gmm

Hi, I'm the OP. The platform swing is fenced off as a deterrent to non-wheelchair users. The wheelchair mobility/disability symbol is a feature of the fence design. The design of the platform itself will not allow it to be used without a Radar key since there is a heavy-duty lock underneath the platform attaching it to the ground, preventing it from moving unless one uses a Radar key to unlock it. The removable straps that clip a wheelchair frame to the platform are cached underneath in a recess secured with the same lock. It is this lock that has been broken twice - it would take serious intent to do so - and the last time, the bar that holds wheelchairs in place when the platform is swinging was broken too - this was wanton damage as it would not prevent anybody from using the swing. An attempt has been made to fix the broken bar but it is a poor job. The reason why I wrote was because I imagine anyone can damage anything if he/she/they really want(s) to. I wondered whether people who know the platform swing - that has "disability" symbols all over it - thought that if it were made accessible to all i.e. had the lock removed so that it could move freely, it would then lose the only 'cool' thing about it which is that it is "prohibited" - so people would stop trying to get at it. Actually now I think about it, the reason why it is fenced off is that this very heavy platform swinging would be a major safety hazard to passersby especially children were it not secured. To use it, one has to open a gate bolted from inside (so that short children cannot reach it), go into the enclosure, bolt the gate behind one... and then go through the procedures required to use it safely. So the question has to be, probably, how to deter vandals from damaging it. This equipment, I now realise, HAS to be used in a controlled environment or it could do serious damage to other people. The wheelchair user him/herself requires adult assistance to access it. It's a great piece of equipment, well designed for wheelchair users to use safely - but a real hazard in uncontrolled 'general' use. Maybe a sign to say "This is great kit if you are a wheelchair user. It is locked to keep others safe. Please respect this and do not cause damage as then wheelchair users cannot use the platform. Thank you."

Norwood & Brixton Foodbank At St Luke's Church, West Norwood Emergency food for people in crisis. Please get a voucher from your doctor or keyworker or call the Parish Office on 020 8761 0068. Volunteer and support at norwood.foodbank.org.uk. I think for the last 2 years volunteers handed out winter coats to people who needed them as well.

Any ideas about how to keep intact and operational the platform swing for wheelchair users adjacent to the children's playground in Dulwich Park? It's been vandalised AGAIN and there may be a limit as to how many times the council/Friends will fix it. It's a FANTASTIC resource for entertainment and therapy for a few people I know and we haven't found anything similar for miles and miles around. Is the answer not to lock it - this means that 'bona fide' users would have to buy and bring special retaining straps with them so not ideal? I suspect the lock is broken and then bits stolen because people cannot use the swing without a Radar key but feel the need to get on it and use it 'because it's there'. This is a plea for this lovely swing to be repaired for a second/third/fourth time - but with all the cuts to frontline services everywhere, we know it might not be a priority as it's for the use of a small minority. Not all wheelchair-using adults and children would want to swing on it (not everyone likes to swing when they grow up, after all) but for those who can and do, the experience is priceless. On a different note, the wheelchair-accessible children's roundabout is getting difficult to push - I think the bearings may be worn so that is a different issue entirely... :-)

My family, too, cannot praise all staff highly enough at King's. By nature not at all 'medicalised', my husband and I faced not one but 2 births necessitating months of highly intensive care afterwards for baby - I spent most of 1991 living in the hospital. I don't know how it would be now but 20 years ago all medical staff went out of their way to ensure that we were comfortable with treatment decisions and to accommodate our wishes. We went to King's not Guy's as King's permitted care from one's own independent midwives - so glad we did. One of our young adults is still a regular visitor and King's is about the only reason that we are rooted in this area! The hospital also plugged in every resource it could when I had a recent health scare - and again for a friend who had a stroke. Hugely impressive operation, to offer this high level of care to local residents as well as attract visitors from all over the world to both its school and its leading-edge surgical techniques. A brilliant place !

