rendelharris

Well, I can only go on what it said in the article to which I linked: Vacant commercial property is usually a dead loss to landowners. Unless they redevelop it, they continue to pay high business rates while receiving no rent. By installing property guardians ? and basic facilities such as temporary showers and kitchens ? owners can reclassify buildings as domestic, slashing their business rates. Live-In Guardians advertises its ability to reduce business rates for landowners. Its website states: ?In most cases we will be able to substantially reduce your empty rates liability.? The company reduced a landowner?s business rates on an office block in Lambeth from ?694,000 to ?33,000 per year, lowered liabilities on a gym in Covent Garden from ?150,000 to ?2,650 per year, and reduced the rates on nine light-industrial units in Shoreditch from ?110,000 to ?15,000 per year. The number of properties receiving rates reductions under these schemes is unclear, but it is clearly costing local authorities millions of pounds. Global Guardians alone claims to have saved its clients ?1.2m in reduced business rates. There are at least 37 guardian companies operating in the UK.

"Tenant and Landlord benefit" Not always that rosy; not only is there some very dubious practice as regards treatment of live in guardians but landlords use the system to claim the property has changed from commercial to domestic use and so avoid paying business rates, so the council certainly doesn't benefit. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/dec/24/the-high-price-of-cheap-living-how-the-property-guardianship-dream-soured

I wouldn't worry too much about Chief, Otta - I've not been on this forum long but already I've seen him telling people visiting the district that they are to get the bus and not park on "our" roads, telling people who wanted to have a family celebration in a pub that they shouldn't be taking their children to the pub, telling people who wanted to watch rugby world cup matches that they should go and watch in Putney, telling people who use laptops in cafes that "we" don't want them here...he's basically, as you say, a sad rude little person who gets some sort of affirmation from the number of people he manages to annoy.

Well a quick Google of "Forest Hill Eagles football" and "Forest Hill Eagles London" brings up absolutely nothing so one suspects you were right to keep your cash in your pocket!

If you don't have a garden waste bin (the large brown one) try asking a neighbour who has if you can use theirs - this time of year very few people are going to need the full capacity.

The map kindly linked by ED_moots above claims there will be no difference to the London Bridge - East Dulwich service, it's only the service thrugh to Wimbledon which won't be running. It does say the London Bridge trains may be more crowded than usual, but I can't actually see how that's possible...

Thanks a lot for posting this - hadn't heard a thing and according to the map no ED-Wimbledon service, you've saved Mrs.H being very late for school. Much appreciated. Cheers, Rendel

Wrote this before I saw your edit, obviously... kford Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > They're not allowed on double-yellows, as DY lines > are usually put there for safety reasons. It would be fun to tell them to bend their periscope round and snap themselves, but according to t'internet: "Civil Enforcement Officers are exempt from most parking restrictions while carrying out their duties. Parking on double yellow lines is included in this exemption. While officers will always seek alternative parking this is not always practicably possible."

Growlybear Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Why would anyone who wasn't involved personally > take a photograph of a car accident? It seems > very strange. As a damned good warning to others that this is what could happen to them if they carry on treating the South Circular as a racetrack?

"What's to stop the flats being built and the new stadium not being built?" Spot on (like the rest of your post) - the use of an apparently paper-only subsidiary is most worrying, as is any developer promising their "best efforts" to do something - by what yardstick are these "efforts" measured, and what penalty if any would there be in the unlikely event anyone could prove they weren't their "best"?

If your neighbour hasn't complained about you using their land in the past then they have given you "implied licence" so no, you shouldn't be liable to any legal penalties - similarly if they haven't tried to get rent from you. If you build on it without buying though that would certainly constitute "direct and unjustifiable interference with another's land" which is the defintion of trespass so they could certainly stop you. Cheers, Rendel

LocalDeals Wrote: > What do you mean by that? What social strata and > culture do you believe the problem comes from? Hush now, in Richard and his chum (?) Dullywood's world if you make a dubious statement without any evidence in a debate then if people ask you what you mean it's a witch hunt!

If somebody makes a statement on a public forum and leaves a question hanging (for example "Perhaps actually saying what social strata and culture the problem stems from might be a good first step in solving the problem") then asking them to elucidate that statement is not a witch hunt. It's called debate, if you don't want to debate then don't...um...join a debate. Interesting that you joined the forum late last night just to register a defence of Richard - at least he has one friend!

Chief Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Park somewhere else and catch a bus or cab to the > station please. We don't want you, and other > non-residents, clogging up our roads! That shows a lovely spirit - my family are coming for lunch on Saturday, should I tell them they mustn't come by car as they're non-residents? As the OP is on this forum they're probably an ED/Southwark resident and so have paid council tax for the upkeep of the roads like everyone else! I mean really. If it's any use to you, JJ2510, at the top of Soames Street by our place there's always a stretch which is empty - five minutes walk from ED. I won't say feel free to park there as I don't own the roads and neither does anyone else!

richard tudor Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Perhaps actually saying what social strata and > culture the problem stems from might be a good > first step in solving the problem. > > Unfortunately people are afraid to point the > finger. Until that happens you can discuss until > the cows come home. Would one be correct in assuming that you are pointing the finger at the black community? If so why don't you have the guts to say it and then we can debate the issue properly (and hopefully show why you're wrong to say that's where the root of the problem lies). If you don't then this sort of nudge nudge, "we all know it's 'them' don't we?" comment gets us nowhere.

Jeremy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Alex K - I can't agree with your comment.. by the > same logic it should be OK to carry guns, for > target practise and general larking around!! > > This isn't a village, kids don't whittle sticks, > or cheekily cut apples pilfered from the local > orchard. There's no legitimate reason to carry a > knife. They are being used as weapons, so that's > how the law should treat them. I don't think (apologies for trying to speak on another's behalf) that was the point Alex K was trying to make at all; s/he was making the point that the knives are not the problem, the societal attitudes and the way these children are being raised (not just by their parents but in a culture of violence, selfishness and ill-will) is what must be addressed. Yes people must be stopped from carrying knives, but if all knives vanished overnight they'd still be hitting each other with bricks, 2x4s, broken bottles...the root problems of alienation, disaffection etc need to be addressed and thinking that locking all offenders up and throwing away the key will make much difference won't do that.