Rockets

Same thing happened to us a while back. Neighbour let the police through with dogs, they totalled the fence, apologised to my neighbour for doing so and said they would pay compensation. My fence so I contacted local police who put me through to some pen-pushing accountants at the Yard who claimed damage was not caused by police, argued and argued, then offered to pay 50% towards the repair, I complained and they then reduced it to 20% and the withdrew it. Needless to say, my neighbour and I won't let them through again unless they give us cash up-front for the damage they'll do!

And the wonderful thing about conspiracy theorists is that no matter the weight of evidence presented to them to counter their arguments they will never be swayed. Let them go on believing the moon landings never happened, Diana was killed by MI6, the twin towers coming down was due to explosives, Bin Laden isn't dead/been dead for years/never really existed. As someone pointed out today on the radio if conspiracies were as prevalent as some people think then they would have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq! As the Monkees said: Daydream Believers......

But you have to remember that when they published images of Uday Hussein after he had been shot dead there was outcry in Iraq. The US is rightly treating this as sensitively as possible. Killing him and dropping him in the sea might give ammunition to the conspiracy theorists but what else are they going to do with the body - there's not a country in the world that would want to have him buried on their soil. Politically Bin Laden would have been worth a lot more dead to Bush than alive and I suspect he would be looking on at Obama enviously as the man who got him. Obama can rightfully claim mission accomplished. The benefit of having him killed is that it creates a vacuum within the organisation and it removes the fund-raising figure-head. I can guarantee that counter-terrorism agencies around the world are picking up all sorts of chatter from terrorists vowing to avenge his death and potentially revealing their plans/identities. There is no conspiracy. After months, maybe years, of meticulous planning and surveillance they took their chance. They had to make sure they had him, he had evaded capture/death at least a couple of times before (once during the Clinton era and before 9/11). I suspect that's why they sent in special forces rather than missiles as they needed definitive proof they had their man.

Love all these people claiming he isn't dead/been dead for years etc. They found him, they killed him, they buried him in the sea - good day at the office for the special forces. Sure these conspiracy theorists will be the same people who will be in uproar when a gruesome image of the damage done by two bullets to the head comes to light or begin complaining of brutality or injustice when a video of his execution comes to light.....

I will be more than happy to talk to the police on the doorstep but if they ask to use my house as access to the gardens to try and aprehend someone (as they asked my neighbour in this incident) then I will politely tell them no and why. Funnily enough the police members of my family agree totally with my stance and say that pen-pushing civil servants working in the police are making front line officer duties more and more difficult exactly because of this type of issue. Their advice has been that the officer concerned will have damaged the fence, said what he said to my neighbour, forgotten to write up the property damage report and then lied when confronted in light of this complaint to cover the fact he did not do the report. You hit the nail on the head when you say that you would have accepted the 50% because you could not be bothered to take it further - that's exactly what the civil-servants want us to do - to foot the bill ourselves. And that is wrong.

All, Thought I would update you all on progress - or lack of it! I complained to the commissioner about the problems we had been having getting the money for our damaged property. The commissioner referred it back to the department that dealt with it in the first place. A month later that department came back and reduced their offer of compensation from 50% to 20% seemingly as a punishment for daring to complain. My neighbour is spitting fire as the officers who spoke to him on the evening concerned are lying and he also now plans to take matters further. There is a simple lesson to be learnt from all this: if the police come knocking on your door asking for your help and assistance think very carefully about supporting them. I have always been a big supporter of the police (my family is littered with serving and retired Met police officers) but my attitude has now changed and they can no longer count on my, or my neighbour's, support.

Are you sure they never lived there as I visited one of the houses on the estate many years ago and had my vehicle very carefully checked for bombs etc by some very serious looking and thorough police? No sign of Maggie though. The person I visited in the house said Maggie was a resident and that as a result their lives were a daily routine of armed police and searches everytime they went in and out. It was a long time ago though.

Given the political nature of the last few days does Maggie Thatcher still live off the A205? If she does, has anyone ever seen her?

Hugeknot - you don't work for the police legal services department do you......you certainly sound and act like you do? ;-) ?160 might seem steep to you but it is what the gardening companies who came to view the damage quoted. Not sure what else I am to do - perhaps say: "Sorry but in the interests of saving the precious public purse and to avoid government waste I will not accept your quote Mr fencing expert and must insist that I pay at least 50% of the cost of repairs myself".

Yeah come on Huguenot - put your prejudices aside, dig deep and send forth your money to the needy of East Dulwich - you are such a charitable fellow! Or maybe you should pay for some anger-management classes! ;-) The police are perfectly capable of doing their job without the paperwork before, it's the paperwork after that seems to have been missing on this occasion. Two gardening companies quoted ?160 for the work due to the damage caused to the posts as well. Perhaps you should start a gardening business as your prices are very competitive!!! Anyway, my complaint is progressing and I will keep you updated on the outcome.

ImpetuousVrouw - I am still laughing now after reading your post! Police are public servsnts and sometimes during the course of serving the public they may damage property. For this they have to fill out a property damage report so that when the member of public claims, quite rightly, the system pays out. To suggest that myself, or anyone else in the same situation, should fund the repairs themselves is bordering on the ridiculous - hardly encourages people to assist the police if you may end up getting a big bill at the end of it. After much to'ing and fro'ing with the police they have left me with no option than to complain further up the hierachy - wasting my time and their time. I know a lot of police officers and they all say the same thing when I tell them what happend: they won't pay. Why? Because the people you end up dealing with are not police but pen-pushing, budget saving civil servants. All the police I have spoken to say this is exactly the type of thing that makes their jobs ten times harder because it damages their reputation. Surely it is far easier for the police to pay the ?160 (and let's be honest considering the police helicopter was hovering overheard for 30 minutes or so, that numerous police turned up including dog handlers the ?160 is but a drop in the ocean of the overall public cost) say sorry we broke your fence and keep their reputation intact with myself and my neighbours. Next time they come knocking they can go to someone else's house. If the officer concerned had said, sorry but the criminal broke your fence then so be it. But he didn't. He said he broke the fence and that we can get the police to foot the bill. And to Swagger's point - if the policeman had been trying to tackle the burglar who had made off with my stuff I would be doubly annoyed, one because I would be out of pocket cos I would have lost my Xbox (bit more of a PS3 man myself) AND my damaged fence. ;-) PS the image attached is not Beeches Brook but the said fence!

