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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 25 July 2008

Stumped over lights

• AM I alone in thinking all these stumps from disused street lights should have been removed by now?
The council don’t seem to be that interested, or the engineering service or EDF for that matter.
I wrote one more email this week to try to establish a time frame for a stump that has been left on Stephen Street, W1.
I was told this is part of a job-lot that needs to be removed as part of a package by Camden Council’s engineers. Apparently there are over 400 such stumps waiting to be extracted like teeth from a tired, aching jaw.
But the stumps from old street lights is just the tip of the iceberg.
So many needlessly erected signs, the clutter of the recycling bins, the bins themselves, and the advertising booths for prostitutes, once known as telephone boxes.
We need a new department with a “chief clutter remover” or such like.
Take the silly car signs. A perfect example is Gresse Street where I live. Apparently, as we live on a boundary road we need signs to tell us so.
I awoke one morning to find a council contractor, putting up black posts. No signs, just 6ft posts (five in total in 200 yards). This was three weeks ago. Still no signs.
Then there was the car that hit the GIVE WAY sign one evening. An elderly gent from Essex didn’t know what
one-way meant apparently. Hit the sign head-on.
The following day the sign and car were removed. The sign had a light fitted to it too. Yep, you guessed it, they weren’t replaced, and this was over seven months ago.
My concerns are about signs we already have in Camden. Permit bays, pay and display bays, motorcycle bays, etc.
Do we need to have black/grey posts inserted in every spare piece of pavement to attach an 8-inch sign to, when there is already a post there which could be used? Boundary signs?
For goodness sake. Why not one post with everything you need to know on it?
Too many good ideas make a mess.
Cut down the signage Camden. We don’t need this mess.
Try removing some of it before you start introducing new stuff.
CHRIS HOWARD
Chair for 25 Gresse Street Residents Association

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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