Coincidentally, last week I went to a funeral in the old Brompton Cemetery (one of the "Magnificent Seven" commercial cemeteries opened between 1832 and 1841 around the edge of London after England's victory in the Battle of Waterloo caused the city to boom and its population more than double in 50 years, causing problems to its infrastructure - there was no enough space in the old churchyards and diseases spread. Camberwell Old Cemetery opened in 1856 and was one of the second wave of new London cemeteries. To me, Brompton seems more densely 'populated': there is mention of 35,000 monuments and 205,000 burials over 39 acres. Yet from what I have read, Camberwell Old Cemetery up to 1984 had 300,000 interments over 30 acres (I have found no mention of how many headstones/monuments). Brompton Cemetery, too, harbours an atmosphere of dignified, rather beautiful neglect but very different in nature from Camberwell. One of the Brompton's USPs is that no grave has ever been recycled; certainly most people buried there seem to be hemmed in by neighbours on all sides! We had no time to explore, just to walk through on our way from chapel to graveside, but it seemed more 'metropolitan' than Old Camberwell with many mausolea, now overlooked by a football stadium and the peace disturbed by a railway line. Even so, because of its position, the great and the good are interred there still (it's looked after by The Royal Parks and is the only 'Crown Cemetery') - although what will be done after the 100 vacant burial plots are filled, who knows? There are thousands of empty original catacomb places, less costly than ground burial plots but unpopular.. only 500 were ever sold. It's only by comparing what we have locally with other Victorian London cemeteries that we shall come to treasure the quality of the undisturbed peace of our forested cemetery in Camberwell.

A few weeks ago on a beautiful sunny weekend afternoon, by chance I drove through the gate of Camberwell Old Cemetery and, wishing to spend a little more time out with my daughter, parked in the middle (considerately I hope) behind a maintenance shed. We ambled into what I can only describe as a 'secret garden' of gothic splendour combined with pathos... I cannot remember ever being anywhere like it. Notices at the top of the overgrown walkway we followed warned not to stray from the path into the dense woodland as the graves there had become unstable. Not knowing what to expect, I was astonished to see hundreds, perhaps thousands of headstones, both grand and modest, some surviving well, some crumbling, not just flanking the broad grassy path but stretching as far as one could see way back through the trees. Obviously neglected for many years as the trees had grown around and through the graves, they held an almost unendurable poignancy - but strangely, they did not seem that old, few dating from before 1900; my own grandmother was born in the 1890s during the reign of Queen Victoria. The only other visitor we encountered during our two-hour visit was a young man from Afghanistan who had lost his whole family in his homeland. I found myself struggling to answer his questions about how British families could have allowed their family graves to become so neglected. He asked me why we had so little respect for our forebears. As we left, passing the newer graves that were around the central hard-standing area and beside the road, I thought how much more peaceful the sites within the wooded area seemed to be... we had found one recent grave in a cleared thicket there, that of a military man. Somehow these older areas have a dignity that the cleared spaces do not offer - although obviously it is more practical to offer easier access to relatives and friends, pushing my young daughter's wheelchair along the overgrown walkways had not caused problems. We were able to reflect upon our own family members and friends who have died - any cemetery can offer this feeling of closeness and continuity but somehow, this part of Camberwell Old Cemetery seemed particularly moving. Certainly, from what he said, our Afghan acquaintance was finding healing and peace from just being there, far away from the violence that had taken his own family from him. We shall visit again - this was a precious afternoon. If anything can be done to preserve the wooded heart of this cemetery, the damage from trees to graves already done, it would be wonderful in my view. The tranquillity and opportunity to enjoy the atmosphere there must be precious to new mourners whose relatives are buried nearby.

Are we name-dropping? I saw one of those cool-as-a-cucumber blonde actresses of a certain age in Barnes wetlands once... we were both pushing children in buggies and exchanged empathetic smiles. And we bought some riding gear from the same sales assistant as Jennifer Saunders and Adrian Edmondson(?) in Harrod's once. And Paul Merton used to lurk around Lavender Hill/Seven Sisters Road... 'cos he lived there... Oh, sorry, "ED"....

I found it difficult to get info but shall keep trying. Thanks very much, BB. We were invited down to visit one of their international camps in Sussex a couple of years ago by another local group - unfortunately daughter was not very keen on what she saw but I suspect a regular local gathering would be easier to cope with. A good suggestion and one I'll put some energy into. Cheers!

Just googled and found their website - very energetic stuff! I'll sound her out... thanks VERY MUCH, pgc

Think I posted this before in the wrong place... derr! Anyone any suggestions? Moved to the area a couple of years ago; daughter now 16; wonder whether anyone has some ideas for places for her to meet others and hopefully make a friend or 2 for company? She's at school out of borough so knows no one locally - finds it hard to mix. Ideas appreciated! Thanks.

Moved to the area a couple of years ago; daughter now 16; wonder whether anyone has some ideas for places for her to meet others and hopefully make a friend or 2 for company? She's at school out of borough so knows no one locally - finds it hard to mix. Ideas appreciated! Thanks.