The sustainability of Haringey Council’s Unitary Development Plan has been challenged by Liberal Democrat councillors, who have ‘called in’ to the borough’s top watchdog committee the decision by the Labour-controlled Council Executive not to carry out a sustainability audit of the plan until 2007.

Lib Dem environment spokesperson Cllr Bob Hare says it is crucial that sustainability is considered as part of the forthcoming public inquiry into the UDP proposals. He paid tribute to the Federation of Haringey Residents’ Associations, who have also raised the issue.

Bob Hare, formerly the Council’s Environment Officer, says that the UDP is one of the Council’s most fundamental policy documents, and crucial to sustainability and the environment of the borough. The Labour Council’s attempt to look at sustainability in the UDP through an ‘environment report’ has so far been lightweight and sketchy.

Bob Hare comments:

“Haringey Council agreed it would follow best practice in this area and it plainly has not. Their environment report contains little or no detail to back up its assertions. We are asking the Council to commission a proper detailed audit now so that the results can feed into the public inquiry.

“It is very much in the long-term interests of the borough for the Council to do this now – leaving it till after the UDP has been published will be too late. The long-term environmental costs to the borough from not building sustainability into the UDP policies now could be unthinkable.

“Haringey Council has also failed to follow government recommendations that they should provide alternatives to key policies so that the most sustainable choices could be made.”