As part of the consultation process, many of us fed back to Network Rail a real concern the new public space would not be managed well. The result being worse than what we had before as the area attracts even more people. The scene on day two, in the middle of rush hour (08:30), proved our concern to be well founded. I’ve Tweeted the pics to Network Rail and copied Camden’s chief Sarah Hayward – who yesterday shared on Twitter: “Square already seems like a #Camden fixture” Indeed.
It would help if readers could let Network Rail and Camden know scenes like below are not acceptable.
I will update this post when (if?) I hear back from Camden and/or Network Rail.
The concern would be “well-founded” if this article was an observation after, say, a week, with a consistent failure to clear up. Maybe give it a chance before posting attention-seeking, I-told-you-so, “Me, Miss!” tweets to councillors.
Absolutely, it’s pathetic. Of course developments in the area should be monitored and Network Rail/Developers held to account but that’s no excuse for what comes across as a cynical smear campaign, camera’s at the ready to catch people out everytime something is less than 100% perfect from day one. The thousandsth mention in another post that an extensive and necessary renovation of a 150+ year old building went over budget are also getting beyond tedious, it’s time to move on.
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Tom – there may be some truth in what you say but Sean has been campaigning to help keep the front of Kings Cross station clean since at least 2009, dealing with the awful bureaucratic alliance of NR, TfL and Camden Council – see https://kingscrossenvironment.com/2009/11/12/kings-cross-square-bin-there-done-that/ for instance.
The proof of the pudding will as you say be in the long term, but Sean is well placed to comment on how it should be done. My general experience in the area is that you need to keep acutely on top of litter issues with those who are responsible for scheduling and resourcing cleaning as it doesn’t sort itself out.
Hi Tom, if I was attention seeking, I’d do something outrageous in the new square. I would hope that councillors would want to know about such a service fail. If they don’t, we really do have a problem. Unfortunately, this type of concern IS consistent in KX and complicated by the Camden, LBI, Network Rail, TFL and Argent space split (Yes, 5 agencies!). As Sarah and Camden are the most visible in the media with their lead on KX, our expectation is they take a lead on these types of issues too. When we try to resolve, we’re often bounced from one agency to another. If there’s another, more effective, route other than social to get concerns dealt with – I would love to know.
Sean
Reply from Network Rail:
Hi Sean,
Thanks for your email.
You are completely right, the mess on the square this morning was not acceptable and our cleaning teams have now cleared it up.
This will not be the case in the future. The lack of attention was a result of the handover process between the team who built the square and the station management team, who are now in control and whose cleaning teams will now attend the site 24 hours a day. Please don’t think of this as an excuse, I merely tell you tell to give assurance that the situation was temporary and a permanent system is now in place.
I’m glad to hear you like the square, and apologies for the poor first introduction.
If I can help with anything else please don’t hesitate to let me know.
Kind regards,
Andrew.
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There is no excuse for people leaving such a mess, in my opinion. However, the lack of bins in the area is going to mean that this problem will persist.
The lack of bins is intentional. Most places, and especially transport interchanges now do not provide them. It’s a holdover from the reaction to the IRA bomb campaigns of the 1970s/80s (not bin, no bomb). Its perpetuation is probably the result of the authorities preference for ‘clearing up’ after the fact (a very flawed process) rather than provide adequate receptacles – these days they would have to be emptied regularly because of the volume of rubbish generated by our ‘take away’ culture. The creation of rubbish by commercial entities, plus laxity by the policymarkers, allied to the demise of littering enforcement, has encouraged people to leave rubbish in huge quantities.
I realise it’s intentional. And ridiculous.