Emily

yum yum yum

Well, we did OK!

we are buying very locally, a bigger house.

So many sold signs everywhere, so much building work, houses selling fast... is this the bottom of the market for ED?

I don't like it.

So permission granted for a nasty, anti-social betting shop, designed to steal the money of the poor and the addicted, and not for a perfectly nice, harmless cafe. And the council is always right, eh?

I think it's ugly

And if you think that there aren't loons on this site who absolutely loathe parents and children, then I'd suggest you aren't reading it. Can anyone even remember what was on the site before Nero's opened up? I have yet to find out, despite asking, what the legal bills for this disgraceful waste of our cash are so far.

Actually, that would have been a very good idea. It needed a cafe.

None of my three children will be going there.

With three kids to educate, two boys and a girl, it's hard to find the right place. This isn't it.

This sort of scheme is the fastest way to destroy local shops. Good work, make Lordship Lane a desirable place to visit, then make it a near impossible place to visit. Brilliant. Why not just put up a sign, saying, 'don't bother. go to Sainsbury's'?

Could not agree more with Bawdy-Nan re the appalling, disgraceful closure of the Livesey Museum. Vandalism? You lot wrote the book. I'm a mug who voted for you. Never again.

Oh come on, it's not remotely like a park being turned into shopping mall! It was already a retail premises, and still is. It's not like, ooh, let's think, a popular local free museum being closed down so the council can sell of the building to property developers (to pay the millions in legal costs incurred by pointless actions like this?), is it? Dulwich Park is hugely popular, and all the more so for having a nice cafe slap bang in the middle of it, actually. As for not popular with local people only 'customers', well who do you think is those customers are? Aliens from outer space? People specially flown in from the Outer Hebrides? Of course it is popular with people who live in East Dulwich, you know, the very people that the councillors are supposed to represent, not fight, especially not fight using untold thousands of pounds of our money. If the planning rules prevent a popular, useful, wheelchair and child accessible business from opening up where people clearly want it, then the planning laws are the problem, not the business. I have no problems with a successful business paying higher rates, but really, all this outrage is very silly. Agree the staff are lovely, if rather slow, and it appeals to the local community. It's a real meeting place. The people on this site with a visceral, irrational hatred of children and businesses, would hate it regardless of planning laws.

Goodness me, you do need to get a hobby apart from post counting. Or are you the post police? I think if a business is harmless, useful, provides a popular local service to the local people - and a unique one, in terms of disabled access and space for parents to bring children - then I think it is an obscene waste of money for the local council, which is supposed to represent the people, to spend God knows how many thousands on lawyers trying to close it down. I think they forget they were voted in to represent the local population, which is clearly voting for Neros with their feet and their money.

I think they are appalling people. They waste MY money (how much? will any of them admit to how much - given that Southwark's legal fees were well over ?7million last year - on persecuting a highly popular local cafe, which offers disabled access, for a start, which none of the other local cafes do, then whine they have no money and shut down a totally unique museum for children, just so they can sell off a valuable building - one that was a gift to the PEOPLE for our benefit, not to Southwark Council to sell to the highest bidder. If they can't take criticism, then they shouldn't be touting for votes, for heavens sake.. Do they think I and many others would have voted for them if they'd suggested for one minute they'd start closing down museums that benefit poor children and flogging off buildings donated to the people to property developers? As for the lie that they can't afford ?140,000 a year, when we all know it's about snatching the building... As for comparing a coffee shop to a crack dealer, well, frankly the comparison is so idiotic it doesn't really deserve a reply, does it?

I wonder how much Southwark Council are paying lawyers to try and close down a business that is self-evidently hugely popular with local people, especially families? Enough to save the Livesey museum? Frankly, it wouldn't suprise me. What a appalling bunch our local councillors are.

And I'm glad to see you agree with me that 'Lord' Harris (don't you hate the kind of arrogant people who insist on their poxy titles?) is uneducated. Sure, he's hugely successful at selling nasty carpets, but do you honestly think that is the best qualification for running schools? I don't.

'Fight clever' clearly means, if you are opposed to this school in its proposed incarnation, it is a waste of time discussing pupil numbers at a design meeting.

Architects NEVER recommend the reuse of a beautiful old building. What's the fun for them in that?

I've never heard of AREA.

No darling, I'm more a pictures person.

Well, it's clearly absurd because they are so totally and utterly different. One is a nice cafe which full of local residents and hugely popular, the other is a needle exchange which is hugely unpopular, full of junkies, nd right next to a children's nursery. I really don't think anyone here is stupid enough not to spot the difference. Of course the the issue with chains is nothing to do with the inherently evil nature of businesses with more than one branch (Ed, village books, tales on moon lane, Mrs Robinson, Neros) v the gorgeous desirable purity of shabby, not very successful independents, its to do with rents. High rents = lots of chains, reasonable rents = a mix of businesses. Petty disputes about technical breaches of planning regulations are really quite irrelevant.

I am also highly amused at the love and trust shown towards the council on these matters. They'd happily bang you up for putting a jam jar in the wrong bit of your recycling, or tow your car away (as happened to my elderly neighbour) for not reading a miniscule sign about the waterboard digging up your road. They are not our friends, my friends.

As it happens, I didn't 'bring up' the needle exchange. Someone else compared Neros to the needle exchange, which is clearly absurd. I was merely responding. it's bloody bliss to go to a cafe and read the paper provided while the kids have free babycinos and a muffin without having to trail up the street to find a paper shop with your aforementioned children and their rapidly declining attention/patience. it's called 'thinking about your customer' and in general, if the independents were as good at it as the chains, they'd be the chains. I notice it's men who hate neros...