Highgate patients and carers stranded without adequate parking following the introduction of resident parking restrictions by Haringey Council in July 2007 will have to wait until new Pay and Display machines arrive from France for the chaos to be resolved.

The news has angered Lib Dem councillors, as the Highgate Group Practice, used by residents from a catchment area covering Highgate, Muswell Hill, Fortis Green and Crouch End, is not well served by public transport, with patients, carers and staff depending on parking in nearby parking bays. Lib Dems are outraged that residents will have to wait longer whilst parking meters come from abroad and have urged Haringey Council to stop the excuses and act now to provide the extra parking bays.

Cllr Martin Newton, Lib Dem Traffic Spokesperson, comments:

“For a lot of patients access by car is the only practical option. Once again Haringey Council has imposed parking restrictions without properly considering those who need to use local facilities. The Council needs to stop the excuses and provide these parking bays now.”

Cllr Neil Williams (Highgate), adds:

“Clearly people using the practice need parking nearby as they are likely to be sick, vulnerable or elderly. People attend the practice when they are in need of treatment. The last thing they need is to arrive and then spend hours looking for a parking space.”

Highgate Lib Dems have warned Haringey Council that its failure to pursue vital grant funding for the much loved Jacksons Lane Centre means a major grant is in danger of being lost – if the Labour-run Council does not take urgent steps to back a bid for funding from the Government’s Community Asset Fund.

With the 15th November closing date for applications just one month away, Lib Dem Councillor Bob Hare has written to Haringey Council asking for urgent action, which must grant a 25-year lease that is needed to pursue the funding.

The Community Asset fund, which is a lottery fund, offers up to £1 million for each of up to two venues per borough. It is aimed at community buildings owned by councils, and applications are intended to support refurbishment and upgrading.

Lib Dem councillors are also pointing out that the Highgate venue is an ideal applicant for funding, as it is in dire need of investment and it would not readily qualify under other schemes designed to help areas with high levels of deprivation.

Lib Dem Councillor Bob Hare says:

“Haringey Council must act urgently to enable Jacksons Lane to purse this much needed funding. The centre provides a wide range of services across the whole community, from the elderly to the young. There is still time for Haringey Council to act, but time is running out.”

Lib Dem Leader and Highgate councillor Neil Williams adds:

“There is more than a whiff of hypocrisy here, as Haringey Council constantly seeks credit for the current repairs on the building – even though these works are actually being paid for by insurance and were only needed because the Labour-run Council allowed this building which they own, to become run down. It is not good enough, and major investment is needed. Action is needed now to give us the first class centre Highgate residents, and the wider community, thoroughly deserve.”

Councillors have cautiously welcomed the first step made last Wednesday evening in an effort to solve Crouch End’s parking chaos but have stressed that there must be more engagement and a full consultation with residents. In a meeting demanded by local Lib Dems to provide a voice for local residents to express their concerns, over forty representatives of local residents’ groups met at Hornsey Town Hall to tell Labour Cllr Brian Haley of their anger and stress at the mess that Haringey have allowed parking to become.

Following the introduction of the Crouch End Pay and Display scheme, the extension of the Highgate and the Hillrise CPZs , the closure of the Highgate Tube Station Car Park and parking of vehicles by hire companies on residential roads, many residents are now unable to park near their homes, accept deliveries or use tradesmen. The local W5 bus route is also experiencing severe delays on the route.

Cllr Weber has been inundated with emails demanding urgent action but Haringey Council have consistently said that nothing could be done until the next financial year.

Cllr Weber (Crouch End) comments:

“Residents are at breaking point and we need action now. Thursday’s meeting was a step forward in finding both interim and long term solutions.

“Too often we have only be given part of the picture. This is a thoughtful and intelligent community who want to be treated like adults – the positive mood of the meeting showed this”.

Cllr Winskill (Crouch End) adds:

“If Haringey Council are saying that money is the problem, then why not use income from the Pay and Display – we have always been told it would be used for highways issues.

“Account must be also taken of key workers at local shops and schools as well those using GP’s surgeries when producing a parking scheme.”

Lynne Featherstone MP has forced the Prime Minister to admit that funding of schools in Haringey needs “continued looking at” following her impassioned plea for a fair funding deal for the borough’s schools at yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Question Time.

The Hornsey & Wood Green MP asked the PM to end the injustice that Haringey schools received on average £736 less per pupil than in inner London, even though local teachers are paid on inner London pay scales.

Gordon Brown conceded Ms. Featherstone’s point and stated that outer London funding would continue to be looked into.

Commenting Lynne Featherstone MP says:

“I am pleased that Gordon Brown has finally acknowledged that there is a problem with our local school funding.However, it does beg the question that if even the Prime Minster knows this is an issue, then why has Labour done nothing to change it?

“The situation is completely unfair for our local school children and our teachers.I certainly won’t be letting the issue drop and so I will now be following up my question with a letter to the Prime Minister seeking a concrete timetable of action.”

