Youth justice

Posted on 1st Nov 2006 by Lynne Featherstone

Mad dash for Prime Minister’s Questions; I still haven’t been pulled out of the weekly ballot for a PMQ (that’s how most MPs get to ask the Prime Minister a question – names go in a hat and are pulled out at random). Then off to Cardiff to the Youth Justice Conference. I am part of a panel of experts speaking and answering questions as the last session of the day. It was a huge affair – and Blair (Tony) had sent a video message to the 800+ attendees and Cameron will be there tomorrow for a keynote speech – hopefully still hugging hoodies.

On the panel – the Lord Chief Justice, the Welsh Assembly Member, the Chief Constable and myself were all roughly singing from the same hymn sheet. We are all sick to death of this ‘tough’ versus ‘soft’ political environment where in reality – it’s what works that matters. It was clear from the panellists and the whole audience that those in the field are desperate to move away from the political rhetoric and get on with what works – which often is community sentencing or secure children’s units rather than crime school (prison). It has to be about changing behaviour not mouthing empty slogans. The Chief Justice was saying that the problem is that often people think community sentencing is a soft option – but it isn’t. There is a project in Chard where community sentencing has meant that the re-offending rate is just 5%. Compare that with the 70% for young males coming out of prison. No contest!

JobCentre Plus, Wood Green

Posted on 1st Nov 2006 by Lynne Featherstone

Off to open the new JobCentre Plus in Wood Green. My goodness what a fabulous office. The first floor is spacious and designed in a comfortable and comforting way, fab colours – but most of all – a wall of windows that go on for ever and curve along the whole length of the open plan space – and which look out of a little green area of land. Just gorgeous – and given my obsession with the built environment and the effect it has on behaviour – this is an absolutely shining example,

On the ground floor – where those seeking employment will come – the design is clean and modern and well organised. I opened the new premises with a little speech and then went and talked to each of the staff – for it is the care and attention, commitment and attitude of the staff that will change peoples’ lives here. It is no cake walk to get those who are long-term unemployed off of benefits and into work, and here they also cater for people with disabilities, mental health challenges and lone parents. So many barriers to break down – and so much confidence needed to move from dependency to work.

Each and every one of the staff I spoke to from Dave (one of the security guards) to Eileen (the overarching manager) was so committed and enthusiastic I was really thrilled. They already do a great job, but I have no doubt they will go further in these new integrated premises and services.

Violent Crime Reduction Bill – nearly there!

Posted on 30th Oct 2006 by Lynne Featherstone

The Violent Crime Reduction Bill came back to the Commons for Lords Amendments. All over bar the shouting really! The Government had finally realised that it had to lay amendments lengthening the sentence for carrying a knife or bladed weapon in a public place. There had been a Tory amendment to lengthen it to 5 years and a Lib Dem one to lengthen it to 7 (same as for a gun) – but the Government had voted against previously. However, it is often the way that the Government just won’t vote positively on an opposition amendment. They vote against and then bring it back themselves later in the process. So who cares – so long as they finally saw sense.

That having been said – it ain’t just the sentence. The real proof of pudding will be less young people carrying – and that needs a mix of police work, prevention, education, making kids feel safe on the streets, giving them life chances, working with them to show it’s not ‘cool’ – as well as the deterrent of a longer sentence and the actual custodial detention itself. It isn’t quick, cheap or easy to change a whole culture – but that’s what we are up against.

The other highlights were around imitation firearms, Drink Banning Orders and Alcohol Disorder Zones. We support totally the tackling of the twin challenges of weapons and alcohol – but it’s how these laws are enforced that will matter. Anyway – now that one is on its way to the final stage of legislation. Whew!

Birthplace of TV at Alexandra Palace to be lost?

Posted on 29th Oct 2006 by Lynne Featherstone

Another The future of the birthplace of regular TV at Alexandra Palace is under threat local issue that has blown up is the danger that the Ally Pally TV studios are in as the Ally Pally Board, headed by Haringey Labour councillor Charles Adje, has now confirmed that there is no long-term protection for the studios (the birth place of television) in the proposed sale of the Palace to the Firoka Group on a 125 year lease.

The television studios at Alexandra Palace were occupied in 1935 by the BBC, and in 1936 the first television broadcasts were made from the site. The lease that could be signed with the Firoka group only requires that the group provide a space for a museum somewhere within the building, not the maintenance of the original studios.

My Lib Dem councillor colleague, Bob Hare, who is Lib Dem Alexandra Palace spokesperson put it very well I thought – “This is the equivalent of losing Stonehenge and replacing it with a fibreglass replica. The television studios are of vast historical importance not just locally but nationally and internationally. It is a crying shame that in their rush to complete the deal with Firoka, there has been no thought given to their long-term survival. We must do everything we can to ensure that our children do not regret the hasty decisions that are being made about the future of Ally Pally.”

