The housing ‘market’ is not a market as it is being manipulated by this tax – houses are not a commodity, removing this tax might be a step towards making them more of a commodity.

But surely a lack of house building, through a lack of will for political reasons is a manipulation as well?

I’m all for anything that changes people’s environmental impact for the better, including getting rid of a tax that encourages long commutes.

What encouraged long commutes in addition to the lack of house building/centralisation of jobs was the car.

But again the first thing that was focused on was the taxation issue. Speaks volumes for those who brought it up.

We need houses where there are jobs, jobs where there are houses and people to be encouraged to move to be near them. Londoncentricism is a problem because it tends to mean the breadwinner commutes from miles away to London and the second earner possibly even works somewhere in the opposite direction which is just bonkers. The country and environment would be better served by better jobs in Leeds than ever faster trains from Leeds to London.

Its good that you aren’t too far behind what I have earlier in the thread.

but if the idea is to reduce the need to commute and to get people to move closer to where they work, then this in itself is not going to do that as people will not want to move and drop x thousand on stamp duty as well as moving costs, solicitors, etc.

Building houses will help with prices, but inevitably they will be concentrated in the SE as that’s where developers get the most bang per buck. And won’t help people move between them when they charge jobs.

You two aren’t getting the whole “fundemental change” bit are you?

Makes perfect sense. If you want people to move arround and live near their work, you need to eliminate the biggest hurdles to that and as house prices have risen stamp duty has grown from something only the rich paid to the biggest cost of moving between average houses.

You do that by building more houses, which this country has not done for a long time, you also prevent the further centralisation of jobs in the south east corner of the country, and then start to reverse it, you don’t privatise the railways, as the cost of travelling on them is far too high which as an example increases the price of housing around the stations, just a few examples there.

The original point of this post was to point out that changing from fossil fuel vehicles to electric will not solve problems, and as I have said in an earlier post that cars and their infrastructure/culture does not exist in a vacuum, changing one thing doesn’t change everything.

A “simple” tax cut will not change the market, be it jobs, housing etc, until more fundamental changes occur. Though I suspect it would financially favour those who are suggesting it would.

get rid of stamp-duty for a start

What a bizarre thing to say.

I know Wire In The Blood – it’s awesome, but you won’t see it on Trailforks or Strava.

Its definitely on Strava.

Look for Swedish tanning team/ricin beans and Flinty badman. Flinty badman does have a jump on it near the beginning, but just walk over it.

The only thing you may not like is the slog along the fire roads to get back up to the top.

You should hear the complaints: “ it’s too far”; “it’s too expensive [from people in BMWs]”; “I have a bad knee”; “it’ll take too long”; “it might rain” …
Every single person had a little sob story about why they had to park right next to the venue. A guy in a 4WD even lied, said he’d just turn round but didn’t come back.

We won’t just have difficulty getting people to take fewer journeys by car, it’s hard enough getting them to accept they might have to walk a few metres

In the town where I live, people seem to have no issue with sitting in a long queue to get into a multi-storey car park right next to the shopping centre, while other near by car parks are half empty.

Unfortunately, since the 1970’s/1980’s the country committed itself to the car culture, with infrastructure etc, such as the US did in the 50’s and 60’s, and always to the detriment of pretty much everything else. People think that changing over to electric cars would solve problems, but cars and all the infrastructure that comes with it do not exist in a vacuum, they are literally a way of life for huge amounts of the worlds population.

I was reading an article on electric car use(damned if I can find it now) about how politicians like the simple narrative that electric cars are “non-polluting”, but completely ignoring that the metals and minerals that make not only the batteries, but the whole cars, have to be mined usually from developing countries. Worldwide mining creates about half of the worlds pollution according to the UN.

It is a change of mindset that’s required, which is going to be difficult as there is to much economic interest in oil.
Any excuse to show this,and this again, about cycling in London.

The path across littleworth common will be mostly ok, its just dirt at the claygate end good surface in the middle and can get muddy at the esher end.

The popularity of the car parks shows that the park would not be as popular without the car traffic. As a cyclist who rides in the park every day I can see the benefits of closing it to cars, but as a father and local resident I can also see that it would change the way the park is used by many people.

