Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
UPDATE: RUBBISH AROUND TURNPIKE LANE
after 9 days of daily tweets, fixmystreet reports and emails, A Veolia employee was waiting for me on Thursday at the spot I have been twice daily tweeting (@itsafaff) a photo of the problem. Just one small example of a much wider problem in the borough.
He explained Frome Road is a collection point, collection schedules etc. The council have now closed the case and assume this is now resolved. But a conversation is not a resolution and to assume that it is speaks volumes about the council’s response to the problem. I wrote to CLLR Mallet today and below is the text of the email. It summarises activity over the last 10 days.
I picked the area around Turnpike Lane specifically because I go there every day, it is small and I wanted to focus on one example of a bigger problem. Get something done there and move on ... As others are doing with some success. Your advice, support appreciated.
· We need bins at the major collection points. There are bins outside Hornsey Station. I notice a difference in the services and facilities for the posher parts of the borough.
· We need these bins at Turnpike Lane/Westbury Avenue around the tube. Specifically Frome Road. There are many cafes in this area, more shops than around Hornsey Station. Stuart McNamara tweeted yesterday at 1pm that they will locate a bin where there is a similar problem, as a pilot – can you do this for us?
· We need Veolia to collect at the times it says it will – and not to neglect an area in the hope that no one will notice or be bothered to complain.
· We need more frequent collections.
Since I began making a fuss about the problem around Turnpike Lane tube station, this is what has happened:
· I leafleted 20 shops around the station. Discussed the problem with staff, managers and owners. Many were open and supportive. I have noticed that the supermarket and the taxi firm outside the station are now sweeping the pavement outside their shops daily.
· I have tweeted (@itsafaff) daily/timed photos of uncollected rubbish bags, specifically at the collection point at the end of Frome Road and used the app FixMyStreet to report it.
· A Veolia representative approached me there on Thursday morning to explain that it is a collection point and the collection should take place twice a day. They do not – not every day, my pics and tweets prove it.
· In 10 days tweeting and campaigning about this very tiny area – I have found that there are many people doing the same as me, who are not happy with the way Haringey Council and Veolia manage waste collection. IE piles of rubbish waiting at ‘collection points’ and insufficient collections.
· The Veolia rep told me that there are two collections daily – and two vans to do the job in the borough. Is this sufficient? Many people living and working in Haringey would say not.
· It is bad for business. There is a new gastro-style pub opening on Westbury Avenue (The Westbury)spending considerable amounts of money doing the place up – they support what We are doing and have tweeted that they don’t like the mounds of rubbish lining the street – especially the very big pile that often lies neglected on Frome Rd.
· The businesses around Turnpike Tube – whilst they are responsible for the bags because they generate the waste, don’t think the council collects often enough.
There remains a problem. Despite the response below – it is NOT resolved.
· Piles of rubbish bags sit at the end of Frome Road (and many other places in the borough) and remain uncollected for long periods of time. I have never once walked past this spot and not seen a pile of rubbish bags.
· The piles of bags encourage others to dump their waste. This is clear by the amount the piles grow, the black, and other bags that are added, and the other items dumped with them.
· This system of managing waste collection is failing the borough. It is unsanitary.
· The piles stain the pavement – badly. And leave a strong smell, especially in warm weather.
· I have seen rats, birds and foxes pulling the bags apart and spreading the rubbish.
Would you be kind enough to give me a proper response, one that will give me some faith that I am not dismissed as a nutter, that you take the issue seriously, that you will arrange for a bin at the collection point on Frome Road, that you will ensure that the service provided by Veolia meets need and that they carry out their contractual obligations.
Turnpike Lane tube station is a magnificent modernist building. Arriving in that hall is impressive. Coming out of it is not. This is one small thing that is within our power to change.
Jackie Chambers
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Takaokagiejin on
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One policy change which Haringey could easily implement would be to stop charging people for removal of bulky items, as this encourages dumping. A broken sofa and armchair were recently dumped outside my building by departing tenants. The tenants informed us that they had no transport to go to the dump and Haringey would charge them to collect the items. But, if it was reported as "dumped rubbish", Haringey would collect it at no cost. So we did report it and they were removed at no cost, after a few days rotting gently while passing children walked into the traffic to get round them.
