crowd funding to support them. DKH, could you retitle this thread "the war on entitled motorists", plenty more from me on this subject

Sunak announced he was ending the war on motorists, I think at conference, but beyond reviewing LTNs, his government introduced, and ditto for 20mph, again supported in principle by successive Tory governments, didn't get a lot of coverage.

I had an issue years ago and my MP was reasonably engaged. He wrote a separate PS at the end of the letter, so definitely didn't rely on a stock letter. Need to test out the current one out on some other rail related stuff. If you are unhappy with Thameslink then go to the ombudsman. My issues are with SWR, should lose their franchise, and GWR at station ticketing. I'd love a single ticketing system across all providers

A rare incident was reported, probably for that reason, ie it was rare, and now there is a panic about how law and order has disintegrated. Well makes a change from slagging off Southwark and their supposed war on motorists. As Shaw Taylor would say, sleep tight. Keep em peeled was Shaw Taylor's catch phrase

It's dynamic, congestion reduces demand, free flowing traffic increases demand. Not a perfect equation due to entrenched behaviour. And highly subjective as every year I've been to London (excluding COVID) has been reported as the worst on record, but in reality it is loosely the same varying up and down.

Have you formally complained?

Good to get some acknowledgement of the issue from the school. I look forward to progress. I called them when one of the school pick up coaches was parked idling, and they attended to it quickly.

Silly exercise, what a waste of time, just get used to 20 mph and accept the benefits. Why are you joining in this "end the war on motorists" nonsense. In fact it was almost as if you started this desperation call from PM Sunak.

How exciting. I've lived in London for yonks. I saw armed plod stop a van near Lambeth Bridge South side in the 90s. Police vans everywhere around Peckham during the riots 13 years ago. And sirens all over the place in central London, following the 7/7 bombings. The latter two understandable. That's been about it.

So am I (smiling). When you do this the whole world smiles with you.