Liberal Democrats in Highgate have secured action from Haringey Council toimprove the state of faded zebra crossings in the area.

Liberal Democratssay that, at present, the crossings are not fully visible to passingmotorists and are danger to pedestrians. They are located at the junctionsof Highgate High Street / Southwood Lane / Hampstead Lane and on the High Streetnear Townsend Yard.

Following concerns raised by GLA member Lynne Featherstone, a highwaysinspector has visited the locations in Highgate and as a result, Haringey Councilhas instructed its contractor to repaint the zebra crossings and give waylines in the area.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“I am relieved that the Council is now taking action to improve the safetyof these crossings. They must now make sure that their refurbishment iscarried out as quickly as possible as their dilapidated state was a hazardto anyone in Highgate trying to cross the road.”

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.”

Alexandra ward councillor Wayne Hoban has welcomed progress in discussionsaimed at securing a new playgroup centre at The Grove, N10. The move followsa meeting between Council officers, parents and Cllr Hoban this summer.

The meeting was the result of a long campaign by The Workshop User Group, supported by Cllrs Lynne Featherstone and Wayne Hoban. The group has beencampaigning hard since they lost Council support and the use of The GroveWorkshop building in Alexandra Park in October 2003, from where they used tooperate their after school and holiday workshops for the under-fives.

Since then the group has moved to two different temporary sites, and iscurrently based at the Baptist Church, Muswell Hill. However, parents andplaygroup organisers have expressed concerns about the quality of temporaryvenues, while Haringey Council has previously claimed that there was notsignificant demand for the service.

Lib Dems point out that the refurbishment of The Grove will be expensive,but the Council has now secured some external funding from the Lotterysponsored New Opportunities Fund, with the remainder from the Educationcapital budget. Architects are currently working on developing the plansfurther, having taken into account parents’ comments, particularly inrelation to their concerns over security and access to site.

Cllr Hoban is pleased with the progress and productivity of the meetings buthe says there is still much work to be done. He will continue to workclosely with the Council and local residents to resolve the next issueregarding staffing of the new group.

Cllr Wayne Hoban comments:

“All the evidence indicates that provision of good quality playgroupfacilities for young children significantly improves their chances ofdeveloping good social and behaviour skills. “

Cllr Lynne Featherstone adds:

“I am very pleased to see that the council has now accepted our argumentthat the Grove playgroup service must be properly supported.”

Lib Dem councillors in Crouch End have been working to secure a compromiseover the controversial decision to remove Gerry the Bookman from Crouch EndBroadway, and to confiscate his books.

Liberal Democrat councillor Ron Aitken says that Gerry should be allowed to stay, while the antisocial aspects of other stalls in theBroadway tackled. Ron Aitken has written to the landlords of the strip ofland where Gerry currently trades, suggesting that if they were to give himpermission to trade, Haringey Council could then issue a license.

Ron Aitken comments:

“I very much appreciate the strength of feeling this has generated in CrouchEnd. We have been seeking a ’round table’ meeting of all concerned. Howeverthe Council was unwilling to participate in a meeting specifically aboutGerry. I have therefore been dealing with the different parties individually- the Council, the land agents and so on.

“Although this has been laborious we hope a compromise is possible thatwould allow Gerry to stay, while giving the Council the necessary powers tostop undesirable trading on the Broadway.”

Haringey’s Lib Dem leader Neil Williams and Parliamentary spokesperson Lynne Featherstone are today submitting a petition to Haringey Council over controversial attempts by developers to erect large buildings on a site in the Campsbourne, Hornsey, which would have a severe impact on local residents and the immediate area. Cllr Williams says he hopes Haringey Council will do whatever it can to stop the development.

Builders are trying to erect nine new business and residential units on a small site at the end of ‘The Campsbourne’ cul-de-sac, off Hornsey High Road. The buildings would rise immediately behind the residential blocks in nearby Pembroke Road. Current plans allow for three-storey buildings with a 13 meter high brick wall (the rear wall of the proposed buildings) to be erected within 27 feet of the windows in the rear walls of the Pembroke Road residential properties and sited immediately in line with the bottom of the gardens of Rectory Gardens.

Lib Dems say that if the plans are realised, local tenants and residents would only have a view from the windows of their homes of a blank wall approximately 39 feet high – depriving them of direct air flow and light. Such large buildings would also overshadow further nearby properties on Rectory Gardens, The Campsbourne, and Campsbourne Road.

Cllr Lynne Featherstone, who visited the site last week to meet local campaigner Roger Peters, comments: “I am appalled at the potential impact of this scheme. It seems a terrible planing decision, with huge new buildings being erected near people’s homes. The development should not be going ahead.”