Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Unwanted junk through my letterbox...
This may have been raised on HoL before - apologies if this repeats, but does anyone else find the level of junk mail in Harringay somewhat tiresome?
I have a sign on my door, printed in plain English. It politely states that I do not want junk / unsolicited mail through my door, yet time and time again, it's ignored. I see lots of similar signs on other front doors on this road, and other ladder roads too. Clearly it's a big enough problem that numerous people have thought to put such signs up.
I get endless cab cards, pizza leaflets, take away leaflets, and now a whole magazine from Lidl. I don't even know where Lidl is, and I probably wouldn't shop there when there are so many good local shops on Green Lanes anyway!
It's easier to stop Spam email these days, than it is to stop unwanted junk through your own front door it would seem. There are laws governing Spam emails from UK companies at least, and generally, it's pretty easy to persuade an uneducated UK business that they need to abide by the bulk commercial email regulations.
What's equally annoying to unwanted things through my letterbox is that now my road (Allison) is littered with adverts for some crummy looking garage, as they popped flyers under the windscreen of every motor on the street. I crumpled mine up and put it in the bin, but others haven't been so kind to the poor pavement, and now there's lots of litter. My car might be getting on a little, but I'd certainly not take it somewhere that touted for business - a good garage has a good reputation and gets loyal customers in that way, without the need to litter our streets.
I've taken to phoning those responsible for this waste of tree fodder. I politely ask that they cease. Of course, I don't leave my exact address as that would probably be foolish. Yet still, the same cab cards, the same pizza cards and so on.
If I catch someone posting this through my door, I nip out and hand back the junk while tearing a few strips and pointing at the sign on my door... However when I'm out that's not possible.
What can be done about this?
I have two thoughts. The first is probably a little naughty, but the idea entertains me and it would probably provide the quickest route to the desired result: What if we all started to order services from these lovely business owners? Cabs to Luton, Gatwick, Stanstead to pick up a Mr Smith on the flight from nowhere... Pizzas ordered for delivery to Mr T Axi at the local offending cab shop, that kind of thing. Perhaps if every round of these unwanted leaflets / cards / menus were met by a whole heap of such return fire, the practice of advertising generally crummy looking services to those who clearly do not want to be advertised to would stop. That's my plan for a direct action approach, but I'm not sure if it's acceptable or not, so haven't taken such a step yet. The more this happens however, the closer I get!
The second idea is that we ask HC to erect signs at each end of a road, to state that residents do not want cold callers, door to door marketing and so on. But is that enforceable, and is anyone going to take note of a sign at one end of a road if they can't be bothered to read signs on many of the doors? Indeed do some people actually want the door to door sales people calling etc.?
Maybe nobody else really cares, but I thought I'd ask HoLers to see what other local opinions are.
Tags for Forum Posts: junk mail
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Joe Bailey on
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That's so much better thought out than my angry rant of a plan - I like your thinking Osbawn, although I personally think that one bit of junk mail is too much, I would accept a cap at 2-4 from each business each year as this would still be an improvement.
Do local authorities have such powers?
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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If I wanted to provide evidence of advertisers exceeding a cap of (say ) four flyers per year, I would have to keep those five flyers for each business for production to the Council. I don't have room and life is too short.
If distribution of junk mail were to be stopped, a lot of distributors would be put out of work. Is this a good idea in these difficult times ?
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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As a local councillor for a far eastern ward (Tottenham Hale) I'm curious about which powers you think the Council has to fine businesses or individuals putting a leaflet/note/letter/newspaper etc through your letterbox? And also who in "the Council" is supposed to take on this new task - especially with the current Government cuts?
Currently, the main such 'culprits' at our house are: (1) minicab companies - whose cards are sometimes useful; (2) the Post Office, which delivers junk mail as well as letters; (3) "good cause" clothing collectors. Some of these are dissolved companies which never filed accounts. Did they pay tax, never mind fines?
Yes, leaflets and cold callers can be irritating. Here's one alternative.
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Should we expect "the Council" to protect us from all the Google, Yahoo etc junk ads that also brighten our day? How long till those who want the Council to exercise their "powers" between our front gates and front doors start howling about "our nanny Council"?
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I may be wrong, but I've never heard of any powers for local councils to ban, or ration items arriving in residents' letterboxes. Though the great film The Lives of Others, shows this system in East Germany - a room of people opening other people's letters.
One of the reasons I refused to have a Haringey email address is because Council IT staff have to review and release email which contains any of a list of banned words. Or photos with large areas of "skin-colouring" - like this offensive picture of a vandalised phone cabinet and a brick wall.
Ivan Illich - now sadly neglected - described the mail service as one of the Tools For Conviviality. But the very openness of the system - and your letterbox - leaves it open to exploitation.
Though I wonder if the real problem might be that for lots of people the excitement of opening the post has gone. What drops on the mat is rarely an unexpected letter from friends or family. They email or phone or Skype. Instead it's mainly bills and junkmail.
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Permalink Reply by Maddy on
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I'm surprised by this post - I aslo have a sign saying "No junk mail, no sales calls" on my front door and it has been incredibly effective. From getting several things a day, I only get the occasional leaflet now. It hasn't stopped the God squad, or local election material (apparently it is my "democratic right" - read "obligation" - to receive such material) but virtually everything else, including annoying gas sales people.
About once a year it gets torn down, possibly by an irate delivery person, and the junk mail increases significantly until I get round to replacing it. I understand that if you say "No junk" then they are in breach of the law if they post it - if I am there when it comes I go out and explain.
On the other hand, I no longer get any menus for local takeaways etc, which could sometimes be of use...
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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They certainly enforce the parking restrictions without needing to be told.
I wonder why that is?
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Permalink Reply by Abi on
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A friend of mine had a political house call in the run-up to the last election and was most unamused when confronted with a canvasser trying to shove party election paraphernalia through his letterbox. If I recall correctly the caller's excuse when my friend pointed out the 'no junk mail' sign was "but...I'm from the UK Independence Party!"
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I got most of the politicians around here back during the last local election. They all had their addresses published and any candidates I deemed to have overindulged in mail drops received a dozen HoL flyers through their letter box one night.
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John, As you know, we party leafletters weren't in any way fooled by the vibration of your letterbox and a recording of an office shredder.
Though I have to admit we were a bit worried by the (far more convincing) audiofile of a pack of ravenous jackals in your hallway. Especially when you ingeniously rigged-up your front door to bang and shake like a wild boar throwing itself at the woodwork.
But democracy is precious. It's no good turning all the lights off and hiding under the stairs. At the next election your house will be entirely surrounded. Just come out slowly with your polling card held above your head.
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Some builders we hired used our 'sold' sign to make a lovely cupboard in the hall. You can find uses for everything! ;)
(they didn't ask our permission, mind you. We put two and two together when we saw it had shrunk considerably and was keeping the flowers company in the front garden!)
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We get a fair few (on average 2-3 bits of junk a day), but I honestly don't think I got any less in other parts of North London (or indeed South or West). Some of it is useful - I found out this way that Able & Cole are now operating locally for example - the majority is total carp, and the occasional piece has been quite hilarious (local psychics, etc).
5-10 a day would definitely start to bother me though - that starts to feel like bombardment.
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