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They are owned by a small HA that was set up to manage self build cooperatives. The HA carries out rent collection and organises major cyclical maintainence but the co-op retains allocation, development and some members carry out their own maintenance and repairs. As well as limited rents the original builders are entitled to 'sweat equity' an index linked payment that is paid if and when a member relinquishes the tenancy. To date only one family has moved on and they weren't original builders. The council has nothing to do with our homes.

Its a bit harsh to suggest that people got these properties for nothing. I was a member of a shortlife co-op and we were given houses by local authorities that were not viable as stock because of their deplorable condition. The co-ops negotiated with the Housing Corporation to secure small grants that were used to make the houses wind and waterproof and the installation of plumbing and electrics.Once the grants were used up, co-op members used their own funds to improve the properties. After 6 or 7 years the councils began asking for properties back, the case of the lady who managed to hang on to her property for 33 years is very unusual. The co-op that I was in finally split, half the members remained as a co-op but managed by a housing association and some of us formed a self build co-op and built our own homes. We have lived very happily in our homes for the last 17 years. We don't own them, none of us felt the need to be homeowners and because we built them our rents are low (people pay more for a room in a shared flat where we live) and our tenancies are protected. It is not absolutely necessary to own property to have secure and fruitful futures. Our children have the same opportunities as anyone elses and have a very healthy attitude towards the concepts of cooperability, compromise and collective responsibility. Some people gasp when we say that we don't own our home as if we have done something irresponsible in not becoming homeowners. My partner and I have fairly modest incomes but we have been able to choose a less money driven pathway in our lives.

Its a bit harsh to suggest that people got these properties for nothing. I was a member of a shortlife co-op and we were given houses by local authorities that were not viable as stock because of their deplorable condition. The co-ops negotiated with the Housing Corporation to secure small grants that were used to make the houses wind and waterproof and the installation of plumbing and electrics.Once the grants were used up, co-op members used their own funds to improve the properties. After 6 or 7 years the councils began asking for properties back, the case of the lady who managed to hang on to her property for 33 years is very unusual. The co-op that I was in finally split, half the members remained as a co-op but managed by a housing association and some of us formed a self build co-op and built our own homes. We have lived very happily in our homes for the last 17 years. We don't own them, none of us felt the need to be homeowners and because we built them our rents are low (people pay more for a room in a shared flat where we live) and our tenancies are protected. It is

I agree Louisa. I first moved to Lordship Lane in 1983 and the community was quite a different place then. I'm not saying it was better or worse but it was certainly more varied in terms of people. I have to say on balance, I preferred it as it was. Too many beards and buggies now. That's not to say I don't like beardy men, I am one albeit of the grizzled grey variety and I'v brought up three kids myself. But ED can feel like a bit of a monoculture sometimes.

I noticed that in an earlier post someone asked why the market hadn't expanded. I know a lot of market traders and they say that the pitch fees are prohibitivly expensive. If you have a quick turn over business with a good mark up on your product like The Dogfather then you can make a few quid but if you're having to fork out 50 or 60 quid before you even start it's not such a good deal.

Yes it's better than nothing. It's more of a lunch stop than anything else. Could do with a few more produce stalls though. If you want a proper market, go to Deptford on a Saturday and save yourself some money. Excellent fruit and veg and more variety than you can find on Lordship Lane, superb fish at a fraction of the cost of Moxons and one of the best butchers in the country at Wellbeloveds who have been open since 1829. And you can get yourself a decent coffee to sip while wandering and a fantastic food market which is much much better than N'cross on the 1st Saturday of the month.

I have been asked many times in recent weeks to remove and dispose of large/bulky items of furniture. I'm happy to dispose of items like sofas and tables if they are still useable. The council will take bulky items if you ring them and arrange a time for collection. .http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/200084/recycling_and_waste/1667/bulky_waste_collection I will collect useable items and either sell them or take them to The Salvation Army Charity Furniture Depot. PM me for further details.

That's the end of him then.

Is it just me or are the workers at East Dulwich Deli as rude and ignorant as I think they are? And are the prices daft?

It's a double edged sword for businesses. If you continually get glowing reports that's great for business but one lousy comment can cause all sorts of problems for a small business. I won't take on work if I feel that the client will be difficult, it's not worth it as some people are just plain spiteful or mad or both. There are some clients that you just can't please, so avoid them.

But in both cases, Roke and the school mentioned by the anonymous letter writer, they were schools who had in all previous inspections been assessed as good or outstanding. And the parents don't want the schools academised, that has to mean something.

Hey, my own experience was similar. But there were one or two teachers were truly inspiring and I can thank one teacher, Mary Askey, a wonderful teacher, for changing the course of my life. And I have to say that my recent experience of schools has been very mixed, my eldest daughter went to Thomas Tallis in Blackheath to do her A levels and the teachers were excellent and without exception, had a very good relationship with her. She did well there. But eduction, like health should be kept in the hands of the state, not carpet sellers.

