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Camden New Journal - by RICHARD OSLEY
Published: 1 November 2007

Sir Jonathan Miller and the basement area which he cleaned up

‘I’ve had enough!’ Sir Jonathan sweeps up

SIR Jonathan Miller, the playwright and opera director, is known for his frank opinions on the state of Camden Town and the council’s attempts to clean it up.
But he has never been so fed up that he reached for a broom to do the dirty work himself – until now.
Exasperated at having to walk past a mound of rubbish dumped outside the basement of the Probation Service office in Arlington Road every day, he spent Sunday morning raking the discarded tin cans, food wrappers and burger boxes from the gutter.
They had been ignored by street cleaners, he said, because it was on private property and was only taken away once he had acted as the middle man.
Sir Jonathan, who lives nearby, said: “I have been into the Probation Service to complain a couple of times. They say they have a private contractor to clean up. But it’s not being done and the council cleaners won’t do it because it is not on the public bit of the street. It just builds up and in the end I went down with a rake and a broom myself and moved it into the street to be cleared away. The next day it was all gone.”
He said the dumping ground had mounted up due to the “piazza-fication” of Inverness Street, referring to a council improvement project which has seen millions spent on new signs, paving and lighting.
Sir Jonathan added: “They have a sign at the top of the market which looks like the entrance to a concentration camps. Once you get to the bit where the tourists don’t go, there is less of an interest to do something about it.”
A council spokeswoman said: “We are monitoring the area and there has been no increase in rubbish dumping since improving Inverness Street to make it more attractive and stamp out crime and anti-social behaviour.
“If we see any dumped rubbish or receive any complaints from the public, our street environment team will investigate.”

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