Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
New River clean up: Sun 2 Oct
Hello all;
I just wanted to let you know that a few of us are going to do a clean up of the New River between Wightman Road and Hornsey Station on Sunday 2 Oct between 10am and noon. We’ll meet at the Wightman Road end betw 201 and 203. It shouldn’t take more than the two hours suggested. Please bring gloves. If you have any questions or concerns, please email James at jamescowling1963@yahoo.co.uk. Hope to see you there.
Regard,
James
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Thanks again for arranging this, James. Good working with you. As you say, we made a difference.
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Permalink Reply by Dick Harris on
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Thanks James for this initiative and sorry I couldn't join your band of volunteers.
I can see it made a big difference although, understandably, some of the dumped material was too big to deal with at once.
The dossers I drew attention to on 17th September, did not stay for long but the mess they left was quickly added to by a combination of vagrants, drug users and, probably, fly tippers.
The users appeared/increased soon after the recent police raid down at the corner of Hewitt and Green Lanes which may have displaced some of them from previous spots. On Sunday, just after James's team had finished, our lunch guests (including two grandchildren) walked along the path and passed two users shooting up with needles.
I was pleased at 9.30 this morning to see that all of the larger items dumped (including a barbecue!) by the Wightman Road entrance to the New River path had been removed. I didn't see this happen so I don't know who did it but many thanks to whoever made it happen. May be it was Hugh's report direct to Thames Water, maybe the work of the volunteers brought home how dreadful the accumulation had become, maybe it was our councilors, maybe StreetLink's team had an effect.
As I returned home at 11.30am today, there was a single sad case sitting hunched over a can of Scrumpy Jack. Before I could drop our shopping and go out to see her, three PCs (including a woman) showed up. I didn't witness what took place but she had gone when next I looked.
This section of the NR path is popular with dog walkers, joggers and children going to and from school. I hope it keeps its appeal. It might help if Thames Water or the Council installed a large litter bin at each street entrance to the path. There is a bin for dog waste but this is clearly not enough. We shouldn't have to rely only on volunteers to keep this path clear.
One unexpected aspect of recent events was that three different individuals knocked on my door asking for an empty black bag so they could collect some of the rubbish. I said they could put it in my black wheelie bins. I have two of these and they are now both stuffed full. All three of these people appeared to have close connections to the vagrant community and one of them had certainly slept there overnight and felt responsible either from creating the mess or having, in effect, encouraged it. This seems to say that there is good in most people even though it is hard to be in sympathy with everyone who conducts repellent activities under our noses.
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Walking along the path today, I noticed that the barbecue was by the grabber dump. So, I assume that all the rubbish was picked up by Thames staff and moved there for later collection, perhpas the next time a vehicle drives up the path.
By the way, when I spoke to the TW chap on Tuesday, I mentioned that the grabber didn't seem to be working. He said he'd pass it on the the NR team. By yesterday, it seemed to have been doing its job again and the backlog of weeds and litter had been cleared. So they do pay attention and follow through.
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Would that it were so. The grabber went out of order in June on the day a swan got stuck in the screen. I suppose that some concerned onlooker climbed round and tampered with it. I was told that "the key was missing" which meant the machine could only be operated under manual control. It took two months of accumulating smelly floating weed for TW even to start occasional manual operation and order a new key. I am not sure that it is now back to full automatic working.
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Thanks for that update, Dick. I thought it had stopped working. Things were getting rather smelly. I just assumed that it had been used the other day because all the weed had gone. Perhaps they used it for a one-off grab. Let’s see how it goes.
Have you been in touch with Thames about it?
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DIck, I just walked past the grabber and it was working away. Perhaps they'd turned it off for the trapped swan and then forgotten about it until I mentioned it.
All seems to be working normally now. I hope Harringay Farm is now less smelly.
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