I wouldn’t close the car parks, people should still be allowed to drive in the park, but only to the car parks, though that could be a tricky proposition.

I know there were rumblings a few years back that the locals around the park wanted it closed to traffic completely, so it would become “exclusive” to those who only lived nearby. Certainly wouldn’t want those bunch of w****rs getting that.

It’s the constant stop starting and slow crawling to see herds of distant deer (usually without indicating or any thought that there is a queue of traffic behind) which is a big issue here. People do tend to treat RP like their private safari park.

Its a private road in a nature reserve. The idea was that people would drive around it looking at I dunno, Nature I suppose. What you have described is the problem with it, the traffic using it as a rat run. The park can close the roads to through traffic, just as they did when they closed robin hood gate a few decades back.

I cycle round RP pretty frequently,

Not with London Dynamo are you? They supposedly “own” that road.

“Vagiterian”.

Doesn’t like Sausage, Prefers a cucumber.

There was an attitude that was a mix of fire orange and red colour around that time too, so that was either a different range within 2001, or I’m possibly getting them mixed up and one was a year 2000. Anyone else remember this colour?

That was a 2000 bike, attitude comp I think. I looked at it, didn’t like the colour and plumped for the attitude in blue sky colour.

I’ve got a 2000 model, no fixings on the chain stay for a disk brake. Really like that purple colour.

Well maybe they should be, its something I suggested to them. I have case studies and an action plan I shared from QECP to the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) guys who where very interested and we great to chat to but the Hurtwood rangers were not interest, fair enough, keep on burring you head in the sand.

Until the personnel of the hurtwood committee change, there will be no change. As a former Hurtwood trails trail builder, it was like banging my head against a wall for a few years with them, gave up and walked away with the rest of the group.

Good to ride the stuff we built and see its still in working order even after no maintenance in several years.

Yes, but was your patio covered with tubeless spaff? That was a particularly angry badger.

Out in the daytime as well.

You need to move to Surrey. Anywhere away from a carpark is empty.

Ain’t that the truth.

Rode a bridleway into the peaslake area in the morning, used the same bridleway on the way out and went past a group of Walkers. Said hello, not a reply, then further down the bridleway were a series of logs and branches placed across it. The group I was with had fun bunny hopping or smashing through them.

No horses around, but loads of kids on bikes with parents along the 22.

My Niece has the Taylor, I helped her choose it at Andertons. Its a very bright sounding loud guitar and very very easily playable. It turned my head as I have a Takamine (dreadnought)which is a much more mellow sounding guitar.

The current electrician wants to show the suspect paperwork to his regulatory body NICEIC.

The reason he may want to do this is: The previous electrician is NICEIC/part P/domestic installer registered or claims to be, which in the later case the NICEIC will prosecute someone using their name who isn’t registered,

To change a consumer unit requires an Electrical installation certificate which is notifiable under the Part P regulations, this means the electrician should belong to a scheme such as the one the NICEIC does. A minor works in a lot of cases is not notifiable.

YOu may not have any option but to fix it. The sparky could have turned it all off. Depends on how dangerous he thinks it is

The current electrician can issue a notice to you stating the installation is unsafe, this is more of a get out clause for him, he has warned you, if you chose to continue using the electrics its your responsibility.

Yeah, the wiring is old and not to current regs (single core cables, unearthed lighting circuit) so it is possible to get it signed off as ok with that proviso so long as it tests ok?

Yes, with a couple of provisos: the condition of the cabling is ok, in other words not disturbed too much over the years. The problem here is you don’t know what has been going on all these years,

The lighting circuit must have plastic light switches and plastic light fittings/double insulated, no metal fixtures or fittings due to a lack of earth.

If the current chap is on the upsell (which he probably isn’t) then does sharing the old cert with NICEIC force my hand?

No. The may like to think they are the law, but the NICEIC are simply a trade body.

As said before, an EICR would be an idea, if you feel the current electrician is up to no good, get a few other electricians to quote on it.

