Siduhe

.

We live in the very south-most bit of SE22 and I have to say I'm not aware of any of my immediate neighbours driving to the station - we tend to walk or catch the bus. Generally our area doesn't have a problem with parking although I think there's a lot more cars than there used to be 5 years ago - especially where a couple of small (10 flat) developments have gone in recently - definitely a lot more cars parking on street around those. The problem with small developments without parking provision (which is what we tend to have round here) is that they can put a lot more pressure on street parking in particular areas. When the last CPZ review was done back in 2012, I'm pretty sure that I remember the survey on parking identified that a number of the people who were classed as "commuters" weren't hopping on the train at ED but were working nearby in local businesses in and around Lordship Lane. I may be totally misremembering this, but it would make sense given the number of businesses in and around the area. As others have said, I'm not at all sure that putting a CPZ in place would make it easier for people to park outside their home and certainly for me it would be a hassle as there's no need for it in our area, but I also agree it's likely to come back on the agenda when Southwark push through their yellow line policy as they seem determined to do.

Or astroturf???

In my industry it's standard to give a "bare facts" reference along the lines of "Dear Sirs, it is our policy to provide only the following information in response to a request for a reference: I confirm that X was employed as [position] from [start] to [finish] date and resigned from [name of company] to pursue other opportunities." So you give a reference but make clear that this is the only information you ever provide (no risk of anyone reading something into it that's not there) and that he/she hasn't lied about their job experience and weren't sacked.

I thought much the same thing this weekend when I had a bit of a near miss at the junction of Friern Road/Lordship Lane (see below for link) - walking along Lordship Lane. The 12 buses are now regularly parking right up to the corner of junction (on double yellows) and it's impossible to see round them. I started walking across and then had to jump back sharpish when a no 12 came round the corner at speed to go down Friern Road. It is a bit frustrating that Southwark is so keen to impose double yellows on junctions across the borough for safety reasons, but doesn't seem to be doing as much to enforce those that already exist.

My oven was a standard fitted double oven - not a slide in electric cooker - so I guess not a like for like comparison. I used the friends/family 10% discount by booking the appointment with a close neighbour and paid less than ?70. There's a decent description of what they do on the website - including the door/glass stuff which I couldn't have done myself. http://www.hithergreenovenclean.co.uk/our-services.php

I've had my oven professionally cleaned once (in eight years) - for Christmas just gone. The end result was a world away from what I feel I could do myself, even with a bit of elbow grease. They (Hither Green) took off the door, cleaned out all the bits I can't get to because of the door, cleaned around and behind the element and basically got my oven back to "as new" condition. I wouldn't do it regularly but as a one-off I was pretty impressed. I keep my oven clean week to week but obviously lack the skills/effort of others on here.

+1 for Hither Green.

POTD

I wonder if there has been a bit of a change of practice at Veolia recently as I've also been having (different) problems for the last few weeks. I always pull our bin to the edge of our property on the day the bin is due to be emptied, but our blue recycling bin collection has been missed twice now apparently because "the bin men have to pull your bin out onto the street, it isn't left on street for them" so they apparently won't collect it any more. Everything on the Southwark website only talks about the bin having to be on the edge of your property, nothing about it having to be in the street, so this seems to be a new requirement. Feels like a great way to signal to a burglar that I'm not at home. Oddly enough, no problem getting the green bin collected from and returned to the edge of our property. I am at the stage where I'm just going to stop using the recycling bin, which is a shame as we do try to recycle a lot.

It doesn't look like the survey is available yet to respond on line but you can download the survey to fill in from the link below. http://www.southwark.gov.uk/downloads/download/4490/east_dulwich_feedback

We are addicted to Masterchef Australia - proper, proper cooking and very intense format over a number of months. Makes the UK version look a bit pale and uninteresting.

Are you Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith?

