vladi

I've noticed that Aria has lots of recommendations from forumites who have only ever have made a single post and that first and only post is about A.F.E. and Aria! Strange, no?

Lammy has been a car crash in terms of UK-USA relations. Today Peter Mandelson advocated that Starmer should solicit the intervention of Nigel Farage to help rebuild bridges with Trump. Check this out UK Labour – POLITICO Starmer did not rule out the possibility when interviewed today on BBC. So now we have a PM about to grovel to Trump. Trump may well be a vile, spiteful and unpredictable individual and I fear what might happen during his second period of tenure but I reckon he will exercise a massive amount of retribution on this UK government because of its indiscretions and ineptitude. As for making Lammy the Foreign Secretary - that's beyond farcical. Lammy is toast!

Reeves and Truss have both displayed incompetence. The former can also be accused of dishonesty and misrepresentation. However, this all pales into insignificance in comparison to the utter incompetence and stupidity shown by David Lammy. He accused Donald Trump of being "a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath" and a "tyrant in a toupee" plus a "racist KKK and Nazi sympathiser" To make matters worse, Lammy's first decision as Foreign Secretary was to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. The Chagos is home to the large American airbase that is strategically located in the Pacific and a priceless bulwark against Chinese expansion in the region. There will be a price to pay as Trump in not one to forgive and forget. In reality he is renowned for his retribution on his critics and opponents. For that reason, it would not be surprising if Lammy and Reeves were disposed of in the first cabinet reshuffle.

Absolutely! If the "Non-crime hate speech" was to be handled by the PCSO's, that would free up the "real police" to handle serious crime such as muggings, theft, drugs, rape, violence etc ,etc, etc, etc. The "real police" shouldn't was precious time having a cuppa with the concerned law-abiding citizens. They should be out there fighting real crime.

Some newspapers, such as The Times, organise deliveries throughout most of the UK. They obviously use subcontractors and I would rate their service as 9 out of 10. We used them previously before switching to Budgens on Half Moon Lane.

I'd suggest using a Faraday pouch . Such as 2x Car Key Signal Blocker Faraday Pouch Police are too busy investigating "Non-crime hate speech" such as between kids in school.

Budgens on Half Moon Lane

@Pereira Neves "Cuppa with a Coppa" is a misrepresentation as PCSOs are not real police. They have no more powers of arrest that any public citizen. They may have the "authority" to advise the regular police of a crime - just like Joe Public. One exception is that they can issue fixed penalty notices to people who cycle on a footpath. We see people cycling on the footpath every day but have never seen a PCSO issue a fixed penalty notice to anybody. No qualifications are needed to become a PCSO. At best, all they do is reassure and advise the public with platitudes.

You can use PayPal to send money and it is free of charge if you chose to send it as a gift to friends or family.

I look to the future and clearly see that the law of unintended consequences will apply with a vengeance and come 2029 Labour will voted out of office. As someone once said 'The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money'.

The problem appears to be too many "Twirlies" - Some arriving around 20 minutes early for their appointments. Add to that the fact that they will go together as a couple and one can imagine that it gets crowded.

It maybe worthwhile checking the foundations of the house because some houses in Dulwich were designed and built in such a manner as to eliminate/reduce the risk of subsidence. One such design feature was "raft foundations". These are thick, reinforced concrete slabs that spread the building’s load evenly across a large surface area, reducing the differential movement caused by subsidence. Raft foundations "float" on the clay and accommodate movements without major structural damage. Another factor worth considering is if the terrace of houses is on level ground or on a slope . On a downhill slope, the houses lower down the slope are potentially more prone to subsidence damage because the houses higher up the slope tend to "lean" on those further down if subsidence movement has occurred.

Under the Water Industry Act 1991, Thames Water was able to get the South-East of England designated as a "water-stressed" area. Such a designation, the government allows water companies to implement compulsory metering programs. This law gives TW the right to install water meters in some cases, but it does not mandate that all customers must be moved onto meters. This means Thames Water can legally require customers to have a water meter installed as part of efforts to manage water resources more efficiently. Doubtless TW has been able to identify high consumption users, like us, who have a large garden that needs watering. Profit motive guarantee that TW will benefit financially if it switches high consumption clients on to smart meters. Hence they target these and they are quite willing to incur the cost of replacing old lead pipes within the customer’s property boundary even though technically it’s the home owner’s responsibility. Whether there is a minor leak or not, the high consumption home owners goes on a meter – like it or not. In principle, I have no desire to pay TW any more that I need to, so have installed a rainfall collection and bulk underground system – with the added benefit that our plants now got fresh water rather than chlorinated water from TW.

