Hackney Independent members toured every estate in Haggerston this weekend and found that many were still suffering the effects of the bin strike that finished over a week earlier. An inspection of surrounding street properties found no major problems.

“It was no surprise to us that the Council had left the estates till last as usual, while putting the needs of those in big houses around London Fields first. After all that’s where the Labour vote is these days” commented Hackney IWCA’s (Hackney Independent as of summer 2004) spokesman Carl Taylor.

“Our policy is that the estates should be cleared first. This is not just because we always put the needs of the working class first. It also makes sense to us that if 40 flats share one communal bin area you clear that before someone who has their own front and back garden and has a chance of managing their own rubbish.”

Kingsland Estate Tenant & Resident Association Chair Anna Maria Mari echoed the Hackney IWCA position. Standing with Hackney Independent members and Kingsland Estate residents by a pile of rubbish that had piled up over the previous two weeks, she stated “We’ve had enough. We’re fed up with being at the end of the line. The Council isn’t managing our estate properly. We’re considering managing it ourselves.”

Margaret McTernan, pictured with her children Shannon and Sean McCarton said she thought that it was “disgusting” that the rubbish had been left for so long.

Hackney IWCA’s Peter Sutton said it was “ a disgrace and a health risk” that the Council had left the huge pile of rubbish at Hebden Court, Kingsland Estate. He criticised the local Labour councillors, “We may have narrowly lost the election in Haggerston to Labour, but where are our Labour councillors now? We’re the ones going around the Ward, taking up local issues and campaigning alongside the community. What are Haggerston’s Labour councillors doing about the Council’s failure to clear the rubbish from our estates?”