There is a clause on the EICR, in section D of the certificate which states that the building fabric will not be disturbed during the inspection and test, this can mean the inspector will not be ripping up floorboards of punching holes in wall/ceilings. But if you are unsure about the condition of the wiring and cable junction boxes in particular, you can agree for this to happen.

Have a look at this bloke on Youtube. He’s done a transit conversion and I think he’s done a Peugeot Boxer/Fiat Ducato too.

But there is no need to reduce cars on the road. Public transport really is not a viable option for people who don’t live and work in and in the near vicinity of cities or where they work.

Car usage peaked in the 1980’s, and has stayed roughly the same since at about 85% of all journeys made. The growing wealth, cheaper cars, cheap fuel, and large road building schemes all encouraged people to live further away from their jobs. What also helped was the total lack of investment in public transport/privatisation.

This used to be a choice, but now its become in a lot of cases a necessity, due to the cost of housing, people are now forced to live further away from where the work is.

but no ‘policy’ to recude car ownership is needed. We should be getting people out of fossil fuel burners and into EV’s or at least hybirds…whcih is happening

That may help the environment we exist in, but it won’t solve the very large issue of numbers. EV’s still take up pretty much the same amount of space as a diesel or petrol vehicles on the road.

The overwhelming majority of car users use their cars for small journeys…so excuses like “there are not enough charging points around” is just nonsense…most people’s daily car usage is well within most EV’s range capabilities, so there are no excuses for most of us to not swap over to EV’s when we next change cars

Can’t disagree with that, but it still doesn’t solve the numbers game.

There has been a lack of transport policy by Government for a long time now, and recently a willful lack of one by failing grayling, leaving it “to the market” to decide, which has inevitably led transport in this country to where it is today. Jammed.

Norco Fluid?

A decent amount of kit on it for the money.

Surely David Davis has got to feature here?

I know Br*xit is almost the definition of an omnishambles, but he does seem to have been particularly hopeless as our master negotiator.

When people ask the wrong questions…

But maybe it was his intention to be hopeless, and he was actually VERY successful in this endeavor? Makes you think….

When people ask the right questions…

It’s a splash in the ocean of the £22bn sunk into crossrail. I think that works out at North if £1500 per London resident.

There is always cynicism at the beginning when it comes to the costs of infrastructure projects such cross rail, but is there now and will be around for a long time to come.

Meanwhile the rest of the UK struggles to get back to pre-timetable change train services, ScotRail runs 40 year old trains etc

Have you ever had been on a southern rail or SWR train? But, I agree the level of funding for the rest of the uk is appalling.

It’s not just a Boris thing, it’s a South East and London thing IMO.

London bashing again. Its the politicians in Westminster that should set transport policy, but we are talking about Chris failing here.

it would have been one more thing in an area that is already saturated with tourists and attractions, a pointless ill thought out vanity project.

Agree, it should never have been even thought of, a complete waste of money.

That means less airport capacity needed overall because a lot of people will take a single direct flight instead of multiple connecting flights, but the capacity will be distributed differently.

Point taken, to a point. The more direct flights, the more capacity required at those airports now that those aircraft can get there(ETOPS changes after all)?

A case in point could be a certain airport in the London region gaining a third runway?

I think the A380 was ten years too early. But that point of view depends on whether people would accept that airports will need to increase capacity, (whether that is more airports built or aircraft landing 24hrs a day) for the increasing number of smaller aircraft coming and going to more destinations than ever before.

Air travel passenger numbers and the subsequent numbers of aircraft to carry them are only going one way.

Can’t comment on current pubs, bit did anyone else used to drink at the dive bar in Chinatown?

Spent many an evening there.

You can run through nonsuch park to Ewell, pick up the path alongside the Hogsmill heading towards Tolworth, then turn left along the bonesgate to Chessington. There you can ride into Horton country park, and beyond that Epsom common/Ashtead common.

You can either turn left to Ashtead across the common, or skirt along the edge and cross into Princes Coverts with Oxshott, Esher and Arbrook commons beyond. And beyond that you can get to the thames path at Hampton court and head up to Ham and Richmond park, although there would be some riding on the road between.

