Lazero

I would definitely recommend applying for a card certifying permanent residence - as mentioned in DaveR's post. You can find the form and guidance here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apply-for-a-document-certifying-permanent-residence-or-permanent-residence-card-form-eea-pr It's very long, and it's a pain to get all the paperwork together (and to work out every single day you're out of the UK), but it seems to be the closest thing you can get to reassurance about your status. I believe it is similar to indefinite leave to remain (ILR), so they shouldn't be able to just retract it later. You must have this card if you want to apply for full citizenship (though you may be OK just with PR - no one knows for sure!). If you haven't been here 5 years then I'm not sure what you can do. And as midivydale says - the bigger worry for me is my parents. Both me and my sister have lived here for a very long time, they were going to join us post-referendum if the vote had gone the other way. Now I'm not sure they'll ever be able to join us.

Also http://www.immigrationboards.com/eea-route-applications/application-for-pr-or-pr-card-form-eea-pr-uptodate-t183537.html Here you can pose questions and get (informal) help. If you want professional legal help, it can get quite expensive, particularly as the fee for PR is relatively low.

Agree that the hit they are taking won't directly decrease their asking prices. They will simply build less (for now) and sit on the land they already own, therefore re=balancing supply for the market. Their asking prices are much more driven by the market more generally (I often found they tried to charge a slight premium to equivalent properties locally). I've looked at new builds a fair bit, and my parents almost went for a new build last year. The company behind it makes a big difference. You have to go out and look at their work in person. I found huge variances in quality (fixtures, size of rooms, how solid walls and floors are). Some were awful, and some were consistently great (Telford, the Berkeley Group, Taylor Wimpey had some good ones). This is obviously reflected in prices. For your other questions - you still need to know the local market (including non new builds) as that's the only way you'll really know if their asking prices are crazy. They don't lose value immediately after you own it, assuming the original price was commensurate with local stock. There can be some benefits if you buy off plan, like choosing the kitchen or colours or floors, but agree that you need to be able to picture your unit well as show homes can be idealised. In the end I didn't buy a new build, but only because I was selling so I couldn't afford to put up with an estimated completion date 12-24 months from putting down a deposit! The range was too wide, but it sounds like this isn't an issue for you. If you find a good company, and a good area, it can be a great buy. For places outside of London - look carefully at the local area and whether infrastructure is there. My parents looked at a development they liked, but it was a company building an entire community from scratch (literally nothing for miles around, the developer was planning to build a supermarket, school and so forth). They weren't comfortable with this - what if it didn't all work straight away? If it's just a few new houses within an existing community I personally think that's better.

There's one big difference between Oyster and contactless for capping - with contactless there is a Monday-Sunday cap in addition to the daily cap. So you will never pay more than a weekly travel card. With Oyster you will need to pre-buy a weekly travel card or else you can pay more than contactless across a week. It can be confusing but they try to explain it on TFL: https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/contactless/what-is-capping#on-this-page-3 It may not be useful for everyone (e.g. if you know you always need a weekly travel card). I try to cycle in as much as possible but the Mon-Sun cap is great for weeks the bike doesn't get as much use as it should.

Try catching the trains that terminate at Blackfriars (e.g. 0813 Southeastern coming from Orpington) rather than one of the Thameslink trains that go on to Luton/ Bedford. There are only 2 of them (so times may not work), but I usually find them to be more punctual, and I even sometimes get a seat on the 0832! The Thameslinks sometimes sit outside Blackfriars while Sutton loop trains go by, whereas the Southeastern trains go to their own platform. Because they stop at fewer stations, and because they don't go through to Farringdon/ Kings Cross, they also seem to be less full. Looks like the statistics back up the punctuality: http://www.recenttraintimes.co.uk/Home/Search?Op=Srch&Fr=Denmark+Hill+%28DMK%29&To=London+Blackfriars+%28BFR%29&TimTyp=D&TimDay=6a&Days=Wk&TimPer=4w&dtFr=09%2F05%2F2016&dtTo=06%2F06%2F2016&ShwTim=AvAr&TOC=All&ArrSta=5&MetAvg=Mea&MetSpr=RT&MxScDu=&MxSvAg=10&MnScCt=2&MxArCl=5

Cedges Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > That's interesting - I didn't know that was a > thing - who do you insure through? I went with these guys: http://www.insurance4carhire.com/ I think there were 2-3 others I found, but can't recall who they were. It worked out better for me to do an annual one as I do 1 or 2 longer (1 week) rentals via Avis a year, and this pays for itself before I even get to Zipcar usage. I called them before I signed up to explicitly check that it covered all of my likely usage and they do. There were a couple of exclusions but they didn't apply to me. I believe one was vans (so even Zipvans), and the other was a type of car rental I'd never used before - something more like the sharing of private vehicles I think.

