MissWiggy

I contacted Bradley and asked him to do 2 jobs for us (1) cleaning up a number 2 our cat left for us and (2) general cleaning of a grubby rug. I contacted him on Tuesday afternoon and he came round at 9am on Wednesday morning and did a great job. Thank you Bradley will continue to use you!

Another recommendation for Beth! She has helped us with 2 houses now and is absolutely fab.

Thank you very much Alasdair.

One of our temperamental sash windows is no longer working (we think one of the cords has come off) and we would like to get it fixed. Does anyone know of a local handyman or similar who might be able to do this? Thank you

I'm so sorry you've been put through this but really pleased you've got such a good image of him. We were burgled not long ago, in the middle of the night, whilst we were at home, so I can imagine what you are going through. In my experience they tend to be fairly unsophisticated repeat offenders so I am keeping my fingers crossed that the police manage to identify him. and catch him for you. A conviction (which will be very much assisted by a photo of him in your home) usually results in a custodial sentence. Good Luck and keeping fingers crossed!

We live in Peckham Rye, near Bellenden Road, and are after a cleaner who can come once a week and do between 3.5 and 4 hours on either a Thursday or a Friday. We have had a number of cleaners through agencies in the past 12 months and have really struggled to get someone reliable who comes and does the job properly i.e. stays the full time and actually cleans what we ask them to! We are really keen to find someone who is able to use their initiative and clean what needs doing rather than just the same routine every week and who is also able to actually help tidy the place and help put things away. We're keen to avoid an agency and are happy to pay an appropriate rate to whoever fits the bill, but really need someone reliable who takes pride in their work and does a thorough job. We would be very grateful if anyone has any recommendations, or if you think you can help please get in touch and we can discuss further. If you are a cleaner contacting us then we would like to see references that we can take up. Thank you.

I used to use Addison Lee quite a bit for advance journeys but when I have gone on the app recently to book an advance journeys they always say they are fully booked in my area, even if I am booking 1-2 days in advance. Rye Cars haven?t let us down yet, are cheaper than AL and always arrive early.

My husband often uses Rye Cars for an early start and they are reasonable and very reliable.

Thank you se22cat - yes a horrible experience but at least we know they've got him. Just frustrating to think that if we'd deadlocked the front door it wouldn't have happened hence the shout out - it's so easy to get complacent

wulfhound Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The shopping parade at the southern end of > Bellenden is really rather pleasant with the much > reduced traffic. Would be interested to hear > whether traders find business is up or down > overall during the closure. I asked one of the business owners on Bellenden Rd and he said that business is noticeably down since the road closure. He also said that he wasn't given any notice at all of the road closure.

I thought I would post this as a heads up for all locals. We were burgled in the early hours of this morning. Luckily we both woke up and my husband managed to keep him in a room until the police arrived. It seems he "slipped" the front Yale lock whilst his mate kept a lookout - unfortunately the lookout ran off as soon as he got whiff that their plan wasn't quite going as intended... Anyway, a heads up to everyone to please double lock / bolt / deadlock all windows and doors, even front ones. Stay safe all.

Exactly what Wollis said. just like the good old days with glass milk bottles and they also deliver other fresh goods too.

Thank you to Aria and Danny who came to assess the problem and solved it quickly and reasonably. Second time I?ve used them and they are always very helpful. Thank you!

So we have now switched over to Sky and it has made me realise how bad the Virgin internet was in our old home. I work from home and use a Remote Gateway to access my work - the connection would frequently drop out, which I used to put down to being bog standard connection issues when using that type of gateway. I was wrong - on this network no problems at all. I am so pleased we bit the bullet and changed provider and the Sky man who came round could not have been more helpful - a totally different experience. I have spoken to a friend who lives in North london - she has also had an appalling experience with them - slow speeds for 6 months etc, this is clearly a widespread problem which they aren't being up front about. Oh, and when we complained about their multiple cock ups and lack of connection they offered us ?5 - you can imagine my response to that...

CatrionaHelen - this is what I was thinking of - https://www.btwifi.co.uk We were given a lead time of 3 weeks from Sky - not ideal but to be honest it's just a relief not to be constantly on the phone to VM and repeatedly being given wrong information. Crossed fingers our Sky experience will be different...

When I lived in SE22 (now in SE5) we had VM for 5.5 years. No major outages such as this but there is no way we were getting the super fast download speeds they sold to us. You'll be able to see from my post above the major debacle we've had since moving. From what I can tell VM are having major issues in this area with their service. What makes it all the more frustrating for us as the customer is that they're not up front about what the issue is (they MUST know, and if they don't that's an even more serious problem) and they lie about timeframes as to when the work will be done. In our case they categorically told us on one day the works had been done only to tell us 5 days later they hadn't. In my view the most effective thing you can do is vote with your feet and perhaps take to Twitter etc. as well. Setting up an action group is a good idea but I wonder how much more of your time that would take up, with possibly minimal results. I cancelled our VM contract (yes, they made that virtually impossible too) and have signed up to Sky. Watch this space for how that goes... I'd urge everyone to bite the bullet and cancel their contract. In the meantime you can get a temporary 1 month contract with BT. All far from ideal but perhaps better than sitting on those endless calls...?

