Penguin68

So we're forced to continue putting it in the large bin and, no doubt, they'll refuse to take it. Rather the opposite in my case - they took the bagged kitchen waste and left a rose branch (the only garden waste I had put in the bin) - and yes, I have paid the ransom (as soon as the system started to work). On Tuesday this week.

Presumably Southwark pays for the electricity consumed by its lamps, but the charging electricity is separately metered and either charged out to the supplier by Southwark or directly by that supplier

For a council to be providing a subsidy for non community charge payers (they have no control over who would be using these charging points) must be an error. Are they perhaps paying for the installation of these points, but not then electricity consumed through them? That might make more sense. And it might explain what seems to be two different stories. Or even, not charging the supplier to install charging points on their lamp posts. So no straight subsidy at all, but also no additional revenue stream for supplying supporting infrastructure. That would make a lot of sense. No costs to the council at all, but a potential revenue stream ignored to encourage electric vehicle usage locally. So then, they wouldn't be charging the supplier of the equipment for siting it on their lamp posts. Hence the 'no charges' concept.

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Being a private landlord is now a legal minefield. It may be worthwhile using professionals (you'll pay for their expertise mind) to see you through this, at least for your first tenants. How keen are you on hands-on management (arranging repairs etc.)? - if you are local and know tradesmen, good, otherwise maybe delegate.

I hope the good work won't be damaged by those Travellers that twice in the last year have occupied the site and used it to fly-tip builders waste and rubbish (possibly toxic).

Unbelievable. Inevitable /forum/read.php?5,2015611,2027910#msg-2027910

I would check with Thames Water - pressure is not high around here, but for most people sufficient for combi-boilers - so I suspect you and your neighbour (if you're in the same house) may have a specific problem with your supply. Thames Water can test and should remedy if this is so.

It's fair to say that (Barcelona apart) few establishments have lasted very long on this site. But to be any sort of destination it had to have a consistent offer - which included (considering its location) a consistent food offering. A 'beer only' establishment might have worked on LL (where there are numerous food outlets) - but stuck out there if it couldn't offer food as well (on a regular, consistent and quality basis) it was surely doomed.

Louisa The sad fact is that the demographic you represent (or wish to be seen representing), which was a dominant demographic in ED once, is no longer. The sorts of shops and restaurants you say you like, and would like to see, no longer command the support of sufficient numbers locally to be able to operate profitably. Shops and restaurants selling low cost items have to sell very high volumes to pay for local rents and business rates. And maybe we don't have a pound shop because we do have the excellent Farmers. And as for your dislike of pizzas - well that's absolutely fine - no one is ordering you to buy or eat one - but there may be sufficient others who have different tastes to make a success of this new one (or, as I have said above, if it's better than an incumbent, to force an incumbent out). You wish to roll back time to get back to an ED (as regards its residents) that no longer exists. I understand (sort of) that feeling, but it is a fantasy.

You have paid for your garden waste to be collected from 1st June and it will be. What you are upset about is that others haven't paid and their garden waste will still be collected. I can't see why you would get a CC refund when you are getting what you paid for. Just rejoice thst others are being looked after as well. No skin off your nose if they haven't paid. (And I paid as well, by the way). If Southwark was to be trusted (it isn't), then those who paid by 1st June should perhaps be charged only ?25 next year, and not ?30,but don't hold your breath.

I imagine this may be about 5G introduction - in which case probably a good thing. More masts than already exist on this roof won't be a major eye-sore - it's not as if it's really blocking a view from anywhere. Indeed, and in general, improved signal is generally a good thing, 4G or 5G. But the benefits from 5G, including integrated and real-time control of emergency services etc. is to be desired.

The absence of public toilets is a disgrace. A 24 hour city needs 24 hour facilities

Assuming Sainsbury's pays minimum wage for their till staff we should demand pro-rata if they are asking us to do a till staff job. Or maybe the London Living Wage?

The blue bin crew on my run this morning were all new (to this route) and only one person on the brown bin lorry was part of the regular crew on my run. Crews and routes are clearly being changed (and Southwark said as much in their circular) although my collection dates haven't changed, just the people doing the collection. Hopefully this will all settle down soon and proper collections will resume, but, with the new system starting next week (but most of the necessary impedimenta - new bins and stickers - not yet having been issued) don't hold your breath. My brown bin man says take-up of paid for garden collections has been low across the borough, but of course many residents are not blessed with gardens in the north. He didn't know what the take-up was specifically in the Dulwichs. My fear is that we will see a lot more dumping and hijacking of legitimate large brown bins by those choosing not to pay.

I provided police with (quite good) pictures of a burglary next door. Several clear shots of the look-out, one of the inside man handing the look-out their loot, taken whilst I was waiting for the police to arrive (I was on the phone to the 999 call centre giving a running commentary on what they were doing). The police turned up 20 minutes later (5 minutes after the the thieves had run away to their waiting car (the details of which had been taken down by another neighbour). Arrests? No of course not, even though they traced the car and the people. 'Not enough evidence'. So clear camera shots, two witnesses insufficient. Don't hold your breath for a 'result'.

