Bridget’s Blog

Meral and I went over to Clapton yesterday to help Brian Stone and team campaign for the Springfield by-election, which is taking place on 20 December. Unlike Islington, this is an area with a strong Orthodox Jewish community. One of the estates we visited is run by an Orthodox housing association. It’s a real contrast to other estates in the area, spotlessly clean, with children’s paintings and Hebrew texts displayed on the doors. Even the lift has a mezuzah.

All estates have similar issues with managing bulky waste; here the familiar signs had a different twist, being in a mix of English and Yiddish. Anything left on the landings after a certain date would be considered ‘hefker’ and removed. I was intrigued by this word ‘hefker’ and looked it up; it means ‘abandoned’ ‘ownerless’ and also ‘a mess’. A very useful concept… but will Contact Islington understand if I report flytips, dumped furniture etc as ‘hefker’ in future?