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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

• We will make sure the Finsbury Park Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) is reviewed, and that streets outside the CPZ can join if there is residents support.
• We will fight for measures to slow down traffic on Upper Tollington Park and to make the pedestrian crossing safer.
• We will make sure the Stationers Park Play Fort is replaced with an even better play area – ending years of broken promises from Labour.

Of course, there are a million other things we want to do, from improving our children’s centre to fixing our pothole problem, but speaking to residents – its the council’s failure to sort out these three problems that is causing the most frustration.  Residents are angry about the parking situation, want action on speeding traffic on Upper Tollington Park, and want an end to the years of broken promises on Stationers Park play fort.

I hope local residents will back these positive pledges to improve Stroud Green.

I contacted the Council at the time to make sure the repairs were done quickly and have not heard back yet.  However, when I walked past today I saw there were workmen putting the wall back together (see picture).   I know this wall has been hit before – so I hope this isn’t too regular an occurrence.

However, getting Haringey to maintain these area is always a challenge.  I walked passed earlier this week and noticed the plant beds were getting really overgrown again – with weeds now spreading on to the pavement and pushing up through the gaps in the paving stones.   I’ve contacted the Council asking them to get their gardening gloves on – and to make sure this little green spot gets put back on the maintenance rota.

A resident once dubbed this area the ‘Stroud Green Piazza’ – a nickname which has stuck with Ed, Laura and me.   This is the centre of the shopping and restaurant area on the Stroud Green Road and our Labour-run Council needs to give it greater priority than it currently does.