They have been changing some of the routes and the teams on existing routes, so I suspect cock-up rather than conspiracy. New crews are still learning their routes and roads.

In general the market sorts this sort of thing out. If 'people' want another pizza place (despite what some posters think about pizza) it may thrive; if there are sufficient pizza places already, then, if this is better than an incumbent, that will fail and this will succeed, and if not, not. Food can often be fashionable - and fashions change - back in the day, Cantonese and Bangladeshi (mainly) food was the rage - now less so and other more specialist eastern cuisines - either other cuisines from the far East and China, or from elsewhere on the Indian subcontinent. But still good Bangladeshi and good Cantonese restaurants will do well. Quite a few different 'takes' on meeting customer eating-out needs have opened, thrived and failed (or not, and after different timescales) in LL. We did have at least one and (partly) two joints doing some take on Tex Mex once, I recall. Tastes changed. And will keep on changing. Most people choose to eat somewhere which provides food at the price, and taste, they want. They probably (most) don't care about the economic model (chain, franchise, stand alone) underlying the operation. LL now has a wider variety of model (and food) than ever. The people in the area will decide (over time) which succeeds or continues to succeed, and which fail. That will be based on making an offer that people are interested in taking up, at a price they are prepared to pay. Right product (for the time) - right price. And any restaurateur worth their salt will recognise that tastes, and customers, change, and that they need to change with them.

No surprise there.

Well if FHRGP actually provided a service to its patients and helped rather than hindered patients it wouldn't be in the mess it is in right now and patients would not be leaving to go to other practices. And they do not appear to like it being highlighted that problems exist, but rather blame the Government for budget issues. The doctor said they'd had difficulty filling a vacancy. In what way is this a valid response to that? We know that those doctors who are in training are no longer as interested in joining the private world of GP practices, but prefer to stay in the tertiary National Health as hospital doctors with the opportunities of much more lucrative private practice than is offered the already privately practicing GPs. We know that GP work is increasingly stressful, and not well rewarded unless you are a practice partner. This is a training and recruitment issue, not necessarily anything to do with government budgets, neither did the doctor claim that it was. FHRGP has difficulties offering appointments because it doesn't have enough GPs working there, although it is trying to remedy this through recruitment. In so far as it can, it does offer a service to patients, and actually not that bad a one, as regards the medical staff there. The issue is (and typically is for most practices) one of booking and resource allocation. You will find that a very small %age of patients are making a very large demand on staff time (that's true of most inner city practices). Those of us with only occasional needs feel frustrated (and not without reason) but we shouldn't necessarily extrapolate our poor personal experiences across the whole practice and all patients.

...So, the jury is still out. However I think there are no doubts that impacts on pedestrians or cyclists at 20mph are likely to be less severe than at 30mph. Physics alone demonstrates that. [Older vehicles with less forgiving construction - less 'crumple zone' - will of course always be more injurious than modern vehicles, at any given speed.] Additionally a slower moving vehicle logically must give greater decision time to others using the road. So I have no problems in believing that a 20mph limit is likely (everything else being equal, which it rarely is) and if adhered to to be making a positive contribution to road safety, if measured in the severity and possibly frequency of accidents.

Do they do the same procedure to cyclists or are they exempt? Cyclists carry no marks of identity to allow any follow-up. Perhaps more relevant - do they also follow up on buses which speed - I have certainly seen some on Barry managing quite a lick, considering that they have lights and stops to hold them up.

I?m the first to ask how to stop other people from using a stickered bin that isn't in their garden. But not, I'm guessing the first to think it. Or actually to consider the commercial opportunities of 'letting' your bin to third parties. If it's already full of 'paid for' waste from neighbours there will be no room for fly-tipping!

I think it was, Franklin's moved into the pub, kept the front half as a pub and moved the back half (and downstairs) into a restaurant. Rodney Franklin had previously run a restaurant (with his late wife, a fine actress) as part of his Antiques Market in the Walworth Road, which I think was closed for redevelopment. Franklin's was always, with him and his partners, a pub and a restaurant, not a 'gastro-pub'.

I also find it hard to believe that a person travelling by motorbike causes the same amount of pollution as one driving by car, but perhaps I'm wrong? Does anyone suggest they do? I'm sure an elderly diesel lorry puts out more pollution than a car, but that doesn't exempt the car (if it doesn't meet the criteria) from paying the charge. You could argue that the charge should be based on the time taken on the road - a car might drive in the zone for 20 minutes in a day, a motor cycle courier the whole working day - so then the courier should be paying more than the car?... Things like this have to be simply administered. If your vehicle doesn't meet the standard set out, you pay. If it does, you don't.