ed26

That's good to know. Looks like Day Lewis pulled out in December and a new business (Pharmtrack Ltd trading as Bellenden Road Pharmacy) has taken on the licence to operate it. Good luck to them. Still very happy with Vale for prescriptions but good to know that there is an option.

The signal has deteriorated significantly in the last few years. There was always a huge dead spot in Peckham (all the way from Lidl to Queens Road station in my experience) but this seems to have spread. I used to get a good signal around Goose Green and Dawson's Heights (at the bottom, not up high) but it's impossible to get calls or data at either spot. I took this up with Vodafone a year or so ago. They refused to accept that there is a problem in the area. They said they will send someone out to check the signal if they get enough complaints from the area (which is difficult if you can't get through to them). After I complained in writing, they grudgingly activated the WiFi calling on my plan. This is useful if you're at home without a signal. You can make/receive calls over your WiFi from your mobile without needing to use a separate app like WhatsApp. The problem is that the call drops for a second when the phone decides to flip back to the mobile network. You can turn the mobile network off completely, but then you don't get SMS text messages.

Thanks for posting that. I've also heard those noises and always wondered what they are. I assumed it would be foxes but wondered if it was frogs in the Wildlife Gardening Centre (https://www.wildlondon.org.uk/nature-reserves/centre-wildlife-gardening)

I suspect that Chris's "Not what you expect in East Dulwich" was just a throwaway comment and doesn't warrant anyone suggesting that he's got an attitude. Moreover, while I accept that crime is a problem in ED and all local suburbs, I've lived here for 20+ years and would agree that several vans of riot police with guns is out of the norm and "not what you would expect" in the middle of a Tuesday morning.

Maybe this one? https://www.stjohnseastdulwich.org/

A lot of the prepacked ham was very grey the other day. Must have been out of the fridge for a long time while they've been reshuffling everything. A sign said that the refurb should be complete by early December, so check your purchases carefully until then.

Nice to see the independent pharmacies succeeding where the chains are doing a poor job. I've never been to Sogim but Vale is very good, albeit a bit disorganised. Co-op pulled out of the store that was the old Sogim. Day Lewis on Bellenden Road has the rudest lad on customer service (after visiting several times for my prescription, he snapped at me that I should stop hassling them until I received a text. I'm still waiting for the text and that's over a year ago now). Lloyds have pulled out of Sainsburys and now North Cross Road. I never once managed to pick up a prescription without having to wait 15+ mins while they tried to locate it. So, no great loss, as long as the independents survive. I always try to buy something extra when I go into Vale.

I've always thought of Chipotle as the sort of place you pick up some grub when dashing from the pub to a gig so it seems a bit out of place on the Lane. I'm not averse to a burrito though, as long as the ingredients are pretty fresh and not the dregs that have been out keeping warm all day. First time I heard of Chipotle was this (not for the easily offended / grossed out): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHsR65IRW_8

This is very useful to know. Would be interested to learn where it is published, although I don't fancy my chances when quoting chapter and verse to a grumpy driver.

Hi - does anyone know if the new batch of school streets are enforced during the school holidays? I'm thinking of Adys Road in particular. The sign says that it applies Mon-Fri but says nothing about school hols. But this page on the Southwark website suggests that the old batch are only enforced in term time: https://www.southwark.gov.uk/transport-and-roads/improving-our-streets/school-street-road-closures. I emailed [email protected] and got an automated acknowledgement but no one has responded. Thanks

When I was at university, the facilities staff used to put warning notices on the windscreens of cars that were parked inconsiderately. These notices were printed on very sticky full A4 sized labels and were a nightmare to peel off, especially if it had rained after the sheet had been stuck to the windscreen. Just saying.....

I'd like to understand this more, as it would be a great opportunity for the community to own part of a local business and participate in the success, but there's very little information on the GoFundMe page and the questions haven't been answered in this thread either. My understanding is that 50% of the business is owned by an absent Director, and is valued at £200,000. The other 50% is owned by Sarah Coe and possibly Joanne Coe, also valued at £200,000 (logically). Sarah Coe is trying to raise £200,000 to buy the absent Director's share of the business. If the GoFundMe raises £200,000, do Sarah & Joanne Coe own 100% of the business, or does Sarah Coe still own 50%, with the 50% acquired from the absent Director being owned jointly by everyone who contributed to the GoFundMe? One of these options sounds like a great opportunity for local people to participate in a local business (for local people). The other sounds like giving Sarah & Joanne Coe lots of cash so they can own all of the business and not share any of the benefits. I do hope it's the first option, as the second sounds rather cynical - what would stop them from then selling the whole business for £400,000 and not returning the funding to anyone who contributed? I've read the comments about only commenting if you want to support the business. I'm very interested in supporting if it's fair for everyone who contributes.