Since having our water leak fixed, I have been checking the meter readings as shown online in our a/c with TW. I noticed that for a two week period the account was showing "no readings available". Went out and checked the meter and found that the transmitter had become detached from the lid and had fallen down into the bottom of the hole. The transmitter box should be attached on the underside of the lid. With it being 3 feet down the hole it obviously couldn't send the signal to TW. It appeared that TW had installed an insulation pad to prevent frost getting to the meter itself. When that was done, they stamped on the lid to fix in place. They stomped rather too hard and dislodged the transmitter. I guess it pays to check the readings online regularly!

Suggest you don't rush to get it fixed at your expense. There are circumstances under which TW will fix the underground leaks within your boundary so if you get onside with their representative and appear helpless/impoverished,/vulnerable there is a very chance that they will fix the problem by replacing your old lead pipe with 25mm plastic at no cost to you. It worked for me!

Do the "rules" of this thread preclude the use of words that have previously been used in this thread?

I recommend you take your own water meter readings once a day for around a month and this will give an accurate account of your actual regular consumption. That way you you can challenge the water companies data. By way of a further refinement, you might consider turning off the stop cock where the incoming mains supply enters your house. Do this late at night and then take the meter reading. Take the reading early next morning and then turn the supply back on. Compare this with the hourly consumption on the water companies web site. If there is no difference between the readings, then this eliminates the possibility of internal leaks. If there is a difference on their website from the night before then you have a faulty meter and that undermines their case.

Another earlier refusal was the one near the junction of Half Moon Lane and Village Way.

@Dogkennelhillbilly The council's remit also covers planning applications. It is planning refusals for new masts that has resulted in the not-spot in the area. It's not just DV but a much wider area. If you do have mobile phone do you know which mast you are getting your signal from and based on your handle, I'm guessing that with the DKH handle you connect to the one at Champion Hill. Lucky you!

My suggested locations for the site of a new cell phone mast are circled red on the map below. These locations are on high spots overlooking DV and so would give a strong signal over the current not-spots. The company that owns mot of the masts in the UK pays about £10,000 to £30,000 a year to owners of buildings who agree to have a mst installed. In recent years, both JAGS and Alleyns have benefited form planning applications being approved for new buildings and extensions. I would contend that any future planning applications from these schools be subject to their agreement on having a mast erected - either on a building or somewhere else on their grounds. By so doing these schools would be giving widespread support to the community. Furthermore, the revenue they would earn from having a mast would offset the adverse effects of VAT being imposed on their fees.

@James Barber Your contribution to the issue is greatly appreciated as you are in a unique position of having been Southwark councillor and also having worked with mobile operators. That said, do you have any suggestions as to where a new cell mast could be located which would alleviate the problem and which would satisfy the Council Planners and the other main stakeholders?

If you believe your hypothesis is valid, pray tell why the operators keep on submitting Planning Applications for the masts? Here's the latest application to get refused 23/AP/3268 | Prior Approval notification for proposed base station, installation of a 20-metre high monopole supporting 6no. antennas and 1no. 300mm transmission dish, the installation of 3no. equipment cabinets and ancillary development on east side of Dulwich Village (opposite its junction with Turney Road). | Land At Dulwich Village (Opposite Its Junction With Turney Road) London SE21 7BN (southwark.gov.uk) and another... 21/AP/2121 | Prior approval notification for the installation of an 18.0m Phase 8 Monopole C/W wrapround Cabinet at base and associated ancillary works. | Dulwich Common Dulwich London SE21 7ER (southwark.gov.uk)

Several applications have been submitted for the erection of a new cell phone masts over the years. All have been objected to by a vocal minority and so we all have to suffer very poor reception. So until the Nimbys relent, it isn't going to improve. In fact, for those on 5g it will get worse as the 5G signal is less capable than 4G in terms of penetrating walls of houses.

Let's have your suggestions for alternative usage.