Penguin68

You appear to be confusing a car alarm (sounds/ flashing lights when doors are opened and/ or there is movement in the car) with a car immobiliser (car won't start unless correct wireless tag is present).

It might help to get responses if you explained what you were actually doing, as you do on the Survey itself:- I'm a Geography student at Queen Mary conducting a study on women's concerns and experiences of cycling around the borough of Southwark, but also on capturing thoughts and ideas on how cycling can be made more inclusive and welcoming to this particular group of road users. You will have the chance to respond to 6 questions about cycling relating to inclusive infrastructure and route safety, cycling culture in London, and other factors that may affect the quality of your journey. Information collected is for educational purposes only.

Even if you report non collection, they won't collect it until the next time that they Normally come In the 30+ years I have lived here in ED (same house) specific collections have only been missed on a couple of occasions, and have been remedied in 24-48 hours (next day or the day after). Maybe I've been lucky.

No, (some) bin stickers were certainly delivered two weeks ago - I had the full kit (stickered large bin, kerb-side caddy) in place for the Tuesday collection this week.

During this transition period (albeit very extended) I have found the bin men from Veolia very reasonable - they take away rubbish which generally fits the (old) requirements without being sticklers for the new way of doing this (and as all garden and kitchen waste currently gets mixed together in the same lorry, quite sensibly). They don't care, really, how it's presented. They see their job as clearing the streets of domestic rubbish put out for them, and do a good job of it. If you don't like what the council is doing (I certainly don't) don't take it out on Veolia staff, who have nothing to do with council policy or the way the council implements that policy.

Time for the Lounge...?

Wait a second - ?24 is the most expensive roast, and it's of a good (i.e. costly) cut of beef, 45 days aged - of course that's not the price you may want to pay for a 'pub' roast, but it is a very good quality (and costly) cut - the longer you hang beef (within reason), the better it is, but the more sunk cost you have in storing it and not selling it. So, depending on the amount you get served, this isn't entirely unreasonable. It's much more than 'pub grub' of course, but clearly that's not where the new incarnation of the Palmerston is positioning itself. In many London restaurants ?24 would be a very good price - depending on what you are getting for it - if it's just a 'pub roast' I grant you that might be disappointing, but if its restaurant style it really might not be. Rather than critique the menu you might be better to critique what is actually being served. I have payed ?15 for a pub roast which wasn't worth ?5. But I only knew that having attempted to eat it. Just looking at the menu I might have thought that was a good deal.

the council is trying to generate as much money as it can And it is doing so in parts of the budget which are not open to outside scrutiny - it could increase charges 1000 fold and nothing (local elections apart) could stop them. As long as their main electorate is not damaged themselves directly by these charges (i.e. don't have gardens or cars) they will remain in power indefinitely, redistributing wealth as they see fit. The Council Tax is of course open to scrutiny, and central government oversight, which is why they are moving such things as waste collection out of that space whilst they can, actually against government advice. We have all seen examples of waste (this scheme is one of them, the costs will surely outweigh any revenues, at least in this fiscal) - but this is all about moving charges away from any central control, when 'small' fees can swiftly become big ones.

Poorly built? It's over a hundred years old and the only thing bringing it down is the wrecker's ball It was robustly built, but without false floors and ceilings through which to run cable, pipework etc, etc. to support a modern 'connected', heated and cooled, establishment, and being built in a way which was not consistent with the zero-carbon/ fully insulated mind-set of today, creating a modern health establishment inside its shell would be a very expensive option. It is, of course, a lovely building, and would still be fit for many purposes, but not, I suggest, a modern health centre offering quasi hospital services. I would tend to agree that it wasn't 'poorly built' certainly for the standards of the time and even now, but it is no longer appropriately built.

but given that it is usually empty I wonder whether it will last. That very much depends, in my experience, on when you come. First thing it is often very crowded as it has people who go to work, and people who have had to 'starve' before the test. By about 10:45 you often have to wait only one or two people, but there is a steady throughput - enough to occupy 2 and sometimes 3 phlebotomists. I've never seen it completely empty or gone straight in without at least a one-person wait. That's actually ideal and shows it is effectively staffed. Neither the patients', nor the phlebotomists' time is being wasted.

How does that make any sense? None, save that they are obviously using up old stock, which is surely a good thing as it is both 'green' and economical - something we rarely seem to see from this council.

Bumped

Yes!!! Helium is rare On the Earth only - helium is the second most abundant element in the universe (second to hydrogen) and accounts for 25% of the atoms in the universe (although dark matter accounts for 85% of the matter in the universe, the other 15% being all known elements - so helium is 25% of that 15% of matter).

The Mary Seacole Centre - it is on the site of the old Dulwich Maternity Hospital and Mary Seacole is credited with good quality maternity medical care. In Jamaica in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, neonatal deaths were more than a quarter of total births, at a time when British-Jamaican planter Thomas Thistlewood wrote about European doctors employing questionable practices such as mercury pills and the bleeding of the patient. However, Seacole, using traditional West African herbal remedies and hygienic practices, boasted that she never lost a mother or her child. Her links to Southwark, it has to be said, are tenuous, but not to London itself and there is a statue to her outside St Thomas'.

