Comus

Is this another example of Parking Enforcement not playing by the rules? At Nunhead Cemetery Open Day today the enforcement guy was handing out tickets left right and centre on Linden Grove while he is clearly parked adjacent to a dropped kerb ? as these photos show. Not quite as dramatic as parked on a double yellow line, but he would have no doubt issued a ticket to any car parked like he was. (The incident is not specifically East Dulwich, but relevant to the thread, I believe.)

Residents of Melbourne Grove will be only too aware of the ongoing works re-laying the pavement. Since shortly into the New Year the works have inched up the street and are currently spread out all the way between Chesterfield Grove and the junction with Lordship Lane. When I say ?works? I mean that work has started but then seemingly halted, but with the parking still suspended on the left hand side, materials littered everywhere and little sign that things will be resumed soon. There has been absolutely no progress this week between Chesterfield Gove and Bassano St. No doubt reasons can be offered, but anyone vaguely familiar with project management is bound to wonder at the seeming randomness of the approach. Bearing in mind that this is Council Tax money being spent (and I know it?s subcontracted work), the ridiculousness of apparent lack of planning is now emphasised when tarmac that was laid at the beginning of the week is currently being dug up by ?Fourways Water? to complete work started before the tarmac was laid! Are the various managers involved not on speaking terms? Does John Barber have a view on the lack of efficiency with these protracted works and how long the residents of the area are likely to have to put up with the disruption? I know it?s not the end of the world to negotiate the building works onto the road while vehicles hurtle past, and I?m sure the pavement will look lovely when it?s finished, but at the current rate we?ll be inviting the workforce in for mince pies and mulled wine. And they have yet to start on the other side of the street?!

Tuscanny for a month in August is going to be as expensive as it gets, but try Googling 'Residence Le Coloniche'. It is near the wonderful spa city Monticatini Terme (nearest airport is Pisa) and is run by a very nice family. Beautiful apartments and villas of various sizes, pool, very child friendly. Umbria and the Marche are good alternatives (Stanstead to Ancona if you have the patience of an angel and fly Ryanair), but as August is the big holiday month in Italy everywhere is going to be busy. (And whatever happens avoid travelling around the 15th which is a national holiday). Scicily is cheap but gets extremly hot in August, so if you are looking at the more comfortable northern areas be resigned to being in competition with not only other British, but Germans, Austrians, Dutch and Belgians - all of whom are in the Eurozone and so not feeling the squeeze quite the way we are! As for a discount - well everything is noegotiable more or less, but in my experience Italian people can loose their usual impressive command of English and revert to a charmingly vague grasp of European harmonisation (or even local dialect) when it comes to money! Still, if you get there you'll love it!

Did anyone get on the 7:31am service from East Croydon to London Bridge this morning? For one reason or another there were two less carriages than normal and subsequently nowhere near enough space to shoehorn everyone in to. I do hope this isnt a sign of things to come. Did anyone die? (No) Did everyone pay? (yes) OK, job done. Let's see if 15-25% reductions can work elsewhere! If any other business reduced its service randomly like this for whatever reason there would be riots on an Athenian scale. Imagine if we went to Sainsbury's and a loaf of bread was 20% shorter one day, or if (horror of horrors) that pint of expensive European beer was served with two inches to go to the top (and an above inflation price rise on the way...). It's just that we are so used to an abominably shabby and expensive service - and we have to get to work somehow - that we somehow put up with the lame excuses and statistical sophistry of the train companies.

The whole point about train services is that a large complex city like London needs a good travel infrastructure: one that is comprehensive and reliable. It is clearly in the interest of a commercially run train company to keep costs down and run the minimum service compatible with its service agreement. As users we would like trains to appear and go where we want them to at a moments notice with the minimum of fuss and delay. The secret seems to be balancing these two incompatible aims. The train companies employ a sophisticated persuasion process in trading off different rail uses needs against each other to demonstrate that line ?a? is to be enhanced at the expense of the demise of line ?b?. This is the ?everyone likes cheddar cheese therefore no-one like camembert so we don?t sell it? mode of thought. The loss of London Bridge to Victoria impacts on relatively few people compared to, say, those commuting from Surry,even though London Bridge/Victoria is obviously an important orbital route which could be part of a much more comprehensive ?outer circle? scheme if anyone had the imagination and motivation to develop it. As far as we are concerned in East Dulwich, if there is not a frequent, reliable, clean and safe service more people will be forced into cars ? especially at night. The off -peak and evening service can therefore be shown to be underused and two trains an hour perfectly adequate. This achieves the aim of running revenue generating train at peak-times and convincing us that, as there is no demand for off-peak and evening services, they can be reduced to a minimum. Ergo, we don?t travel by train at night if there is an alternative. I belive that Transport for London should take primary charge of inner London public transport from at least roughly the South Circular Road inwards. TfL should be a major if not dominant player in awarding franchises at least to the point where rail companies (whose main revenue generation base, let?s not forget, is from starting points far beyond inner London) are aware that this is a political issue and that they will be held to account for their performance. TfL should have real power to enforce agreements and be more directly accountable to voters, Without wanting to degrade the service to daily commuters medium and long-distance who need to travel to London every day to work, there is an absolute necessity to provide proper transport in inner South East London. This is bound up in things like quality of life and regeneration. It?s not good enough to think ?there?s no decent train, so I?ll jump in the car?. It is of limited use to diligently separate cardboard, newspapers and bottles for recycling (good though this is) if we don?t also join up our thinking and keep sight of public transport.

