Penguin68

I had a lot of this over a couple of months some time back - particularly bags of chips/ Kentuck fried chicken boxes etc. However the positioning of some of the bags (under a parked car) suggested it might be foxes bringing booty in from off the street and eating it somewhere secluded. I doubt whether they've been bringing in bags of needles though; generally I find the foxes shoot-up in Dulwich Park.

So penguin68 what you are saying is in the interest of the safety and wellbeing of our neighbours we need to start an ED brewery? Well, that would clearly be the public spirited thing to do, very much down the lines of the Conservative self-help line about societal response (and for that reason alone probably not attractive to some forum-ites!)>:D<

I am just curious at the inconsistent nature of the flooding as I can understand the water table levels changing during wet weather but in dry weather could it really have a sudden rise? It depends what is going on around you - the water table in London overall is rising as industry (e.g. brewing, but not just that) is much reduced and that used to be a major water user. If someone else has stopped, or started, pumping water close to you, that would effect you - as would a general water leak from a main which gets into 'your' bit of the water table. There are underground streams that run in the 'valley' between Underhill and Wood Vale (there's a well/ spring in one of the gardens in that valley) and these are fed by water coming down the hills. Building work (i.e. excavation) could effect the local water table - and that could be happening some distance from you. Someone else taking protective action as has been suggested to you could be diverting water that they would have had towards you (i.e. it has to go somewhere else). Rainfall is by no means the only influence on local water table level changes, and (apart from flash flooding) its effect is not normally immediate. But this is quite a boggy area (probably because of underlying London Clay). If you look at the Langston Rise end of Camberwell Old Cemetary you will often see standing water - and that's on the top of a hill!.

Could these chaps be council inspectors A group of 4 people in Southwark Council Hi Vis jackets with clipboards are (or were 20 minutes ago) in Underhill Road calling on houses and asking (perfectly reasonable) questions about recycling - i.e. 'is everything working OK?'; 'Do you have dividers for your box?';'Do you know about rewards schemes'; 'Do you know about penalties?' - maybe there is some sort of recycling blitz on - maybe James could advise?

2...i say call a pikey a pikey - Just so we all know what we are talking about.... "Pikey is a pejorative slang term used mainly in the United Kingdom to refer to Irish Travellers, gypsies or people of low social class. Pikey is also sometimes called a piker in the United States. The term pikey as a pejorative appears to be a very old English word, remaining near unchanged, probably in common use during William Shakespeare's lifetime. The text Gypsy Politics and Social Change notes Boorde's 1547 reference: Egipcions be swarte and doth go disgsy'd in theyr apparel, contrary to other nacyons: they be lyght fyngered, and use pyking. Gypsies are swarthy and go disguised in their apparel, contrary to other nations: they are light-fingered and use piking. The term is strongly associated with itinerant life and constant travel: pikey is directly derived from pike which, circa 1520, meant to "go away from, to go on" and related to the words turnpike (toll-road) and pike-man (toll-collector). Pikey's most common contemporary use is not as a term for the Gypsy ethnic group, but as a catch-all phrase to refer to people, of any ethnic group, who travel around with no fixed abode." - source Wikepedia (not normally a great source, but looks good for this). Hence if you refer to 'pikeys' you should be referring to someone who is (a) a traveller and (b) of no fixed abode - possibly though not necessarily of Irish origin. It's an offensive term (always) and generally innaccurate when you are simply making a class (and not a lifestyle/ origin) comment.

Mark wrote (accurately) There are two East Dulwich Roads, but probably there was once only one, and Goose Green was assumed to be a huge traffic island, with ED Road an early dual carriageway - now of course each carriageway carries two-way traffic (or is the smaller ED Road one-way?). There are houses only on each 'far' side of the bifurcated East Dulwich Road - so numbering probably makes sense (odds & evens I assume).

I know that this is likely to be an assault, and, yes, a serious one at that, but it is just possible that the person who did it mistook you for someone he knew (for whom such an action might not have been unacceptable) turned round to see his 'friend' and is now dying of embarrassment and fear. But I think you should report it anyway - your initial reaction is more likely to be true than that this was a terrible case of mistaken identity.