Beulah - I was addressing your point (which perhaps I have misunderstood) that keeping CG closed would prompt Southwark to implement traffic calming measures on other roads. First, we have no idea whether that will be a knock on effect, and second, even if they do, in my experience they don't make much difference. We all have to drive along roads that are residential in order to get somewhere - that is never going to be restricted. And who knows whether drivers are local residents or travelling from further afield? The reality is that CG is a wide road, with houses well set back with large trees to assist with traffic noise. The resident are simply trying to seize on the opportunity that it has been closed for a year in attempt to keep that closure permanent. As I said I can understand why from a selfish point of view but am yet to hear a logical reason as to why it should be. I'm not saying that driver's rights should take precedence but we can't keep them off the roads either. Trying to squeeze the same number of drivers on to smaller / fewer / narrower roads simply doesn't make sense. Beulah Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > But that's kind of the point...The non-residents > using your street as a daily short-cut aren't part > of the wider community, unless you take in all the > millions of Londoners. > We're not talking about main roads here, these are > residential roads for people to live in. > Why should drivers' rights take precedence over > your peaceful enjoyment of where you live? > Surely their insistence to drive fast and pollute > your road is just as selfish too.

We've got "traffic calming measures" on our road and, as they are the humps with the gaps in the middle as opposed to a solid hump going across the width of the road, they do nothing to calm the traffic. You can see / hear cars whizzing past at all times of day and night. Of course the residents of CG want their road closed - if I had the option I'd (selfishly!) love my road to be closed to traffic, even if it did mean longer journeys on occasions. However CG has always been a main route and to take advantage of the fact it has been closed for works for a long time does not serve the wider community. Beulah Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > My point is not that the current situation is > great: It's not. > I'm hoping that by keeping CG closed it will lead > to other traffic calming measures in the > surrounding area that will create a less-polluted, > quieter and safer environment for more residents. > Surely that's got to be better than encouraging > more traffic to use our residential roads? > You may be happy with vehicles using our streets > as a rat-run, I'm not.

I'd recommend Glamorous Nails on Grove Vale just down from Blackbird Bakery.

I'm beginning to wonder whether there is a serious problem with Virgin being able to provide the service they offer. I was told last Tuesday that someone from the construction team would be in touch within 5 days to give me a timescale for the works being done and thereafter installation. I haven't heard a thing. I rang them today to cancel and they still couldn't give me a timescale. They were only able to say that it was likely it would be 6-8 weeks, depending on permission needed from the Council. My sister is on BT for internet and Sky for tv - she has never had the volume of problems that I have had so I am switching. What was appalling is that when I tried to cancel my contract it took them 15 minutes to actually "agree" that I could do so - they kept insisting that I didn't cancel and just left things on hold and told me to get a "temporary" service from another provider in the interim. Like I said, I would avoid like the plague...

Mark, I totally agree with you. It wasn't the difference in opinion I was picking up on. Of course we're all entitled to say whether or not we like something, that doesn't equal negativity. It was more the focus on VAT, mention of "vandalism" and "poisoning of the children". My feeling was that some of the comments were quite snide. This site was for sale on the open market for a while. This couple chose to buy it and preserve some of the original as far as it was feasible - the metal roof at the front, the ceiling joists in the kitchen / living room and the American barn roof upstairs (sorry can't remember the proper name). I suppose that is maybe why they have 2 bedrooms and not more. Alternatively, as others have mentioned, it could have been purchased by MYN or similar and it would have been demolished and replaced by a block of flats which would have meant nothing at all was left of the industrial architectural heritage. Mark Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > MissWiggy Wrote: > > > > Such negativity on the forum but I don't know > why > > that surprises me any more! > > A couple of people saying they don't like > it/having a different opinion to yours doesn't > mean the whole forum's negative about it. It's > like saying you found a bruised apple in your bag > and so the veg shop's got to pot.

There are lots of reasons they might be VAT registered. For example I am as I am self employed. Also the kitchen is more than a cooker and 2 cupboards - there was a whole of cupboards that could be seen. I think it's great they bought it and preserved some of the original architecture. It was on the market for a while and would have been knocked down and developed into flats if they hadn't come along. Such negativity on the forum but I don't know why that surprises me any more!

Good to know thank you Droler. Droler Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > They are aware of this and will be postponing the > start date of permits purchased to start on > October 2nd

Another question - so we bought our permit which starts from 2 October - the day the CPZ was to be implemented. But it hasn't been, there are no signs restricting parking and so at the moment we are paying for something we don't need. Surely Southwark should be giving discounts or extending the duration the permits it has granted tomake up for this?

Yes I believe you have to be a resident in order to buy a residents permit. Otherwise lots of commuters would be able to buy it and that wouldn't solve the problem of them driving in to park and then continuing their commute on foot / bus / etc. I don't think the number of residents permits are restricted as long as you provide the proof of address etc.