Penguin68

I believe that the Council has previously not accepted change-of-use proposals - which is why it is still a pub, if derelict. I wonder how soon the fix will be in to alter the Council's mind? The fact that it is now offering the sort of local amenity which a pub might offer could be argued as a counter to change-of-use requests, but I can't believe that local opinion, should it support that, will be in any way important in Tooley Street's deliberations.

I think they've just resurfaced the road (and it seems OK, with very gentle 'humps') - the proposed build-outs don't appear to have been made yet. Or I've misunderstood what the plan was about. Certainly in the section north of Melford it's absolutely fine.

I don’t know whether drain clearing comes under the council or Thames Water. I think that councils are responsible for street cleaning (i.e. leaves inter alia) but that blocked drains (often blocked by leaves) fall into Thames Water's responsibility area. It is Thames that sends out (I think) those bowser lorries with a huge vacuum hose to suck debris out of drains as part of regular maintenance. The drought locally has caused early leaf fall so the council's normal rota of leaf clearance in autumn needs/ has needed to be brought forward. Unless the gutters and drains are cleared then the promised 'torrential' rain may cause flooding - although even with cleared drains the waste water pipes can be overwhelmed. My point was that - in the absence of 'official' clearance - it would make sense, if you can, to do what you can to unblock grates locally to you.

Checking the gutter drain nearest my house today (the car normally parked over it had moved) I found it almost completely blocked - I have just cleared it. With 'torrential' rain forecast it would have flooded back into my property via the dropped kerb if I hadn't and it did rain (may still do so depending on how much rain arrives). If you have a gutter drain close I would suggest making the same check yourselves. I haven't seen the council/ Thames Water cleaners in operation at all recently - although the parked cars anyway do make cleaning more difficult. They do also 'vacuum' the drains to clear any blockages further down, but I couldn't do that, of course, and they haven't either.

That will be by agreement (clearly, only one commissioning authority will be letting road contracts for a specific road - and probably Lewisham will 'run' work on other boundary roads on behalf of two authorities elsewhere). But decisions about traffic flows etc. will be shared, as otherwise Lewisham (in this instance) would cease to be representing the best interests of their electors. I suspect that what the message you got meant was that Lewisham took no responsibility for the actual progress of the works, which were let by Southwark to their favoured contractor.

What a strange conspiracy theory Penguin. Perhaps this is Lewisham getting their own back on Southwark after the earlier changes that increased traffic on the Honor Oak Road farm track Except I am sure that Wood Vale is a road managed by Southwark. Issue is that most drivers cannot be trusted to drive at a sensible speed in urban areas. There are better ways of controlling speed as per my earlier post. (1) The East side of Woodvale is in Lewisham, the West in Southwark. (They have refuse collection on different days and with different refuse lorries). Woodvale issues are discussed by both councils/ local councillors, even where one would take the lead (i.e. in the recent resurfacing works) to deliver 'solutions' to mutual benefit. (2) As the only benefit that I can see is that life in one road is improved at the expense of life in another, a 'theory' as to why pain should be relieved for some and added to for others would have to be a conspiracy - as there is little rationale otherwise. Curiously speeding as an issue has been far more a problem for Underhill (which has a straight run down a hill to encourage fast driving) than for the relatively flat Woodvale - indeed the Underhill speed humps were installed after a number of accidents, one involving a young child, long before speed humps became more generally common in ED.

So the net effect is simply diverting traffic from Wood Vale to Underhill and Melford Rd, which are already very busy roads What am I missing? The impact will be that traffic will be diverted from a wealthy Lewisham Road (well, half of Woodvale is) back into Southwark - also quite wealthy, of course, but this looks like a big win for Lewisham councillors over their Southwark colleagues. I sure that will be reflected in the Lewisham ballot box, and Southwark knows that 'anything but Labour' is locally unthinkable - so actually its just Southwark electors who will lose, so no surprises there, then. There is, of course, absolutely no merit whatsoever in this scheme from the point of view of those who live in the (Southwark) roads or travel through them, but why should Tooley St care? They never have before. And maybe a reverse favour will be owed to them by Lewisham - but don't expect that to benefit anyone in South Southwark.

