alachlan

brilliant!

Indeed it is contractual... Maybe you work at the same place! That said, I think most contracts, as well as the outside of office hours on an "occasional" basis clause, will have a place of work clause which will states a place within a certain mile radius of your central office/original hire location as being allowable... so maybe the supermarket worker does have a similar condition, if not necessarily covering the travel time part?

The rich tw@t can only be in one place at a time and thus consume only one set of council services at a time... In fact CWALD - Do you actually pay council tax at all seeing as you don't appear to understand how it works?

am i missing something here? council tax is basically attached to the value of the property (albeit a dated valuation)?? perhaps we should just pay a fixed fee per adult then - that seems the fairest way to me.... takes cover!!!!!

More than 50% of Southwark housing is social and/or supported in some way. As I've said before this gives us a large supply problem and we end up with expensive and "poncier" pockets developing, so yes, if your and many other estates weren't there then we might have a lower variance in area quality, and a higher overall standard.

Thanks UC - I was interested just in whether there was a distinction. Appreciated that this is part of what I do and am not whining about this in the least, but I think its important to establish that in theory at least there is a level playing field.

So how about in a regular job... how about I am told to go to the US for a couple of days, but it is company policy to travel out of hours and I have to spend most of Sunday on a plane... I don't get paid extra for this, or does this just apply to temporary workers?

That might not be an ideal situation but at least they have a program for taking on these people, which is probably more than can be said for most businesses...

Spot on bob. But with the trustafarian point - seriously - do you really think they would only can 250 on a flat here? That's crap - there are so many people nowadays with that much and more to spend I think you are missing something. Most of what you are moaning about are people who have decent jobs and just want a nice place to live and likely bring up a family, and who can't afford a big place elsewhere that has decent transport to the city or wherever au cetrale they might work. Its a great place and therefore people will flock in.

food at the dog any good? might go for lunch.

Why would I want to make my living room stink - that's what pubs used to be for! I have those recycling bins and use them appropriately (for clarity that is I put the correct things in the correct boxes and leave them out on the right days). I can see why a 15 year old might go and do things because they are told not to; that I am not!

I heard one of the best things that a landlord has done up in Scotland/Ireland is to have a large collection of ski jackets for people to wear outside, though why they wouldnt take their own coats is beyond me. Frankly if I want to go outside I don't necessarily want to wear a coat and I will certainly be purchasing a heater for my own garden.

Seconded: "Don't want to get into the arguments about whether one should or not." Now get back to fairying around in the park.

I think you'll find the tarring happens as a matter of course

You need to think in terms of watts. A normal bulb would be up to 100 watts and might light your room adequately. If you had this on for 5 hours per day each day of the year, it would use 100/1000 = 0.1kilowatts x 5 hours x 365 days = 182.5 kilowatt hours, or units of electricity. If you get charged 10p a unit, ?18.25. If you had 8 standard halogens, normally 50W each, this is going to cost four times as much. Now multiply by the number of rooms you have halogens in. But they do look great. The problem with the low voltage ("low energy") versions is that they do use a transformer and the ones that will come with the system are likely to be grossly inefficient.

thanks - i'll give these all a go, maybe on one night. an east dulwich smokeathon!

So which pub has the best outside smoking facilities - have any of them actually built anything decent outside? Don't want to get into the arguments about whether one should or not.

apparently they also go round with heat detecting cameras to see if your house is giving out masses of heat for the same reason!

I'm on powergen's combined online lowest tariff and its 70 a month, slight credit for a 3bed detached. Gas CH and hob, electric ovens and other appliances that are probably turned on too much. That is outrageous for a 1 bed flat - are you sure the other tenants in the building aren't tapping into your supply?!!!

Why would anyone get to the station early in the morning just to have a coffee? Surely a really good deli/grocers would be ideal to save going to sainsburys on the way home, or trying to buy veg that will last the week or so on just one trip.

I think this woman is fairly harmless but needs sorting out. She came round to my place a few months ago and I stupidly gave her a bit of cash, primarily to get her to fuck off. She was, from memory about mid 20s, black, and reasonably well spoken. She'd done a little bit of research and tried saying she lived almost next door and that the electric meter had run out and she'd lost her purse etc. Did the "I'll come to the cashpoint thing" amongst others and eventually said she would leave a mobile with me, which turned out to be blocked and stolen. I took it round to the police and explained but clearly they weren't interested. Maybe someone should let her in, get her talking and call the cops.

Did you know that according to the Southwark magazine 50% of housing in the borough is council supported or housing association - I believe excluding keyworker schemes etc. That is an incredible amount of housing stock that if on the free market would seriously ease the supply pressure that partly drives prices. For the main part, I don't think anyone would say that the way these houses are used isn't important but the gains due to developers improving what is available is surely nothing compared to this supply problem. I think this is more to blame for the "starter-home" one-bed flat costing 300k? Still, if we weren't all so obsessed with owning a place then things would be very different.

Agreed but there's no reason why it shouldn't be both if you're prepared to put work in to a place while you live there, even within the same area rather than pimping for the latest "hotspot".

The rises are a good thing in my opinion but there we go... HOWEVER... there's a house on Ashbourne grove on at 950k with Haart - are they on crack - you can buy in the village for that... surely even Foxton's wouldn't price it that high!!!

Also beware of trying to take a van on a Sunday - even for household stuff. The last time I went then the bloke was really funny about it and I'm sure their website says nothing about no vans on a Sunday. That said if you go on Saturday you get to use a different entrance (for which you will need proof of address so you can prove you aren't trade) and literally can push all the crap out of the van onto the floor and they will pile it later with an earthmover. Saves loads of time if you've got a lot of junk/rubble.