I've joined fairly recently, though I was a member of theirs back when the company was called Streetcar. There's often a deal available if you search around on voucher websites or somewhere like money saving expert. I got 1 year membership for ?30 and a credit equivalent to 3 hours of driving, which seems a common deal. I was also worried about the ?750 excess, particularly as I've read online about people being charged even when the damage was done outside of their rental period (e.g. someone keying the car overnight). You can reduce the excess, but I think their charges are a rip-off - ?70/ year for a ?250 excess or ?100 for ?0 excess. You can get specialist car hire excess insurance for about ?40/ year - and that covers me for Zipcar (the full ?750) as well as Avis, Hertz etc. in the UK and Europe.

I live in Altima - there was a letter that was put out some months ago yet it didn't stop this latest occurrence. I feel that the limitation of these types of letters is that the only people who take notice are those who are already conscientious. People vacating properties may not care. Doing something with the area would hopefully help. One day the costs of all these ad hoc disposals might well add up to the cost of some CCTV! There's also a lot of dumping of inappropriate items inside the gate in the main rubbish area. This isn't as obvious or as visually offensive, but it still sits there for ages taking up space in the bin area. This is clearly by residents, but outside by the electricity sub-station it could be anyone pulling up in a car and dumping this stuff.

Philippine Airlines are fine - certainly not as good as Cathay or Singapore but fine for long haul flights. There can be differences between routes. London-Manila is fairly high profile/ prestigious so they put some effort into it. Manila - Hong Kong may not be as nice, but that flight isn't particularly long. Punctuality and customer service are both in line with most airlines. But for me one of the most important things on that length of flights is the entertainment system. The best SQ and Cathay routes have on demand movies and TV shows. Helps to pass the time. I believe PAL only has shared overhead screens. All depends on the price difference of course! I would definitely consider them (unlike some of the non-flag carriers from Indonesia or China, or most of the US airlines!).

Did you watch Talking Dead afterwards? They're intentionally leaving that one hanging until series 7, even most of the cast don't know who it is (it might be that the writers haven't yet decided?). But they did say that there were some vague clues in the dialogue. I'm thinking it wasn't Rick or Carl seeing as Negan talked about feeding the "boy's" other eye to his father if anyone makes a fuss. My guess is Abraham - he just talked about being ready to have a child, how he and Sasha are in such a good place now. He also had that touching goodbye moment with Eugene, seems like he's set up to suddenly be ripped away from the group. Daryl or Glenn seem to be the most popular theories.

I was reading the other day how the car insurance industry as a whole generally makes a loss, and has done over a 30-year period. Even when they turn a profit (2013 & 2014) it is really slender. If you have an FT subscription you can see the article here: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3/3aeb5112-eb8f-11e5-bb79-2303682345c8.html#axzz43cwU63k0 It's thanks to intense competition that they don't shoot up even further. I wonder how much money we could all save if senseless acts of vandalism were reduced. The cost of 1 minute's damage is crazy.

As with most things like this, it's human time that is most expensive, particularly when it is engaged ad hoc (rather than all in one, efficient block of time). So I suspect that painting everything, using a blanket set of rules, works out the cheapest per metre of painting needed. Of course doing nothing is the cheapest but clearly not good enough for many junctions! I like the idea of looking to local residents - perhaps there can be some sort of "crowd sourcing" stage that takes place first. You nominate and vote on junctions, maybe even suggest distances. Then at the very end the experts can be brought in to review and give the necessary orders? They probably wouldn't be keen on this level of work... and I can't imagine this consultation would be cheap to set up/ run. Heart108 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > 1 - I can't see the purpose of making a blanket > policy to paint yellow lines. Why incur the > expense painting all junctions? Surely there > could be a decision for expert traffic engineers > with input from local residents paying attention > to the junctions that really matter. > > 2 - What does it cost to paint 10k of lines?

Agree on Uber being amazing and some of the "issues" using black cabs over the years whilst living south of the river. I think there'll still be a place for black cabs, though. They are the only ones who can use bus lanes so are quicker for getting around central London. If work is paying and I'm staying in zone 1 then I'd happily take a black cab. The Uber drivers I speak to mostly seem to make a full-time living from it, though they have complained about rates per mile going down as Uber continues to wage its market share war. A few seem to drive part-time for Uber, and at other times will do private work (e.g. airport transfers for a local minicab company). I agree with LondonMix that Uber have grown the market. If anything I think they've helped to take cars off the road. Several of my friends have given up their cars recently, and cited Uber and Zipcar as the main reasons they feel they can do so.

In my last flat (in a block, not a conversion) I had a water meter successfully installed in the cupboard out in the hall. Not sure of the technicalities of supply, but it was straightforward for Thames Water to do. My bills went down more than 30% instantly and stayed that low for the next few years, until I moved. They divided the bill evenly before that - so single residents were subsidising couples. Over time quite a few other residents got meters and the bills for the higher water users eventually started to become more realistic.

