Dogkennelhillbilly

Hard to see what would make a lorry tip in the midden of the road like that, but I refuse to slag anyone off until the full facts are known.

"Vegetarians won't miss out as there will also be a radish & egg mayo milk bun on offer too." It's a meat shop so I suppose don't expect too much.

If you're a fundraising intermediary, reporting promptly and accurately on how you've raised and spent funds seems quite important.

There's still a massive shortage of student housing in London regardless of short term fluctuations - just look at how expensive it is now and what a barrier it is to mobility! What are people worried about anyway? That there will be so few students in London that a private landlord has to cut rents and makes lower profits? Oh no! 😂

Apparently something only counts as housing if People Like Us live in it!

Yeah - the restaurant next to the station is successful, that's the big difference! Don't think there is much passing trade strolling down the South Circular at night that pops in for a seafood boil spontaneously. Evidently they have built a rep that makes people search them out, even if they haven't yet persuaded you to pop by and patronise them.

Sounds like Southwark needs to build some social housing and the Dulwich Society needs to stop objecting because new housing is "visible". But if people were really concerned about housing costs, they'd be in favour of increasing the supply of housing to a growing population. "In favour of development so long as it's low volume social housing paid for by the private sector" is really just austerity NIMBYism with a mask on.

Always something to moan about on the EDF! ☀️☀️☀️

Why? It's not like that's the only type of housing needed.

Dulwich Society says: "In the 1980s Southwark Council incurred further considerable expenditure on 'Belair', particularly in repainting the exterior. Unfortunately, in the 1990s Southwark Council closed up the building, pleading lack of funds, and in its boarded-up and vandalised state it became an eyesore. Happily, in 1997 the Council leased out the building and after impressive and extensive restoration by the new owner, Gary Cady, it opened as a restaurant, with the second floor converted into a private flat." And yet the Hot N Juicy seafood place across the South Circular is busy all the time, in the same location where the sad Indian restaurant that used to be there faltered. Not sure if "passing trade" is that important to specialty restaurants.

https://www.dulwichsociety.com/local-history/who-lived-in-a-house-like-this-belair More detail from the Dulwich Society, which objected to construction of Belair House on the grounds it was overly dense and out of keeping with the local area.

How do you feel about the pedestrianisation of Dulwich Square? The massive Benefit In Kind tax dodge for top rate taxpayers helps a lot too.

Yes - and this is a good thing because meeting housing targets is a good thing. If Labour or any other party had managed to do it consistently over the last decade perhaps we wouldn't be in a housing crisis. I'm not sure if "don't build more housing because it's only rich foreigners that will end up living there" is official Lib Dem policy or not.

Southwark owns it. It's leased to some guy from Orpington or something. They have tried to run a bar, restaurant, Uber Eats dark kitchen, nightclub for one off events...but never quite committing to one of them or being very successful. Some of the nightclub nights are a shambles: booze bottles all over the pavements, screaming and yelling, dickheads racing cars. I didn't know they were doing swingers nights - obviously I don't move in the right circles to get an invitation... 😞 It's odd that no-one has been able to make a real go of it in recent years. It should be a great space - a country manor feel in the centre of London overlooking a park? But the forecourt is a bit shabby. BTW much as I dislike Musk - I'm not sure I can blame the Belair House lot (which is a tiny business) much for taking money to let them do a launch event. And calling Belair House "sacred" seems a bit of a stretch 🤷

The private sector is not going to build a significant amount of social housing. Everyone is very keen for *everyone else* to subsidise construction of social housing. I take it none of the objectors to this scheme was suggesting putting up council tax so Southwark could build more social housing...? Social housing isn't going to appear in serious numbers if the state doesn't borrow money and build it.

There's an 8 storey building about 200 yards NW of the site in question! It's so unremarkable that apparently many of the objectors don't even know it exists. 1) you're objecting to the economic analysis on the basis of "having a student"? That's hardly an evidence-based position. 2) 50-100 vehicles per day for move-in and move-out weekends, not every weekend, then? 3) It is a bit disappointing that you are disregarding the fairly obvious substantive difference between students enrolled in universities and pupils enrolled in local schools. Adults travel from all over England, the UK and the world to study at university in London. Parents of pupils at state schools try to send them to study as close to home as possible. Equally, you are ignoring that the student accommodation sector doesn't have enough capacity to house all students anyway. That is why many students live in share houses, whic increases competition with "regular" non-students who also want to rent those houses. Further, it's disappointing that you have decided students' accommodation needs are somehow not a valid consideration for you. They are also members of society - although perhaps they don't vote as much in local elections as houseowners do. Finally, you are again contradicting your own position that more student accommodation is unnecessary when you point out how expensive it is! That indicates an undersupply, and is a good reason to allow private companies to build more - it depresses the market price and makes it incrementally more accessible to lower income students. Does it not strike you as odd that are simultaneously suggesting that only rich foreign students will live in the student accommodation BUT also that there aren't enough local students to fill it up and students don't have any money to spend in the local economy anyway?

On what basis do you object to the economy spend numbers in the report and describe it as "extremely unlikely"? Is that objection based on data or is it vibes-based? Where does this estimate of "50-100 vehicles" come from? The objectors:supporters ratio doesn't speak volumes. Planning applications of this sort always receive objections from various curtain twitches and NIMBYs. It doesn't mean those objections are well-founded or sensible. The planning officers and councillors need to consider the issue objectively, not just count the letters. It's not a public vote. Saying the building is "out of character" is meaningless out of context. It's an unusual building on an unusual infill site. It's not supposed to be a model for future development across Dulwich as a whole. We are in the middle of a housing crisis. London desperately needs more housing units. This is an opportunity to get a whole bunch of them on a small, unloved industrial site on top of a transit hub. Not building it because people like the Dulwich Society complains it's "visible" is crazy.

Southwark doesn't own it, doesn't have the money to buy it at the market rate it would have to pay, and doesn't have a ton of money lying around to build several blocks of flats. And I don't think there's enough room for several blocks of flats - perhaps one 30 storey block to soar above the traffic. That'd be nice.

The weird thing about criticising Southwark for not following this rule is that it's a rule a poster has made up, it's not Southwark's rule. It's doubly weird when agreeing with the outcome.

Norberts live in Norbury. It's all Dullards around here.

Maybe bickering online with a bunch of pseudonymous misanthropes isn't the best way to serve the community. 🤷

That could be good esp if at least some of the chickens are free range, and come with salads, not just chips. Il Mirto was cash only for a long time, wasn't it?

I'm a curmudgeon and don't favour more nightclubs, but it would also be better for the building to be used and maintained again. So put me in the "don't know/hopelessly indecisive" column.

It's shoehorn night on the East Dulwich Forum, I see! It's pointless writing to an MP about a council matter. Councillors are the right people to write to.

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