Cyclemonkey

I'm not going to clog up this thread argueing with you are you are clearly an obsessed with parking to the extreme. People may want parkign near Lordship lane and Peckham Rye but that is not the same as need. Peckham Rye is a local park not a tourist attraction therefore it is not unreasonable to assume that the majoirty of the users are very local and therefore can walk or use public transport - the same goes for Lordship lane. Try walking once in a while - you'll be fitter, healthier and much calmer! :)

Umm yes soem people do - we walked/got the bus with my Stepson most places when he was small as we didn't and still don't have a car - we now have a fit, active and independent teenager. I understand it is not always possible but using small children as an excuse for travelly very samll distances by car is pretty much rubbish i think. However my main point was unlike attractions such as the beach Peckham Rye park is a very localised attraction so i stand by my point that the majoirty of people who visit it will be in walking or public transport distance. I'm nt a driver so why should i have to lose some of my local amenity to placate people who can't be bothered to walk to the park - there should be appropriate facilities for a limited amount of parking, prioritising the disabled - that is it. - it is a park not a car park

And whilst i appreciate it is not always an option you could get some of your leisure/exercise by walking to the park - i'd guess Peckham Rye park is a facility mainly used by locals who live within a couple of miles or less.

Regulations are there for a reason - Parking on the pavement is dangerous and causes inconvenience to pedestrians. The better question to ask yourself, before getting all het up about parking, is did you really need to drive to Peckham Rye park in the first place? A large percentage of car journeys in London are of a distance that can easily be walked. This area is also blessed with good public transport - i woudl imagine that your journey to Peckham Rye park was probably less than 2 miles - a distance that could easily be walkd or covered by bus.

Hi James, sorry to bother you again so soon! Whilst i'm happy with the new zebra crossing on East Dulwich rd the accompanying street lights are ridiculously bright. My flat over looks east dulwich rd and my blackout blind has always been adequate. Today they crossing lights were put on and my bedroom is lit up like a Christmas tree! I'm obviously going to have to invest in even more robust window coverings as a consequence. However i'd like to know why Southwark have seen fit to add a load more bright white lights to an already well lit road.

James- Thanks so much for your help. Someone from Southwark Council called me just now and is sorting out my bin issues as i type!

Hi James - i'm not sure if you are actually our councillor (we're right at the Peckham Rye end of East Dulwich Road) however it would be great to have some advice on what to do next. Since April 16th our brown food waste bins have not been emptied and we have received no notes from the bin collectors as to why this is (they have happily collected our green and blue bins) Over the last two weeks we have left the bins out and repeatedly reported it as a missed collection (every day last week!) but still not collection. My last contact was on Friday 22nd when i was told i would now have to wait until Monday before anything could be logged. I asked the people in the call centre if they could check with the people on the ground to see whay it was not being collected but apparently they can't do that. I have also logged a complaint with the corporate complaints team and emailed the waste services division last week but nothing seems to happen. Meanwhile we have bins full of nearly four weeks worth of food waste, which as you can imagine does not smell too good and we have no where to out our new food waste. I am going to try and put the bins out for collection again on our scheduled collection day (Tuesday) and see what happens. However if they are not collected again i'm not sure where else i can turn as the contact centre seem to be very unhelpful and are unable to get to the bottom of the issue. so i woud appreciate some advice on who to contact at Southwark to get this isue fixed (and to get rid of the two bins full of food wste before it gets any warmer!)

This one looks set to run and run. The Observer has a piece about it today. It quite sensibly points out that she can't have a tax break for an expense she doesn't incur, is she going to start moaning about all those businesses that can claim tax back on their expenses? I respect her choice but many cannot afford to have one partner working and i assume the government has decided the country does not want to lose skilled workers from the economy for a fair few years.

To be honest it would be good for the economy as well - she's presumably got a good education paid for or at least subsidised by the state so more producitve use of her skills would be good all round.

she could always go back to work and then she'd get the ?1,200 she's so desperate to get

Lowlander - do you check for CCTV and crime statisits everytime and every place you park your car? what an idiotic thing to say. I'm not expert but surely Sainsburys provide the car park as a facility for their customers and you would think therefore they would have some interest in providing a safe and secure environment for their customers.

