buddug

Ah-ha! So Southwark Buildings Control did sign it off (that's a great letter to Harriet Harman, by the way). Over to you, Renata...

Renata, I think, as you know, the main point of all this is - who signed off this development? How on earth did you fail to find out from either Wandle or Southwark Buildings Control? You're a councillor for god's sake!

Please big it up to a lovely young couple who found a white dog wondering about on his own. They called on several houses in Oglander Road until an equally lovely man, miraculously, stopped his car telling them where its owner lived. Sure enough, when they took the dog to the property, the door was open, and the dog waltzed in, obviously at home. This lovely couple then went back to check on the guy to make sure he was ok. He was in his 70s. How amazing was that. I do think this is very normal behaviour for people who live in East Dulwich/Peckham borders.

Ha! It said open on their website! I was rather surprised, for Easter Sunday. And I also got caught in a downpour. But I'm glad the staff are having a well-earned day off!

So, Southwark Council's comedy cowboy builders are still active and creating havoc. Recently one morning, a scaffolder turned up at my flat, which unfortunately has Southwark as a freeholder, to my despair. It was only luck that I was in, so was able to turf him off, otherwise I'd have come back from work to find scaffolding put up - for no reason. I was not due for major works, and this was confirmed by the council, despite the scaffolder insisting he had the right address. No doubt I will be charged by these scaffolders for the 'work' in my next bill, as I always am for bogus jobs, which I will fight and win, yet again. And not only that, several of my poor neighbours who were scheduled for major works are now complaining that their windows have been painted shut! They're unable to open them - just as previous posters have mentioned in other areas in East Dulwich. You could not make this up! What kind of painter paints windows shut?! Is Mears recruiting people off the streets? And where are Southwark's managers of works overseeing all this? Southwark Council housing department is not fit for purpose and a major investigation needs to be instigated.

I know this flat is in Brixton, but it's symptomatic of the housing 'boom' in our neck of the woods. Unbelievably, it's on the market with a guide price between ?350 and ?400. See the photo and weep. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-54400079.html

Oh my. How this thread has deviated indeed. The OP had legitimate concerns about a child, full stop. There was no need for the cultural norms/devil's advocate brigade to stick their oar in to derail it. It was a cri de coeur, with the welfare and safety of the little girl at stake. This should have been everyone's concern. But sadly, no. And now it's deteriorated so much that we have this ridiculous nit-picking reply by ED123 to the OP's last comment that the pair were not unusually dressed: "May I ask what you consider to be 'unusually' dressed?", followed by a comment about silly Christmas jumpers. Shame on you. All this is classic trolling, hijacking the thread out of pure mischief. But, don't forget, there's an abused little girl at the heart of all this. Do you know what. If I had a pound for every time normally intelligent and articulate people have told me they're terrified of posting anything on this forum no matter how innocuous due to the ensuing likely torrent of weirdness and criticism that inevitably follows from the usual suspects, I'd be rich. Of course, there has to be room for disagreement and contrary opinions, but in this thread it has finally reached the heights of madness. I think it's time admin reined some of these people in, to be honest. I think hundreds of locals who would love to post their thoughts and observations don't because they are scared to because of this behaviour, which really amounts to nothing more than bullying.

The wonderful La Scala coffee shop in Grove Vale has wonderful decaff - their own blend.

Graham's Hi-Fi in Islington are excellent and installed my B&W speakers and Meridian amps and CD player. http://www.grahams.co.uk/

To the lovely woman who stopped to ask me how I was as I hobbled up Lordship Lane from Goose Green this evening to get some groceries, thank you. Even though I thought I was giving an Oscar-winning performance as a 'normal' person, I obviously gave myself away as someone in pain. I explained to her I'd slipped on a wet leaf two weeks ago coming off the train from work at East Dulwich and went flying on the slope down from the platform - breaking a finger and spraining my ankle and having to have two stitches in my lips. But that I was now on the mend. I have many friends who've got me groceries during this time, but this evening I was trying to be independent. And can I at the same time thank the lovely Emilia, from Melbourne Grove, who helped me up when I actually fell - I should have mentioned it at the time - who talked to me all the time and calmed me down, and to all the other passengers who stopped to help. What a great community we are.

