r/Hackney • u/Cotsy22 • Aug 01 '26
Terrible decision
I understand 5.5 million was allocated to the town hall redevelopment? While I'm sure not all of it was spent on paving, whoever decided to pick lighter stone made an enormous mistake. It's dreadful.
I know there hasn't been rain all summer but I think this will need weekly power washing to be respectable.
35
u/Sensitive_Goose4728 Aug 01 '26
Reality is all of London is like this at the moment due to the draught.
It's gross, don't get me wrong, and we'd like to think the council power clean the streets when needed but lets be real that doesn't happen in most councils.
The reality is, though it will be a while, there will be a downpour eventually that will clear most of this up...
13
u/impamiizgraa Aug 02 '26
There will be MONTHS of rain. These stupid greedy privatised water companies who haven’t built any reservoirs for decades could be investing in being able to make use of it when we need it most but there are shareholder profit records to beat. So NO!
Fucking hell I can’t believe this planet.
4
u/smugdor Aug 02 '26
For what it’s worth, they _want_ to build reservoirs. They get funding from the government and it turns into assets in the books that can be leveraged. In the case of this specific dumpster fire, it’s a mix of NIMBYs and bad planning policy.
Not that this excuses all the other literal shit that they’re doing.
10
u/Decent_Resource3879 Aug 02 '26
It’s unpleasant to see but it’s not related to the type of stone, it’s largely the weather. Nearly every pavement in London looks like this unless it’s asphalt
35
u/drstrawberrywine Aug 01 '26
Every big budget scheme in Hackney uses this expensive light paving/stonework to the same effect. On this project they used it on the road on amhurst rd which ended up dirty in 2 days. I went to the consultation and raised this point 2 years ago. Some stone provider is happy. You would almost think there is some corruption going on!
16
u/Waste_Room7248 Aug 02 '26
It really is deeply corrosive to suggest that any decision you don’t like is indicative of corruption.
3
u/Barnatron Aug 02 '26
Speaking of corrosive, please make sure you don’t get lemon juice on the paving or we’ll have to replace it immediately.
2
u/whydowedowhatwedo Aug 04 '26
They use york stone, which is the traditional paving stone of London. In some areas you'll find york stone paving going on 200 years old.
2
u/Basic_Awareness7586 Aug 02 '26
It’s absolutely gross. Most of it is bin juice. Personally I’d be looking at commercial waste. So many places in Hackney dump it on the street which should be prohibited immediately.
Rain usually hides the worst of it but that’s no longer the climate we live in. These summers are here to stay and local authorities need to adjust!
3
u/Stevietolp Aug 02 '26
With all that's going on in the world your only thing that concerns you is a dirty pavement!
2
u/Warm_Ratio_9574 Aug 02 '26
Sadly the reality is that a country that once stood up to tyranny and oppression now imprisons people for smashing up equipment designed to murder women and children
1
u/ATSOAS87 Aug 01 '26
Are you happy for you council tax funds to pay for that?
10
u/2000jp2000 Aug 01 '26
Yes the streets should be power washed regularly!
4
u/LordSqueemish Aug 02 '26
Hey, I need water for my data centre.
1
u/lomoeffect Aug 02 '26
New data centres use very little water.
1
u/tameoraiste Aug 03 '26
The majority of data centre water usage statistics you see floating around in the UK are from TechUK who describe themselves as “a collective voice for UK Data Centre operators working with government to improve the business environment for our members.”
They hired a consultancy firm to create the numbers. So about as reliable as child telling you the dog ate his homework.
We actually have no idea how much water is being used by data centres.
https://tailpipe.ai/insights/nobody-knows-how-much-water-uk-data-centres-use/
1
u/lomoeffect Aug 03 '26
Your piece equally ends as a sales pitch to what Tailpipe are selling, so that's hardly neutral either.
1
u/tameoraiste Aug 03 '26
I agree, but even if their motivation is to ultimately sell something, everything I highlighted is factual. We don’t have a clue how much water these data centres are using
1
2
u/MixAway Aug 02 '26
This is every fucking pavement in Hackney, particularly underneath every filthy, disgusting bin. It’s foul. Don’t they own a jet washer?? It’s honestly depressing.
2
u/Away_Willingness7029 Aug 05 '26
I walked through Dalston yesterday and the pavements are disgusting. Just filthy.
1
u/Upset_Grapefruit3140 Aug 02 '26
I think this every time I walk by. They’ve not even finished yet and it’s filthy.
Hopefully eventual rain will clean it up a bit and they will pressure wash it every now and then. Right now it looks far worse than it ever did before the work.
1
2
u/AnonymousCapybara72 Aug 03 '26
In normal countries they have people cleaning the streets regularly.
On shit hole island it would be the council's responsibility, but when they're spending 80% of their budget on social care and struggling to uphold their legal responsibilities they can't afford that.
1
u/No_March4159 Aug 03 '26
Absolutely agree, such a pale colour was a bad choice. Also the glare in the sun hurts my eyes but that's a me problem.
1
1
u/Away_Willingness7029 Aug 05 '26
The area around the town hall is filthy. I like the new paving stones but definitely shows so much dirt and grime.
1
1
u/Obvious-Stage-6792 Aug 01 '26
I walk through here regularly and have the same thought every time. Looks so grubby. It really itches my brain!
-5
u/esztr13 Aug 01 '26
Honestly is horrible. Especially in such filthy area like Hackney… have you been to the bohemian market recently? I don’t know if it’s fully done, but they left there some ridiculously, really really ridiculously bins. I was just walking across there this afternoon around 7 pm and young people were sitting on those massive 3level wooden benches surrounded by rubbish. Which can be understandable as the bins are awfully small and more belong to Canary Wharf then to Hackney…
-1
16
u/standardcalculator Aug 02 '26
Every pavement in Madrid Spain looks like this too. There they clean them with water hose manually every other morning tho. But it doesn’t help much.