Kings Cross Local Environment

New paving outside KX Tesco - who paid?!

Some of you may have noticed the new stone paving outside of the Tesco's in Kings X on Caledonia St which has appeared recently. A welcome improvement to the broken and cracked slabs it replaced, but let's pause for thought...
The council replaced these expensive york stone slabs but should it have been the public purse that paid?
These slabs were broken by delivery lorries for Tesco and Premier Inn repeatedly dropping heavy pallets and cages onto the pavement. These lorries still deliver on this spot on a daily basis, so the damage is likely to occur. It took approximately 18 months for the last set of paving to be destroyed - I wonder how long this lot will last?

In an effort to find out more I have spoken to the manager of Tesco, who although helpful, had no idea whether Tesco had contributed to the cost of the new paving. My next stop will be Islington Council. It will probably take 50 phone calls to find the right person but I feel we need to know whether it was the residents of Islington who paid for the damage caused by Tesco and Premier Inn on this site... If they haven't contributed to the cost of repaving then I suggest we lobby them until they do!!!

Cleaning up the streets - do your bit for a Spring clean

Kings Cross streets have got a lot better over the years.  But we still need to keep reporting problems as they arise - otherwise resources get transferred elsewhere.  And the tippers and taggers come back.  I reported about a dozen things today (see photo gallery here).  It's really easy, only takes a minute and most things get fixed.  You can either: ring Contact Islington 0207 527 2000 just do it from your mobile when you are on the scene.  Or if you prefer a written record, email them (click here) - sending a picture of the offending problem is useful.  A third way is to use fixmystreet a clever online service that helps you report things by clicking on a map and helps you chase the problem.  I use a mix of all three - as it is Spring, do your bit and have a go.

I help the Council by occasionally chairing a local clean up group for them where some residents sit down with the environment staff at the Council - If you have some persistent problems that you think the Council or someone isn't solving drop me a line and I shall see what i can do.

Cleaning up the streets....

Kings Cross has cleaned up a lot in recent years.  The Council has improved its waste collection, clean ups and graffiti, both on the public highway and in social housing areas.  Action by many residents has been very important to this - by complaining a lot, in a constructive way we have attracted more resources to Kings Cross.  This site was originally set up to help me keep track of the huge number of problems being reported.

I still do a regular round up of problems in my neighbourhood.  Today I reported about 20 broken things, graffiti, rubbish tipping incidents.  I use the excellent site www.fixmystreet.com to report things - you can then keep track of them easily on a map (like this).  I have put a load of photos up here.  Or you can mail Contact Islington who will usually sort things out.

Abandoned car - Rufford Street

Thanks to Stuart Cottis for being a good neighbour and reporting this sorry car to Contact Islington:

'The car had its passenger side and rear windows smashed a couple of months ago at which point the owner did not organise for re-glazing but rather patched up with black plastic sheeting. The car then appears to have been abandoned as it has not moved for three months or so. It has now had the bonnet (and other items) removed and wires etc. are protruding into the street.'

'I would be grateful if the vehicle could be removed as soon as possible as it will become a honeypot for crime and anti-social behaviour. I am going to forward this email to the Metropolitan Police too.'

Mercifully the problem isn't as bad as it used to be on Rufford Street - back in 2002 a breakdown and rescue driver used to run a racket where he would take a wreck off your hands for £50 and dump it on Rufford Street late at night.  Some weeks we would get up to a dozen.  Had to resort to the old tactic of ringing up the Chief Executive of the company and screaming at him.

Progress one brick at a time...

Sometime getting a wall erected can take some time, but in the end a problem is solved.. Here is some good news...

Dear All,

Please see attached before and after photographs of the problem area at the Caledonian Road Feredo bridge. I would also like to apologise for the delay in erecting this wall, their was quite a few problems that our Highways team had to overcome before the wall went up including land ownership, BT cables beneath, change of contractors just to name a few. Thank you all for your patience. 

Thank you Owen and Peter for all your help, the wall looks great. Also thank you Ray, Len and Rick for continually arranging/clearing the dumps from the location and Leon for the placing the anti-graffiti coat on the new wall.

Regards,

Chris Demetriou
Street Environment Manager (West)

Environment & Regeneration (Public Realm)
Islington Council, Street Environment Services
1 Cottage Road, Islington, N7 8TP
020 7527 5154

A graffiti too far - cleaning up Regents Canal

The hard pressed environmental crime team at Islington Council has been struggling for ages to keep up with the graffiti that disfigures Regents Canal.  It is British Waterways territory but the Council gets marked down for it in their government performance data.  The normal jet washers on the back of trucks don't reach to the tow path from the road.  So Leon Meredith did a deal with British Waterways to use one of their boats as a mobile graffiti fighting destroyer. 

They started work recently and did a great job at the York Way end.  But it will take months to work their way along the canal.  There are only three people in environmental crime at Islington who have to deal with all the boroughs graffiti and fly posting.  They deserve more funding. I made an affectionate film of their struggle...... (click here to link to YouTube or play below and turn your sound on)

No Dumping, and other funny Council Notices

For this article, I've only included one funny notice.  Just click the picture to get a better view.

There are several of these notices on Caledonian Road.  Why, I don't know, because as the pix shows no one heeds them.  Up to £50,000 fine it states, surely that's a joke too - and that's the trouble.

Why does the Council (and Government in general) create these threats to tackle bad behaviour - and threats they are becasue in spite of all the warnings, no one prosecutes.  Surley instead of constantly going after illegal parkers there is a lot more money to be made (if £50,000 fines are really possible), by going after JUST THE FOLKS THAT DUMP STUFF ON THE CALEDONIAN ROAD!

I'm sure you all get my drift.  Work the laws we have and well see progress.  Constantly complain that we don't have enough laws...and nothing will ever get done.

I welcome comments from all "officials" out there.

The great migration......

(To be read in hushed, slightly staccato tones) Every year thousands of fridges and fridge freezers migrate North for the summer. It is one of the great wonders of the white goods world.  Mostly they pass through London silently in the dead of night, hiding up in the daytime in the undergrowth or Iceland.  But sometimes stragglers get left behind - their condenser might have gone, their power lead simply not long enough for the migration and we find them on the pavement in the morning looking forlorn.  Rufford Street and Carnoustie drive seem to be almost insurmountable obstacles for many fridges and freezers. Nature has to take it course - they are often devoured by Vultures, which is probably the fate of this little chap.

Kings Cross street environment issues

A weekend walk around the area revealed another set of problems reported to Contact Islington.   The Council's performance has improved a fair bit recently - the graffiti cleaning people are doing a particularly good job at the minute.  The picture shows the abuse of TIlloch Street again - it used to be an awful dumping zone and I spent six months chasing and worrying to get the street tidied up and new locking bollards installed.  But the mystery skip dumper is back again having found a way to unlock the bollards.  You can see pictures of other issues here.

More street issues......

The Council graffiti team are doing well at the minute - they have cleaned up some persistent tags in the neighbourhood, so I have done a round up in North Kings Cross and reported more - see pictures at this link. If you have things to report please email Contact Islington by clicking here.

Have also reported a typical set of street problems spotted on a walk this Saturday - see pics at this link.  When I first started doing this in 2002 I would have about 15-20 things to report on the average weekend and getting them actioned was very erratic.  Now it is down to 5-10 and I would say about 80% get fixed - would be interested in others' observations about progress in recent years.  I am struck by the near disappearance of abandoned cars.

(BTW its amazing how popular a load of old rubbish can be - some of the photo collections of street problems have been viewed over 200 times !)