Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
What grade is your street?
While Mrs E was out photographing dumped TVs and fridges (and the odd flower) she left the Local Pedant in charge of finding what is considered acceptable and unacceptable in the world of litter collection.
LP stepped up to the challenge with gusto and discovered the "Best Value Performance Indicator 199" litter section, as produced by the government when carrying out surveys. This is what the GMB used recently in their survey which discovered that 40% of Haringey's streets were unacceptable, the highest in the country.
"The Environmental Protection Act 1990 (s.87) states that litter is ‘anything that is dropped, thrown, left or deposited that causes defacement, in a public place’.
There is no statutory definitions of litter, however local authority cleansing officers and their contractors have developed a common understanding of the term and the definition used for this BVPI is based on this industry norm.
Litter includes mainly synthetic materials, often associated with smoking, eating and drinking that are improperly discarded and left by members of the public; or are spilt during waste management operations (you certainly know Haringey bin men have passed by. )
Litter may also include putrescible or clinical wastes, or faeces such as dog, bird and other animal faeces." (uh oh Dog Poo)
But since a picture is worth a thousand words, here is what a Grade A street looks like,
Grade B looks like this
Now we are getting into familiar territory, as I'm sure A and B were a bit of a distant memory for you, with Grade C
and here is the one you've been waiting for, grade D
There are varients which are
* B+;
* B/C; and;
* C –
Now the next time that the council asks you whether you are satisfied with street cleanliness (what do you mean they haven't asked you, the Council Residents survey, you remember), these are the standards that they are supposed to be applying and, therefore, so should we. Now when you go out in the morning, what grade would you give your street? Or your high street?
With thanks to
Alex Segre on Flickr for giving permission to use his photos of Haringey.
Reference:
Cleanliness BVPI (199)
LP stepped up to the challenge with gusto and discovered the "Best Value Performance Indicator 199" litter section, as produced by the government when carrying out surveys. This is what the GMB used recently in their survey which discovered that 40% of Haringey's streets were unacceptable, the highest in the country.
"The Environmental Protection Act 1990 (s.87) states that litter is ‘anything that is dropped, thrown, left or deposited that causes defacement, in a public place’.
There is no statutory definitions of litter, however local authority cleansing officers and their contractors have developed a common understanding of the term and the definition used for this BVPI is based on this industry norm.
Litter includes mainly synthetic materials, often associated with smoking, eating and drinking that are improperly discarded and left by members of the public; or are spilt during waste management operations (you certainly know Haringey bin men have passed by. )
Litter may also include putrescible or clinical wastes, or faeces such as dog, bird and other animal faeces." (uh oh Dog Poo)
But since a picture is worth a thousand words, here is what a Grade A street looks like,
Grade B looks like this
Now we are getting into familiar territory, as I'm sure A and B were a bit of a distant memory for you, with Grade C
and here is the one you've been waiting for, grade D
There are varients which are
* B+;
* B/C; and;
* C –
Now the next time that the council asks you whether you are satisfied with street cleanliness (what do you mean they haven't asked you, the Council Residents survey, you remember), these are the standards that they are supposed to be applying and, therefore, so should we. Now when you go out in the morning, what grade would you give your street? Or your high street?
With thanks to
Alex Segre on Flickr for giving permission to use his photos of Haringey.
Reference:
Cleanliness BVPI (199)
Views: 41
Tags for Forum Posts: litter, BVPI 199, GMB survey, flytipping, street cleaning, street cleanliness
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Comment by Liz on May 15, 2008 at 16:14
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I would give Warham C- most days
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Comment by Martha on May 15, 2008 at 16:46
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Big old D for Seymour and the chicken bones/boxes
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Comment by Steffen on May 15, 2008 at 17:01
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Green Lanes is IMO an E tending towards F
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Comment by Alison P on May 15, 2008 at 19:23
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Well seeing as how I trod in some dog doo as I walked out my front gate this morning I'm going for a Z.
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Comment by Alan Stanton on May 16, 2008 at 0:34
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I had a long interesting chat with Alex Segre this morning and I'm pleased he's made contact with you. Liz.
With the cleanliness grades in mind, I looked back over some of the thousand or so photos I've taken in Haringey in the five years since I bought my first digital camera. (As you know, many are posted on my Flickr pages.) I don't deny you can find some littered and poorly cleaned streets in Tottenham Hale and the adjoining wards I'm most likely to photograph. But, to be fair, there are also a lot of 'B's and B/Cs - and even some 'A's!