Another place they can live (and breed) is in the felt on piano hammers - we moved an old piano from my late in-laws into our house for safekeeping before it went to a cousin who didn't then have room - a shed load of moth larvae arrived with the piano and tried to move into the the carpet on which it stood. Luckily the infestation was so localised we could deal with it.

This is from today's CityWire:- Would you be mad to buy a house right now? By Tony Bonsignore | 14:45:55 | 18 March 2010 The true state of the housing market remains frustratingly difficult to gauge. On the one hand many indices seem to be showing prices rises in much of the country, and activity appears to have rebounded somewhat after last year?s collapse - notwithstanding the recent post-stamp duty holiday lull. On the other hand, however, much anecdotal evidence suggests that prices are still falling in many regions and property types, and that the only thing stopping prices plummeting further is a lack of supply. The key factor here has been the record cut in interest rates. This in turn has allowed millions of over-indebted homeowners to stay in their properties when they might otherwise have been forced to move. Hence they are holding out for the price they want, rather than the price they can get. But this puts many prospective buyers in something of a dilemma. On the one hand prices don?t seem to have fallen as far as many expected, despite all the economic fundamentals. The government and the Bank of England, for their part, seem to be doing everything in their power to inflate prices once more. Is it finally time, many wonder, to bite the bullet and accept that prices will always head north in this country - even if they are artificially manipulated? Buy now, in other words, and stop hanging around waiting for a crash that may never happen. Others, however, believe the property market is still living in a fantasy world, and that it is only wafer-thin interest rates holding the tattered pieces together. Once these go up - as they inevitably will - the situation will rapidly become a lot worse for millions of home-owing Brits, it is argued. Anyone buying a house better make sure they can deal with a sharp hike in rates some time soon, they warn. One such warning today came from a relatively unlikely source: shadow business secretary Ken Clarke. In an interview with the Evening Standard the Tory ?big beast? fired a warning shot to potential buyers. ?These are artificially low interest rates,? Clarke told the paper, ?they obviously can't stay as low as this. ?Anybody buying a house now must realise the rates are unnaturally low and will go up in future years. In working out whether you can afford a house, you have to work out if you can afford a quite perceptible increase in interest rates, regardless of who the government is.? So what do you think, then, is Ken right? Have people got too used to a low interest rate environment? Are potential buyers factoring in the potential impact of a steep and rapid rise in interest rates? Is such a scenario likely, or even possible? In short, is now a crazy time to buy a house?

a while ago looking at crime statistcs and assault related ambulance call outs etc they were far worse... - oh (copyright Dilbert) that has statistical clustering written all over it!

The housing stock is sometimes smaller, with smaller gardens than in some (but not all) other parts of SE22 - it has also not been as gentrified - with many residents having lived there a long time when their houses come up for sale or rent so the houses have not been 'done up' since the 50s or 60s or early 70s (not a good time for refurbishment, thank you Barry Bucknell!). [NB there are also some great and large/ well gardened houses in parts of Peckham which are frankly very desirable, although long Peckham roads can have a 'good at one end, dodgy at the other' reputation.] And there is a post-code thing going on as well, as noted, which reflects history more than reality, now.

We were lucky to be buying in the 70's and 80's - but then high inflation helped - a crippling mortgage and mortgage repayments one year was a breeze to handle a few years later - when salaries soared with inflation but the underlying debt remained the same - even high interest rates were high on what became a comparatively low sum. However, with low inflation and current low interest rates quite a small interest rate hike may mean a very substantial increase in real mortgage payment costs. If interest rates are at 3%, a rise to 4% reflects a 33% rise in actual mortgage interest charges.

There is a very long, similar thread from last year - actually very slightly over a year ago - but I wonder if she's a seasonal visitor - perhaps moving round the suburbs over the year to ply her scam, and, like the seasons, she has now returned. Perhaps this thread could be re-posted to the nature watch one.

I wonder how quickly this might all have been sorted without the Forum? Congratulations to Barry and James for acting in a very grown-up and helpful manner.

knavies Interesting Freudian slip here, Mr Barber - navvies (from navigators) originally built the canals and the term is now used for any hard manual labourer, knaves is of course another term for a rogue.

then call it the P.G. Wodehouse. Raymond Chandler also went to Dulwich College - so how about The Long Goodbye - C S Forester also lived in Underhill Road, so how about The Admiral Hornblower?

