Lynne Featherstone MP has today stepped up the pressure on Haringey Council to address residents’ concerns about the new bins on Milton Road, Milton Avenue and Northwood Road (the Miltons). The Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, along with Councillors Rachel Allison and Bob Hare, visited the Miltons in Highgate and met with residents to discuss the current situation.
The residents’ concerns arose when their green boxes were replaced with large wheelie bins by the Council, as part of their switch from weekly to fortnightly collections. The new bins were placed on the pavements, as they were too big to fit into front gardens, porches or drives. Residents were particularly concerned about the impracticality of the scheme, the lack of proportionality in the bin sizes, the visual affect on the Miltons.
Since the bins were replaced earlier in the year, residents have had ongoing correspondence with Council officials. However, the officials have so far been reluctant to remove or replace the wheelie bins with suitable alternatives. The Council did establish a consultation, but this was spurned by residents, who felt that none of the three options given in the consultation were adequate. An official complaint has now been made by one resident.
Lynne Featherstone, MP said:
“It is disgraceful that after months and months of complaints, the Labour-run Council will still not provide Miltons residents with adequate and practical bins. Clearly, one size does not fit all, and different residents have different needs. The Council have said that wheelie bins would only be issued if they could be stored off the street, so why won’t they replace the ones at the Miltons with a workable alternative?
I have now written to the Chief Executive of the Council, demanding action to solve this unacceptable situation.”
Lynne Featherstone 
Hi, your problem with bins- if street planners/architects adapted the shape of the street/road to provide 2 bins space every other car parking space – yes, you would lose cars’ parking but hey!, petrol’s exorbitant, polluting and bad design (see electric car/hydrogen engine updates), car sharing is there and public transport should be amazing in the 21st century.
Lynne, do you really think you can continue to get away with this shameless opposition? The new bins system was Lib Dem policy and is used at most of the remaining Lib Dem councils! Ask Lyn Weber. Your party was once committed to the environment, increasing recycling and reducing landfill. What do you propose for the Miltons instead? – smelly sacks on the side of the street instead? I assume you opposed wheelie bin when they were introduced. Why do you oppose everything? Have you run out of anything positive to say? If the light bulb was invented in Haringey, you would have ‘stepped up the pressure’ on behalf of the candle lobby!
“I have now written to the Chief Executive of the Council, demanding action to solve this unacceptable situation.”
Erm, don’t you remember writing this post (http://www.lynnefeatherstone.org/2012/06/comment-on-the-resignation-of-haringey-council-chief-executive-kevin-crompton.htm) commenting on the Chief Executive’s resignation? Who exactly have you written to??
Thanks Lynne!
As a resident it has been quite difficult to live with the foul odours, constant mess, hygiene issues, the challenge for people to move the large capacity bins, decreased street access (for prams & wheelchairs) as well as obstruction of views from properties (esp. basement flats having to lose daylight).
One size does not fit all for this issue and as I love living in Haringey, I would hate to see this ‘pilot’ scheme rolled out to other residents who have even less front garden space (if any) and/or internal storage issues (most residents in our area do not have front gardens and/or a back garden to store their recycling/rubbish). So, all of these bins (I regard them as Daleks, since they invade our space regularly) are being stored on Public Pathways.
I am not against wheelie bins per se, the area has had wheelie bins since before I moved to the area (in 2004). However adding more wheelie bins with less collections has seriously impacted on our already severely neglected borough-wide streets.
As Lynne has said, ‘No one should have to live like this’, especially when you compare our Council Tax rates to the rest of London.
Hurrah – someone is actually looking at this sensibly. When the fortnightly collections were introduced it was stated by the council that they would assess people’s ability to store waste. By the way the initial consultation was flawed and so have other attempts to consult. Haringey have not asked people if they were happy to move to fortnightly collections.
The have simply lumped large wheelie bins on pavements. Purpose built flats are dealt with differently, but not conversions; they have to put up with it. Why? In other london boroughs (Westminster, Camden, Islington etc etc ……….) with large numbers of conversion flats have other systems in place that work and keep the streets clean and tidy – why not in Haringey?
This is one of the most important uses of council tax paid by residents and yet complaints and requests to change the system to more regular collections and so less bins on streets are simply being ignored because they do not fit into the contract – one signed for 14 years is it? Surely someone with some sense would have forseen these problems.
Good for Lynne going down there and taking a look and speaking out. Others can criticise if they wish but surely the point is to get this sorted out.