Nigello

I am a bus fan but the current state of affairs - lengthy journeys and random changing of destinations due to the roadworks at Elephant - is very poor. I would love there to be an express option at least every half hour and I really think some stops ought to be taken out of service. Why are there, for example, three stops between the bottom of Barry Road and the crossroads of Peckham Rye and ED Road. Why are there four stops from Denmark Hill to Dog Kennel Hill? It baffles me. Also, has the amount of services increased in the past five years to take into account increase in population etc? As for the trains, the Overground option is good. If only the 63 went all the way to HOP station..

Will you be living near to the station? If you are up past the police station/school-to-be, you will have to add a ten-to-thirty minute walk (depending on where you are) or factor in a crowded bus journey (that could take at least ten minutes in traffic).

I am with spider69. It's like something out of Quatermass at the moment and really needs to be dragged into daylights, as well as the 21st century.

Flyr, Did you ask the driver to slow down - perhaps at a stop so you weren't distracting him or her? It's perfectly reasonable to do so. I spoke to a driver who had gone through a red light; if I hadn't he may well have continued to do so. Asking a councillor to intervene is useful but so is acting on the spot.

Wood now removed but barriers near to the Friern/Goodrich junction remain.

I reported a "ponding issue" on the pavement on Goodrich Road. It was worked on but the barriers, cones and bits of wood and guttering were left for at least eight days. I rang the 0330 number provided on the sign attached to a remaining barrier on Wednesday and a (polite, efficient-sounding) man said he'd sort it out. A Conway man and van arrived the next day, while I was in. The cones and barriers were taken away but not the five-foot pieces of wood, with nails sticking through. Neither were other barriers slightly further down the road taken away, despite the man saying he would look at them after I'd asked him politely to do so and giving him the right location and despite my having done this already in my initial call. So, I had to ring the 0330 number again and request that the job be finished off. (I do not know whether it has been done yet.) Cllr Barber also requested the stuff be removed, so perhaps that request got there before mine. Either way, it is not a good result for Conway (though the man on the end of the phone line was good both times I rang).

It's amazing but true that BA - when booked on the website - offer really good deals, especially if you take only hand luggage. By the time you add in extras on "budget" airlines and the expense and faff of getting to places like Luton and Stansted (which auto-correct would have as "stagnated"), BA and other traditional airlines are very good value. Their flights tend not to go at unpleasant times, too.

FYI - Conway detritus (cones, bits of discarded wood, barriers) - left opposite Goodrich school have been reported to Conway. Why the firm cannot clean up after itself is beyond me.

The "so" at the start of a sentence allows the speaker to be dominant because its use suggests that s/he has knowledge of what is about to come whilst the interlocutor does not. However, I don't think for a moment that most of the current "so" users do it for that purpose: they're just following fashion in the same way as those who say "gotten" or "here's the thing" are.

I heard from a neighbour that the strip of land behind the railings of the school on Goodrich Road is going to be "greened". The school has put out to tender the contract for doing so and at least one person is submitting a plan. The plants/trees won't be able to be too tall lest they restrict light into the windows, which start about five feet or so from the ground. Anyone know anything else about this? Hope that the trees/plants will complement the crab apples already on that side of the street and will be at least a little wildlife-friendly.

Parkin, toffee apples, treacle toffee, swede lanterns (the first three will do for Bonfire Night as well).

Good news! Perhaps the Clock House could do the same, given that it's named after its clock.

I think the council ought to employ a "grandfather clause" and allow trees in the traditional-size pits to be replaced if they are damaged at any point (and to review the new size rules as well).

It seems that the new size for tree pits is something of a one-off on the part of Southwark, if my conversations with tree personnel at the council are correct. Most other councils do not adopt this policy, I believe. More info on why the new rules are being adopted are needed.

The ex-launderette is going to be something organic, according to the bloke I spoke to in there a few weeks ago (reported above). Can the strip sustain any more coffe shops?