I suppose Healthy McHealth Face is off the agenda?

I've posted a situation update in the related (and currently adjacent) thread.

My Veolia front line source has now told me:- 1. A different company (from Veolia, who know the area and routes of course, and we couldn't be doing with that) will be collecting old brown bins from those not paying for garden waste disposal and at the same time issuing any new bins ordered. This won't be happening (I'm guessing) until they have given households time to respond (or not) to the hangers now being placed on unstickered bins reminding them of the intention to charge for/ or remove old-style large brown bins. So probably still a few weeks (i.e. into July) before the new kerb-side caddies will be issued for those wanting them (which I assume will be everybody not now having one - as they will be the only collecting point in future for kitchen waste). 2. All organic waste is still (and will still) be collected together by Veolia - i.e. no separation of garden and kitchen waste will be made at the point of collection. Apparently lorries just carrying food waste come from the West End already and are added to the general organic waste that Veolia holds. This may change over time, but advice from Southwark that they 'can't' be combined now is, well, rubbish. I am not really expecting this to settle down until the autumn. Other than sheer bloody-mindedness there is no reason why those paying for garden waste collection shouldn't have brown bagged waste collected at the same time as the garden waste in the brown bins. But making them pay for bown bags (on top of their fee for using the bin) and then making them arrange special collections will be aimed just to add to the buggaration effect of the council - and encourage dumping. And of course ramp up the costs of the 'cash-starved' council as they send out what will be unnecessary brown bag pick-ups from those already being passed by lorries collecting garden rubbish. In fact, if the Veolia lorries continued to collect, once a week, garden waste in brown bins (which have been paid for) and garden waste in brown paper bags (bought from the council) they would be saving logistic and transport costs and simplifying life for everyone, whilst still getting their new revenue stream. But that would be sensible and nice and not what we have come to expect from these (please add your own descriptors and epithets here) elected and appointed council officials.

If I put it in the Brown bin it will be contaminated. Ive been using this bin for food waste since day one. I am now concerned that New Large bins are to be distributed as well as food waste bins and I should of waited for that to arrive and put my sticker on the new bin. See my thread on trusting the Council. Although the government has advised separating food and garden waste (because they can be treated differently, with food waste digested anaerobically producing methane for heating, and garden waste composted) - (it also advised not charging for garden waste collection, but there you go) - Veolia will still collect all organic waste (for the moment) in the same bin lorries. So your advice from Southwark was somewhat premature - at some time they will be separately treated, but not yet. The Southwark separation using two bins is to get us in the mood for all this (well it can't be anything else, apart from creating a garden waste collection off-the-rates revenue stream, as Veolia don't separate in their collection lorries yet).

If you don't protect your bin it will simply get very nasty, unless you wash it out regularly. With a bag all the waste will go. But you could wrap it in newspaper to protect the bin, according to my Veolia source.

mysteriously ??? No mystery, I would have thought!

Over time the two waste collections will be separated, at least that's what the government wants. I don't think the Veolia contract now allows for that. So, no point, save as a revenue earner for Southwark now that it can charge for garden waste separately - even though the same government paper says that should be collected without additional charge.

In reading the report - and I've no reason to doubt the accuracy of the figures - the Horniman was most recently re-designed to meet the needs of 250k visitors and is handling now close to 1 million. Clearly this cannot continue long-term without unnecessary levels of location stress. The grass-roofed building is also close to or at the end of its design-life. Many of the comments in the report are not unreasonable - the 'front' entrance isn't well flagged for those who don't know it. I personally like the slightly fusty atmosphere of the natural History exhibits - but I recognise that these are outdated in terms of modern museum curation. The former 'pond' area is woefully under-utilised. Of course any work will cause disruption - at least short term - and I am sure some changes will make some people unhappy (I was sad when the little garden and stream was lost running up to the main building in the last re-furb) - but I do strongly advise against resisting change just because it is change - or resenting the truth that more people, drawn from a wider demographic, are using the Horniman. It was designed for the people of London to be used, and if the people, and their needs, change, so should the Horniman. It is now nothing like the museum my late mother - born 100 years ago - used to visit - she loved it in her day, my grown-up children loved a different it when they were young and I am sure my grandchildren will enjoy a new version. And they wouldn't have enjoyed (so much) the versions my mother, I and my children all enjoyed.

do we continue to put food waste in with the garden waste until new bin arrives? Yes, according to the Veolia guy I talk to and (I think) the Southwark web site. They are legally obliged to collect food waste and (until they provide alternative bins) their policy is to combine food and garden waste in the same brown bin. Eventually (because the most effective disposal of food and garden waste is different) they will collect these separately, but, at the moment, I believe, even when we separate them in different bins they will be collected into the same lorries!

Maybe it is if it's an identity being stolen.

but the council have removed it!!? Are you sure - could it have been a 'neighbour' wanting a brown bin for his/ her sticker?