Errr, because they damaged it, apologised to my neighbour for doing so and said they would pay for the repairs. The attitude of some people on this forum amazes me! Let's hope it never happens to you hey! ;-) And to Hugeknot, yes, where there used to be a fence is a gaping hole, completely unrepairable and no longer able to perform it's fence-like duties, hence the need for a couple of new panels coming to a cost of ?160, which the police said, after apologising for damaging the fence they would repair.....oh here we go again.....

Two whole fence panels have been destroyed - they are beyond repair and a local gardener has quoted ?160 to replace them. So Huguenot, are you suggesting that if a public servant damages our property it is somehow our responsbility to pay for the repairs? You miss the point entirely. I can assure you that plenty of our tax-payers money had been spent trying to catch the criminal - lots of police, dogs and even the helicopter hovering overheard for 30 minutes so I am sure the police can fund for the repair. Oh, and he got away to rob another day....... Ratty, did you try to make a claim?

I wonder if anyone, maybe James Barber, can offer some advice. At the end of January the police chased a burglar through a number of gardens along our street and damaged some fences. My neighbour helpfully allowed the police access to the gardens via their house and one of the officers apologised to them as he said he had broken the fence between our gardens (it looks like a racehorse hit it!) and that we should get in touch with the local station to get them to pay for the damage he had caused. As the fence is our property we got in touch with the local police who put us in touch with the director of legal services at Scotland Yard. After much back and forth, with the police denying they caused any of the damage, they finally offered to pay 50% of the costs of the repairs. I am not happy as I have written testimony from my neighbour on exactly what they were told by the plice officer at the time of the incident and he quite clearly stated to them that he had caused the damage. The police are suggesting the person they were chasing caused the damage and are now saying that they will not be offering more than 50%. My neighbours and I have been more than happy to help the police in their duties in the past but now will think twice before doing so in future - why should we foot the bill for damage they caused? The police officer concerned was very apologetic to my neighbour but the pen-pushers at Scotland Yard seem to want to try and save some pennies. Anyone had similar issues? I am going to write to the divisional commander in the area to see if they can get this matter resolved. Thanks R

Time for the school to take more action - they have a duty of care to their children and need to invoke some responsible parenting in their numb-skull clientele. The selfish attitude of some of the parents of kids who go to that school is beyond belief and someone needs to take a stand before someone gets hurt. Other parents at the school who do not cause these dangerous situations need to challenge those who do.

The idiots were at it again this afternoon. Following a large Merc 4x4 to the school this afternoon and it stopped in the middle of Goodrich near the narrower crossing bit and a woman walks towards it, opens two doors and starts loading her kids and bags into the car. I could not believe what I was seeing - the driver stopped in the middle of the road blocking the street. I hit the horn to register my disapproval and the woman gave me a look as if to say how dare you suggest I might not stop and block the road in a dangerous place to put my darling kids into my 4x4. After quite a while the final little darling managed to load herself into the car and stuck her tongue out at me as she shut the door! And I blame the parents....

In fact you should wipe the screen if you have used a suction cup as it leaves a tell-tale ring that you can see from the outside thus advertising the high probablility of a sat-nav being in the glove compartment. Also, never leave your home address on the sat nav - they nick the sat nav and then know if your car is not around you are probably not at home.

I spoke to the council as ours had not been emptied for ages and the bin lorry came past, collect some from the street but not all. They said they would recollect in a few days, I said that was not good enough and they were emptied that day. THey are days behind on their collections but said things were getting back to normal.

Same thing happened to us yesterday (we are on Hillcourt) and then at about 10pm we lost all power that came back on at about 1.30am. According to EDF Energy there are problems at the local sub-station.

The postie turkeys just voted for Christmas. Lots of companies are now switching away from the royal mail, understandably so - the unions don't want modernisation so they have opted for extinction. The strike was over ages ago yet the parcels are not arriving - they are now on a go slow but let's be honest the East Dulwich sorting offices were awful before the strike and are now absymal.

Hmmm, are the posties expecting a change of government very shortly and are trying to force management to concede to their demands before they get privatised per chance???? The deliveries in East Dulwich have been shoddy and sporadic at best in the past but are now a joke and the excuse of the strike is laughable - the posties are just working on a go-slow to force management to pay overtime for a problem the posties created by going on strike. Anyone ever tried calling the Silvester Road sorting office - the phone rings and rings yet no-one ever picks up - why, cos they unplugged the phone ages ago?

Gimme, The plane is doing a photographic survey and has been doing it for weeks. Unfortunately, ED is under the flightpath of two airports and there's not a huge amount we can do about it. It's going to get worse from Tuesday from City airport as BA is starting flying Airbus planes from City to New York and unlike the current planes flying from City, they are not designed with quietness in mind. Gotta hope they get routed over north london rather than south.

It has been doing it for weeks - every weekend back and forth, back and forth. Apparently they are doing a photographic survey - one hell of a survey - it's Google Earth gone crazy!!!!

Be careful - this is how wars start......

I think two mains have gone as there is water pouring out of a hole in the road on Goodrich. Water on again on Hillcourt now.