alicecarr

Any suggestions on where to donate children's clothes? Probably not quite good enough to resell via charity shop but lots of life left in them otherwise... Not Little Village as I need to take a big bag rather than sorting through to separate out certain items. Thanks!

James, Thanks for this update and your attention on this matter. Is there something that can be done to follow up on why it was the police did not respond to the first attack? I know from experience when a friend was badly attacked how much the fear and impact is greater if you seek help from the police but it does not arrive. In some ways, that can be almost as bad as the attack if you had faith that the police would be there to help. In this case, it may be that the failure to respond also meant that several other people then suffered attacks as well. It would seem important to learn lessons here. Clearly the police face competing demands with limited resources, but it seems important to work out whether that was the issue or not in this case. Thanks Alice

My experience has been that raising the inadequate police response with both the local councillor - James McAsh maybe - and also Helen Hayes would be the most effective thing. The police are hopeless on this sort of thing- a friend of mine was once kicked in the head and left unconscious by attackers who said they were going to kill him and it took the police ten days to come and take a statement. They said it would be faster if you went into the station but he was hospitalised and unable to travel. Sigh. But definitely their response improved when we started a process to escalate and complain about their response.

One side effect of Covid has been the huge huge volume of single use plastic and coffee cups we - incl me - are all generating. I have found, though, in recent weeks that several local coffee shops are now willing to take clean reusable cups again. Spinach will, and Oru Space (latter prefer to make the coffee and then tip it into your cup). Anyone found reusable cups are being accepted elsewhere?

Ashton built a shed and fixed a dripping tap for us - he was very efficient and reliable and I will definitely use his services in future.

A pet hate of mine too. It suggests people are more motivated by clearing out their stuff than donating it. They can't even wait till the next time the charity shop is open to drop it off...

They have taken the details and that is basically it. I saw a community police officer in the street today and he basically said that they don't do anything about such incidents. Even if they were there in the street when it happens they can't chase the guys as they are not allowed to. And went unsaid that they do not try to follow up by gathering any evidence if they are not there. His only advice was not to use your phone in public, which is not that helpful as they took her whole bag. So that suggests you can't carry stuff around either! A bit poor.

Our nanny (who looks after our son) was mugged yesterday evening (not late, about 7pm) on Crawthew Grove. A scooter or motorbike jumped onto the pavement and they grabbed her rucksack with all her possessions. Reported to the police but seems they are not that interested. This is despite there being other reports on here about similar thefts.

Whilst at work today our nanny opened the door to some guys who said they were bailiffs representing HMRC, and that they needed my contact details to serve notice to claim ?300 of unpaid PAYE. This is ridiculous as my tax is sorted by my employer. They left a letter which looks pretty fake (slightly wonky printing, no real personal details other than my name and the first line of my address which they probably could have got from the recycling bin). Anyway, just a warning that this happened as presumably they won't just visit us!

All, In case of interest, Jojo Maman Bebe on Lordship Lane collecting children's shoes for Syrian refugees in Lebanon till 18 October http://www.jojomamanbebe.co.uk/pu++famta+1