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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I agree. I would also like to see the re-instatement of community clear ups as much dumping is the sort of low level stuff that people don't want to keep in their house but it may be difficult to get to a dump like small items of furniture. Although they were not as frequent as I might have liked, they did serve to help people clear out all their hard-to-get rid-of rubbish
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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With you there Liz. The community clear ups were fantastic ways of getting rid of stuff AND gave people the chance to wander along the street and pick up things to re-use.
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Permalink Reply by Abi on
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Do most councils not charge for this type of collection? Not rhetorical, just curious. I can't remember what the situation was elsewhere. This is certainly a problem issue, I agree. It's another way in which dumping is - effectively - being strongly encouraged and this is the root problem.
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Permalink Reply by Noots on
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I had a load of old bedroom furniture that had been sitting in our neighbour's garden for months, collected free of charge by the council, and they're picking-up a wardrobe from us on Friday week - all free of charge. Some items are chargeable, but there's a lot that they'll collect for free. I actually think this is one service that works pretty well.
In terms of trying to change the culture of people dumping rubbish/litter, does anyone go into schools and talk to children about this kind of thing, anymore? I know they're not the ones dumping mattresses, but if you can get them to respect their environment when they're young, they could be set on the right path for life.
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Permalink Reply by Lauren on
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The council took my old sofa last week free of charge.
I'm constantly having to tell (mainly) people from the HMO opposite to stop putting furniture and crap out on Pemberton bridge. They just respond with "THEY will take it away" (who are "THEY", I wonder?). Maybe the council ought to have a designated day every month when "THEY" come and collect stuff from designated spots?
And do not get me started AGAIN on Devran Restaurant and their mountain of crap piled up at the bottom of Pemberton for the past 2 days..... Why are the council allowing them to do this?
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Yes they do and often children are very receptive to environmental issues but if their parents model a different behaviour that tends to be the one they end up. I've witnessed a child remonstrating with her mother for throwing down a can and being told that it makes work for the street cleaners as though she was doing someone an actual favour. Adults (and not necessarily their family but simply the people they share the streets with) who don't enforce the messages they get from school will undo any good work done on culture change.
Perhaps Communication needs to be improved. There's often confusion about what can be taken, if it will cost and how to go about it. With churn from short term tenants who aren't always informed about waste disposal adding to the problem, and to take an example from above, if you're leaving a property for pastures new (and maybe better) and you don't have to look at it for the next week, there's probably very little conscience pricking if you dump it and wait for one of the locals to report it. Works with little inconvenience to you, doesn't it?
As John McM once commented, the local parties can raise dozens of eager beavers for political doorsteps at election time - how much more would we think of them if they used those same obviously highly effective networks to help people to understand about big issues like rubbish disposal and offer help for those without the means to sort it out for themselves?
Similarly, local traders can rouse themselves and our elected reps when they want something stopped like a block party but seem positively supine in the face of ongoing issues such as abuse of the system by local businesses (see below taken by a local resident) or poor behaviour by the residents above shops whose dumping ruins the kerb appeal of their businesses.
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That's good to hear on the kids front, Liz. And depressing at the same time re the parents.
We used to have loads of stuff dumped round the bin by the Subway/cycle path at the end of Frome Road – I complained to the council years ago about this and they put a no dumping/dumpers will be prosecuted (Arf!) sign up at the bin, and I was stunned that it more or less sorted the problem out overnight. As has been said, previously I think people had thought it was accepted practice to just dump stuff there as it would be taken away. We’ve actually lost the usually overflowing bin from the corner of Westbury Ave and Rusper Road recently, which is an interesting approach to the amount of litter down that stretch of road. On the plus side that corner doesn’t have so much stuff dumped there, on the downside, there seem to be more cans and wrappers dropped, and some people still leave out bags of rubbish (which the foxes love). So many rubbish bins are overflowing round our way that people often don’t have the option of using them – either double the capacity or the collections (would have though the former was the cheapest option). Maybe all you twitter bods should stick in a #clairekober every time you post about litter?
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Yes, we managed to get one of these signs put up in Seven Sisters, and while it hasn't eradicated the problem entirely, I'd say it's cut the instances by about 70%. Which is good!
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Ahh my pic of Devran from yesterday!!!!
Did you see the one I posted from this morning when it was EVEN BIGGER? You can add that one as well please Liz because I can't seem to add photos.
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