I've had both cats and foxes poo outside both my front and my terrace door recently. Not every animal has their own poo bag carrier. Are you sure its source is canine?

Ok ,I've googled and apparently a ringer is a stolen car .The car being photographed is not stolen .Owned by neighbour for several years . I think the idea is that the photographer has access to a (stolen, or to be stolen) car of that make, model and colour and plans to ring it using the photographed car's registration details. However that normally would be done (except in cases where the car itself is to be used in a criminal enterprise) in order to sell-on the ringed car - so normally a high-end and newish car would be chosen.

For a good eat-in experience I'd say Babour over in Honour Oak. Plenty of unusual dishes to keep your palette amused. Sadly, the takeaway/delivery service is pretty standard fare so Rajah Rowing Club is a fine and quick alternative, and has a slightly better choice. Babur offers two take-away services - which are not co-located though both are in Brockley. The oldest one is a 'standard' Indian take-away, and I suspect that is what you are referring to - the other is served from their (excellent) restaurant kitchens and is based on their restaurant menu - including at times their cocktails. They also do special menus on 'event' nights, such as New Year's, Valentine's and Mother's Day. The second (more recent) service is, of course, much more expensive. It was a saviour during lock-down! They do collection and delivery from the restaurant.

The collections do appear to have got out of kilter - but none of mine (Underhill) have been more than a day late. When it was hot Veolia were ending shifts at 11.00am (they start around 05.00am). Once the runs are out of order it does take some time for them to get back, as the teams are always playing catch-up. Amended to add that in the summer especially, when operatives take leave, relief crews are used who may not be fully up to speed on routes - hardly helped by the numbers of roads closed or partially closed around here at the moment.

It is not Thames Water's fault that the infrastructure is crumbling, but it is their fault that they seem unable to complete a repair satisfactorily. Even where they replace extensive runs these still fail, in e.g. the South Circular by Horniman or Underhill Road or Woodvale. Both their planned and unplanned work are shoddy to the extreme.

It's not uncommon for these to be under the control of a 'gang-master' who supplies them with materials and takes (most) of the income. Ex offenders can themselves be vulnerable and the fact that they are ex-offenders (offence not disclosed, of course) supplies them with built-in intimidation. They ignore any signs which suggest that the occupier does not buy unsolicited. If we all 'don't buy' then the gang masters may see us as a poor choice of neighbourhood and go elsewhere. Normally these gangs will 'hit' an area over several days. Alerts via fora like these are useful.

Dear Admin The entire Covid Board has now seemed to have disappeared - which seems precipitate. In the 'General' Board there were 5 threads in 2 'pages' of posts (the last 2) which would have been appropriate for an ED Health specific board - so I'm not sure your comment about lack of use is entirely accurate - (some on e.g. parking restrictions in Tessa Jowell I think would be relevant. for instance). There will be at least one more round of vaccinations for the over 50s and clinically vulnerable - and as you and others have implied, a new Covid crisis isn't impossible, given the speed at which the thing evolves. It anyway gave a useful history of what happened and how we locally addressed it. It's a shame the board is gone.

I really didn’t like TJ - the setting is noisy and intimidating it feels like going into hospital. For the purposes of the ONS Covid study, it is a hospital. Do remember that the surgery is co-located with a number of out-stationed hospital departments (e.g. phlebotomy) moved from the old Dulwich Hospital. The GP Surgery is just one of the tenants of the site.