While changing the speed limit half way up a road is a distraction, I have often wondered why speed limits have to be a 24 hour a day thing. It's obvious that 20mph is a sensible limit for suburban roads, but that is because they are busy, have children and schools and so on. After 10.00pm they are quite different in nature and the need to maintain 20mph limits becomes less demanding; they are normally pretty empty, save for stumbling drunks, for whom I have limited sympathy. A 7.00am to 10.00pm 20mph limit and a 30mph limit thereafter would have the effect of offering safe suburban streets when they are being used significantly, while allowing free-er flowing traffic when it is safer to do so (far fewer pedestrians and vulnerable people about). We are used to timed parking restrictions - why not timed speed restrictions? The accident map would be interesting if it could be time segmented - when do the accidents happen? I suspect that for accidents after 10.00pm drink is more likely to be a contributory factor than speed - and thus to reduce these, speed restrictions would be of less use than more education about/ enforcement of drink driving rules.

Gladstone and Palmerston did fall out, but at the time Gladstone was Palmerston's Chancellor of the Exchequor (think Blair & Brown). (Palmerston had served in both Tory & Whig governments) Lord John Russell was asked by Queen Victoria (good name for a pub?) to dismiss Palmerston earlier, but was told that he was too popular ('we don't want to fight, but by Jingo if we do') celebrated his (popular, for a time) foreign policy. Gladstone was a bit of a wowser, anyway (apart from his curious attempts to 'save' fallen women) - a better political choice would surely be Disraeli - rather a convivial chap by all accounts. 'I'm off to the Disraeli for a tincture' has a ring to it.

Yes, and we heard the wooshing noises fireworks make - I suspect that a batch of rockets (or perhaps just one big one) went off in error and exploded at ground level - we couldn't see anything though and no ambulances, so hopefully no one hurt.

Does dog poo contain DNA? Of the other animals it's been eating (according to an old CSI, anyway). I suspect it would contain shed cells of its own as well. But DNA testing is only useful if you have a reference sample to match it with - if you know which dog dealt it, then a simple witness statement of the act would do, if you don't, well, DNA testing ED dogs to find a match isn't exactly a cheap option. So I suspect the fining is all about witnessed offences.

sydenham girls wear purple and blue....No, Sydenham Girls wear Navy. There are two Sydenham Girls schools - the private one (Sydenham High) wear lilac shirts and blue skirts (and light blue, grey or navy pullovers depending upon age) Sydenham Girls wear Navy and light blue. Neither wear tartan, as part of the uniform.

All Southwark's lampposts have been structurally assessed ... James thank you for your quick and reassuring response. I assume those areas where street renovation is being undertaken are part of this regular assessment regime.

thinking barbed wire - Don't - you would be held liable (yes, really) for any damage caused to an intruder - all the old favourites, barbed wire, revolving spikes, broken glass set in mortar are now considered hazardous (yes, well, that's the point, isn't it) and you can be held liable for damage - not just to trespassing kids but to intentional burglars. It's a mad, mad world we live in... Your best bet is visible (and protected) CCTV coverage - a neighbour had an annoying (but effective) alarm triggered by infra red beam which had a voice announcement saying a film was being made. The foxes used to build entire home movie portfolios before the beam was altered up in height! You are also allowed high and difficult to climb barriers as long as they don't contain hazards. That 'never dry' paint you can put on drainpipes could also be used. It's not about making your home inviolate - all homes can be broken into - it's about making the investment necessary in breaking into your home not worth the reward - so good locks, sensible security (not leaving windows open) etc. etc.

James - with the recent (today) tragedy of the fallen street lamp in Chiswick - although this may have been weakened by adjacent works - with what frequency are street lights checked for stability in ED? Are these checks visual, or is strength gauge machinery used? With all the paving and road refurbishment work going on, what checks are carried out on lights adjacent to these works to ensure continued stability?

sophiesofa It may well be worth pursuing this google link and printing out some of the warnings contained here as 'evidence' for your granny that this is a known and common scam. It may help convice her. http://www.google.co.uk/webhp?hl=en&lr=#hl=en&source=hp&q=%27door-to-door+duster+salesmen%27&btnG=Google+Search&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB&aq=f&oq=%27door-to-door+duster+salesmen%27&fp=b4cf6fad4ba38e6b