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.

Interviews are often conducted in coffee shops because the companies we (the interviewers) work for no-longer have enough meeting rooms for us to be able to reliably book one for the interview. A meeting with an external client will often trump an interview, so we get ejected. This is widespread, as far as I can tell. The alternative would be to postpone the interview, which is hardly good for either side of the arrangement. As far as laptop users in coffee shops go though... I feel this is another of the issues people think can be resolved by reporting it on here, instead of just speaking to the people involved. Our agreement on here about what *should* happen will never be reflected entirely in the wider world. Just talk to people, ask them to move their bags, etc. Really, you'll be amazed how helpful (and probably embarrassed) many folks will be. And if the guilty party are involved in an interview, feel sorry for the candidate. They're the one getting the rough end of the deal :-)

I think I moved into Therapia a little late to remember L'Auberge (1995... it had gone by then?). I do remember the 24-hour bakery a few doors down though!

I love it that half of The Gardens' catchment area is Peckham Rye Common! I've been with them for years, but I'm just outside the catchment area, on Landcroft Road. I assume this is a recent shrinkage. But even so, prior to that, I was further outside of it, at the far end of Forest Hill Road. Neither time have they prevented me from being registered there. I guess it depends on how many registered patients they have at the time.

I had the same problem when I moved into this (rented) flat in 2011. I've tackled it in a few ways. Firstly, I got brutal and use the Rentokil "Insectrol" Moth Spray, around the flat and a little into the open spaces in wardrobes. Usually on my way out, so I don't need to breathe it. Then I got the pheromone strips to hang in the back of each wardrobe. These are really effective if changed every 3 months, and there are usually a fair number of (male) moths on them each time I look. Finally, the above will tackle them if you're strict, but I also squash with a tissue any moth I spot. Immediately... because all it takes is two to breed and you've got another cycle of larvae to deal with. I'm (almost) moth-free with the above, though it took the first year to knock them down.

I'd echo what others have said, and all of the suggestions above are great, but... will they work at peak hours if you're trying to turn up for a regular 9am start? Boarding trains at Denmark Hill, Peckham Rye (or anywhere, for that matter), in the 7:30-9:00am slots can be impossible. So use the above for the interview... but experiment a bit with what actually works if you take the job and want to be there by 9am.

Helenalexandra1, I'm considering the same as my tenancy comes up in June. I'm lucky enough to work quite a lot from home, but the times I've had to make regular 9am starts in town have made me realise how much it's all deteriorated over the last few years. I think the powers that be should be ashamed that they encourage the concentration of so many employment opportunities and industries in central London, then don't provide a passable transport service for folks in the surrounding areas. When I started work in 1994 (also living in Dulwich), it used to take me *maximum* of 1 hour to get to Oxford Circus for work, and there were lots of alternative routes that were all do-able.

Avoiding specifics for a moment, and choosing this as one of the many travel threads we seem to have... The combined state of choc-full Thameslink, Overground and services to London Bridge from East Dulwich and the surrounding area makes it somewhat impossible to hold down a job in Central London that starts at 9am these days, without devoting 90+ mins to guarantee getting there on-time each day. And that's ignoring the bus options, which are only options if you can get on within the first few stops of a route and don't mind playing "This bus terminates here" roulette, which throws you off in Camberwell, with subsequent buses unboardable. Seriously, this must be having an impact way beyond pure travel problems. If a large population can't reliably get into Central London to work. Interested to hear if our MP(s) or Councillors have raised this more general problem (rather than just the travel specifics on each route).

Given the technology, they really should show a message on the bus checker display, and update the info the phone apps use. It wouldn't exactly be hard for them to do, given the schedule comes from the bus company themselves anyway. That said, I often walk past bus stops where there is clearly a "not in use" sign displayed, and have to tell people. We all often catch buses in a daze, as it's such a familiar activity - lol

If you want to be really scared, ride on any of our London buses, and sit on the top deck at the front. When faced with an amber light, I reckon around 50% of drivers go through when it's long gone red... they often accelerate into it. There *must* be evidence of this onboard, with all the cameras filming. Bus companies obviously not interested in enforcing that, so the likelihood of enforcing it for individual drivers may be even less, sadly.

Are we of the opinion that this replanting isn't being done anyway? I reported a dangerous stump in Rodwell Road last year, and it was removed. The tree pit now has a young (fenced off) tree in it, after a few months of being empty. Just wondering if this cataloging is going to achieve something that's already in-hand?