And just to support the anonymous letter, this artcile appeared in the Guardian (I know, I know) earlier on this year. http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/jan/14/parents-fury-academy-takeover

Well, the person who posted it wanted to remain anonymous because she feared possible recriminations. Names haven't been mentioned, of the school or otherwise. And I have been clear that it's about personal political attitude. I am obviously a socialist with some years to me and my personal experiences of 50+ years have strengthened my socialist conviction. I do have a big problem with wealthy people muscling in on state education. If you want your kids to have strong right wing attitudes send them to public school. I still have 2 children in education and I don't expect their schools to indoctrinate them politically. My son attends an academy school and it's his experience that colours my attitude. The school works for him because he's academic and enjoys learning, he keeps his head down and gets on with it. But he despises the regime with a vengeance. It's very corporate, at the top of the hierarchy is a CEO and my son has only ever seen him at a distance when he's come to the school to address an assembly or hand out prizes. My son also says that despite his academic achievements, his head of year "wouldn't even know my name". There is no evidence that there is a deliberate project to indoctrinate the students with right wing views but it is in the culture of the school. In the bones of it. We recently received a letter from the school telling us that because of his academic excellence our son had been chosen to be included as one of the 'Principles Elite'. Without prompting he said 'sod that' and threw the letter in the bin. I also know quite a number of teachers who work at the school and many of them hate it. Many teachers who have worked at the school for decades have recently left because they have no confidence in what they describe as a cold, impersonal regime. And although the school is right on our doorstep we will not be sending our youngest child there. My partner and I try and offer a variety of views to our children but inevitably they adopt similar attitudes to us, my eldest daughter is currently working with kids in Sierra Leone and has developed very strong socialist principles. Having said that I try to offer a balanced view on things I can't help yelling at the TV every time Cameron, Osbourne, Gove or Ian Duncan Smith hove in to view.

This letter was circulated on the net by Upworthy. "I'm feeling low and a little bit helpless at the really horrible struggle my mum is currently going through. Hopefully she won't mind me posting about this - but I want to put it out there as it's something I really think people should know about. My mum is a primary school teacher in a state school in Yorkshire, and has been for 20 years. She is a wonderful teacher: caring, committed, enthusiastic, her pupils love her, she has produced countless concerts, plays and choirs that have won national competitions, and has never received anything but very good / outstanding reports from Ofsted inspectors. Her school is now, it would appear, in the midst of being systematically forced to become an 'academy school'. Academies have been around for a while - originally the stillborn brainchild of the Blair government, they are now being ruthlessly implemented by the self-important imbecile - sorry, 'moderniser' - Michael Gove; a representative of an even more clueless government obsessed with results tables and change for its own sake. But what is most disturbing about the whole pointless affair is not so much the staggering waste of time and resources, as the shockingly corrupt way it is being implemented. For the first time in the entire history that my mum has worked at her school (which is 10+ years), the school was judged in an Ofsted report as having 'serious weaknesses' (having only ever been judged as good / outstanding prior to this). The headteacher was let go, and an 'executive head' was drafted in by the local authority, a woman who apparently has a reputation for supposedly 'turning around' failing schools (and by this I mean that she clearly deliberately fails them so that she can be seen to have 'turned them around' six months later). The teachers were all subject to impromptu lesson inspections, and almost EVERY SINGLE teacher in the school, individuals my mum described as 'some of the best teachers I have ever known' were failed. My mum was failed for the first time in her career (Although on receiving this news she rather wonderfully told the inspectors "I don't give a monkey's"). The school has now been given six weeks to 'improve', before the government will come in to inspect them again. The teachers are doing 16 hour days in an attempt to do an impossible amount of work so that they don't fail this second inspection. My mum hasn't had an evening or a weekend off for weeks. She worked all through her supposed holiday last week. She is getting chest pains. One teacher collapsed from stress. My mum had been planning to retire at the end of this year - this will be her final year as a teacher - what a way to thank her for 20 years of hard work and dedication to the state school system. She has always been an incredibly strong, cheerful, optimistic person, and whenever I speak to her now she talks of her life being a 'living hell' and 'just making it through the next five months'. I have never in my life heard her talk like this. And all this in spite of the fact that the teachers at her school have been made perfectly aware that when the government come in to 'inspect' the school, they will be doing so with an agenda. That agenda being to turn the school into an academy - as they have done with several other schools in the area. Essentially, all the work the teachers are putting in will most likely be for nothing, because the government have every intention to fail the school so that they can be seen to 'turn it around' and make it into an academy. It seems to me to be the most ridiculous scam - a con on a national scale which must be happening in countless more schools and which is abusing the time and resources of already desperately over-stretched, underpaid and under-appreciated teachers. I feel very frustrated at not being able to make more people aware of what seems to me to be a total outrage. I am going to make this post public - please share, and if anyone I know is interested in the story or has any suggestions about how to increase awareness of this please get in touch. Thanks." Gives some alternative perspective on what is going on. I guess your feelings about this will be coloured by your personal politics. If you think that it's OK to hand over the education of your children to an openly right wing business man, fair enough. But if, like me, you feel that education should remain in the hands of the state (whoever the incumbent government is) and should not in any way be linked to business, I would be terrified.

This may be of interest to you all. Personally I think that the Academies Project is a major building block in the foundation of a new right wing order. But hey, what do I know. http://antiacademies.org.uk/2012/03/harris-federation-spotlight-on-sponsors/ It's worth a read but I guess that it's important to keep in mind that this site is probably run by people with a socialist agenda. Remember socialism?

Where I live its seems to be the Welsh that drive really badly, dunno why.