There was a huge tailback all the way from Oval to Camberwell Green and up Denmark Hill yesterday. I really think that those ivolved in making the mess should have worked on Sundays and also suspended the bus-only route this weekend. It was bad to see hundreds of vehicles puthering out smoke and noxious particles, knowing that some of them would have been sent on this route because of the blocking off of Loughborough Junction.

Sounds like a somewhat (stereo)typical reaction from a US upper-middle-class (for that is what being an MD etc makes you in the money-based class system over in the States) dentist. She has a point: nobody is making the bad-toothed person not take care of their teeth but s/he is much more likely to be poorly informed than a middle-class person (by which I mean, in States vernacular, anyone with a mortgage and a job). I have friends brought up in the '70s and '80s who have about one filling each. I think all of them were from areas where water was fluoridated. Education is important and should be given freely and early in the child's life but personal and parental responsibility has to take over.

Why not fit two dead locks and window locks too? Do a search on here for locksmiths and see whether one could come out today. Ring 101 and report it.

Bottom line - SE22/15/5/21/23 etc needs more public transport, ideally a Tube link (unlikely and costly and lengthy even if possible) or at least buses that correspond with usage (so more buses/expresses at peak times, fewer/smaller vehicles at other times). An ED/London Bridge/Charing X route would be great, but unlikely. A Camberwell rail station would be great and surely not that hard to arrange? More flats = more people trying to get to more places....

Camberwell/W Road is already helping to solve the problem of lack of housing: just look at the large developments as you go down from Camberwell Green. However, being part of the solution to that problem means adding to the one of transport because there will be hundreds more people wanting to get to and from their new homes. I really hope Camberwell does get some form of rail transport, being it "BR", Tube or Overground. I'm so longing for a faster option that I'd even settle for a guided bus....

The two large and deep puddles at the junction of CP and ED Roads and Adys and ED roads are caused by blocked drains, it appears. I have asked Cllr Barber to look into it. (Insert groan here.)

It is not necessary at all. The rules are in place, the authority exists - all it takes is the continued and steady application of the current powers. It's this kind of committeeisation that makes my heart sink and puts me off any kind of organised "community" involvement. It oozes treacle-speed progress and a love of process over action. Just ask yourself, "what would your mother have done?" - where "mother" represents any common sensical person who doesn't suffer from any form of cultural/social cringe - and you may well find that she would have either had a word herself and/or contacted the council over transgressors.

Maybe she doesn't like Americanisms! (take vs have). She sounds a right charmer, so good on your for challenging her. Take a pic, threaten to send it to the local purveyor of the best in "know it alls" - EDF! Sometimes you just have to do your best and accept that it's not always good enough and don't let it stop you from doing your best again.

I don't think anyone denies that a cleaner, greener Peckham is a good idea but I do think that most right-minded people are sceptical of "community committees" rather than the use of already established laws, social norms and council wherewithal to get the job done. My Pooterish litter-picking won't solve the problem but it does demonstrate that immediate action can have an immediate effect, even if it is limited in scope and scale. If only one in ten of us reported grot spots, asked shop owners to dispose of rubbish along established guidelines and keep our own immediate environments clean - imagine the effect. This does not negate the need for, nor detract from the good work of, the authorities, which should be contacted when there is a problem with litter, fly tipping or the local environment.

Eileen, I really don't think it needs a committee! Just fine folk who drop litter and tell the owners/workers of shops that litter and fly tip to stop and fine them if they don't. Tell them about the facilities that exist already and then do it a few times again so that the penny drops. Leave literature for the owner and make sure that s/he understands why it's important and what penalties there are for non-compliance. Get the local newspapers to report on it and make a point of thanking those that play by the rules. If you want to get to work immediately, get down to Choumert Road and hang around for about fifteen minutes and you'll see up-close SE15 littering/tipping at its most blatant. (I did my little bit a couple of hours ago by collecting a few cans and putting them in one of the all-too-lacking litter bins nearby.) It really is not difficult and should not require yet another layer of bureaucracy, let alone another post - paid or otherwise.