Harringay online

Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

The 50m or so of Green Lanes between the railway bridge and Stanhope Gardens must be a strong contender. The amount of unbagged and illegally bagged rubbish it attracts is unbelievable. These pics show the haul this morning at 0845, with broken glass and filthy tissue strewn liberally about. The pavements themselves are disgustingly dirty at the dumpsites because they're never washed. Yes, I've reported it through the app, to my councillor and directly on the Veolia website.

Tags for Forum Posts: filthy, rubbish

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I don't blame the restaurants necessarily, though some of the traders have filthy habits. But it would certainly get some attention to disrupt trade for an hour or so on a Sunday, and might inspire them to put pressure on local representatives to push for a proper solution.

To be fair to Haringey, Michael, the senior staff (and probably lower ranks as well) understand the Broken Window Theory. I think that at different times they have tried most of the suggestions you make. But as you'll realise all of them require staff resources, and these are shrinking.

Although one of the interesting things for me in Vancouver was that the City staff we met were sceptical about the "blitz" method. And I have been cynical as to whether in Haringey this was more a PR exercise. They recommended instead consistent and persistent low level action. Of course our very brief visit was in 2004 and the Vancouver staff - if still there - may have changed their views.

But I noticed that Haringey's "Week of Environmental Action" in Bruce Grove ward in 2007 was claimed as a "sweeping success"; which made a "huge and lasting difference".  My perception was that - if not quite 51 weeks of inaction - it didn't take longer than a fortnight before things were as bad as before.  Reading about one or two other London boroughs I got the impression that targeted residents stayed out of the way while a sort term "blitz" was on. Returning to their poor habits when the coast was clear.

Agree that the approach is not the single answer Alan but I do think that intervention in this way along with a different approach to the litter picking and cleaning regime would help. I don't know if the waste contract has different approaches to different areas but, just with Green Lanes in mind, an area with a high footfall, a lot of restaurants and takeaways and retailers with goods on the pavement should have a higher frequency of visits and more intensive cleaning than say the areas around the Crouch End clock tower.
Also, the spot fines and prosecutions shouldn't be just confined to members of the public; businesses should be targeted too. A start might be a visit to the betting shops that seem to specialise in breeding fag ends outside of their premises. The tree pit at the bottom of Warham Road that has turned into an ashtray for punters might be a good place to start.
As a P.S, perhaps a visit by the staff in charge of the waste contract and the responsible Member could be made to the stretch of Camden High Street and Chalk Farm Road that runs through the Camden markets. It receives millions of visitors but it relatively clean most of the time. Finding out how this is managed might be an eye opener for Haringey.

This is exactly the point - there are other areas of London with high density housing, including housing over retail, and with a high percentage of the population in transition. Hackney is a good example. But I never see anywhere with the problems of Green Lanes and it must be possible to replicate whatever regime they have. 

"... never see anywhere with the problems of Green Lanes"?

Really? Then Rosie, come and be our honoured guest for a stroll along High Road, Tottenham and nearby streets.

Don't worry about the "War Zone" comment, by the way. That was just clever marketing by a very senior member of Haringey's staff who understands that middle class professionals wearing handwoven "hipsters" and eating "pop-ups" want to move to "edgy" places. That's why our local park has this

Dumped Rubble in Hartington Park, Tottenham N17  Designer faux-rockery.

I like this proposal very much, Michael, and have emailed Stuart McNamara "cabinet" Councillor, to pass it on.

Can I please ask you to contact him directly and, perhaps offer some suggestions about turning it into action.  Stuart.mcnamara@haringey.gov.uk.

Thanks Alan

Today is the big deadline day for the members' report. It had better be good. This was the condition of the pavements on this stretch at 1000 today. Incidentally, I chanced upon a hapless council employee looking at rubbish a few days ago. He told me that both the council and Veolia have leafleted in the area, that they have gone through dumped bags, but nothing has been found to link rubbish to addresses- his view being that the dumpers are too canny to allow this to happen. This supports my hypothesis that this is antisocial behaviour rather than ignorance, and that leafleting just isn't going to help. He told me that Veolia are responsible for cleaning the pavements, but that they will not do so unto the renovation work is completed (October? ). Thereafter, their budget will not allow a regular programme of cleaning - they will only do it as and when. As and when what, I'm not sure. Perhaps when the cholera outbreak gets particularly severe.

Haringey Council has a cynical policy on delaing with rubbish on the streets.   It is quite obvious that:

  1. A lot of people living in flats above shops deposit bags of rubbish on the pavement.   Why can't steps be taken to ensure they have access to a bin?
  2. The bags are often left out for days before Veolia collects them, especially at weekends. Veolia is supposed to collect daily form main roads and Haringey is not making it happen. No cojones?
  3. The bags are left with the knotted tops looking like rabbits ears. The foxes then burst the bags open and spread litter.

There are simple solutions for all this, however, no one appears to be able to make a difference.

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