And there are conscientious local street sweepers who do a good job. The lesson I'd draw from Alex's photos is a need for better training, tools, and - above all - better designed systems. (Unfortunately those problems are found in thousands of organisations in which - like Haringey - bright committed staff, often at third tier or below, have to work round dysfunctional targets, and 1920's style clockwork management dressed up as "modernisation".)
Despite these obstacles there have been general significant improvements in Haringey's Streets - especially pre-2005. Street Lighting is an example. And if anyone thinks this never applies to cleaning, I'll post my before and after photos of Tottenham Hale station, and of Chesnut Estate! Wheelie bins helped a lot; as has recycling.
But, for me the depressing theme which comes across in my five years of photos is the continued high level of dumping and flytipping. And I would put responsibility for this, less on Accord (now Enterprise), than on the Council's only partially successful engagement with our residents - a failing most obvious in areas with the largest transience; the most temporary housing, the worst landlords and managing agents. Not forgetting traders who fail to grasp the blindingly obvious point that clean tidy surroundings are not a frill, but make good business sense!.
Where I completely agree with Alex Segre is that councillors and senior officers need to listen to residents' and traders' personal experience and perceptions. And then be ready to have frank and grown-up conversations about: what works; what works partially; and - crucially - what's working badly. There needs to be honest acknowledgement of and taking responsibility for failures. A willingness to acknowledge error is at least at the root of progress.
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Comment by Anette on May 17, 2008 at 14:47
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Seymour Road is a D most days. Thanks Zam's Chicken! You really help. Not.
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Struck by Anette's (correct) comment about Zams Chicken and Seymour Road (& others I'm sure). What do you think would happen if people approached some of the worst offenders, pointed out what a problem this caused, and asked them to do more to stop their customers littering? Is that the most naieve thing you've ever heard? I guess it depends on whether you think places like Zams actually could do any more - I presume there isn't any point them providing litter bins as presumably most people don't hang around there to eat, just eat on the go and then chuck (hopefully not literally - though we all know it happens eh ...).
Sorry. Have just spent the day in the countryside and perhaps am feeling a little out of touch with reality?!
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Alison, I think your suggestion is neither naive nor impractical.
Of course, there are fast food outlets which sponsor bins and encourage their customers to respect the homes and streets nearby. But your idea of an approach by the local community goes one important step further.
I've suggested something like this to a few of my colleagues - and been completely ignored of course. It isn't my own idea but an adaptation of the approach used by environmental and other groups in the U.S.A. They call it a "Good Neighbor Agreement". The basic concept is to achieve 'win-win' by having a formal agreement between a business and its neighbours.
Here's a link to a project in Columbus Ohio between a local community and an organisation which ran a hostel for homeless people. I can't confirm whether or not it's still working successfully. But the approach has to be worth trying - especially when there's everything to gain; and nothing to lose but a bit of time and effort.
My suggestion is to try this with a range of situations where there are tensions and conflicts between businesses and nearby residents. The scope could include: managing agents of Homes in Multiple occupation (HMOs); shops which should control their waste and litter far better and recycle a lot more.
My assumption is that local businesses would quickly see a real commercial advantage in publicly being a "good neighbour". And once the ball started rolling, many more would join in.
It does need a substantial measure of give-and-take. For instance a recognition by local residents that traders are entitled to run their business. It's no good trying to impose impossible conditions and get marginal businesses to commit to spending money they haven't got.
So what happens if a local business signs-up, but breaks the agreement? Quite simply, they are announcing themselves a "bad neighbour" and the local community has a public lever to get them to comply. If that fails, then enforcement officers can focus on the far smaller number of continuing offenders who produce noise, dump waste etc.
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Comment by John McMullan on May 18, 2008 at 23:50
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I pick up sh!t from outside my front gate reasonably often and put it in my bin and I consider it a normal thing to do. One of the reasons those D/C streets look the way they do is because the people who live there do not care enough about them to pick up the B grade litter that is dumped there and they turn into C's/D's. Just pick it up and put it in your half full wheelie bin. It's crap picking up after other people, I agree, but that B street is just a cleaner C street.
Alan, I loved your post, especially the bit "Unfortunately those problems are found in thousands of organisations in which - like Haringey - bright committed staff, often at third tier or below, have to work round dysfunctional targets, and 1920's style clockwork management dressed up as "modernisation"." Ha ha ha... sigh.
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