gsirett

Unfortunately I do not think Tigersharks will be swimming in September or ever again. I am one of the members of Tigersharks who have been discussing the future with Alleyns and with Krys & Margrett (the club founders). After the initial bombshell, we had a number of meetings with Alleyns over the summer. Alleyns were prepared to compromise on their initial decision and offered to extend the notice period by one term (until December) This was done on the basis that we were prepared to discuss making changes to the format & conditions that Tigersharks had always hired the pool under. They did acknowledge that their initial handling of the situation had been poor. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a compromise that was sufficient for Krys & margrett and they no longer wished to continue the discussions as of a couple of weeks ago. As the club has been built around them and their ethos, we cannot see a way forward. A very, very sad end to a local institution

Don't think it is a financial decision. The club has always rented to pool from Alleyns and they were told that there was no option to re-negotiate. A 27 year relationship terminated with 2 weeks notice and no reason given. My only thought us that it could be a strategy: independent schools have, over the last few years, made a lot of the support they give to local communities - a cynic may say that was done (even partly) to prevent them losing charity status & paying VAT. So, it could be that Tigersharks is a victim of the school withdrawing such goodwill "if you dont scratch our backs, we wont yours" now such changes seem inevitable I really hope this isn't the case, because it would fly in the face of a number of their values

Me and my family are some of the many members affected by this short-sighted decision - and there's plenty of people in the pool when we go every week.: children learning to swim, families swimming together, etc From what i understand, absolutely no reason has been given by the school for pulling out for this 27 year relationship - so hard to know why they are trying to do this.

Another vote for Busters. Really friendly, professional and reasonably priced service. Repaired a puncture in 10 minutes for £10 - zero attempt to upsell me with new tyres (unlike some other places) - and a really nice guy

Leaeshold generally (not just with Southwark) and be a financial nightmare when the building is being managed by some distant organisation. I own a flat (1/4 in a Victorian block) - it used to be managed by a agent of the freeholder and as an example, to get a simple roof repair done, they would send a sureveyor, a safety guy, a project manager to "manage" 3 x quotes and then finally appoint somebody to do the work. We had the case of 2 missing tiles costing about 6k (1.5 k each) A few years back we (the tenants) took on the management ourselves under Right to Manage. The above example now turns into us getting a couple of local roofers to quote and a few hundred quid. Maybe takes 2 weeks You can only do RTM if theres enough people in the block interested and, it does involve a certain degree of work (which, ironically, can be outsourced to a management firm - but on your own terms) The key thing is: as homeowners we all try to get good value for anything we do. A distant management firm (whether the council or anybody else) isn't maybe as bothered about the value piece - as long as they tick their boxes.

We had the same problem on our street. It used to happen over night (or early in the morning) so it was difficult to identify who was responsible, but we think it was down to one serial offender. *most* dog owners are responsible, just a tiny minority who seem to think its OK to leave s**t outside peoples houses. We put notices up (attached) on every lamppost on the street about 2 months ago. That seems to have fixed the problem (although I have to admit, it could explain why there may have been an increase on Melbourne grove!) Serioously, I think these people just don't realise the offence it causes and unless theyre told so they wont stop . So, either challenge them in the street if you can and tell them how anti-socal this is or put up some notices Edited to say: naming and shaming is good IMO. However, you assume these people read EDF. I would suggest: if you see them doing it: take a photo of them and attach that to a notice on a lamppost.

Andy Lewis (former commewealth long-jump record holder) runs a training/club at Ladywell arena. My 10 year old goes - he is an amazing & inspirational coach Not sure if he has a website. His email address is [email protected]

poor you I ran a small business during the 2008 downfall and went without ANY pay for 6 months. Forget employer pension contributions Yes, everythings got harder for everybody. That's because our economy got smaller. Gordon Brown held it off with fiscal easing (which was the right thing to do IMO) but that does leave us with a large structural debt. Up to you: we can *try* to remedy that over the coming dacades or just leave it for our children and grandchildren to pick up Things are harder for everybody - they will probably continue to. WRT governments and bankers: remember, there were only a handful of countries worldwide that came out of 2008-10 unharmed. UK got hit hard because its a heavily service based economy with financial services making up a big part of that - but with careful management, hopefully we will not end up like greece. And while I'm at it: why does everybody always blame bankers? - I am not one, but this "shock, banker gets a big salary/bonus" nonsense doesn't fly with me. In 2011, the FS sector contributed nearly 10% to this country's GVA; between 2005-11, the FS sector contributed 122 BILLION in tax revenues to the exchequer[1] In hard times, we always look to blame others. [1] (source https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDYQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parliament.uk%2Fbriefing-papers%2Fsn06193.pdf&ei=EMvDU7zvGIXW0QXm74DYBA&usg=AFQjCNEZiCnQQfOfYGl83B22ondDPz4_iw&sig2=8kaKBJxLk5eE8Nvt5mS_6g)

and provides an easy place for people like you to try and get free advertising I suggest that, in that you want to use this as a source of free advertising for your business that you make a donation to the people who operate this forum of, say, ?1000. Or do you think that all of the other businesses that DO help support this forum should fund your advertising

have finally binned Virgin media 6 x TV outages in a year (including one for a whole week) and a couple of phone outages then long hold times for support, lots of frustration with people who I struggle to communicate with. Then offers of pro-rated rebates for loss of service which often dont get applied. More stress trying to get them to follow through on that. My theory: virgin have capacity problems in a high-use area like this. Although they were the first to do fibre-to-the-cabinet, their network is now relatively old and cant cope have moved to sky for TV - from what ive seen so far, they seem to do the whole customer service piece much better some joker from Virgin phoned me up after I cancelled and promised me the earth for a huge discount. He also told me how hugely reliable they are and that sky will stop working if theres a breeze within a 1000 miles or something. I didnt take him up on his offer Virgin broadband has been fine, so sticking with that until I can get BT infinity sorted out

ground rent sounds about right. However, that is the one area where the freeholder (or their agent) cant rip you off(as its written in the lease) Watch out for OTT building & management costs - these can be genuinely higher than you expect (remember, you own a share of the building now - and new roofs aren't cheap) but they can also be used to fleece you. best bet is to look back through prevoius years accounts to see whats being spent and then cross refeence that against the state of the building

Well done you - you spotted a cyclist doing something stupid (and it is stupid to ride at night without lights) The other day, I spotted a man in a van doing something stupid. He was driving his van, on his phone and nealry knocked me off my bike. Lets start a thread now "ban van drivers from the road" In fact, we can start campaigns for both of these things. I love blaming the worlds woes on specific minority groups - its great

I fly a couple times per month and will go for: LCY, LGW , LHR in that order The only sensible option for LHR with luggage is a car/taxi whereas LGW and LCY are pretty simple on public transport For LGW: get a train from ED, Honour Oak or Forest Hill - change at Croydon WRT the hassle with kids,etc: we've been taking the train to LGW since ours were tiny. My other half was initially reluctant, but it really is easy (as long as its not rush hour) - and it means you can have a beer on the way home without worrying about the drive !

I've not been on the forum for a while and I've just read through this thread. Yet again, councillor Barber shows his true colours: a man on a campaign to change the world into his personal view of what it should look like, with little or no regard for those who voted for him. He now claims to be a friend of the Lordship Lane trader - hmmmm Here is a deputation that Clr Barber heard from the traders last year about controlled parking: http://southsouthwarkbusinessassociation.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/deputation-to-dulwich-community-council.html After listenting to that, he was one of only 3 (out of 9?) councillors to vote in favour of controlled parking.