gumshoe

Just wanted to add another recommendation for No Flies - Brendan and Tony are fantastic, if only all EAs were like them! We had a fairly tricky sale - first buyer pulled out, long chain on the other side, and the COVID of it all - however, they were fantastic in calming our nerves and communicating with us (so patient with our many emails!) Couldn?t recommend them highly enough, they are a credit to the area and incredibly good value for money as well as being really lovely guys to deal with. We?ve now moved out of ED, but if we?d stayed, they?d be my only choice for future property sales.

Is it just me or is there a general abundance of moths in ED lately? Although we?ve had them in the past, it?s been nothing like as bad as it is now... thankfully, they aren?t seeming to munch on knitwear (small mercy!) but there?s been such a steady stream I wondered if they were afflicting others?

Sue Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Canteloupe Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > If you are eligible for a vaccine, you should > be > > able to go online and book one using your nhs > > number - no need to wait for the letter. > > > But doesn't this depend on which group you are in > (eg age, and/or extremely clinically vulnerable) > and when that group is starting to have the > vaccine? > > How do we know that? Have they gone past the over > eighties now? You are very right Sue - the NHS website is stating that the vaccine is being offered to people aged 80+. More people trying their luck outside of what?s currently being offered - whilst although very understandable- is only going to cause more issues. However, I?ll be keeping an eye on the criteria in case it changes and my letter doesn?t arrive!

In addition to letters regarding vaccine appointments, those of us in the clinically vulnerable group have also been promised a four months supply of vitamin D, to start in January and to be delivered via post - no sign so far... through work, I?ve heard that PHE will be cross-referencing with other methods of comms to make sure everyone is contacted. Guys have started issuing electronic comms, so I hope that this is followed up elsewhere.

Sue - Parcelforce is the parcels arm of Royal Mail and is therefore a private company, there are various service agreements between Royal Mail and Post Office (which remains a public body, under the auspices of BEIS as an arms length body). In a not so distant former life, I looked after the archives of both companies hence knowing far too much about their various business administration histories... anyway, I received some post today (Sunday) so they are at least attempting to sort out the backlog.

I can see why RM are prioritising parcels (indeed, most of the things that have turned up on time have been tracked). The issue is that they are also supposed to be fulfilling their universal service obligation as well, which covers letters - which they haven?t been. I received mail yesterday that was postmarked 11 Dec! I think many people on this thread have been good at acknowledging the strains of the service and the valiant individual efforts of posties - the issue is that we have a privatised service trying to deliver a public service and failing because it isn?t resourcing correctly.

Following a recent email to Helen Hayes, she got in touch with RM on my behalf - attached is their response and latest figures on sickness absence in the area.

outside of contacting Helen Hayes again and perhaps also the manager of the Peckham sorting office, is there anything that can be done to improve the service? I haven?t had post for around two weeks outside of things that have been posted tracked 24/48 and know there are several things that should have been here by now if we had a functioning postal service. RM are clearly under pressure and prioritising things like parcels (but even then, I?m waiting on some) with letter delivery seemingly now a thing of the past. As I am shielding yet again, I rely heavily on deliveries and yet it seems like I should just give up on the idea of ever receiving anything that isn?t tracked again.

Having had a blood test at the new centre on Friday, thought it might be useful to give some feedback on it. My overall impression is that it was very good: amenities much better than the Community Hospital, which was clearly left to rot and always gave me the impression of a horror movie set whenever I visited it - lots of bright open spaces, clean, and clearly signposted. Lacks any sort of architectural character as a new build, but very serviceable overall and staff seemed happier in the new surroundings than the old. Much more efficient on the blood tests too, what with having more nurses and space for these. My only issue was that the Guys website hasn?t been updated and I spent a good amount of time wondering how to get into Dulwich Community Hospital, as this was still the listed place for blood tests, and only after walking around a couple times amongst all of the hording and locked gates that I needed to go to the health centre...

Hey James, Lots of missed food waste collections as of late - was fine earlier in the pandemic so it?s puzzling that this has become an issue now. As you can well appreciate, it?s a huge hygiene issue. Would you be able to look into this?

Yep also happening here on LL near the library - huge amounts of increasingly mouldy food waste. Surely not advisable in most circumstances but especially not with the explosion of rats that ED has seen recently.

The Southwark foodbank (Pecan) is also always grateful for any plastic bags!

dino99 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Many more donations are also still needed for > Pecan! Drop off at Oru Space (on LL near Goose > Green) ideally Mondays 1-3, but still gratefully > received at any time. Thanks! Hi - just to confirm that Oru isn?t able to accept donations outside of the specified times on a Monday so outside of this, we?ve asked people to donate to the Albrighton Community Fridge as they are in real need right now :)

Ah, if only we had ?fresh air? though... https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200427-how-air-pollution-exacerbates-covid-19