Dear LPG,

I just want to say that as we get older things gradually change and we forget to remember what we have lost.  We can see this as we look around the streets of the borough.  I bet we have all forgotten what the clock tower end of Lewisham high street used to look like before it became a maze of red and white cones.

Something else that has really changed is the way our society views Sundays. Today the shops are open and, while many industries and businesses have always needed to function on this day (transport, hospitals etc.), I think that the government did us a real disservice when they passed ‘The Sunday Trading Act 1994’.

It is good to be able to pop out for a forgotten packet of potatoes or sprouts half an hour before Sunday Lunch, let alone a new settee, but at the expense of so much.  Do you remember when the whole family, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents included, would conglomerate in one home for Sunday Dinner each week, or regularly go on a  day outing?  We talked more as opposed to texting and emailing family members and friends, and we really witnessed the younger members of our families grow up as we regularly saw their progress.

Now, day is night and night is day, and regardless of whether we spend an hour or two of our Sundays at church or not, we never get that day of rest that allowed us to stop and take stock for just a while.  Retirement does have that effect on us elders but we are missing so much of our family’s evolution.

Can I appeal for families to make the time to get together a bit more in spite of the changes that this law has had on those who have not arrived at retirement yet?