Liberal Democrat councillors in the London Borough of Haringey have expressed concern at the Council’s plan to pilot a merger of the Wood Green Area Assembly and Housing Forum.

Under the plan, the Area Housing Forum will meet for half an hour prior tothe meeting of the Area Assembly. Currently, the meetings are held onseparate nights. The Lib Dems say that the plans are ill thought out andwould give tenants and leaseholders less opportunity to debate and to holdtheir elected representatives to account over important housing issues andthe state of their homes.

The proposals for the pilot merger had been put forward by the Labour-runadministration due to poor attendance at Area Housing Forums. However theLib Dems say that this is an unimaginative way to deal with forum attendancein the borough.

At the meeting Stroud Green Lib Dem Councillor Laura Edge sought assurancesfrom Haringey Council that no changes would be implemented against the wishes oflocal people in each of the Area Housing forums. She also secured agreementon the need to seek input from Housing Forum attendees on the design of theproposed consultation.

Commenting, Cllr Edge said:

“My colleagues and I are immensely concerned to ensure that the currentunimaginative proposal for tackling the problem of low attendance at AreaHousing Forums is not presented to residents as a fait accompli. Tenants andleaseholders should be invited to put forward their own ideas for beefing upArea Housing Forums in their own localities.”