Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Council to sue gardener for growing flowers
The Journal is reporting this morning that a disabled pensioner is being taken to court in a long running row over a garden he has spent more than 14 years nurturing.
They report that housebound Yousri Awad, of Park Road, Crouch End, built a flourishing garden from scratch on a stretch of neglected communal land at the back of his home, but Haringey Council has launched a legal attack claiming he “assumed control” of the site without permission and has demanded he tear it down.
Neighbours have also complained that the garden was encroaching on the footpath and water from the hosepipe was making it slippery.
A council spokeswoman said: “Homes for Haringey (the Council's housing team) has offered to discuss the matter and seek a compromise with Mr Awad which would see him maintaining a smaller space in the garden, but unfortunately he has refused to discuss this with us.
“The majority of residents want the communal gardens to remain as they were and to be maintained by Homes for Haringey.”
Now, I'm sure the issue is complex and of course the Council has many priorities to balance, but I can't help wondering why so much effort is put into this whilst things like illegal estate agent and shops signs along Green Lanes are left unchallenged. Is this a case of the Council having its priorities wrong?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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D'you think, John, that you're the only one who gets angry about Homes in Multiple occupation? About fraudulent applications for Certificates of Lawfulness? About bad landlords - some of whom grow very rich off people's misery?
And yes, angry about scummy Governments which haven't built enough houses and intone piously that "the private sector will provide". Well it has, hasn't it. Little hutches around the streets where we live. At the same time making it easier for the landlords to play the system and string things out for months and years - with no real penalties and fat rewards. People condemn looters? What about these legalised looters?
And please let's not forget cuts to local councils - almost all councils - though perversely deeper cuts on some poorer councils like ours. Though as we are regularly told, lawyers and planners and enforcement officers are only "back office" staff. So a few less of them could hardly make any difference, could it. Oh, yes it will.
I'm not going to comment about the case Hugh mentions. I don't know the details - and the history referred to by Liz. She mentioned that Cllr David Schmitz has taken this up, so why not get in touch with him?
In the meantime you seriously expect me to prove the non-existence of an unwritten rule which you have surmised? C'mon, John.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Part of the character and all
John I hope you're not "being a bit sentimental and not thinking about property law". If you are, you're in good company because Haringey enforcement appears to have turned a blind eye for years to the shop clutter on the Green Lanes pavement. We're all sentimental about some things but the law is supposed to be enforced without fear or favour. With LBH, I suspect that is less sentiment and more not thinking about ... the law.
I suspect the law about encroaching on pavements has something to do with the blind or partially sighted, with wheelchair users and with enabling free flow of pedestrians, especially in busy areas.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Plenty of room for pedestrians on Green Lanes.
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Yesterday (Saturday) I passed a shop in Green Lanes whose goods stretched along the whole shop front, except for the doorway, and flowed almost half-way across the width of the pavement. Is this lawful?
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Neighbours have also complained that the garden was encroaching on the footpath
If there is obstruction of the footpath for the public, then that is of course wrong; but as is often the case with LBH, this prosecution appears to be a case of questionable priorities.
I note that the footpath on a much busier thoroughfare is encroached on: along Green Lanes shopkeepers often have their goods spilling out onto the pavement. This is not to beautify the environment, but to gain extra sales.
I further note that, rather than take on these businesses effectively, for a broadly similar offence, the council chooses to come down hard on a disabled, house-bound pensioner. Some convictions are easier to chalk up than others eh?
Are there really no more serious bye law breaches that the council might prioritise?
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Permalink Reply by Anette on
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This is one side of the story. Do we know the other side, from other residents? He's most likely improved the area, but if it keeps getting bigger and making the footpath slippery then it might be a good idea if he pulls it back a little. And by the sound if it he's refusing. So I'd say this one is a 50/50. Just ever so slightly sensationalist from the Journal. But it's a newspaper, it's what they do.
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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Indeed, People, let's stop council bashing. This is the Big Society-Big Community at work. Alright, they're not the majority of Crouch End or even Park Road residents but they are a body of right thinking residents who may well have registered themselves as the PRCSP by now. They are wide awake to Mr Awad's years of encroachments on their rights of way and of the Health & Safety issues around the frequent issue of "slippery water" from Mr Awad's incontinent hosepipe. Above all this alert minority of neighbourhood watchers know that a flower is nothing more than a weed in the wrong place. A neglected patch of wasteland in Crouch End may well have the makings of a green belt Dale Farm if a disabled Turkish pensioner squats on it. Who the hell does he think he is - an Irish Traveller with settling inclinations? Send in the bailiffs.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Neighbours have also complained that the garden was encroaching on the footpath and water from the hosepipe was making it slippery.
So it never rains there?
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This kind of thing happens in America too - see doc attached.
I happened to see this today and it contains a thorough analysis of the relevant green issues
I visited Mr Awad a while ago with Sarah Cope, who was at the time a Green Party council candidate. Another Homes for Haringey property they campaigned about was Farnefields Court (N4, corner Oakfield/Mountview) whose residents wanted to make a garden. Don't know what happened there.
Mr Awad lives for his garden, and the rest of the site is scrappy grass, no doubt a tiny portion of the equivalent of 200 football pitches which are proudly cut by the Council's oil-driven lawnmowers.
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So anyone who has demonstrated their love of gardening should be completely free to occupy an adjoining neighbour's garden provided the neighbour has left it as scrappy grass?
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Permalink Reply by William Booth on
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That does raise an interesting point though - there might be a case for a 'care and attention' clause in *any* land use agreement. It's bad enough that huge tracts of London have been paved over for car drives in front gardens. Lots of scrappy bits of grass could be meadow-ised to help the bee population, for example.
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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
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I thought the idea of guerilla gardens was the taking over and upkeep of unwanted, unloved, unkempt PUBLIC space for the benefit of the general PUBLIC.. Surely it has nothing to do with colonising other peoples gardens..?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/isarsteve/sets/72157605192505168/with/...
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