Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Estate Agents' boards advertising school fetes
I've no doubt school fetes are worthy activities, but do people really need to let estate agents get free advertising by allowing them to set up their hideous boards on their property in return for advertising school fetes. There was even one attached to the rails at the end of a section of Harringay Passageway. Do people find them pretty?
Tags for Forum Posts: estate agents signs, school summer fair signs
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Birdy_Too on
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Someone asked the question does the local community support this? I would argue yes, due to the volume of them in our area. Most people don’t want them there but realise it raises lots of money for local schools so break traditional from their dream theoretical world to help out.
Most would also not endorse illegal or dangerous signs by many of the local EA. Community spirit and cohesion is tough enough without having people moaning about them and it feels very un-community like to want to withdraw valuable funding for our community schools and the children that use them. I actually think in contrast to visual pollution it shows what a fantastic community we have around here with so many willing to help out, thankfully those who appose these revenue streams are in the minority.
I would encourage the PSA’s and EA’s to make them more colourful and less like for sale signs, which of course wouldn’t stop the moaning by the usual culprits.
Maybe some local residents who oppose these signs could sponsor the fairs next year, £1500 and I am sure they would rip your hands off.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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I'd like to see more ways for community and non-profit events to advertise legitimately and effectively. Whether school fetes, community choirs or finding missing cats, if people don't know about them they won't get involved.
But - perhaps like most people - I don't want to see the floodgates open. For example, for fly-posted ads for gigs on every lamppost and traffic light.
My worry is if commercial firms (and not just estate agents) can get round the rules by linking-up with a 'community' or charitable event. This already happens to some extent with schools' banners about collecting vouchers and similar schemes.
Many years ago a member of staff at a Haringey After School club misguidedly accepted free food from McDonalds; and an actor dressed as Ronald McDonald showed up. But he met his match.
Dave Morris - one of the McLibel 2 - was a parent at the club.
Birdy_Too asks for practical alternatives. How about a small colourful window poster put up by parents and neighbours?
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Point very much taken, John. And I hope other people recognise this too.
Is the poster still there now (12 July)?
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Alan, you're missing the point. Schools need money, not just the advertising of the event. Surely you as a councillor understand this.
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Alan, how would your suggestion raise money for the school?
@John, where are your posts about all the banners around Ducketts Common, Finsbury Park and possibly Fairlands Park, the events posters and lost cat posters up and down the Passage. Surely the large advertising bollards at the end of Effingham are more of an eyesore than boards advertising community events? Damn that Fairland Park Summer Party!
Have you contacted the council about the Green Lanes Food Festival 2009 banners still in Green Lanes?
I notice that all but one of those opposing Fair Signs don’t have children attending local schools?
If that banner had just the school fair on there and not the EA would that be acceptable?
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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My very first post in HOL concerned a flypost for the Harringay Summer Fair still in place on a lampost weeks after the event.
I was successful in getting Planning to have a number of illegal boards taken down on Willoughby. I don't go into Finsbury Park or Fairlands. Green Lanes is such a mess that I don't think I would notice the Food Festival banners as I thread my way through dog shit and black bags.
I don't accept that it is necessary to have children at a local school to have an opinion about eyesores. My children are 48, 40, 35 and 32 and I don't intend to produce more in order to back up my arguments.
If that banner had just the school fair on there and not the EA would that be acceptable?
Obviously not. This is not about estate agents per se.
I've said all I want to on this subject and will not be contributing further.
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Forgive me Alan, but how does a window poster raise cash for the school? I'm not clear as to how you would envisage £1000 being made from posters in windows. Do you mean for the EAs to sponsor the posters?
If we have small events, then of course we advertise by using the windows of parents and friends to the school, but the point is that the EA boards money underwrites the cost of setting up a summer fair as Helen points out, as well as being a very 'easy' way for less active parents to raise money for the school.
The issue here is not about only communication of the event but how that turns into revenue for a school. The point about the scheme is that we control the boards: only up to 50 permitted across a wide range, there is a time limit and they should only be on people's properties. We also have the power not to return to an agent if they 'abuse' the contract.
With regard as to who we deal with, schools are careful not to associate with things that are detrimental to children, such as fast food. As Angela says, other local traders donate money and goods too. School voucher schemes provide small extras again at little effort to parents who shop at these places anyway. We can't afford to be above such things. We don't have parents who write cheques at the beginning of term for the cricket pavilion repairs as happened in the minor public school I worked in for a while.
It is not the case that we do nothing else but this but school gardens will not be built without hard cash and the EAs provide this.
@John, I don't know where that picture is but I believe its a £50 fine if on public railings. I can safely say that our local schools would not do that, although they may hang a banner from school railings
Incidentally, I have photographed the rogue board in Seymour Rd and will be contacting Martyn Gerrard about it when I have a minute tomorrow.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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We can't afford to be above such things.
OK, my mind is made up. Unlike our MP who is prepared to throw away his presumed socialist principles for his children (something nobody here seems to have anything against) I am going to stick to mine and next year the school will get a cheque and I will not suffer a board outside my house. I believe that visual pollution in Tottenham/Haringey contributes to our low life expectancy compared to the more visually appealing suburbs. So there.
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You're going to get a board John Mc. Well done young man.
I know some people who say no thanks to a board but give the £20 to the school anyway. A well known member on here did this last year.
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Fine John, if you can persuade 49 other parents to do the same on top of the money they already contribute as outlined above, then we are quids in.
@Birdy. I share your frustration but I can understand why people are objecting. People rarely have practical answers to the problems they are flagging up but we should give them a hearing as sometimes they do...all we have to do is wait :)
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