Lib Dem councillor for Muswell Hill Lynne Featherstone has secured assurances from Haringey Council that they will seek funding for a vehicle-activated speeding sign along busy Muswell Hill Road, N10.

The news comes after persistent pressure from Cllr Featherstone over the last year. She has been contacted by local residents concerned at speeding vehicles, particularly those with wide wheel bases that can avoid the existing speed humps.

Cllr Featherstone had originally pressed the London Borough of Haringey to secure funding for a speed camera, but was told that the London Safety Camera Partnership (LSCP), who fund the installation of speed cameras, had said that the area did not meet the criteria of four speed-related accidents during the previous three years. However the Council this week confirmed that they would be seeking funding from the LSCP for a vehicle-activated sign along the road that would remind speeding motorists of the speed limit.

Cllr Featherstone, although disappointed that a speed camera will not be installed, is pleased that other measures are being looked at to address speeding in the road.

Cllr Lynne Featherstone (Muswell Hill) comments:

“I am pleased the Council has taken the speeding problem seriously and is trying to find ways to improve the situation. I have received many complaints from residents and I will continue to press for action until we see a marked reduction in speeding.”

Lib Dem Councillor for Stroud Green Laura Edge has secured a verbal assurance from the Haringey Council that playgroups will not face a 300% increase in their rates in the next financial year as originally proposed. The news comes just two weeks after Lib Dems vowed to fight Haringey Council’s policy change, which would see playgroups and other community associations charged market rates for leasing council property.

In a question made at the Council’s watchdog Overview and Scrutiny meeting on Monday (22nd November), Cllr Edge asked the Council’s lead member for finance to reassure the committee that the Council would safeguard the future of the 101 playgroup, which had been facing closure.

In response Cllr Milner said that they were looking to “smooth the position” and that it “would not be the case” that playgroups such as 101 would face the kind of increases they are currently facing.

Cllr Edge has welcomed the assurance that a solution will be announced within the next 2-3 weeks. However she says that until a satisfactory outcome is achieved she will continue to fight to safeguard the future of vital community services like the 101 playgroup.

Cllr Laura Edge comments: “I am pleased that it appears we have convinced the Council that charging playgroups market rates is a bad idea. Playgroups such as 101 provide a vital service to the community and should be not face such extortionate rate increases. I hope that Council’s solution reflects this feeling.”

Stroud Green Liberal Democrat Councillor Laura Edge has again called onHaringey Council to urgently introduce preventative road safety measures inDenton Road (N8) following yet another incident involving a car speeding downthe road and smashing into parked cars and front gardens in Weston Park.

Cllr Edge says that the incident, which took place at 9.50pm on Friday 19November, is yet another in a succession of accidents at this now notoriousblackspot.

The chain of events exactly mirrored two accidents whichhappened within three weeks of each other in January of this year.

Following those incidents, Haringey Council agreed to paint “slow down” signs onthe carriageway in Denton Road but residents and Lib Dem Councillors warnedat the time that these measures were not sufficient.

In response to the latest incident, Haringey Council has pointed out that it hasput in a bid to Transport for London for funding to introduce a 20-mph zonein Denton Road and surrounding roads. However, it is by no means assuredthat the bid will be successful, and even if it is, “investigations” willnot commence until the 2005-6 financial year.

Commenting on the latest incident and the Council’s response, Cllr LauraEdge said:

“Local residents were not satisfied with the measures taken by the Councilin January and this latest incident proves beyond a shadow of a doubt thatthese were wholly insufficient. This is a genuine accident blackspot andHaringey Council’s response is entirely inadequate.

“Urgent preventative measures are needed now, not in 2006 and subject to TfLapproval. Otherwise it is only a matter of time before someone is injured orkilled.”

Liberal Democrats in Haringey have demanded action to tackle widespreadprejudice against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered residents andcouncil staff. They are seeking implementation of all the recommendationsmade in an independent review of Haringey Council’s policies and practicestowards sexual minorities.

Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on LGBT issues, Councillor Ron Aitken,expressed concern at the full findings of a consultant’s report received inAugust, which he says has not been circulated widely enough to councillorsand staff.

The report was delivered to members of the Sexual EqualitiesReview body, on which Cllr Aitken sat and chaired several of the meetings,together with LGBT voluntary organisations in Haringey. Among the manyworrying findings in the report, Haringey staff expressed the view that theyhad no confidence in either reporting complaints of homophobic incidents orin how those complaints would be dealt with.

Cllr Ron Aitken comments:

“I was shocked at the high levels of homophobia found by the consultants intheir survey and the interviews they undertook with Haringey staff andresidents.

“The Council suffers from widespread and entrenched institutional homophobiaand this must be tackled as a top priority through a third party reportingscheme, such as that pioneered by the Metropolitan Police. We also needmeasures to root out bullying by homophobic managers and staff.”