The Charity Commission will soon start a short, one-month public consultation on the proposals to sell the Palace – so here’s your chance to have a save and help save the TV studios by emailing the Charity Commission at enquiries@charitycommission.gsi.gov.uk

As always the emails that work best with this sort of lobbying are short, temperate but clear messages that include your full name and postal address. It would be handy if you could also copy your email to me at lynne@lynnefeatherstone.org

(It would also help the campaign if you can mention this lobbying campaign, such as by linking to this blog posting, on any appropriate website or blog you have).

I am also tabling an Early Day Motion in Parliament – so if you don’t live in my constituency you can contact your MP asking them to sign this EDM when it comes up for signature.

UPDATE: You can read about the latest state of play here.

Highgate police station to reopen?

Posted on 27th Oct 2006 by Lynne Featherstone

Last outing of the day on is a much happier one. I meet up with Sergeant Leon Christodoulou (Highgate Safer Neighbourhood Police Team) and two local community support officers and Paul McLean Thorne (a local shop owner on Archway Road) to visit potential new premises for the Highgate Safer Neighbourhood Team. We looked at several vacant properties between the station and the old police station – and although they were in good locations, there didn’t appear to be enough room and they would need a tremendous amount of work. Then the last visit was to the old Highgate Police Station.

You know there are moments when you really just have to laugh. As we walked in, the ground floor has disabled access, it is in the right location, the old front counter is still there in relatively good nick should they want to put in a volunteer service. There is space and there could not be a better or more suitable premises. Well, it did use to be a police station … !

Our local Commander, Simon O’Brien, had just emailed me to say that this was a possibility for premises and I will be writing back to say that he would be completely mad if he and the Met Police Estates did not use these premises. They are absolutely ideal. Highgate residents would be over the moon.

What tickles me about all this is that the Commander before the Commander before Simon, Stephen James, said – when I had begged him to re-open the station – ‘over my dead body’. Perhaps I ought to give him a call…

Can Royal Mail deliver?

Posted on 27th Oct 2006 by Lynne Featherstone

I Meeting with Pat Patel, who runs the post office in Hornsey High Street, to discuss the problems Labour's policies are causing for the post office network had a meeting with Pat Patel who owns the sub-post office in Hornsey High Street to see what on earth else I can do to try and drum it through the Government’s head about the damage their post offices policies are causing not only the service itself but also the very social fabric of many local communities. (This is also the topic of my latest newspaper column – so I won’t repeat the points made in much more detail there).

We agree on Parliamentary questions and lobbying – but I am grim with doubt that the Labour juggernaut will continue to destroy all before it.

Stop and shop in Haringey

Posted on 27th Oct 2006 by Lynne Featherstone

Busy day at surgery – and harrowing as usual. Followed by rushing up to Muswell Hill Broadway to receive a huge petition (3,450) against the Stop & Shop proposals from Labour-run Haringey Council. The petition was started by Andrew Rowan of 225 Jewellery Exchange with signatures that were collected during the summer by traders along Muswell Hill Broadway, between the roundabout and Colney Hatch Lane.

The People have overwhelming rejected Labour's Stop and Shop plans for both Muswell Hill and Crouch End petition calling for ‘FAIR PARKING’, and requested a few free short-term parking bays to match those provided along the other stretches of the Broadway. It also requested warning signs to be provided notifying people that parking enforcement by CCTV camera takes place in the area. I might add – a CCTV camera that was earning a fortune for Haringey Council – trained on a safe place to stop by a cash point. A nice little earner!

There have never been any calls by these traders for Pay and Display to be provided and they have been very angry that Pay and Display has been the only option that the Council seems to be prepared to consider. Good to see though that they are also proposing positive plans as well as opposing Labour’s unwanted ideas.

I say unwanted because the first stage of consultation on the Labour Council’s ‘Stop and Shop’ parking scheme in Muswell Hill shows that an overwhelming 98.8% (really!) of responses were for the scheme to be scrapped. Liberal Democrat councillors felt it was necessary to scrutinise the responses to the Council’s consultation, and found that of 724 responses to the consultation, just 9 were in favour of the proposals. Crouch End has also responded with a resounding ‘No’ – with 90% opposition to its pay and display scheme (out of 143 responses, 128 were against the plans).

Local councillor Martin Newton, Lib Dem spokesperson for Environment, Traffic and Highways has written to Cllr Brian Haley, Labour Executive Member for Environment, to ask for these schemes to be abandoned, as virtually no one wanted these pay and display schemes in Muswell Hill or Crouch End. Cllr Haley has often been quoted saying that the Council do not impose parking schemes on unwilling residents, so he has been asked to honour this, and to not go ahead with imposing these schemes against the wishes of the local community.

