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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

From Living Streets

Call for well kept pavements in your area! 

All too often the state of our pavements and footways isn’t good enough. Almost one in ten of us pedestrians have suffered a personal injury due to poor road conditions, costing taxpayers millions of pounds in compensation claims every year.

Unbelievably pavement maintenance is given a much lower priority than road surfaces, putting pedestrians at risk. This happens even though The Highways Act 1980 states clearly that the pavement is an integral part of the highway. And it’s putting people off walking: one third of us would walk more if streets were kept in better condition.

When times are hard, getting the basics right and giving all road users a fair deal is more important than ever. Tell your local councillor that well kept pavements matter to you.

Click here for an online form to help you tell councillors what you think of the state of the pavements

 

Tags for Forum Posts: living streets, pavements

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I clicked on this thinking it would be advice to move to Effingham Rd.

Ha! was tempted to put that joke into my write up but I'm in enough trouble as it is... 

Very happy to take this up.  Do let me know about poorly maintained or dangerous ones.

Yes but: 'one third of us would walk more if streets were kept in better condition' really? Really?

Well that's what LS said and who am I to disagree? 

Possibly the third who don't like to wear full walking boots to go anywhere further than the end of the road and back :) I went out in a pair of 'proper lady shoes' last week. Very hard to walk without breaking your neck due to uneven pavements, cracked tarmac (thanks to lady who stopped to enquire if I was okay as my knee met the ground) etc. Even in central London, I have nothing but admiration for those who can walk around in heels on the slippery, uneven pavements of the streets. You really can't get very far very fast without full on trainer/walking boots.

I never think of heels as everyday wear, yes it would be impossible to walk on the pavement in them, I don't know how the drag queens do it.

As a councillor, people do often tell me about broken and dangerous pavements. But, to be honest, I'd much prefer if they first reported them. 

Using the Council's website is pretty straightforward and you can pinpoint the spot on a street map.

But I'm coming round to suggesting people consider using the website Fix My Street. It gives the option of (a) posting photos and (b) a street map which not only records where the problem is, but shows where other people have already reported problems. Haringey really needs to get its act together and offer equivalent facilities.

If crowd sourcing information in this way is successful, we'll all be able to see what has been reported and when. And if and when it gets fixed. Haringey Highways staff - or at least the more imaginative and less obtuse among them - may slowly see a picture building-up. It could show which streets and neighbourhoods get frequent and reliable reports, and which far less so. Enabling them to look for ways to bridge the gap. Perhaps by finding new, easier and faster ways for their own staff, employees of other agencies, or residents to report street problems.

However, the key question for damaged pavements and kerbs is not just reporting and fixing them but successfully preventing or reducing the damage in the first place.

All this costs money, of course. Whether it's street lighting, pavements, dropped-kerbs, safer crossings, potholes, or any of the myriad ways of improving walking, cycling and just sitting in our streets. Simply telling councillors or council staff won't increase the total budget available to pay for these things. Especially at a time of huge Government cuts.

(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)

I think it's pretty rich to admonish us in Harringay about dreams of flat footpaths and realities of constrained budgets considering what happened over Effingham Rd.

This is for others, Alan knows what happened:

Gina Adamou, local Labour councillor, sometimes Mayor, lives on Effingham Rd, where the pavements were as bad as any other road. She complained to Brian Haley, Cabinet Member for Roads & Footpaths, presumably relentlessly, until he did something about it. What did he do? He spent £100,000 tarting up Effingham Rd which caused her no small headache at the 2010 local elections. I don't think the budget for footpaths in Haringey that year was much more than £100,000. Contemptible.

Nice to see this got neither a reply nor a request to take it down as libellous. Hoping it will go away? How many councillors and senior officers knew this went on and just let him do it? Did you know he was doing it Alan?

To be fair to the Council there are some very well maintained pavements. Have a look at Wood Vale N10.

Yes, a bit of balance is very important. Even here in Harringay we have an example. For some strange reason Effingham Road pavement is fully paved with new paving stones and as flat as a billiard table. It's the only one in Harringay as far as I'm aware. Was that done as a 'show pavement'?

Scurrilous rumours say it was done because a councillor lives (d) on Effingham.

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