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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Hello,

I've just moved to Bruce Grove recently and notice the streets are often covered with all sorts of rubbish. Would anybody be interested in being part of a voluntary group to maybe go round once a fortnight and clean rubbish up from the local area?

I understand many people would say that individuals should be more considerate and not drop litter but I also think if the area was cleaner people would start to be more mindful and respect their streets a bit more.

There's one particular area around the railings at Bruce Grove station that I have been talking to the council about and essentially 7 perfectly pleasant, well intentioned people, have contacted me about the issue but nothing has been done because the land belongs to National Rail. Anyhow, I'm going to go down on Thursday morning next week (14th) and clean it myself (unless it's taken care of before) and it got me thinking about maybe trying to set something up on a more regular basis.

I'm talking with the council about getting refuge sacks, litter pickers and gloves to help us out as well as deciding on where to put the waste once it is collected.

Would anyone be interested?

Tags for Forum Posts: bruce, clean, council, grove, haringey, litter, rubbish, street, streets

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Haringey has a contract with Veolia to clean streets. Why not find out what Veolia is supposed to do under the contract, then ask Haringey to make sure it actually happens.

Round here at the junction of Park Road and Priory Road there is a street sweeper every few days and bags deposited outside local shops are collected daily. Surely Bruce Grove should get similar street cleaning arrangements?

yes, I spoke to them all (and national rail) before making this post. Nobody wanted to take responsibility for the area behind the railings at the station and all reiterated their commitment to keeping the streets clean. As I got passed around from email to email, person to person, the rubbish continued to sit there, growing in size (although somewhat lessened now after the clean up I did there yesterday).

In other words, the purpose of trying to arrange a regular voluntary clean-up is not to act as a substitute for what the council already do, but rather something to supplement what is clearly not an adequate service.

It would of course be great if there was more consistent attention given to the issue and I will continue to press all relevant parties on this, Councillors included. But in the meantime, for anybody wanting to help make a very tangible and immediate impact on the issue, they are welcome to contact me here or on richardmacleansmith@gmail.com, where hopefully we can coordinate something useful for the area.

Purely hypothetical - but shouldn't a member of the public get on the council's case about it, the council should get on to the property owner to get them to do the necessary but if the property owner is big like Network Rail, presumably it gets difficult to get them to see the light, right? Then because the Council cannot get anywhere, the matter is referred to a Councillor who has no power, while the Council does

There cannot be a more difficult job than being a councillor in Haringey.

Patrick, The Council has  been "on the case".  Stuart McNamara is the "cabinet" councillor for the Environment  and he has also been "on it". (That's why the railway bridge was repainted by Network Rail.)

There was an improvement for a while in the forecourt cleanliness but there's been backsliding recently.

Hi Richard, is this happening this weekend? If so I can help but might be short notice to raise mass FoE troops. I could send an email tho'. Can you let me know? Katie

Hi Katie,

Actually I was just about to post about this - I had to wait till this week to have a meaningful talk with the cleaning department of the council as the person they wanted me to liaise with was away till now...

Anyhow, I met with her yesterday morning to have a look round the area of concern and to discuss my plans to set up a volunteer group to tackle the streets and she's agreed to help in anyway she can - primarily in giving us access to equipment, refuge sacks and hi-vis jackets etc. Which is great. However, this weekend is going to be too soon, which is a shame but shouldn't deter us!

I'm going to put another post up about this and suspect it might be easiest to set up a facebook group or something to try and coordinate people if and when they want to help out. I'm going to suggest a meeting time once a month and whoever wants to join in can - every two weeks would be ideal but not sure if I'll get enough volunteers for that just yet...

I'm proposing we tackle bruce grove station, the station sidings and the high street and main roads surrounding first, then if people what to suggest other parts of Bruce Grove people can propose that for the next months clean up.  Thinking to suggest a couple of hours one evening in the week and see who's interested.

What do you think?

I am happy to help if I can. I actually live in West Green, but approve of the idea so no problem helping in Bruce Grove on occasion as long as we recycle (as previously discussed). I'm not on Facebook, but if you can add me as a contact on here and send me a direct message, I will give you my email address so you can keep me up to date if you wouldn't mind doing so.

And just a thought about the hi-vis. When I set something up to clean up the Frome Rd embankment a few years ago, the council gave us hi-vis and a few people thought we were crims doing community service!! So I'm happy to help, but would hope that hi-vis is optional. ;-)

Katie

That's really great thanks, and as I said we can always move to new places each time we do it, and definitely full commitment to recycling. I'm not on facebook either so might have to do an old fashion email list, or if needs be will set up an account just for this.

Also agreed on the hi-vis, in a way I think it's important that people see we're volunteers and not working for the council, or indeed, doing community service...

I'm going to put a few ads up asking for volunteers to join me this week or on the weekend, is there any day or time that would suit you particularly?  Or if you're not free can wait till it suits you. I think if we can get at least 5 people it will be more than worth it.

I was thinking of Sunday as it's particularly dirty here then but a week night might be better?

Best,

Richard

I could do Sunday. Week nights not so good as it's nearly dark by the time I get home. Might suit others though.

Katie

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