Most of this are on relatively good condition paths, but you will encounter mud.

My search ended when I walked into eat near Hanover Square and tried one of their mince pies. https://eat.co.uk/our-menu/christmas-menu/christmas-treats/the-mince-pie_10001902.html

 I know exactly where GF tower is thanks,and the surrounding area.

Yes its in a shitty part of London, right?

Scarce police resources being spent on an investigation, right? The money could be spent elsewhere, right?

The pattern here regardless of the OP’s “I had better say that what they did was bad thing to do, I wouldn’t want anyone thinking I was a monster” comment at the beginning is that its not worth the time and effort, they are not worth the time and effort.

The people who live there are of little worth. Which oddly enough was what some people were saying on the day of the fire, oh and the previous seven years of demonizing by Government and the Press.

 I was born and grew up in a very shitty part of Hampshire. Should I get in the **** sea for thinking that about where I lived?

I don’t know. Do you think it would have prevented any problems if you had taken yourself out?

I was going to avoid this thread, but couldn’t let this one go:

 Grenfel is in a shitty part of LunDun.

I was born and grew up around there, so do me a favour and take a long walk off a short pier.

 Well, I do find it enlightening that we are all outraged about the fact that the police are investigating this and not the fact that some people took joy in mocking the deaths of others.

All I can say about them is they are c***s.

 Why aren’t the whingers on here decrying the venture capitalists who have driven Evans onto the rocks with excessive debt?

This in spades. And its happening everywhere.

 I didn’t even know that Artex was potentially a source of asbestos!

After it was banned, they continued making materials that looked like the previous materials that had asbestos in it.

It was in quite a lot of stuff, they even made toilet seats out of what they once called the “magic mineral.”

 brite r Duo

Got one of these, good light.

The clamp bolt is a little flimsy, but I haven’t broken it after a year of use, the charger isn’t an intelligent charger so if you have to keep an eye on it, and if you run the battery down it takes a long time to charge.

I used this lot to replace the bushings on my very old Trance:

https://www.offsetbushings.com/collections/frontpage/products/standard-bushing

And I bought this tool as well:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Shock-Bush-Removal-Tool-DU-Bushes-for-Fox-Rockshox-Manitou-X-Fusion-etc/113152424588?hash=item1a5868fa8c:m:mXHMa8On6AEPESz6ULFGsIw

Bump.

 Er….  It is. Have you seen a major crossroads in zone 1/2 at rush hour? Angel is particularly Bonkers.  Then you add in all the others on side streets!

Erm, did you watch the vids?

 specialist (expensive) contractors tend to over-egg the risks

You seem to be implying that contractors are “over egging the risks” for financial reward, which may lead some to believe that Asbestos, albeit White Asbestos(the most commonly used in households) is less risky.

 I understand the issues

Hmmmm….

The event is good and well organised.

The Course is as dull as ditch water.

Did jury service 9 years ago, a potential pedophile case. Was there for two weeks, but only in court for one and a half days, The court was also closed for one day for the Queens Birthday.

What was interesting for the time was the defence when talking about DNA, saying this is real life not CSI or other programmes of a similar nature, I suppose there would be people who would convict on DNA evidence alone.

Anyway, the case was dismissed as it had come to court beyond the legal time limit for such a case to be heard.

I’ve finally and reluctantly had to retire one of my HH’s after ten years of use, became a smelly helly.

I’ve tried other base layers, but this time bought another Helly from here:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Helly-Hansen-Mens-HH-Lifa-Crew-LS-Baselayer-Top/232714880804?hash=item362ee34724:m:mtortcBxsc_v_oRu0PNVPsQ

I haven’t found anything as good.

 yes, but how come there is magically an big increase in problems since SWR took over ?

Because of cost. Railway franchises aren’t the most profitable, which makes one wonder why we have this idiotic system in the first place, but SWR have been on a major “re-organisation” exercise. In other words cost cutting to increase profit.

Hence a downturn in the service.

how about doing exploratory work to determine this before commiting and also leaving contingency – rather than screwing up the commute completely for thousands of commuters ? i.e managing the risk.

If only it was that easy.