Richard Wilson

There was consternation at this week’s Area Forum, when the Council spelled out its plans for forcing households to have two wheelie bins – and cutting the non-recyclable waste collection from weekly to fortnightly.  Residents from streets like Woodstock Road have complained that they just don’t have enough space in their tiny front gardens for so many bins – and that people wont be able to get in and out of their front doors if the Council push this change through.

Whilst lots of residents are really keen to get a recycling wheelie bin because they have the space and the boxes aren’t bin enough, many Stroud Green properties are not suitable for this change.  If the Council had bothered to consult with residents it would have found out that people have completely different requirements – but in typical Haringey style decisions were made in secret behind closed doors.

Haringey say that everyone’s front garden will be assessed, and that people may be able to request smaller bins.  However, its unclear what happens if your front garden just isn’t big enough to cope with two weeks worth of black-bag waste from all the flats in your house – or if your neighbours don’t recycle properly and put smelly food waste in the black bin (or what happens with nappies and cat litter which can’t be recycled).  Ed Butcher and I have been out knocking on doors in Upper Tollington Park and neighbouring roads and most residents are hugely supportive of attempts to increase recycling, but desperately want to keep their weekly bin collections.

The Area Committee agreed to put residents concerns to the Labour Councillor in charge of waste collections.

Earlier this week I was part of a group of councillors who turned up to thank volunteers who had spent the morning clearing rubbish and dead vegetation from a section of the Parkland Walk.  The session was organised by the Council’s waste contractor Veolia, who encouraged their own staff to volunteer.  In the space of two hours four lorry loads of debris was removed.

It’s great to see a large company like Veolia putting something back into the local community.  Many of the Veolia volunteers I spoke to lived locally and used the Parkland Walk, so were delighted to have been able to help improve the area.

However, even this big event only cleared a short section between Oxford Road, Upper Tollington Park and Stapleton Hall Road.  That’s why as local councillors we’ve also awarded a small £500 grant to the Friends of the Parkland Walk to help organise more volunteering sessions to try to clean up the Walk (see previous post about the small grants).  I hope this volunteering push can bring people together and really make a difference to the Walk.

Yesterday, I helped out on the Parkland Walk clearing undergrowth before it blocks the path, and building a ‘loggery’ to attract the bugs and insects that are vital to any nature area.  Should you wish, you can see my ‘handy-work’ just inside the Upper Tollington Park entrance to the Walk.  It was great fun and really well supervised by volunteering charity BTCV, who made sure that even gardening novices like myself knew what they were doing.

Halfway through the morning we were joined by some teenagers doing ‘community payback’ who really threw themselves into the task and were really hard working and keen.  This was great to see, particularly as I’ve had complaints from magistrates that there aren’t enough community payback activities organised by Haringey.

I’ve had lots of residents say they would have loved to have joined in, but they weren’t free this weekend.  So I’ll see what can be done to encourage more of these sessions to be set up – and for them to be better publicised to local residents in advance.  There is such huge support for the Parkland Walk locally I’m sure volunteers can play a big role in making sure it is maintained.

My colleague Ed Butcher has been lobbying the Council to do a clean up blitz on Stroud Green Road and the surrounding area for a good while.  The pavements have got very grubby and there has been lots of complaints of fly-tipping on the side roads.  Thanks to this lobbying, and the work of our local Neighbourhood Manager, there will be a programme of activity to clean up the area – and to get volunteers helping out on the nearby Parkland Walk nature area.

This Saturday (13th) residents are being urged to help out with conservation work tidying up the Parkland Walk (the green walk along the disused railway line).  The meeting point is the Upper Tollington Park entrance to the Walk at 10am , and the work to trim back vegetation and create a ‘loggery’ for ‘mini beasts’ will be supervised by conservation officers.  The work runs to 1pm and volunteers may be rewarded with a spot of lunch!

On Saturday morning (10am – 12 noon) there will also be a skip on Albert Road to help encourage residents to properly dispose of any bulky refuse (though unfortunately they can’t accept white goods or electrical items – call 020 8885 7700 to get these items collected).   I particularly pressed for Albert Road to be targeted as flt-tipping at the bottom of the road near Stroud Green Road is a persistent problem that I have raised numerous times.

There will be further cleaning activities during the week, including a dog fouling patrol, and a deep clean of the grubby pavements on Stroud Green Road.  Ed, Katherine and I will be taking part in activities so please join us and help out.

I’m really pleased that, for once, Haringey and Islington Councils are working together to tackle the problems in teh Stroud Green Road area – with help from other local organisations like FinFuture and the Haringey Peace Alliance.  This attention is long overdue – and the challenge will be to keep up the cleaning once all the focus of the ‘Clean Sweep’ is over.

As part of our campaign to slow down traffic on Upper Tollington Park, my colleague Cllr Katherine Reece has joined a local police patrol in the area.   After being alerted to the problem by councillors and local residents, the neighbourhood police team have been taking action to catch people speeding near the pedestrian crossing at the junction with Florence Road.

In this patrol a few weeks ago, four cars were stopped for speeding, a penalty notice was issued for failing to stop at a crossing, and a ticket was given out for using a mobile phone whilst driving. The action is necessary because so many residents have raised concerns about cars driving too fast and failing to stop at the busy crossing, which is a route to a local primary school.

Another partial success from the campaign has been getting electronic speed signs installed, which flash a warning when vehicles break the speed limit.  However, the locations they have been installed don’t seem ideal – as one of them is after the crossing and partially obscured by vegetation.  I’ve contacted the Council asking them to re-assess whether the signs are in the optimum positions!

However, our real aim is to get traffic lights at the crossing – and we are collecting signatures for a petition to make the Council take action.   Please sign up.

On Sunday, I joined a group of local residents and Lib Dem activists collecting signatures for our petition to demand a safer crossing for Upper Tollington Park.  We launched the petition online in June (see previous post), but we are also knocking on doors and posting copies of the petition.

It was a fantastically sunny day, and I’ve been sent this great picture of me, John, Dan and Fatuma by the crossing on the corner of Upper Tollington Park and Florence Road, with the petition on our clipboards.  Please sign up online here if you’d like to back the campaign.

Lynne Featherstone has joined the Stroud Green Lib Dem team in launching a campaign to make the pedestrian crossing on Upper Tollington Park (by the junction with Florence Road) safer.  The campaign was launched after local residents raised concerns about the speed of traffic on the road and a recent accident near the zebra crossing.

This is a key route for children going to Stroud Green Primary School and many years ago the Council employed a ‘lollipop lady’ to patrol the crossing. However, I’m told that when she retired she was never replaced. So as a first step to make the crossing safer, we are calling for the Council to employ a new crossing patrol person.

Thanks to pressure from Lynne, Ed Butcher and myself, the Council have now agreed to put up more warning signs on the road, and the local police are doing extra speed patrols on the road.  However, the real long-term answer is to get the crossing upgraded with traffic lights and measures to slow down the traffic.

To get the Council to take action, we have launched an online petition to demonstrate how strongly local people feel about this issue. Please sign up here.

Everyone I’ve spoken to so far has been extremely supportive of the campaign. In fact, when we took this photo of us launching the campaign, several residents came out of their houses to offer us their backing and tell us their concerns about the traffic.  I hope with such strong support we are able to make a difference.