Apparently CCTV doesn't cover that area - we were not impressed. Car owners in the car park wouldn't put up with that response. I know that our bike isn't work as much as a car but it is still our main mode of transport and jolly expensive to deal with when key parts get stolen - luckily we are insured! - we will be complaining to Sainsburys about the poor security of their car park.

To add to Sainsburys theft woes be careful when leaving your bike there. My partner locked my bike in the bike racks there yesterday lunchtime for 10 mins while he went in to get a sandwich and in that time someone had detached and made off with the back wheel.

I also find Khans in Peckham good for bulk buying rice, turkish stye pasta and spices. For example i just got 400g of peppercorns for ?2.95

Thanks - the letters could have been sent out sooner though - I'm sure i wasn't the only one to turn up at Peckham Rye bus stop this morning to fing that it had already been closed!

Catalyst - i don't knwo why the Peckham Palais has shut down but it MIGHT (i say might as i genuinely don't know) be because of licensing issues rather than lack of punters - the Licensing Act 2003 gives police fairly strong powers to shut down licensed venues.

No, i think that point was in reply to those concerned that further gentrification of ED would lead to more chains. It was pointed out that Peckham has loads of chains and cannot really be described as gentrified. Me, i like the variety of both. Happy to shop in the independents of ED and Nunhead. I also go to Khans for rice and spices, superdrug for bath stuff and Asda/sainsburys for other stuff (Asda has great Napolina pasta and tomato offers at the mo.

@hugunot nothing too scandalous really! Let's just say some of the later night places in the earlier days sometimes didn't have the appropriate permissions. The council struggled to keep up with the pace of change and there was a period where Shoreditch had a policing and licencing regime more aimed at a residential area rather than a late night destination. Things are very different now of course and quite rightly so.

@pexprincess - i see what you mean! no Peckham is not like Shoreditch and will never be so i think because of the fact it has a very established and thriving business and residential community that will resist it becommigna 24 hour party place like Shoreditch - i think this is a very good thing - i would not like Peckham to become like Shoreditch at all - afterall it is our homes not a theme park for hipsters desperate for the next trendy place to have a night out - i think i am happy with what we have now - maybe with a bit of cleaning up around Rye lane - it is sad to see so many buildings poorly used when people are desperate for affordable homes/affordable commercial premises. Also i won't go into too much detail ona public forum but i worked with Hackney council in a professional capacity a few years back and there are quite a few reasons why Shoreditch developed like it did and so rapidly - not many of them legal!

Well yes - i think a few of the pubs around Bellenden road have a late license at the weekend - The Gowlett, the Victoria, the Montpelier, Bar Story. The old Nunshead in Nunhead (still SE15) is open late at the weekends. The Bussey Building has been going strong for a couple of years now and is reguklarly open until the small hours at weekends. The Peckham Palais is up and running again with late parties often until the small hours. Any more?

Interesting thoughts. I definitely think SE15 is on the up. I've lived in and around Peckham for 10 years or so and it has been slowly changing all that time but it really has begun to accelerate now and the ELL extension will only make it faster. This could bring good and bad things. I woudl be lying if i wasn't fond of the newer pubs and shops in Bellenden Road, i also enjoy Franks in the Summer and nights at the Bussey Building. Plans to clean up Rye lane are excitign as there is agood architecture underneth the years of grime and neglect. However gentrification comes at a price and last summers riots already show how marginalised and excluded many households in Peckham are. I'm on an ok wage but those gleeful articles recently in the Standard about Peckhams rising rents and houseprices strike fear into my heart - after 4 years with no pay rise and my parter looking for work we will not be able to bear it if our landlord decides to take advantage of Peckhams increasing desirability and increases our rent. also remember Peckham is not like Shoreditch in the 1980s and 1990s, although it has suffered it was not almost completely abondoned by communities in the way that Shoreditch was - i remember walking through Shoreditchin the 1990s and there was nothing - no chain stores, no food shops, no banks, no local authoirty services, derelict buildings and abondoned pubs - Peckham has never got that bad. We also have an exisitingg mixed community, families who live very close to Rye lane, thriveing local businesses so i'm not sure that an all night free for all night life will develop in the same way it did in Shoreditch in the 1990s