I am now going to wade in with a letter to the Council Leader George Meehan to honour the Council’s pledge that it listens to local people and doesn’t impose unwanted schemes on them.

Knife crime

Posted on 26th Oct 2006 by Lynne Featherstone

Managed to get called during Business Questions – which is a quaint way of bringing constituency issues to the fore and asking the Leader of the House (Labour MP Jack Straw) for a debate. The debate I asked for was on the rate of grant from the government for statutory support for asylum seekers.

In Haringey we happily provide support for a very high level of asylum seekers. But if you take even just one element of Government funding support – the rates for looking after unaccompanied asylum seeker children – the grant doesn’t come anywhere near the actual cost. And even worse – not only does the Government funding not cover the costs, but the costs racked up by the Government’s failure to make asylum decisions quickly – because much of the cost in that maintenance is due during the period whilst the Home Office (that oh so fit for purpose establishment) takes years to process the legality or otherwise of the asylum seeker.

It is completely unfair and unsustainable on those areas where asylum seekers naturally congregate.Jack Straw’s answer – he would pass on my remarks to the Home Office and a slagging off for the LibDems in general. That really raised the tone!

In fact I have just written to Jack Straw over his outburst last week on knives. My Lib Dem colleague, Mark Hunter, raised the issue of lengthening sentences for carrying a knife in a public place and Jack just ranted about Lib Dems opposing longer sentences for knife crime. This is misleading Parliament in the first degree (i.e. untrue! and you can check in Hansard from report stage of Bill in Commons). Not only is this assertion factually incorrect but also completely unwarranted. In response to the recent surge in knife crime, a Liberal Democrat sponsored amendment was laid down in the Violent Crime Reduction Bill (on which I lead for my party) that would increase the sentence for carrying of a knife in a public place to seven years. This amendment was not voted on as a Conservative amendment, take before it ,which would have increased the sentence to five years was defeated by the Government. So the truth is – Labour voted against increasing the penalty for carrying a knife in a public place.

The Bill is coming back to the Commons for Lords Amendments next Monday and Labour will be tabling an amendment to make the sentence four years (which is better than the current tariff), and although it doesn’t extend it far enough in my view it is a step in the right direction. I will go into this further when I write up my blog after the debate next Monday.

Centre Forum conference on the Middle East

Posted on 26th Oct 2006 by Lynne Featherstone

I was going to attend a conference on the Middle East on 4th November held by the LibDem think tank – Centre Forum. Unfortunately that now clashes with the Climate Change march which I really want to go on – but I think it will be a an exceptional conference- so many interesting speakers being flown in specially. I might pitch up there after the march if there is any conference left. If you want details see www.centreforum.org/middle_east.htm

Also they have launched a new site (which includes a blog roll and included my blog too!) so if you want to look at that have a look at (www.freethink.org) which was launched at the Lib Dem Blogger Awards which I presented at the party’s Brighton conference.

The Pensioners' Lobby

Posted on 26th Oct 2006 by Lynne Featherstone

On Wednesday several pensioners from Hornsey & Wood Green came to see me and lobby me as part of the Pensioners’ Lobby. Their very passionate argument is that the Government’s promise to link pensions with earnings which is promised for 2012 will see many of them dead – i.e. it doesn’t help those who are in poverty right now. So I will be tabling some questions to Gordon Brown. Moreover – the one-off payment of £200 to pensioners by him just before the last General Election has not been forthcoming again (surprise) and yet pensioners are expected on their tiny fixed incomes to cope with the rises that will come in April on Council Tax and the Mayor’s precept for the Olympics.

Then I had to accompany Ming to a meeting with Sir Ian Blair (Met Police Commissioner). The meeting was private – so sadly can’t reveal all – but I myself did raise the issues (which are not confidential) over the future of police properties in London – there is a big review of their use of property, the location of police stations etc. Our local Commander, Simon O’Brien, has promised he will consult – but in his most recent email to me said he need to get so far (including identifying the actual premises) so that he had something to consult on.

The other issue was my question to Sir Ian a while back off of one of my written parliamentary questions about the disproportionately high numbers of black and ethnic minority people being arrested by the police. Amongst those arrested but not then charged or cautioned, people from the black and ethnic minority communities make up 60% of the total – hugely more than their share of the population. 28% of London’s population are from those communities, but they make up 60% of people arrested but not cautioned or charged. In other words – an innocent black man is much more likely to be arrested than an innocent white man. Sir Ian will get back to me.