Haringey Community Volunteer: the end of the affair

News reaches me from the interweb that Haringey have new Neighbourhood Action Teams to tackle street issues but where, oh where, do the Community Volunteers (whose scheme has never officially been abandoned) fit into all this?

Way back in the distant mists of 2010 I went on a walkabout with Brian, Geraldo and the SNT to input as a community volunteer on priorities. I asked for people to input hotspots via HOL and shared them with the team. We were given to understand at our meetings that this would not be a one off but nowhere in this new planning arrangement does it suggest that our band of stalwarts are to be included.

So it seems the relationship is at an end. Haringey have moved on and there's no place in their lives for Mrs E and her burning enthusiasm for improving her neighbourhood. I suppose I must with heavy heart remove my picture of the Cabinet Member for Environment from off the mantlepiece, take off my sensible shoes and hand in my notebook and pencil made from recycled polystyrene cups. It seems that we are no longer wanted but no one has got round to sending us the Dear John letter. Hell, they don't even answer the phone any more.

I think the 'rot' probably set in when we were moved from Haringey Green Team's nurturing embrace and thrust onto the front line next to enforcement. It may have been our own fault. We asked for more joined up thinking between waste management and enforcement teams and the next thing we knew we were sent up the line.

Under the Green Team, the emphasis was on recycling, sustainability and green policies e.g. energy usage with a small portion of the meeting devoted to frontline matters like dumping. We had well attended meetings, sometimes on Saturdays at the Reuse and Recycle centre (woo hoo mrs E) with fellow amateur devotees of waste manangement policies.

It may have been that removing our Green Champion badges and giving us Dumping Vigilante hats meant that interest dropped in the scheme. Certainly, some regulars stopped coming and we were a little put out to get presentations on helping the police in reporting criminal matters (it wasn't what we signed up for at all and we refused as a group to get involved). Robin Payne at Enforcement did see us as part of the enforcement process and promoted use of social media to help us report things, but I think maybe we started to lose our way, after all we weren't originally meant to be volunteer enforcement officers, and certainly after he left the council, we gradually discovered that our volunteer services were clearly no longer wanted but no one could be bothered to get around to writing the thank you notes.

I have asked Veolia about renewing the scheme under the old terms as volunteer green champions, especially with the big change over going on. Interest was politely expressed but no more was done about it. I guess we need to find other outlets for our enthusiasm for a more sustainable future, like the Transition Groups, Sustainable Haringey etc because it looks suspiciously like the council don't have the ability to channel it in productive ways.

 Here's some memories of the good old dayz and some photos of the days when Mrs E (my alter ego was born)...and I still have my free tea towel.