Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Councillor Dogus - why is Ducketts Common looking like a rubbish tip?

Councillor Dogus,

As councillor responsible for parks, can you please explain why Ducketts Common, the gateway green space to the borough's main shopping area, is looking like this (emailed link to this post at 14:50 Friday 25/03/11). Please don't mention 'cuts' in your answer. Thank you.;

Photos taken Friday 25/03/11, @ 1:30pm.

Good work with the Common is going on through the Friends Group, Groundwork and the council to re-develop the playground and replant certain areas. But it's blighted by this litter, bins overflowing and a general lack of care.

Can you guarantee a plan of action so this doesn't continue to happen Dilek?

Tags for Forum Posts: , , common, common", councillor dogus, cuts, duckett's, duckett's common, litter, parks, public, More…public spending cuts, spending

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Permalink Reply by Gregg H on March 30, 2011 at 12:38

Its an interesting point on flytipping. Our bin day was yesterday, by evening new piles of bin bags and boxes had appeared. People just seem to want to put stuff out of houses as soon as possible to leave to elements and urban wildlife. Do we need some more waste recycling centres on a small scale? Big dumpsters?

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Permalink Reply by Darren S on April 1, 2011 at 10:42

I was strolling along a not-so-busy High Road one morning. A young woman walking a few yards ahead of me dropped a sweet wrapper in my path, then moments later another one. It appeared she was eating a packet of Starburst as she went and thought it was acceptable to let the papers fall onto the floor. So I started picking them up. Why? Because walking behind her I could see the top of the backpack she wore was slightly open. After collecting half a dozen of her discarded sweet wrappers I moved in close behind and deposited them into the top of her open bag.

I wonder what thoughts entered her head when she reached her destination, took her bag off and found her own empty sweet wrappers inside?

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Permalink Reply by matt on April 1, 2011 at 11:40

Excellent! :)

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Permalink Reply by matt on April 1, 2011 at 11:43

Important update: please read information below, also emailed to Councillor Dogus today, councillor responsible for Parks (and Alan Stanton, who has been communicating with me about this off-line);

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Dear Councillor Dogus

A Park's officer has informed me that the park's Hygiene Team has been reduced from 15 employees to 5 because of the recent cuts..

Can you confirm that this is the case?

Recently I emailed you regarding the poor state of Ducketts common regarding rubbish. I'm still awaiting a reply.

My understanding from this same officer is that the reduced team of 5 was further reduced that same week I emailed you about Ducketts Common because 2 employees were on leave and another 2 were off ill, leaving a grand total of 1 to cover the whole borough.

Are you able to guarrantee a more sustainable plan going forward for the cleaning/litter picking of the borough's parks? It would be a shame to see the council's Greenest borough strategy going into reverse so quickly after a number of years of steady progress under this strategy.

Regards

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Permalink Reply by Abi on April 1, 2011 at 12:15

Hi Matt. Thanks for posting these pics and for your hard work in doing something about this - such a shame. From what little I know there have definitely been cuts in the parks department. I was not aware of numbers, but that sounds pretty drastic. We have a nice little garden near where I live (Manchester Gardens) which used to be locked every night - it's now being left open 24/7 and is becoming really messy as a result. So parks in general are already very clearly suffering.

I do really sympathise with the litter problem too as we are having a similar issue with public bins around Seven Sisters Road. The main problem seems to be people misusing them (I've seen what is clearly domestic and shop waste shoved into bags and stuffed either into the bins themselves or more usually just dumped nearby).

When I complained to the council about this problem recently they acted quickly but took the slightly bizarre step of removing the side panels of all of the bins - presumably so that whoever is habitually dumping the bags will be able to at least get them inside the bins instead of leaving them on the street! (Anyone else seen this!?) But as you'd expect, the type of person who dumps household waste in the street will not tend to want to make even that amount of effort, so there is still a lot of dumping going on.

It's horrible to look at, probably not very safe and just puts me in the worst mood on my way into work in the morning. So glad I'm not the only one fuming. They are clearly stretched to nothing. :(

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Permalink Reply by Antoinette on April 1, 2011 at 16:09

Which is all the more reason why we should all do our bit to help and pick up not only our own but other people's rubbish. My own personal pet hate is when people leave their empty bottles and cans on the top of my wall when there is a recycling box just the other side of it. If I see this on my wall or anyone else's I just deposit it in the nearest green box.

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Permalink Reply by matt on April 2, 2011 at 16:14

The latest 01 April 2011 18:19 ;

Dear Matt,

Just a quick line to say that I have now got an email for you from Alan so that I can respond to you.
First of all I need to apologise for the state of Duckett's Common last week. I asked for it to be cleaned as soon as you emailed me and it was cleared the next day. I am currently getting officers to investigate what caused the problem and will get back to you early next week (as soon I get a response from officer) with a fuller explanation which will include answers to your questions in your subsequent email.

Regards
Dilek