Note:

Among the key findings of the consultant’s report were:

“The Council’s responses in practice, to identifying and meetings the needsof the LGBT might best be described as indifferent or ambivalent andreluctant”. (p8)

“Half of staff respondents had experienced some form of harassment withinthe workplace and where the harassment was directly related to theindividuals known or perceived sexual orientation”. (p7)

An attempt to interview all Lead Cabinet Members about LGBT issues had to beabandoned due to lack of response. (p19)

Residents expressed concerns that their confidentiality regarding sexualitymight be breached. (p35)

Residents expressed the view that the Council was not genuinely committed tosexual equality. (p34)

Haringey Council is to spend £30 million employing temporary staff over the nextfinancial year, according to official projections. The figure, revealed atyesterday’s meeting of the Borough’s scrutiny committee, prompted LiberalDemocrat councillors to call for an urgent inquiry into the Council’s use oftemporary staff and agency workers.

The watch-dog committee was examining spending proposals for the next threeyears as part of Haringey Council’s budget setting process. It was suggestedthat the cost of temporary workers had more than trebled from £8m in 2000 to£30m next year.

Lib Dem calls for urgent action were supported, and the committee will nowstart the process of taking a detailed look at the role of temps within theCouncil.

Commenting, Councillor Stephen Gilbert said:

“By any measure £30 million is a lot of money and we have to be clear that we are getting the best possiblevalue for local tax-payers. Temporary workers will have a role in anorganisation of Haringey’s size, but their services always come at a premiumwith agencies also taking a healthy commission.

“Permanent staff are more likely have a sense of identity and provideballast to an organisation and we must look closely at why we are so relianton temps. Is the recruitment process for permanent workers taking too longor are we failing to hold on to people when they have been recruited?”

Lib Dem councillors in Highgate are calling for an investigation into thefate of a precious oak tree located in a building site in Highgate, whichparty leader Neil Williams says may have been severely damaged as a resultof works carried out on it last week.

The controversy arose last Saturday morning when workers turned up at TileKiln Lane N6 and carried out a severe pruning which council officers admithas been very badly done and was in violation of specific instructionsgranted that allowed for only the modest pruning of the tree.

Cllr Williamsis dismayed at the development on the narrow site adjacent to Archway, wherehe opposed the granting of planing permission for the building of new homesearlier in the year.

While the lower limbs of the tree have been left, the tree has beenconsiderably stripped away towards the crown. Cllr Williams wants a fullinvestigation into how and why the excess pruning took place, and haswelcomed the fact that Haringey Council has indicated that it will be pursuing anenforcement order over the matter.

However, he would like all buildingworks on the site to be stopped until these issues have been fully resolved.

Neil Williams comments:

“I will be asking the planning department how thissituation came about. We have already lost one beautiful oak tree this yearfrom this sensitive site due to disease, and damage to the other oak treewould be a real blow.My fears over how the green oasis of Tile Kile Lanemight be damaged by development are being realised, and urgent action needsto be taken to protect what is left.”

Lib Dem councillor Lynne Featherstone has welcomed action by HaringeyCouncil to ensure that litter / fly-tipping blackspots around the OdeonCinema and Athenaeum Mews, Muswell Hill are resolved. She has been pressingthe Council for action for several months.

The two areas have received public criticism in recent weeks, and HaringeyCouncil had previously washed its hands of the responsibility, citing theOdeon cinema and Sainsbury’s supermarket as responsible for the cleansing ofthese areas.

However, Haringey Council has now sent a warning letter to Sainsbury’s,pointing out the requirement under the Duty of Care Environmental ProtectionAct 1990, section 47 to provide suitable receptacles for the storage ofwaste and (section 34) to deal with waste escape from receptacles.

In response, Sainsbury’s has given an undertaking to clear all the piled uprefuse from the area. All neighbouring businesses have received lettersadvising them of their responsibility with regard to waste disposal.

A new legal notice, called a ‘Cleansing Notice’, is now available to HaringeyCouncil to impose on the other blackspot, the Odeon car park. Lib Demcouncillors have pressed for years for the area to be regularly cleared offly-tipped rubbish and litter, but in the past have been stonewalled by theCouncil who have said that it was not public property and they werepowerless.

The new notice would require the cinema to sweep and cleanse the land once aweek if there is no improvement in the area’s cleanliness. However on aninspection earlier this week council officers reported significantimprovements with litter and fly-tipped rubbish cleared by cinema staffregularly.

Cllr Featherstone comments:

“I am pleased that finally action is being taken to resolve these twoblackspots. However I am concerned that it has taken so much pressure fromresidents, councillors and the press to get Haringey Council to take seriousaction.

“Haringey Council must get its priorities right and respond to issues raisedby Haringey residents and their representatives, and not wait for a few badheadlines.”