Emily

I actually take the kids to Jacks most often, which is very nice. But for a free paper and a comfy chair you can't beat Neros. I really object to spending money trying to force it out. It's not like it's a front organisation for international terrorism. It is bizarre that this gets people here get more upset than getting about a needle exchange in a totally residential area right next to a children's nursery. I know which I think benefits the local community more. And one costs us money, and the other doesn't. Hmm....

Oh yeah, a nice cafe serving coffee and sandwiches, hugely popular with local people, is EXACTLY the same a needle exchange next to a nursery! It's a bloody cafe. People love it. I am seriously pissed off if the local council is wasting my money on trying to get rid of a popular local amenity. It's pathetic inverted snobbery.

Chener books looks horrible, and is a depressing place to shop. Who'd want to browse there? The Village bookshop is fab, full of interesting books, in an inviting cheerful environment. The way the books are displayed is actually helpful and inspiring, guiding you towards books you might otherwise not have considered or even heard of, instead of resembling a particularly underfunded public library as Chener's does. For children's books Tales on Half Moon Lane is also an amazing example of a perfect local, independent bookshop, and is thriving, with its welcoming atmosphere, displays that make you want to buy the books and extremely helpful staff.

Since when have the interests of the council and the residents been identical. The council sends the bin men out at 6am on Saturday morning round my way. I like Cafe Nero, and so do East Dulwich residents. Do you know how I can tell? Because the place is always packed. People vote with their feet. It is obvious that in trying to close down a popular local cafe, the council is NOT working in the interests of local people, who like comfy chairs, wireless broadband, coffee and paninis. This isn't 1950.

I wish Dulwich books or someone would open a nice bookshop on Lordship Lane. I can't believe Chener Books - it's such a state.

If Nero didn't offer something that no other local cafe could match - ie comfy seats, papers, space for buggies and small children and even to have a business meeting - then it wouldn't be so popular. Seems to me Southwark is actively working against the interests of the people in East Dulwich who pay for the sodding councillors in the first place. I like le petit chou, it does a fine toasted sandwich, but it is totally unsuitable for people with kids and buggies, the lighting is brutal and the seats are so uncomfortable!

Hilarious that people think the answer to the dog being outside is that the owner also stays outside...which would make the dog drier and warmer in what way, exactly? Dogs aren't people. They jump into freezing lakes in January. They roll in shit. It's NORMAL for them to be outside. For heaven's sake, next people will be saying they shouldn't be taken for walks in winter.

I like the park. The refurb is beautiful and the little play area is fine. I stopped going to the one o clock club because the staff were invariably rude and officious. For example, telling me off in a really aggressive way because when retrieving my toddler from the inside part, my older son, who is mildly autistic, followed me in holding a sandwich. You'd have thought it was semtex from the way they carried on lecturing me! The One O Clock club on Telegraph Hill is lovely, with kind, cheerful staff.

hey, guess what, it's perfectly possible to have sons in a local state primary and still think the Academy, as proposed, is a bad thing. The architecture is absolutely hideous. It will be an eyesore. It is utterly ludicrous to suggest that children cannot have a good education in an elegant old building (or even one that retains the facade of an older building). I think Eton, Harrow, Dulwich College et al manage quite nicely. 950 boys is clearly too many for the site. Even the government's own guidelines say this. Cramming boys into the building like battery hens will not a good school make - and has social, emotional and welfare implications. I am immensely sceptical about some carpet salesman being given the right to open his Carpetrite Academies for teaching kids to sell stuff with our money. What on earth does he know about education? He barely even has one! And yes, though the building is not close enough to my street to have any impact at all, I do feel for the poor sods who will, if these plans go through, be plunged into near perpetual shadow by this giant building - let alone the noise, parking problems and lack of privacy they will face. It's not my back yard, but I'm not so lacking in empathy that I can't understand why people might be concerned.