Whether by accident or design, I can think of parts of ED where this is going to really have an impact on parking. I guess we'll see which of the two it is when the inevitable new request for a CPZ in ED goes up and if the Council then forms the view that there's sufficient pressure on parking now to justify it. Given some of what came out during the last round of CPZ consultation in ED (which wasn't under Labour as I recall - happy to be corrected on that) I'm pretty cynical about the reasons for this approach.

The Southwark website is pretty clear that bays cannot be reserved for the use of any one badge holder (see below) but I also agree that where one is put on a side street outside someone's house it's normally for a reason. No excuse for a threatening letter though - if you're mother is a blue badge user, she has important needs too. Some London councils do require people only to park in allocated bays, but not in Southwark. http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/200072/parking/1374/disabled_parking

Great minds - hadn't see your original post. Thanks for the reminder. http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,1649796

Just a heads up that there will be road resurfacing work from the Grove Tavern up to Honor Oak Road for six weeks from 14 March. They are only working evenings 9pm to 5am, Sundays to Thursdays, but there will be temporary lights and given how bad traffic can get heading that way, it may be worth avoiding. Also they will be closing off various side road access including Underhill Road "as and when required".

I would echo the comments about trying to engage in a friendly and constructive way with your neighbours - you're going to be living next door to them after all this, and if things are bad from the day they move in because of what both sides have said about the building works then it can make for a tough living environment. We recently had to have some structural work done - not an extension but noisy, dusty and generally inconvenient - we moved out of our house for almost 16 weeks, leaving our next door neighbours who had the brunt of dealing with it. It was fair to say they were also not thrilled we had to do it, but we went round to talk to them in person, we showed them plans, we fixed the date of the works to start at the least inconvenient time for them, and our builders were brilliant too - offering to wash their windows and generally keep things clean and tidy for them which helped a lot. The result is that we still share house keys and they still take parcels in for us! So if you can talk to them about how and when they do the works to minimise the inconvenience to you, it may pay off in the long term.

@tomskip - BT Infinity. Not the cheapest by some way, but good fast speeds (at least where we are - Grove Tavern end of LL) and I think we've only had one significant outage in the last 3 years which was fixed in <12 hours and affected a fair proportion of the country. You get extras which I find quite useful like access to wifi hotspots too.

It would definitely be worth speaking to your neighbours - I know ours applied to have a drop kerb put in over a year ago and they are still waiting for the application to be heard because of the issues around whether drop kerbs in Southwark need to have yellow lines either side of them and if so for how long (length), which has apparently led to a huge backlog in applications. They have given up waiting and do drive across the kerb but I have some sympathy for that given the length of time. We're lucky not to have too much parking pressure on our street and so people generally do leave the space free for them to get in and out.

Faulty lights according to Twitter. https://twitter.com/TfLBusAlerts/status/694416631129362432

@Otta, yup - that's my view too. But I guess if someone thinks that any loss is a bad thing, it doesn't matter whether there's enough or too much from their point of view.

I think that's a fair way of putting it - the two sides may not agree which should take priority but, even though I'm firmly in the creating burial space camp for all the reasons Sue mentions and others, I totally get why others think that green space and wildlife is more important. It's a shame this point, which is really worthy of debate, is getting lost in the barrage of hyperbole. Edited - spelling.

They were doing roadworks there last night which was causing the same problem. May be continuing?

To get a legally binding prohibitory injunction in England and Wales you need to do the following: Complete an application notice (Form N244). Prepare a witness statement in support. Draft the order. File copies of application notice, evidence and draft order at court, and pay the current court fee. Serve the application notice, evidence and draft order on the respondent, at least three clear days before the hearing if possible. Go to Court, argue your case and win in front of the judge. Handing over a bit of paper in a meeting asking the Church to intervene isn't 'filing an injunction'. I'm also not aware that the Church of England has the power to issue a legally binding injunction to stop what Southwark are doing - they would need to go to Court like everyone else and ask a judge to issue an order.