It's a bit of everything I think. People have been predicting the demise of the cinema for as long as I remember, and I saw Ghostbusters when it was new, to give you an idea of how long that is. But things do seem a bit different this time around. Short waits before films are released to streaming sites, big home TV screens, Netflix, etc. just make staying home a more viable entertainment option than it was back then. Until about 10 years ago, I used to go to the cinema nearly every week - we'd turn up, see what was playing and go to the pub if we didn't fancy anything. Our cinema (out of town) was a big 12 screen job so there was plenty of choice. I can't imagine going to the cinema now without having booked tickets in advance, and I think that's part of the problem as it's not a spontaneous thing any more. The local just became a bit of a bit of a headache. They started charging extra if you wanted to sit in the back few rows, or for priority entry, and even for the top films at one point. They stopped you going in more than about 20 mins before the movie as they didn't want kids hanging around in the foyer, so you had to queue outside in the rain (but they had no problem letting kids disturb everyone once the movie started). They started showing the blockbuster movies in more screens which reduced the choice - obviously supply and demand, but the number of times that we just ended up going to the pub instead increased. In the end, it just fizzled out and we stopped going. I've enjoyed going to the new boutique cinemas like Picturehouse and Everyman, but I only go for specific films, and even then it feels like hard work. And it's become too expensive to go to see random films just because you fancy going to the cinema. Maybe if they could do some simple things to attract the spontaneous crowd back instead of throwing millions at 4D VR megascreen experiences, it would do a lot for the film industry.

Agree with the above. You would need to keep the kitchen mains hard for cooking / drinking, and any other taps that you want to retain mains pressure, such as an outdoor tap. Your boiler will last longer as it will be heating softened water. The valves in your water tanks / toilet will last longer and be less prone to leaking, reducing the chance of floods. You'll use less detergent (and you'll have to, unless you want a foam party in the kitchen). And you may not need hair conditioner (so I'm told) or fabric softener, which is better for the environment. We were complimented on our new bathroom in spite of it being 10 years old, as everything stays shiny. The softener does need to be kept topped up with salt, which means additional storage and cost, and it will probably take a couple of hours to flush and regenerate the softening core each week. It's usually on a timer or sensor, so it doesn't need active involvement, but you'll have a couple of hours of whooshing and whirring to put up with, so have it installed somewhere where it won't disturb you. The only drawback is that it reduces the water flow. We had a power shower with its own feeder tank, and the water feeding the tank went in more slowly than the water coming out of the shower, so the tank could run dry after a while, stopping the shower. We got used to it but a few visitors ended up with soapy hair and no water coming from the shower.

I don't understand the thought process of spending £2,000 on a new bike and then being too tight to pay the council to collect the box, or take it to the recycling centre, or break it up and shove it in the blue bin. The sense of entitlement....

Just home from the superb Dulwich Sports Club firework event. £12 for me and the boy, which is his treat for the month. The staff and crowd there were wonderful - a credit to the area and a real community spirit. Carbon footprint of a typical display is 20kg, shared between around 3,000 people. In context, this is 1% of the carbon footprint of a flight to Australia, which would have around 300 people on it. Or the equivalent of those 300 people each making a 1 minute mobile phone call. So I don't think that it's anything to mess our pants over.

It's a pathetic little dirt hole of a store. Huge queues for the only staffed checkout. One person supervising the self-scan and scan & go checkout, so you can wait for ages for them to be free if there's a problem. I got yelled at the other day for pushing the gate open when my receipt wouldn't open the scan & go gate the other day and had been waiting for ages for someone to help me. And don't even hope that there may be someone available to help look for an item after everything has moved. I was invited in to meet the manager years ago when I complained about empty shelves (not a post-Brexit thing) and incorrect prices on items. He admitted he was shocked at how many little things can add up to a big frustration when shopping - prices on shelves relating to a 300g item but only 200g and 400g items on sale; multi-buy offers more expensive than single items; no individual fruit and veg in stock but huge stock of the same items in plastic bags; different prices on the shelf compared to the checkout; wrong items on the shelves, and so on. He did say that we can unwrap bagged goods to buy them individually as a last resort, but I've never had the nerve to do that. I would gladly snap the stalks off those broccoli before weighing them though. You would think that Sainsbury's would be trying to up their game with the rise of Lidl and Aldi......

Can't deny that I love a good juice. It's a treat though, and a healthier choice than a Coke or a "juice drink" with added sugar and additives. But what niggles me is juices that are mainly apple or grape in spite of their name - Joe & the Juice used to do a berry juice with ingredients listed as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc., but the majority of the base was apple. Even Tropicana's Orange & Raspberry juice is 40% apple, despite it not being in the name. Just thought I'd add to the juice rant.

