This is 2026 London rather than Victorian London - we shouldn't have to live like this!

Thank you to everyone who came along to the meeting with the council on Monday 23 June. It was fantastic wasn't it!? I don't think they expected so many households to be there demanding action.

Apologies for the delay but now my baby's first two teeth have broken through (and she is now back to being a happy gurgling child), I'm back in full campaign mode - and I hope you are all too!

To start - how does the grill restaurant pollution impact you? The council say this doesn't qualify as a nuisance, and we might all agree - it is clearly a hazard!

Residents feedback below:

• Support the restaurants as essential part of our community but want them to do better in terms of management of excess smoke/badly managed smoke.
• I enjoy the good food from Green Lanes on occasion but due to the concentration of restaurants grilling food, the air pollution is out of control. Chimney filters can and should be installed to limit smoke and more onus on the restaurants to report on their pollution and reduce. Please act asap as it is damaging our lives.
• The air feels absolutely toxic when the grills are on full power and the wind is blowing towards us. I can't let my children outside, open a window, or even enjoy my own home.
• As a parent I feel so guilty being unable to protect my children from pollution levels that will lead to some terrible health conditions later in life. This is 2026 London rather than Victorian London - we shouldn't have to live like this!
• Living in the Gardens every day is BBQ day with the smell of burning flesh a regular thing from 10-11am. We have a large chimney between the header of Stanhope and Rutland Gardens that you can clearly see pumping out smoke daily. Also, when walking my dog in Chestnuts Park you see the daily fog above the larger (multiple sites) restaurants in a large continuous plume
• On weekends, past 4pm (particularly Sundays- post lunchtime) when walking my infant son, I've learnt to avoid walking down the passageway from Allison to Finsbury Park as the air is steeped with restaurant charcoal smoke smell. Times that I have done so, it's been a relief to arrive at Finsbury Park and the canopy of trees, but I've return home with a headache and dizziness. Also when we first moved into our flat in Feb 2021 I remember having to become "acclimatised" to the smoky bbq aroma that would always arrive in our front living room mid way through the evening - we're halfway up one of the ladder roads. "In 2018, a study in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, found that particle pollution from restaurants can spread hundreds of metres into residential areas and can be greater than that from major roads." Guardian 14/11/2025.
• From my position at the top of Allison Road which is one of the highest points of the ladder I can see the smoke billowing out from the restaurant chimneys, there are some in particular that are much worse than others so clearly are lacking filtration. The air on green lanes often smells unpleasantly smoky and it reaches us. My concern is that woodsmoke combined with the traffic pollution is a very toxic mix with a primary school nearby.
• Smoke is often particularly bad (bad smell and black smoke) in the mornings when the grills are being fired up - often we have to close the doors and windows when the wind blows our way. Some mornings it catches in our throats.
• Smoke often can be smelled even seen on Hewitt Road it is clearly coming from restaurant.
• Thick haze of charcoal-y smoke with a lot of particulate content hangs over the Gardens with a mild prevailing (SW) wind. Cumulative effect between 2010 and now of a volume of 3-5 extra frontages using charcoal added just in the adjacent two blocks. Garden cannot be used on summer evenings. Windows must be closed. Move around an air purifier between rooms.
• There are two sources of smoke on Green Lanes: traffic pollution, and charcoal smoke from the restaurants. Traffic is pretty bad, but no worse than a high street with similar characteristics. Smoke from restaurants on the other hand is exceptionally high. It hangs in a thick smog over the entire area. Much as I enjoy the restaurants' food, the smoke pollution is excessive.
• I suffer from X(Privacy)X syndrome and have dry eyes. It affects me badly and directly.
• Acrid smoke in my back garden and front on street (Warham Road).
• I often smell and see a haze of smoke which has originated on Green Lanes.
• Terrible at certain times of the day.
• Can't put this into words but it's a concern, along with the noise, crowd, concern for children living closer who have asthma and the lack of biodiversity on many ladder roads.
• Constant visible smog and smell in the air both when leaving the house from the front door and when going into the garden. Puts us off opening the windows and going out for walks in the area. There is no control over it and it's felt by all our neighbours too. The bad air quality is particularly an issue for those of us with asthma and other respiratory health conditions. It is damaging the local environment and needs to be urgently addressed.
• Being told by council officers - 'you chose to live near the restaurants' is upsetting and unhelpful. It feels like the restaurants rule and our health just has to suffer.
• This is a serious and long-term environmental issue, how committed are Haringey Council to monitoring and improving the air quality to avoiding term health impacts on those living in and adjacent streets to this pollution issue?
• What should we as residents- including children and vulnerable adults who may not have access to the internet- do to protect themselves on "high smoke" days when windows and doors need to be kept closed?
• How are staff and customers being protected from restaurant smoke?