Camden 'has the UK's most cluttered High Street'

 
Clutter: Camden High Street Pic: Glenn Copus
Maxine Frith31 October 2012

Camden High Street is the worst place in the country for clutter such as al fresco tables, advertising boards, bollards and cars parked on the pavement, according to a survey by the charity Guide Dogs.

Blind and visually-impaired people are being put at risk because of the hazards, the charity said. It is calling on councils to introduce a licensing system for A-boards outside businesses.

It also wants street clutter to be marked with colour-contrasting tape and and a clutter-free width of at least 1.5 metres on pavements for pedestrians to be able to walk with obstruction.

Volunteers for Guide Dogs surveyed streets in 65 towns in the UK, including the stretch of Camden high street from the tube station to Camden Lock, which they took to represent a typical London street. Other London boroughs wre not surveyed.

They counted A-boards, wheelie bins, hanging baskets, trees, cars on the pavement, sign posts, bollards and street café furniture. Camden was the worst offender, with 109 items, followed by Colchester with 105 bits of clutter.

Upminster, Brentwood and Shenfield also featured in the top ten, along with Leeds, Glasgow and Ballyclare in Northern Ireland.

The charity said A-boards advertising menus, special offers and newspapers were the biggest problem, with 65 A-boards on Colchester high street alone.

David Cowdrey, Head of Campaigns at Guide Dogs, said: “Street clutter has blighted our pavements for too long and councils need to take action to clean up our streets immediately.

“A-boards should be positioned consistently along a pavement, leaving an unobstructed pathway for pedestrians.

“We want councils to introduce a licensing system for A-boards, allowing enforcement to reduce clutter and position them so they don’t obstruct pavements.”

Phil Jones, Camden’s cabinet member for Sustainability, said: “We asked the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and The Royal National Institute for the Blind to help shape our redevelopment plans, to ensure an inclusive high street.

“The Council also works with retailers and other private landowners to keep a clear footway around their premises and to prevent vehicles loading during busy periods.

“Camden Council is committed to maintaining clear high streets and we will continue to work with our local partners to ensure this.”

Around 360,000 people in the UK are registered blind or partially-sighted and half say they feel cut off and excluded from everyday life because of problems with travel, getting employment and negotiating the streets.

Councillor Jones added: “The findings of the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association survey are fundamentally flawed.

"Items classed as ‘clutter’ in their survey included lamp posts, trees, sign posts, hanging baskets and A boards displayed on business and privately owned property.

"In addition to this, no other high streets in London or densely populated urban areas were surveyed therefore no direct comparison can be made to substantiate the claims being made.”

'I don't want to negotiate this detritus'

Charity worker Dave Kent, 52, lives in Hammersmith and is blind, He has been a guide dog owner for 33 years but also uses a long cane at times.

He said: “It’s a really big problem for blind people and it can make you feel even more cut off if you know you’ve got to negotiate all this detritus every time you go out.

“Cafe culture is great but now you have all this street furniture and cafe owners are getting ever-bolder in how far out they put things like chairs and tables.

“It can be pavement hell out there. It’s bad for guide dogs because they have to work harder to navigate around all this stuff, but for people with canes it can be impossible.

“I was walking down the street once and caught my foot on a mattress which had just been discarded. I fell flat on my face in the wet - you can imagine how I felt.

“A-boards are particularly bad because there are just so many of them all over the place.”

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