File:"Sustainability" Haringey style.jpg

English: This afternoon I reported three street lights which were on 24 hours a day. Haringey's lighting staff call them "dayburners".

They waste electricity and the lamps get double the normal wear, so are likely to fail much earlier. A resident told me at least two of these lights had been dayburning for several months.

Streetlights in the photo above and the one just below are both in Devon Close N17. Scroll down further for the one nearby in Circular Road. And below that for a photo of all three on 10 March 2012.

As with several recent "StreetScene" problems I didn’t immediately report these dayburners. Why not? Because I wanted to see whether the Council's own reporting systems are working. Or are they relying on a resident or a local councillor walking past, noticing, and emailing a report?

I've been told that street cleaners working for Veolia - Haringey's waste contractors - are not expected to report faulty lights. It appears that the same may apply to Haringey staff.

Haringey needs to rethink fault reporting

I've suggested to Haringey’s Environment Department that they take a fresh look at reporting systems for all kinds of streetscene problems including: dumping, damaged pavements, lighting faults, potholes, overgrown bushes etc.

If these types of problems are left they will in some cases get far worse. For example, small potholes become larger potholes as more wheels repeatedly hit them. Dumping can attract more dumping. And generally, if streets, corners and small greens show a lack of care and monitoring this can 'signal' and encourage anti-social behaviour.

But if Haringey Council is relying mainly on residents' reports then it must rethink how to make reporting as widely used as possible; and as simple and easy as possible.

Failing to achieve this risks having a service which is skewed towards better-off areas, where people are more likely to send in reports.

I have made a number of suggestions to Haringey to improve reporting. An obvious one is to relaunch the Community Volunteer Scheme. It was, in that formerly fashionable term, co-production. A small but successful model of Haringey residents - volunteers from the local communities - working in partnership with the borough council and its contractors.

(For some practical examples of how it worked, please explore Liz Ixer's photos on Flickr from her work as a Community Volunteer. This links to one set in a huge collection of photos of problems she spotted and reported round the streets of Harringay.)

It is dismaying that this scheme has not been properly supported and helped not just to continue but expand.

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Links

§ The Broken Windows Theory suggests that a disorderly environment is seen as a place where people can get away with anti-social behaviour. Link to Wikipedia page § Original article: Broken Windows; The police and neighborhood safety by George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson, in Atlantic Magazine March 1982.

§ Where this photo was taken.