Funny you should say that, Dulwich Fox. I also once saw Concorde parked on the tarmac. I think it was at Gatwick, I really can't remember. But I, too, was struck by how tiny it was! In the air it looked glorious! And I'm proud to say my uncle was one of the engineers working on it before its test flights - he was a professor at Cardiff university ? in conjunction with a few Japanese aeronautics experts who were also part of the project, funnily enough. They used to stay at his home from time to time. Such a shame it crashed and was also deemed uneconomical. But it was a great British success, whatever. I also remember seeing its early flights over Oxfordshire back in 1977. I'll never forget the first time I saw it.

Wow. I'm glad you had such a perfect view of it - you won't forget that in a hurry!

You missed a trick, Lady Norwood! It was so beautiful. In fact, I was lucky enough to be working in Canary Wharf tower when it did its lap of honour on its last day. All of us workers had our noses pressed against the windows with tears rolling down our cheeks!

You've hit the nail on the head, Dulwich Fox by mentioning aircraft! I used to be woken by Concorde flying over as I didn't have double glazing in those days. But now and again I'd get up specially to wait for it in my garden - it was so beautiful to watch. Now, the planes flying over don't wake me at all, though I know it does some. But this noise - I can't begin to describe it. It was 20 times the noise of a plane - the decibel levels were equivalent to a helicopter landing on my roof. Of course the leaves have to be swept, I'm not saying they shouldn't be - but at 6am!! I've never known the council to do this before, so it happens hardly ever anyway. Why not do it later in the morning or in the afternoon if it's such a rare occurrence? And why did they leave it so long so that the leaves had piled up everywhere? And the poor man driving the truck just laughed sheepishly and kept saying: "I know, I know". He too knew it was ridiculous, and that's why he rang his boss. Call me over-sensitive and scream 'first-world problems', but I don't think any of you would have been best pleased either to be woken at 6am and then have to stagger through your workday feeling like a wrung-out dishcloth. Is all. I'm not talking avocados here ;)

I awoke at 6.00am to sound of alien aircraft hovering over house. Turned out to be a leaf-swallowing machine making its slow journey up Oglander and Everthorpe Roads. I went out in my pyjamas to confront the miscreant. Poor chap was so embarrassed and rang his boss, Guy Slater, at Southwark Council. He was then ordered to stop. So I went back to bed and managed to get another hour's sleep. Did anyone else hear this? Do complain. It's nuts.

Today, at Consort Road/Sturdy Road a dog was hit by a car, which then sped off after realising what they'd done. Did anyone witness this? Locals are investigating the area's CCTV which will hopefully catch him. Sadly, the dog died soon after being taken to the Neighbourhood Vets. A terrible thing to have happened, and so cowardly of the driver, who could at least have offered to take the dog to the vet's. Luckily, a local resident did so, which was so kind. My thoughts are with the dog's owner.

Tonight I went again to Eastern Delight Chinese in East Dulwich Road, more or less opposite Tesco Express. Had won ton soup and quarter peking duck. And again, it was delicious, and service fantastic. But, on a Saturday evening, I was the only person there, though many came in for takeaway. What's going on? They deserve better than this as our only Chinese restaurant, surely.

Don't forget. There is the Tier One Tribunal where you can contest these charges. Always fight them. They have nothing but contempt for tenants and leaseholders alike. There is something rotten at the core of Southwark's housing department and it needs to be challenged big-time now. As for Councillor Barber - and I'm not bashing councillors here as I do think they are amazing in that they usually have to hold down a job as well as doing what they do by giving up their spare time, and he does give that time to engage here ? but all he will say is 'Buy the freehold'. But it's often not possible if others in your block or house don't want to or you don't have ?10,000 to spare. He's living in la la land, really, where everyone is monied, I'm afraid. And as for Mike Balfour, the council manager expressing his shock/horror here about what's going on, he's known very well how things are, going right back to the days of the cowboys Botes, who went into administration eventually. And the company before that was dreadful too. Not to mention Morrisons after them. Disaster. I have to say, though, that in most instances Mike did act whenever I contacted him, so he's genuine to some degree. And brave and decent of him to come on the forum, to be honest. He and I have a love/hate relationship, as you might have gathered...

Croissants at La Scala, near East Dulwich station are fab!

Don't worry, kibris is probably a southwark council employee in the electoral roll department.