Is there a way a sports ground that is not fully utilised If the sports grounds are allowed to scorch over the summer they will be unplayable in the autumn - assuming no return to 'normal' rainfall levels by then. This is an awful waste of an asset which provides an important part of a rounded education. Granted that many state schools have chosen to squander their sports ground assets by selling them off, when this hasn't happened all schools should be allowed to preserve their open air sports assets. That they are not being used now will anyway allow them to recover from use through the school year. Our lawns can scorch and recover because they are not used as intensely as sports fields, nor do they present any dangers to their users if they are cracked and scorched. Re-seeding, if necessary, domestic lawns is also a smaller expense than full re-seeding of areas used for sports, which require different and more costly levels of care. As mentioned lower down the thread, the waste of water from poorly repaired Thames Water infrastructure (poorly repaired because it always seems to be the same stretches of road where leaks occur) is far more concerning. Figures suggest that approximately 25% of water is still being lost by Thames Water through leaks.

During the very hot weather Veolia seems to be sending their collectors home at 11.00 am - this means that bins unemptied on the correct day will be emptied the day following. In terms of staff wellbeing (and indeed health) this seems the right idea.

Having looked the signs are identical. A cynic might suggest that someone with influence (but not enough to get their 'own' LTN) has managed to convince someone with authority over signage to get a sign which almost achieves the 'LTN effect' of a private road without actually being an LTN. Only those really in the know will be trespassing past their house.

No. You are allowed e.g. to drop patients off at the centre without incurring charges. They note the numbers of parked cars, not cars circulating or dropping off.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2005/apr/21/thisweekssciencequestions4#:~:text=Burning%20wood%20releases%20all%20sorts,on%20the%20fuel%20being%20used. Possibly related to this type of news....

Had the same problem trying to get Guinness recently in the Moor Park Hotel on Wood Vale Recently? - it hasn't been a pub for at least the last 10 years, if not longer Or was that your point?

If this is the same person who has been described, and indeed named, elsewhere then he appears to have moved from being a nuisance to a danger, and he may indeed need to be arrested in order to be sectioned. However, the police are very poorly equipped to handle mental health issues (and indeed the NHS itself is woefully under-resourced - there are I think only one or two ambulances across London that can handle mental health issues with paramedics trained in psychiatric and psychological health responses. It is not impossible that the man is already under treatment but is not taking his medication, or is exacerbating his problems through drink or (non prescribed) drugs. It is quite likely that he has already been sectioned (possibly more than once). I don't want to live in a society where the mentally ill are simply locked away because they are mentally ill - that seems inherently wrong save in the case of the criminally insane - and yet we seem to have few other remedies. If it is true (I don't know whether it is) that he has been 'treated' but is now ignoring the treatment I am again concerned that we should be able to force treatment on someone. I remember the shock and anger I felt when I first saw 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next'. This is inherently a difficult issue. Which doesn't lessen the shock and distress of the child attacked.

I suspect that you may need to supply 2 other items - (1) what operating system you are using - Android, iphone, Windows, Mac, Chrome, etc. (2) If using a browser, which browser?

He said that he had also been hurt on on the same bike a week before, but the company in question didn't seem to bother. Reading the above it suggests that the rider was on a bike supplied by a third party - possibly the company for whom he was delivering Pizzas, possibly a delivery company. In either case, if the bike was faulty causing an accident then it is an Heath and Safety Issue - being an accident at work which must be reported. The driver being himself injured; the accident clearly did need reporting as a legal requirement - even where he was being treated as self-employed - the 'workplace equipment' was faulty (allegedly). A company with faulty equipment not keeping an (accurate) accident register is breaking the law. There are existing remedies within legislation to take action here, although the driver would be better placed for support if he was a union member (the union does not have to be 'recognised' by an employer to actively support a member in need).

The moped/ driver should have been insured - so there should be a claim on the insurance. If the moped wasn't insured then you may have a claim against the employing company. Even where the brakes failed (i.e. it was not driver error) there is an insurable claim. As you were quite severely injured the police should also consider prosecution if it can be shown that the moped was not properly maintained. (They should do anyway, but they tend not to bother when injuries are only slight, in my experience). However actions against two-wheel drivers always seem more difficult against those on 4 wheels.