Definitely less poo on the streets than 40 years ago (I can't comment on 49), but also definitely more on the streets than 10 years ago. Not really sure what resulted in the reduction - was it that it became socially unacceptable to leave dog poo around, or that the public became more aware of the health risks, or better cleaning from the Council? But the jokes about "you don't see white dog poo any more" seemed to correspond with the reduction. But there seems to be more irresponsible dog owners than 10+ years ago in general, and not just lockdown pups, as this trend has been happening since I moved to ED. My daughter gets sniffed around by lots more dogs than previously (and she's scared of dogs), and owners have become increasingly shirty when I've asked them to try to keep their dogs away. There's a lot more dogs off leads in the "on leads" part of the park, like around the pond. And a woman recently was letting her dog sniff around the kids' picnics in the no dogs picnic area, justifying it with "don't worry, she's harmless." Another woman let her dog curl out a massive one right next to my car when I was about to get in it, but when I asked her what she was going to do about it, she told me to "f?%*k off." The Council also seemed to reduce cleaning efforts during lockdown that haven't been reinstated recently. The amount of poo, fly-tipping, etc. is a disgrace (and gutter weeds, although I'm not sure whether this is the same department as street cleaning).

I've just completed this, and the theme of the questions seems to suggest that the needs of cyclists who are passing through Rye Lane on the way to the City will be prioritised above passengers who are travelling to Rye Lane. If there really isn't enough room for both cycles and buses, then why shouldn't cyclists be diverted around Copeland Road? Don't get me wrong - I don't think that cyclists should be rerouted off Rye Lane, but it seems a bit crazy to prioritise people who are passing the station over people who are travelling TO the station. Part of me wonders if this is all part of the plan to do away with the 12/78 routes - you aren't going to get the 78 from Nunhead to go back on yourself to Copeland Road, just to get to the station, and it would be easier to get the 40/176/185 to Denmark Hill rather than walk from Copeland Road to Peckham Rye station. so then TfL can claim that there's a big reduction in bus usage.

I lived in a town with 20-min bus services. The bus co reduced the frequency to 30 mins. The number of passengers consequently declined so they reduced the frequency to 60 mins. After you've just missed a bus and had to wait 59 mins for the next one, you vow never to take the bus again and you drive into the town centre. The point is that the bus co took one bus an hour off the service to save a few quid, and it completely decimated it. This is exactly what has been happening in London and will continue to happen until the services are as unreliable as they were 15-20 years ago.

So much wrong (yet right) about the article... It gave me a giggle anyway. I'm assuming that Adam sits around at home all day looking wistful and plagiarising John Lennon, while poor Liz has to hold down three jobs just to pay for the nanny to look after their gender neutrally-clothed children, Casper, India and Namaste. Debbie probably worked in Marketing at RBS 20 years ago and is referred to as "banker" to make sure the Brexiteers REALLY hate her. @Angelina - yes, technically Bellenden Road is Peckham as it's SE15 but it does *feel* very East Dulwich at that end of the road, and it's nearer to ED Station than either Peckham station, so we'll let them off. Some estate agents even call it "Bellenden Village" The comments about the extensions looking like a shanty town and sheds are spot on IMHO. Perhaps an amicable solution would be to knock both extensions down and build a proper terraced house extension with a proper party wall. It would look a hell of a lot better anyway. It does make me a bit sick how the tabloids trawl social media to find photos of people in their stories, in situations that are completely unrelated to the issue. But then there's probably a lesson to be learned about not posting your holiday snaps for the whole world to see. I'm questioning the need for a business that makes gender neutral clothing for 3-12 year olds. It's not like you can't find jeans and t-shirts that aren't all pink princesses and blue diggers in Primark (although I support the idea of ethical / sustainable clothing and you certainly can't buy that in Primark). But hey, if it's made Adam and Liz into millionaire hipsters then good on them. I still have this niggling thought that Adam has sold this story to the press to promote his band though.

Alan Medic Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I had a postal vote and went the scientific route > in my selection. Only 3 candidates had their > addresses on the ballot, so they got my votes (2 > LD's and a Green). I think this is a worthy approach - I took a similar approach in the last GE as only one of the main (i.e. not Legalise Cannabis Now or whatever) candidates lived in the constituency. Can't remember if it was Green or LibDems now. Fat lot of good it did us though.

My satnav directed me around a load of back streets around Nunhead and Peckham on Tuesday to avoid those roadworks so it's quite likely.

The http://votethemoutmay22.org.uk/how-to-vote/ website has finally been updated with some suggestions of how to vote tactically to try to oust Labour. Contrary to some earlier comments, it isn't entirely pro-Conservatives. I am a few yards into the Rye Lane ward, where Labour got 80% of the vote last time around. I can't see them being toppled this time with that kind of majority. That's probably why they put the least effective councillors in this ward, who you only hear from at election time. There's a full breakdown of 2018 results here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Southwark_London_Borough_Council_election I'd say that, unless Conservatives are a very close second, voting for them could be a waste as I can't imagine their popularity increasing in the current circumstances. Lib Dems always seem to do well on a local basis (and deserve to, in my experience) and also when voters are looking to send a sign to their usual party. So my guess is that they would be best placed to take some of the closer seats. Dulwich Village was very close 2nd place for Lib Dems / Conservatives last time around. The anti-Labour vote risks being split between the anti-LTN Conservatives and the anti-Conservative LibDems. Would be lovely to end the Southwark dictatorship and get a bit more balance on the Council but I don't think any of the opposition is strong enough, sadly.