With an increasingly mobile population in E. Dulwich and continued road congestion, any reduction in rail services is a bad move and sends the wrong signals. Six trains an hour should be a minimum to encourage travellers and reassure us that the service is frequent and reliable. The evening service is inadequate too, but I know that's another issue.

..And what exactly is a ?validator?? I thought the whole point of the oyster card idea was to use pre-pay on a London-wide basis and to include South East London in a pre-payment system that the rest of London has benefited from for some time. When I go to cities of comparable size and scope (e.g. New York) I am struck by the integrated and relatively cheap public transport system running 24 hours a day. We pay a fortune in London for what (especially in the South) is basically a knitted together hodgepodge of nineteenth century rival railway company interests; a compromise further weakened by the lack of vision and completing interests. It seems to have defied the wit of modern transport planners to come up with a properly integrated system ? though lack of investment, poorly thought through privatisation and political cowardice are not helpful. I may be making an assumption here, but thought that it was more or less accepted that in a city of London?s size public transport is a key ingredient of not only productivity but also quality of life. The South East ? partly because of the quirkiness of the transport map ? is a poor relation transport-wise. In East Dulwich we are only a few miles from central London but have a rail link that is essentially the northern part of an outer suburban system rather than part of a central network. That was perhaps OK historically, before the roads became functionally unusable at peak times (yes alright, fine on a bike?). Now we need something better. Whoever thought it was a good idea to dig up the tram lines?? There are one of the best urban transit systems available - ask Toronto where the street-cars system is still expanding (OK, the taxi drivers hate waiting behind the street cars, but you can?t please everyone!) What has happened to the Peckham to Central London rapid transit scheme? A victim of the Olympic hubris??

Hello Luisa, Welcome to E Dulwich. There's actually quite a cluster of classical musicians in the area (watch how many people carry instrument cases on the bus and train) drawn by the relatively cheap accommodation and closeness to the South Bank and other venues. As already mentioned the Dulwich Music Shop (on Northcross Rd, not Upland) is a clearing house for local Classical teachers. They sell and set up string and other instruments, do orders for the local schools etc and keep a pretty comprehensive list of local teachers. There is also Rupert and his music shop in Grove Vale, and though I have always found it a bit chaotic in there, there is always someone buying a recorder or ordering something. I think his thing is vocal music, but he?ll have a good overview. You don?t say what you play (and teach) but if the area can sustain two more or less classical music shops then that suggests that there is pretty good demand for at least school age learning. JAGS, Dulwich College and Alleyns all have busy music departments and advertise vacancies in Classical Music Magazine. I also know that there are always adults keen to learn. As for venues, Bob Bridges, the conductor of Southwark Concert Band knows everything there is to know about places around here and is a charming and kind man. If you are a wind or jazz player he will especailly thrilled to hear from you. www.southwarkconcertband.org.uk Hook up with some of the very nice people in SCB and ? even though you might finds that you want to stretch your wings beyond that ? they will be supportive and friendly. Good Luck PS Not sure how to give you my private email to give you more information. Maybe if I click on 'send replies to me via email' I can respond - or the Aministator can advise on how people can get in touch directly if they want.

'Gippos' is well established as a derogatory term for Gypsies (itself a highly inaccurate word, probably a corruption and misunderstanding of 'Egyptians' by earlier misinformed residents of this country). However, it is as offensive as ?Micks? is of the Irish or ?Jocks? of the Scots ? to name only two of the milder racial epithets. I accept that you did not deliberately wish to cause offence, but it is ? to say the least ? careless to use such terms.

You cannot use terms like 'pikeys' and 'gippos' without being pulled up for it. It is clearly offensive and racist. However irritated one might be by alleged early morning pilfering, if anyone has any hard evidence then getting touch with the police would be a better way of dealing with it than casting casual slurs and encouraging racial sterotyping on a public forum.

Just for the sake of those of us who have been victims of card fraud recently, what exactly is it that we should look out for on cash machines? Cameras, odd bits of hardware, dodgy types hanging around...? Do the banks check their machines regularly and is this something that is more likely to happen when the bank is closed or at weekends? Advice from someone with a bit of security knowledge would be very helpful...

I have had the same problem! i was phoned by Barclays at 8.30 am yesterday to ask if I had made a cash withdrawal of ?99 in Montreal Canada at 3am. Also a declined withdrawal of ?300 in Vancouver a couple of hours later. I do get about a bit, but I was happily in ED. I had used the Texaco a couple of times in the last few weeks, so suggest anyone who has filled up there and paid by debit card take a close look at their statement. The Bank was quite helpful and told me the routine to reclaim the money - nor did they seem particularly surprised, though they were not specific about the retailer. Dosser is quite right, by the way; Barclays are always suspicious about overseas debit card transactions and now require you to let them know in advance. A pain, but it's easy to see why...