COMMENT ON PROVEWELL WAREHOUSES

Meet Up 22 June 2021

The first meet up was held on Thursday 22 June. Focused mainly on the aspects relating to Overbury Road, a total of seven warehouse units were represented at the meeting – along with other comments from neighbouring units.

Joining the session was Ruth, John and Chris from the Provewell team who are overseeing various aspects of the project. James facilitated the Meet Up.

The session was all about hearing how people felt about the different aspects (Bins, Parklets, Traffic and Bikes). It was interesting to test assumptions and, on some aspects, discover that what was seen as useful was in fact creating other problems and vice versa. Other topics emerged, with people raising concerns about Tewkesbury Road in particular.

The Meet Ups are going to continue monthly. A suggested structure will be shared in advance, however any topic can be added by people registering for the Meet Up. A full write up of the event will be published here at HWDcomment.online/archive.

UPDATE
To address the immediate issue with refuse collection, a private one-off collection was organised with Provewell to get the area back to normal. This initiative also includes agreement from Haringey Council & Veolia to restart recycling collections (see updates below).

Key Feedback

1. Bins & Recycling:

  • Dissatisfaction at the blanket policy of Veolia to not collect any recycling due to contamination
  • Confusion with correspondence between tenants and Veolia / Haringey Council
  • High levels of frustration with issues of bin collection on Overbury / Tewkesbury Road (infrequent collections, sometimes only half of the collection completed, bin spillages etc.).
  • Issues with people searching through bins for metal and creating mess on the pavements

2. Parklets

  • Concerns raised about Parklets with seating attracting anti-social behaviour / non-warehouse usage
  • Open to the idea of trialing different types of parklets (i.e. no seats, full cover etc.)
  • Welcomed the opportunity for more growing space on the street
  • Support for the expansion of pavements and using structures to hide bins within
  • Keen to see more involvement of tenants in the design of parklets / other infrastructure

3. Bike Storage

  • Observations were flagged about security concerns of having a large bank of outdoor bike storage.
  • While more bike storage is welcomed, general observations were that it would be more likely used by visitors than tenants due to security concerns

4. Traffic Calming

  • Measures to reduce speeding traffic were welcomed
  • Differing views on whether one-way change was needed / would be appreciated by frequent car users
  • Concerns over increased traffic jams raised and whether large vehicles would be able to access the street

5. Anti-Social Behaviour

  • Concerns were raised about the increasing prominence of anti-social behaviour in the area