Mabel2001

Sillywoman, your snide comment reminds me why I rarely read or post on this forum. My boyfriend was born in 1976 and went to Alleyn's in the early 90s, long after any local ILEA scholarships ceased as the previous poster has noted. He stayed friends with around ten of his classmates there, many still live in the area and in fact he's working on projects with two of them at the moment. Everyone's experiences are different, and I meant to strike a note of positivity here. Your negative echoing/mocking of my comment is not appreciated. Signing off, sayonara forum.

Although I don't have a pooch, I visited the new dog shop on Northcross Rd out of interest and it was super-cute, with an unusual collection of vintage and luxury dog items. The owner was very nice and had a charming little grey dog in the shop called Edie who was a real sweetheart. The shop had only been open two days. Though people may miss the sweet shop, I think we should try to keep a positive attitude toward all local small businesses, even if they may not be to our taste.

My boyfriend, born and bred in Camberwell, was given a scholarship at Alleyns on academic merit, and says it changed his life.

Thanks everyone for your sympathy and replies. We have considered moving but are a young couple who simply can't take the time right now with our jobs. We've contacted the council (no reply yet), and our landlords, who will also take it up with the council. It's a real shame what she's done to the house: as the next person lucky enough to live there as a council tenant will have no garden whatsoever. The hedge/trees are within our control though, as they are on our landlord's property and we will try to bring it home to her that she must consult us on anything that affects our property. As before, we have always been pleasant to her and are great friends with other neighbours on our street: she had every opportunity to let us know if the upkeep of the hedge was concerning her on her side (in thr past, we had weeded her front garden many times before she concreted it over). It's especially disappointing as she is virtually a shut-in who rarely leaves the house (our neighbours shop for her), so she doesn't use her garden. It's like she hates nature!

Just talked to our neighbours on the other side, who say that not only has the council tenant illegally paved over the front of the house, she also paved over the back garden without getting permission before we came... So that's 3 incidences of her doing whatever she pleases to the property.

It's a hedge made of a mixture of shrubs and trees that are over 3 meters tall that it is growing on our property (on our side of a low trellis fence), that separates our properties. Now we are exposed and can look straight into her backyard and the backyard next to hers. She is a council tenant, we are private tenants. We had been trimming it from our side, and on top as well but there would have been some overhang on her side. She's been friends with our neighbours on the other side for years, who we told we are going away, so I imagine she planned cutting it down for when we weren't there so we couldn't object.

Il Mirto on Melbourne Grove is a nice traditional family-owned Italian and only a hop, skip and jump from Lordship Lane.

Wow, that's awesome street art. What a shame it was painted over.

Thanks Borderlands and Hugenot for your replies. She is a council tenant and the hedge separates our properties. If the council cut the hedge down on her behest, surely they would have to notify us? If she had it cut down privately, she surely would have had to notify the council? It's really drastic - the hedge has been razed in half. Will try to post some photos.

Just returned from holiday to find that this elderly council neighbour has now brutally razed the back hedge that separates our properties, chopping it down to give us a fabulous view of her backyard. She did not notify us, and neither did the council if they in fact did the work. We had been successfully trimming the hedge from our side and on top, and it in no way needed this treatment. Once again, she has behaved as if we do not live at the property, and has acted with complete disregard for anything that might affect us. Advice, please...

I posted in 2 different sections, and in response to another thread on local teams.

I'm posting on behalf of my boyfriend who doesn't have an account on the forum, but is looking for a regular weekend basketball game in ED or nearby. He used to play in Dulwich Park with whoever is around but obviously harder in the depths of winter! He also previously had a team in Peckham that disbanded. He is 6 ft 4 and plays to a good standard. Please let me know if you have a regular game with friends etc that he could join, or if you are interested in forming a team to play regularly over the winter and could split indoor court hire. Many thanks. (not sure why this posting was just deleted, admin: perhaps it's not as important as bottles of pee).

Hi all, I'm posting on behalf of my boyfriend who doesn't have an account on the forum, but is looking for a regular weekend basketball game in ED or nearby. He used to play in Dulwich Park with whoever was around but this is obviously harder in the depths of winter! He also previously had a team in Peckham that disbanded. He is 6 ft 4 and plays to a good standard. Please let me know if you have a regular game with friends etc that he could join, or if you would be interested in forming a team to play regularly over the winter that could split indoor court hire. Many thanks.

Hi, just tagging on to this thread about local sports: does anyone know of a basketball team in ED or Peckham? I'm posting on behalf of my boyfriend who doesn't have an account on the forum, but is looking for a regular weekend basketball game in ED or nearby. He used to play in Dulwich Park with whoever was around but this is obviously harder in the depths of winter! He also previously played with a team in Peckham that disbanded. He is 6 ft 4 and plays to a good standard. Please let me know if you have a regular game with friends etc that he could join, or if you are interested in forming a team to play regularly over the winter and could split indoor court hire. Many thanks.

I'm posting on behalf of my boyfriend who doesn't have an account on the forum, but is looking for a regular weekend basketball game in ED or nearby. He used to play in Dulwich Park with whoever was around but this is obviously harder in the depths of winter! He also previously had a team in Peckham that disbanded. He is 6 ft 4 and plays to a good standard. Please let me know if you have a regular game with friends etc that he could join, or if you would be interested in forming a team to play regularly over the winter that could split indoor court hire. Many thanks.

