ianc

healey Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > 90mins? What route are you taking? I can get to > soho in an hour. I avoid bothering with overground > trains. > > Out: 40 > Piccadilly line at E&C > Back: Northern line Tottenham CR to Oval > 185 > > The west end is a pain to get to, but it shouldn't > take that long consistently. > At 8am, the 40 takes at least 45 mins to E&C. If you can board a Northern Line train from there, you're lucky (now working near St. Paul's). Bakerloo is admittedly better. Buses seem to grind to a halt several stops before E&C at that time too. If you go earlier / later, I'm sure you can do it. Trains are sometimes an option, but too often are heavily-delayed and getting back on a bus at Denmark Hill is difficult. Granted, you can probably still find routes that are faster than mine, but I no longer want to fight to find them.

After 22 years in ED, I am now officially fleeing to Vauxhall. I currently rent a 1-bed, so a smaller more modern place there is do-able with a reasonable increase in rent. When I arrived in ED in 1995, I used to be able to get from Therapia Road (far end of ED) to my job in Oxford Circus, in under an hour. Perhaps a handful of days a year it took longer. Nowadays, from where I live near Lordship Lane, it's 90mins in the morning, and almost that coming home. I don't want to cram into & out of Denmark Hill during rush hour, fail to get on trains that are rammed, see trains delayed or cancelled. Or, face the alternative of a 45-60min bus journey. I love the area, but I can't spend 2-3 hours per weekday commuting. I realise single folks like me have the option to move further in, whereas if you had a family then rents in Central London are even more ridiculous. It's a trade off, living somewhere more cramped and less enjoyable for the sake of an easier commute. Will see how it goes. Who knows, I may be back next year!

Renata Hamvas Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hi Ian, I have emailed you. I have raised an > enquiry with waste services and hopefully this > will be resolved quickly. > Renata Thanks Renata. Many thanks for escalating. I can confirm both Blue and Green bins were emptied today. They seem to be able to act on these "missed bin" notifications when forced to, just sadly not always when they are raised (even twice).

Maybe I've always lived on streets where there's very little "spare" capacity to pick up the missed collections when they happen. Sounds like it's happening for some folks though, but not for others. One thing's certain: Now the collections are fortnightly, leaving the missed ones until next time isn't an option.

In 20 years in Southwark, I've never known a "missed bin collection" that I raised actually get actioned in the 3-4 days promised. Has anyone else? It usually just waits til the next normal collection, which is now a fortnight. Our Blue bin was missed on 31st Jan. I reported it online that evening and was promised 3-4 days. A week later, I raised it online again, stating it was the 2nd report and that the bin was now completely full (with a pic to prove it was all normal household recycling). Again, I was promised 3-4 days. Today, I was told the request was closed / completed... and yet I've got a FULL Blue bin out front containing 1 month of uncollected recycling. What's worse, because of the full Blue bin, the downstairs neighbours (who I share the bins with) have filled the Green bin with what I can only assume to be overflow recycling. I've got a week until that's emptied. What's the point in Southwark pretending to care about "missed bins" and promising to collect in 3-4 days? In 20 years, this has NEVER happened. I've copied James Barber and Renata Hamvas in on the latest email back to Southwark, so I'm praying they can help. In the meantime, I'm not sure what to do with rubbish / recycling. Maybe I should sling it into the street so Southwark wake up. Does anyone else have any luck with reporting "missed bins"? Apologies for the boring topic, but I can't think of anywhere else to ask.

By the sound of it you all (the flat owners) collectively own the Freehold? If so, you will likely each have signed a Deed of Covenant promising not to let the building fall into disrepair. It is worth pointing out to the other flat owners that you are all collectively responsible for making sure this repair happens, and that this may involve electing another management company (or taking over the management yourselves). Pointing out the obligation to repair the roof may help to pressure the other flat owners into changing the management company. If you aren't the freeholders, you can probably apply the same pressure to whoever is, and state that it's their problem to employ a management company to keep the building repaired. As a previous joint Freeholder, I found asserting these obligations occasionally really helped to focus attention and to get folks to reach agreement and to get repairs arranged. This is particularly useful if you are up in the roof and have a leak, as other owners are likely personally unaffected by it. Remind them that they are affected by it, due to the obligations of being a freeholder.

It might be time to see if the pizza place is adhering to the necessary standards when it comes to disposal (and containment) of its rubbish. If not, that could be a large source of food for rats.

NewWave Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Either way it is somebody's home, > And surely the main concern should not be about > 'prime retail space' or 'eyesores' but the safety > and wellbeing of the person who lives above a fire > damaged and rundown property Spot-on! :-)

Yes, I guess caring about them is good :-) But the OP's first post seemed more interested in it because it is considered prime retail space (nobody's business but the owner's), and an eyesore (an opinion), specifically not because it is a danger or a hazard to anyone.

"Does anyone know the story behind this prime piece of retail space?" Err, yes... it's clearly owned by someone else, not you. So feel free to look elsewhere. Simple enough. I love East Dulwich, but it depresses me that some residents feel that every corner of this wonderful neighbourhood should adhere to their own personal standards. If it isn't directly affecting you or your health, the ability to walk on by is a great skill to learn.

I think you're right, Dulwichdarling. It's a thread railing against the reality of something that already happened, and is driven by the commercial venues many of us would like to find a seat to drink our coffee in, but sometimes can't. I expect it's natural to dislike some of these changes. How much that does to change them in our favour... well, that's more a philosophical question, than a useful debate on here. As I've often said about certain topics on here, asking people in-person to move / vacate / free up a seat probably does more than any debate on here. There won't somehow be a consensus that laptop squatters are bad, and a sudden move by them to change their behaviour after someone shows them this thread ;-)

I suspect it's a wider issue than wifi and laptops. At some of the larger Pret & Starbucks in town, there are often large groups of students or (what seem to be) network marketers. Barely a purchased drink or product between them, and none of them on laptops. They just use these venues as places to socialise, or to hold meetings and presentations. Pret kind of encourages this by having cavernous venues (like the one off Hanover Square) with great sofas, and some alcoves that are perfect for groups. Amusingly, their wifi doesn't reach the far extremes of these venues, as I've told them several times. So maybe it's more of an issue that we're being encouraged to use these venues for more than drinking coffee or consuming food purchased there. They are becoming the non-alcoholic equivalent of pubs.

Yes, easy to change MAC address (I'm a tech geek)... but I'm sure they could make free wifi hogging harder if they wanted, so I suspect they know it makes them money in the long run. Not so pleasant if you're trying to find a seat, but there's usually a spare one, if you're willing to ask.

If you've never been a sole business owner, let me tell you that working from home loses its gloss after around 3 months. Believe me, you'll look on Caf? Nero (or any of the chains of coffee places) as way more conducive to work than staring at the same 4 white walls at home for yet another day.

If they really wanted to, coffee shops could impose a time limit on wifi usage per device. All devices have a unique MAC address, and you could set a 1 hour (or less) limit, with a 24-hour return time. It would be sad to see this happen, but it's hardly as if they're powerless to prevent wifi squatters; perhaps yet more proof that squatters are economically viable for them.