Kings Cross Environment

According to the Islington Gazette, Roma News on the Cally Road (near the chip shop opposite the junction with Offord Road) has been fined a total of £700 (inc costs) for dumping rubbish illegally. The Council statement is here. It is unfortunate that things had to come to this sort of pass – the guys in there are nice and friendly – but they had apparently refused to pay the FPN twice.  Hopefully it will set an example to others.    The Cally has a real problem with casually dumped rubbish from shops and flats along the road and it is good to see some successful enforcement action by the Council.

There has been a bit of dumping alongside the builders hoardings at 110 gifford st and 114 gifford street.  i have reported to contact islington – am sure that others will have reported so a mystery as to why they have been there for a few days…..

Kember Street is a stub of the old grid system that was bulldozed to create the Bemerton Estate (that the Guardian cahrmingly described as a ‘high rise Stalinist gulag’).  Paul Convery has drawn my attention to a persistent tipping problem there with a mixture of residential and commerical waste.  WIll see if i can persuade ICSL to make an enforcement visit.

Just a few bits of furniture short of a bedroom suite.  I reported the latest arrival on Rufford Street this evening.  Hope Islington Coucnil comes to get it quickly – in the hot weather matressess tend to appear in secluded corners employed by drug-using sex workers………

UPDATE

These were removed after 48 hours

But unfortunately not an Islington one.  Lewisham council has just won an award for this site  ‘Love Lewisham’ that allows people to send in photos of problems on the street direct from their mobile phone.  And then displays the photos in a public gallery, including comments on how the problem is being tackled.  Pictures are worth a thousand words when trying to get across the extent of a problem.

The clever guys at mysociety (one of whom lives just over the Cally in Matilda Street) are building a similar site called ‘Neighbourhood Fix-it’ that will use an online map to report street environment problems – ie click on the map and insert details of problem – and display where everyone else has reported problems with pins on the map.  Mysociety are working with the Young Foundation and have a grant from the Dept for Constitutional Affairs for this project. I have been part of debate on the subject based upon my experiences repoirting things to Islington Council over the years.