Northcross Road.

I think there are more pressing issues to do with animal rights than the rarefied practice of foie gras. I'm vegetatarian, btw.

I have seen the fantastically gifted Richard Ayoade, comedian, actor, writer and director best known for 'The IT Crowd', 'Submarine' and the upcoming 'The Double' starring Mia Wasikowska and Jesse Eisenberg. He and his wife live in Gypsy Hill and often shop around Lordship Lane. Also the action film director Pete Travis ('Vantage Point', 'Judge Dredd') lives near the Gowlett pub with his girlfriend and has often been seen catching the train from East Dulwich station.

Yep, she slammed the door in our faces. She also lied outright to our landlady and also the workmen, telling them she had permission to carry out the paving.

'Neighbour from hell' - well ok, strong words, but let's see how you might feel if you woke up one morning to find a garden bed you had planted ripped up and the entire front of the property slabbed over with no discussion, no notice, and a concrete box erected in front of your door. Then you discover that not only has your neighbour not gone through proper channels and applied for plannning permission or even spoken with the council, the garden does not even form part of her Council housing lease, it is seperate from the house. She is then abusive to the Council, who take the kind position of not prosectuting her for a Planning Enforcement Breach because of her age. Though she is elderly, she is perfectly agile, she is not disabled or ill and I've often seen her moving her wheelie bins around. The workmen who she paid to do the work told us that she wanted it done as she did not want to have to pull up weeds. The garden on 'her' side had nothing growing in it, only gravel and a few stray weeds. If she was worried about maintaining the garden, there are schemes within the Council to help her and other volunteers to help her. If you or I had done this, we would be forced to remove the concrete, and potentially be fined or lose our council home. As it is, as private tenants, we're prepared to pay for our choice to improve the appearance of the garden in front of our door. We've already compromised by saying we won't remove the lot to cause her the least distress - many people wouldn't even consider her feelings as what's been done is an eyesore by any stretch of the imagination. Though there have been some very nice suggestions on the board on how to improve the garden and handle the situation, I can't understand the attitude of some. We're a young couple who just wanted to ask for advice from residents, not invite abuse. Over and out.

No-one is ganging up on an old lady, that is the whole point.

Thanks everyone for your comments. I just had a very informative phone call from the case manager at the Council. Our neighbour did not follow procedure to inform the Council that she was carrying out the work on their land, so she is in breach of her tenancy agreement and has technically broken the law. Because of her age, they are not bringing a planning enforcement case against her, so they are not threatening her by law to remove the concrete. The case manager expressed surprise that anyone would take the extreme step of paying to concrete over the garden, because if the tenant had shown that she could not maintain the garden, or told them she was worried about it, there is a scheme within the council to help and they would have sent a gardener round. No-one obviously wants to upset an elderly lady, so the case manager visited and phoned a few times, explaining and asking her to remove the concrete. She was abusive and refused, saying she will be in the ground herself before the Council takes her to court. The Council says that because of budget cuts they will not pay to have the concrete removed, but we ourselves can pay privately to remove it without fear of prosecution from the Council (our neighbour is powerless as it's not her land). We would be opening ourselves up to a tenancy dispute, but as the Council have informed her in writing that she must remove the concrete, we are in the right so to speak. The Council suggested that we compromise by removing the concrete box outside our front door leaving us able to replant our garden, and leave the concrete paving on her side (the majority of the area). If we do choose rip it up, obviously this will be a bigger issue for her and we should/could offer to help her maintain her garden. Thoughts? Anyone know a reasonable masonry remover in the area?!?

Here is a letter I have just received from Southwark Council, to which I would love some advice on how to take this further. Our next door neighbours on the immediate other side of the property are upset also. Dear --- Further to your query concerning the provision of a hard surface to the front garden area at the above property, I write to advise you of our findings. As the premises is not a dwellinghouse, it does not benefit from permitted development rights. The provision of a hard surface in such circumstances would require express planning permission. However in this case it was not expedient to pursue enforcement action as the impact of what is a non-permeable hard surfacewould be negligible upon local drainage. The other potentially harmful factor was the visual impact, which was not considered sufficient to warrant enforcement action. Your neighbour who is elderly was finding it incresingly difficult to maintain the front garden, which is why she had the hardstanding installed. In coming to our decision, we balanced this and the potential impact of an overgrown front garden against the hard I have referred to above. I would like to thank you for bringing this breach of planning to our attention and hope you understadn why in this instance we have decided not to pursue enforcement action. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any queries.

That's a good idea... hadn't thought of that one... I knw we don't have any rights to the garden, however the Council should not have given permission to concrete it over!

Thanks for your message, Pedders have since looked up the title plans and the garden belongs to Southwark Council. We have two front doors next to each other with entrances through the garden (not upstairs-downstairs), so the garden was used in two halves, though all owned by the Council. The Council tenant does not have the right to do as she wishes with the garden. But why would the council give permission for her to PAY to concrete over their land? They should be protecting green space! The reason she gave the workmen is that she did not want to pull out weeds. It's all very ironic as the Wildlife Centre is around the corner, trying to teach people how to green urban spaces.