But how do the numbers compare to other consultations? I know it isn't the same thing, but I've always been involved in residents' associations in blocks of flats where I've lived. It always struck me how few people actually engage with the process or care enough to even comment - even when it directly affects your daily life. So how many responses could you really expect? You can't force everyone to respond, and I don't want the council wasting a lot of money on advertising/ promotion if it doesn't yield that many more responses. Seems to me they've taken quite a few steps to get the word out.

I hope this isn't true, but how much could we influence a listed, profit-making organisation in their decision making? They only have to answer to shareholders now.

I think it's a good step - for reasons I can't understand I currently live in Peckham Rye ward, despite living somewhere I would definitely consider East Dulwich (Oakhurst Grove/ East Dulwich road, SE22).

The rubbish and removals one has now disappeared (unless it's been put back since this morning). Maybe the owner has moved it on elsewhere, as surely it's reached the point where no new people were seeing the ad.

rfolgado Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > There will always be people against any > change, and it's impossible to please everyone or > come up with the perfect solution for everything. Completely agree! And I support these changes. If the Southwark Spine (link below) is every going to become a reality, they have to start improving sections of it. I agree there are more pressing needs, like the crossing from Kelly avenue coming south, commercial way, Burgess park and even more up to the north, I'm glad they are starting to work on parts of it. I cycle through here almost every day (and drive through 2-3 days a week) and agree that it isn't the worst set of roads I cycle through. But I can see how these changes would benefit some people. I regularly see other cyclists (going much slower) who, for example, don't confidently move to the right early enough on Holly grove. Some drivers then aren't patient enough to let them back in. The bottom of the loop presents its own problems, that others have already outlined. http://www.southwark.gov.uk/downloads/download/4240/southwark_spine

Most of these London festivals sell out, and sell out early. This suggests that the market feels London can handle more festivals. So long as ticketing is controlled and we don't get problems with "secondary sellers" snapping them all up, I'm all for this happening. Zippos takes over the Rye for a good amount of time each year - this sort of festival targets a different audience and, I think, would be great for those who live locally and are in that audience.

James Barber Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > A new station if served by Sevenoaks route could > be really useful for Camberwell. Moves afoot to > transfer the Sevenoaks route to TfL and it come > under the London Overground umbrella. That would > be a minimum of 4 train per hour, better stations, > London Overground ticketing. Clearly not as useful > as a Bakerloo extension. But it could happen much > much quicker than 2030. > Also plans afoot for a tram route from Camberwell > to London Bridge. Both together could be a useful > alternative to a Bakerloo line extension. James - is this the "Southwark Supertram" or a different one? There was a lot of stuff about this a few years ago, I couldn't find anything recent to suggest it's actually happening. Even the website says "a planning application could be lodged by the end of 2012". Also, what sort of time frame are we talking with the Overground taking over the Sevenoaks route? I'm increasingly frustrated by this train line's overcrowding and delays, and would do whatever I can to support a transfer.

I do Denmark Hill to City Thameslink most days - the trains from around 8.20am to 9.07am are pretty full, even when running normally. Either side of that they aren't too bad. Even the busy ones aren't quite as bad as the central or northern line at their worst, and if you stand at the right point on the platform there are a lot of people who get off to go to King's. I sometimes take the 7.37am and it's fairly quiet.

If you have a regular schedule then it's probably a waste of money. The individual room control is more than just temperature. I want my living room heated up in the evening, but not my bedroom. It's the other way around for the morning. My old system turned everything on at once, so both rooms will be heated to my chosen temperature, which is a waste of money. Yes you can manually adjust the thermostatic valve morning and evening to achieve the same result - but again only if you have a regular routine/ are home and you remember to do it. Cost depends entirely on what you want and the size of your property, of course, but ranges I saw in online reviews were ?400-1,500(the equipment is upwards of ?250 of this cost).

I had the Honeywell Evohome installed about a week ago - so all still very new. I'm sure you've seen the same online reviews that I did, and so far it has been exactly as advertised. I also wanted to avoid the self learning thermostats (like Nest). I'd rather turn the heating on when I'm on my way home. I love the control you get (down to the room level) as well - I can just heat the living room up and not use energy on any other rooms until needed. The app is really easy to understand, without resorting to instructions. The down side of the system is that it's on the expensive side, but I can't fault its functionality so far. Have you had a quote for installation? It took two people the best part of a day to install it, so there is a fair bit of work involved. Also, because you need more equipment you also pay more for the system vs. Nest or Hive.

JohnL Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > What happened to the commitment made by the mayor Easy for him to pledge to do some very expensive things, though they aren't always realistically achievable. If/ when they have to choose just one option in London - "opportunity areas" always seem to be the main focus. I wish they wouldn't forget the areas left in between.