Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Who would want to live here ?
When I moved to Harringay in 1998 it wasn't a bad area - quite tidy and clean. I wouldn't have had any reservations about inviting people to visit. But look at it now :-(
And it's been like that for two weeks.
I don't blame the Council for this - they don't dump decorators' rubbish in our front area and fill the general bins to overflowing with stuff that should be in the recycling bin. It's my neighbours who do this.
Can you imagine trying to rent or sell a flat in this block ? Why does this happen in the 21st century in the middle of the capital city of a first-world country? Don't people have any pride in where they live ? Don't they have any sense of community responsibility ?
How the hell did we get here ?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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It looks awful, John. Sorry you have to live with it. Nevertheless, a simple answer to your question, "Who would want to live here?" is, an increasing number of people and most of us who live here, but nowhere is without its issues.
I do share your concern about the appalling mistakes that have been made with the roll out of the new rubbish collections in Harringay and the areas west of us. So, I'm joining with some neighbours to try and do my little bit to improve it.
HOwever to make a real difference, we need to get the Council to sit up and take notice. Veolia and Councillor Canver (the responsible cabinet member and Ladder resident) will be at the Area Forum on Thursday. Make sure they're clear on your views.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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No Hugh, I'm sorry but you can't blame the Council, the new system or Veolia. We have the same number of people living in the block as 14 years ago. But the people have changed and their attitudes with it. They just dump anything out the front and expect a good fairy to magic it away and they can't be bothered to separate recyclable from non.
If I have work done in my flat it's my responsibility to see that the builder or decorator disposes of the rubbish, or do it myself. If the bins are full, I take the rubbish to he dump myself - it's just round the corner.
But this is all of a par with people abandoning supermarket trolleys in the middle of the car park and chucking wrappers out of car windows. We have become a very lazy, selfish and unpleasant society.
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Yes, Jessica, but councils can't and usually don't plan for a world of good citizens. In the real world, people don't always do the right thing, so policy and plans MUST and normally do make allowance for that. (The billions we pay for a police force is a clue here).
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I can and I do blame the Council, John. In doing so I don't absolve local people for responsibility, but I do pay my rates to the Council to deal with the issues that arise from lots of people living in close proximity. I expect the Council to help manage traffic, but that doesn't mean I don't expect people to drive considerately. I expect the Council to help deal with noise issues, but that doesn't mean I expect people to control their noise in a considerate way. I could go on, but I'm sure you get the picture.
We may differ on this, John, but for me, in essence, it's about getting a balance of responsibilities right between local people and Council. I think in this case they just plain got that judgement wrong. They didn't do it out of a conviction that it was the right thing to do (notwithstanding the desirability of increasing recycling). They did it because they're strapped for cash and felt they had no option. It hasn't worked. It doesn't seem to have been thought through. What you and others are living with was easy to predict. We should have been protected. We now need things to change to reverse the deterioration in the equality of our environment.
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Permalink Reply by Alice Mezzo on
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Sorry to see this John. Someone once said to me that the only way to make people who couldn't care less recycle is to make it worth their while financially by either fines or rewards. Not sure, but perhaps there could there be a solution somewhere in this idea (I know it would probably be impossible to implement). My neighbours don't care either and I am confronted with two overflowing bins filled with stuff that could be recycled every time I leave the house. What to do, I don't know!
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Permalink Reply by ElleCarumba on
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This is where weighing of bins could help (although we'd have lock our bins to stop the neighbours sneaking stuff in). People with lighter bins would pay less council tax. Would be a good nudge towards people doing more recycling.
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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Cannot remember if I ever mentioned this before in a previous post. The personal responsibility aspect to all this makes me think of an article I read once about a reporter moving to Japan. There rubbish is agressively recycled (Japan is a land with few natural resources of its own). There are fines and stigma associated with not recycling. Apparently rubbish is collected in clear plastic bags so the bin men can inspect and (I guess to a degree) enforce recycling and separation!
The reporter did not know what to do with batteries, so he slung them, only to have his elderly landlady berate him and show him where they should go- not that I am advocating we go through each other's rubbish to see what we are or are not throwing away!
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Permalink Reply by Gill on
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I live in a house of three flats. The other occupants are always short-term tenants and English is not always their first language. I asked Veolia/Council to provide a multi-lingual information sheet. I suggested that they put something together I would be more than happy to print if myself and display. Guess what? I didn't even get an answer.
The current tenants are very tidy but use whichever bin has space. Consequently with the two week collection the black bins have v smelly food items left in them.
Perhaps there is someone with a creative mind who can think of an alternative to having FOUR bins outside my window particularly in a multi occupational building (of which the Ladder has a lot of).
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Permalink Reply by pipplypig on
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I sympathise. I have noticed loads of fly tipping all over harringay (particlarly in the passage) and I dont understand why people bother when its so easy to get the council to take stuff away. Its free here as well for most items- in the last borough I lived in it was really expensive so could understand why people fly tipped more. I am fed up of trying to get round old suitcases, piles of old clothes and rotting food with a pram and dont even get me started on the dog poo problem again. Also the shops on green lanes do not always stack their rubbish neatly and it often overflows with rotten food etc. I think sorting this out could be one of the things that would make a real difference to the look of the area.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Can I agree completely with both John and Hugh? Well, apart from the fact that they think the other can't be right too.
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Permalink Reply by Angela on
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This isn't such a problem in Falkand Road but I have noticed that Veolia staff are leaving refuse bags by the waste bin and by the next morning they have been ripped open by foxes (presumably) causing more mess than they have cleaned up. I'm sure there used to be more regular pick ups for bags filled up by street cleaners.
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Well if there was not much rubbish to pick up... they're incentivised to leave a mess.
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