It is horrible when that happenes. I remember a few years ago when i lived in Camberwell and was mugged walking home with my friend - the police looked at CCTV and reckoned he followed us off the night bus. However on a lighter note a few months ago was was followed all the way along East Dulwich Road by a shifty looking man who kept looking at me and checking where i was going - i let him overtake me only to see he was waiting at the end of Solway Road (my road) bit spooked i carried on the 24 hour shop at the end of East Dulwich Road as i turned round the man had nipped in to Solway road and was relieving himslef against the wall - turns out he was desperate for a pee and was waiting for me to go past so he could relieve himself without me watching.

Absolutely - i train at Kickboxing and Kung Fu for around 4 - 6 hours a week. We do self defence as a separate discipline and are taught very very strongly that the frist defence is to run away and force should only be used in extreme circumstances. Also that knowlign self defence will not always protect you - complacency is not good. however as jumpinjackflash says it is better to kwo soem basci techniques. As an fairly experienced fighter i would never fight someone in a street situation - partly because my Martial Arts discipline forbids that sort of behaviour and as you say i have enough self knowledge and awereness to recognise the difference between a well organised and controlled bout in a Dojo and a street fight - never fight someone in the street but you can learn and use techniques to avoid conflict and release your self if an attacker grabs you.

Jenny - i can't agree with you there. I will, to be fair, assess the situation idividually. If i am on my own very late at night and have had a bit to drink i will often get a cab. But i refuse to accept that i must curtail my life completely - we need to work towards making streets safer not making the victims curtail their lives. You need to be sensible, as i have outlined above, but advising women to not go out after dark alone is not a place i want to arrive at - what if you are single and live alone? What if you are ona low income and cannot often afford a cab? Here is a positive response to this issue http://www.reclaimthenight.org/ Also please remember whilst this incident is shocking and vile and we should all take extra care at this time women are LESS likely to be attacked at night than young men who are the most at risk group at night. Also women are more likely to be raped and attacked by someone they know (eg on a date, by someone they met in a bar, sadly even by a partner or former partner) than by a random stranger in the street.

How horrible for the person concerned - i hope they catch the person that did it soon. It goes without saying but everyone needs to remember to aware of their surroundings when walking home at night - no headphones on, no checking the phone, make sure you look around you as you walk down the road checking for suspicious people (having said that i did this walking hom along East Dulwich Road last week - getting increasingly concerned about a man in front of me who kept slowing down and looking back at me furtively - i went and stoood by the 24 hour Costcutter and chatted to the workers there and waited for him to pass my road as i was a bit worried about what he was doing - turned out he was looking for a quiet place to urinate! Self defence wise i would recommend women in particular do a self defence course - i recomemnd this one (not one i run but one i have done and heartily recommend it) http://www.kbselfdefence.co.uk/kbsd/about.htm Townleygreen - i understand your advice and a lot of people would do it but as a fairly high level kickboxer and someone who does a lot of self defence, kicking in self defence is not recommended unless you are a very well trained Martial Artist for the following reasosns: 1. It can unbalance you and give your attacker the chance to grab your leg and tip you on to the floor 2. Kicking someone in the groin can just anger them and unless you are sure you are fit enough to run away fast you will get yourself into more trouble - it also requires you to get quite close to the assailant allowing them greater opportunity to grab you. 3. Back to the reasonable force issue - kicking can do a lot of damage unless you have been trained how to control your kicks so it could end up in a worse situation. 4. If you are not very flexible or wearing high heels you can just end up injuring yourself badly The first rule of self defence is to run away, if you can't do that learn so techniques to disarm your assailant - eye gouges, finger bends, neck chops etc.. but as i said learn them properly from a qualifed self defence instructor so you can be sure that they are effective and within the law. finalyl, something i did when there were a few muggings on the road i lived on in Camberwell a few years back. Other women - if you get off the bus or train and are walking the same way as another lone woman why not offer to walk together