Hackney Mayor: ‘We’ll bill organisers for canal rave cleanup’
Regent's Canal choked with bottles in the aftermath of Saturday's rave. Photograph: George Steptoe
Taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for the council’s clean-up operation following a massive rave on the Regent’s Canal earlier this month, Hackney Council says.
Council leader Mayor Jules Pipe is keen to recoup nearly £2,000 in costs from the organisers of Canalival – the huge free party on the waterway.
Billed as a “caravan of calamity”, Canalival was cancelled at eleventh hour via social media by the organisers, believed to be a group called Animal Control.
Thousands of revellers turned up anyway for the event on 1 June and left piles of rubbish in the water and on the towpath.
Town Hall staff spent more than six hours on 2 June collecting in excess of five tonnes of rubbish from the area.
In a column in council-funded newspaper Hackney Today Mayor Pipe said residents should not have to pay for the clean-up operation and said the Town Hall had been “right to refuse to support Canalival”.
Prior to the event on Facebook Canalival’s organisers claimed the Town Hall had initially been supportive of the event.
On 31 June when the Hackney Citizen contacted the council to ask about its position on Canalival, a spokesman would not be drawn on whether or not the Town Hall was opposed to it – in contrast to the Canal and River Trust which immediately provided a comment criticising the event.
But on Monday Mayor Pipe confirmed the council had been in discussions with the event’s organisers, who have consistently declined to speak to the Hackney Citizen.
Mayor Pipe said “some people” had accused the council of being “killjoys” but did not specify who.
He added: “I was appalled by the anti-social behaviour, noise and disgraceful amounts of litter that were left behind and I know that it was unpleasant for residents who live nearby.
“Many [people] stayed until the early hours of the morning and their behaviour was simply unacceptable.”
The council has written to the organisers expressing concern over how the event had been handled.
But the announcement about recouping costs raises questions about how this might be done, given the nebulous nature of the group behind Canalival.
Mayor Pipe added: “It’s our priority to make Hackney a safe, clean place to live and it’s important that we get that balance right.”
The statement said the council will hold consultation with locals over the future of the night time economy in Dalston over the summer.
Council spends way more than £2000 on utter frivolities and topdown schemes. A people-based group gets together and makes their own fun, an awful lot of fun for that cost, and Mayor (plus most reports) can only see the negative.
Yes, there was a lot of waste and negative behaviour, yes, free party people in general need to exercise respect and responsibility.
But this event was a success and a novelty in so many respects. That is real value, albeit hard to measure and it could be again.
Is it possible for people to recognise both (and more) sides of the story and aim to balance and reconcile them in future?
Why must the message simply be “this was bad”? Such one dimensional politics.
I don’t see how this event was a success and a novely in ‘so many respects’. The canal was left in a state; people in the neighbouring Suffolk estate (and other places) had their doorsteps urinated on; there was anti-social behaviour. Yes, it was successful if getting wasted and having a laugh with your mates is the mission statement. Someone else will take care of the mess, right? I’m sure there were some responsible attendees who took their rubbish home or put it in a bin; and who didn’t need to urinate on someone’s doorstep like a scumbag. But the next day, the evidence was fairly clear that this was more of a big mess than a success.
WATERY RAVE
No changes with the Mayor then. Talking nothing but rubbish, 5 tons of it, we are told. I think someone may have got their figures wrong. Yes there was a lot of rubbish, but surely not 5 tons. The Notting Hill Carnival doesn’t generate that amount of rubbish on the last day of carnival.
I suggest the Mayor has a little chat with the contractors who are responsible for collecting of rubbish.
I had a little stroll along the canal on Sunday afternoon and had the unfortunate experience of witnessing a group of drunks on a barge moored next to Cat and Mutton Bridge. They themselves were having a great time and were very boisterous and loud with it.
Now I am not one to spoil other folk’s fun and enjoy a good bit of fun myself. What I don’t do is impose myself on others. If you are going to use the canal and by all means enjoy yourself but for heavens sake please consider others,
At the end of the day Hackney have abandoned any responsibility of the canal and surroundings. Regardless of what the Mayor says, in reality it’s a free for all and if you have the money, you can do as you like.