Lib Dems have demanded immediate actionfrom Haringey Council to make Muswell Hill and Crouch End ‘Stop and Shop’ signs clearer after The Department for Transport’s (DfT) damningverdict that parking signs are unsatisfactory.

Following the many direct complaints he had received from confused motorists, Lib Dem councillor Martin Newton took matters into his own hands and contacted DfT directly for their opinion on the offending signs, which have resulted in significant number of parking tickets for residents not understanding the current signs of the four month old scheme.

Cllr Martin Newton Lib Dem spokesperson for Transport and Highways comments:

“Haringey Council’s disregard for the chaos this is causing local shoppers is outrageous.Labour have completely ignored my many pleas on behalf of residents and now even the Department for Transport says this signage is not satisfactory.How long can they ignore this disarray?

“Recent plans by Haringey Council to shore-up current schemes do not go far enough – the signs themselves need changing.”

Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, adds:

“It is local residents and traders who are being hit by these awful signs.Haringey Council must take immediate action to make it crystal clear to people parking what the restrictions are before real damage to done to local businesses though residents being to o afraid to park.”

Reports that Tottenham Hotspur may be looking outside Haringey for a site to build a new stadium have caused dismay among local Liberal Democrats. The party is worried that an exodus of such a local institution would spell disaster for the area and harm the local economy. Tottenham Hotspur directors met on 3rd October 2007 to discuss a proposal that would build a 60,000 capacity stadium in Enfield. Lib Dems have called on Haringey Council to do all it can to ensure that the club has the backing it needs and that the Council opens meaningful discussions.

Cllr Matt Davies (Lib Dem, Fortis Green), a Spurs supporter himself, comments:

“Spurs is a great club with great local support. I have always believed that White Hart Lane can be redeveloped to give us greater capacity and keep us in our Haringey home. The Council need to recognise what a major asset Tottenham Hotspur Football Club is to out borough and wake up to the seriousness of the situation. If Spurs feel they have to move out of Haringey, it would be a disaster for fans and for the local community.”

Cllr Robert Gorrie, Lib Dem finance spokesperson, adds:

“You only have to look over the borough boundary into Islington to see what an enormous benefit the redevelopment of the new Arsenal football ground can have on the local area and economy. Islington Council did a great job working with the club to come to a position whereby the team stayed in the borough. These are lessons Haringey need to learn.”

Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green adds:

“The loss of such a major sporting icon from our borough would be a disaster for the community on so many levels.The Gunners’ new stadium has such had a huge positive impact for Islington, and Haringey Council needs to fight tooth and nail to provide the same vision and success for Spurs to stop them going elsewhere.”

Commenting on the blocking of plans for the redevelopment of historic Alexandra Palace by a High Court judge, local MP Lynne Featherstone said:

“This has brought shame on the Labour councillors running Alexandra Palace. All along, they have refused to listen and shown their contempt for the entire process.

“As the Liberal Democrats warned Haringey Labour at the council meeting in July, there are so many unanswered questions about this lease, it truly beggars belief that anyone can have thought the consultation was adequate.

“And when it comes to the historic TV studios, Labour has shown their contempt for a piece of local heritage that is of worldwide importance. How could gutting of the birthplace of television even be a possibility?”

“The interests of Alexandra Palace, the charity, and local people were simply never on Labour’s agenda – and they have paid the price today.”

Lib Dem Leader Neil Williams, who along with colleagues raised serious concerns about the process, both with the Charity Commission and at Haringey’s full council meeting in July, adds:

“With a much-loved building whose legal purpose is charitable, you simply cannot leave such gaping black holes in a bodged attempt to get rid of a historic building at a knock-down price. This is typical Labour arrogance. They have overextended themselves and paid dearly.

“Haringey were advised more five years ago to seek a Court ruling on what could be done with the Palace.They have always refused to do so, in a brazen attempt to carry on doing as they liked. They thought they could get away with it. They have been proved wrong.

In the teeth of such a calamity, the Chair of the Board must surely resign. All the Labour councillors involved, who have acted like sheep at every stage of this process, should consider their position as well.”

Fears have been raised over falling nursery standards as figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats revealed that Haringey is one of only forty boroughs across the country where the ratio of trained teachers to nursery children has deteriorated.

There were just over 13 nursery pupils to every teacher in 2006. However, that figure rocketed to almost 18 pupils last year.

Commenting, Lynne Featherstone MP says:

“These figures show that in spite of Labour’s claim that every child matters, it is clear in Haringey that our children don’t matter as much as elsewhere.

“Regardless of their spin and hype, the quality of local education provision for the youngest children in our area is falling in spite of the hard work of our teachers. They are having to paddle against the tide of empty promises from the Government.

“Once again this is clear evidence of what a raw education deal Haringey gets, on top of the significantly reduced pupil funding our schools receive compared to inner London. I would urge worried parents to support my ‘Fair Funding Deal for Haringey‘ campaign.Money pumped into our local education system will right these wrongs and raise standards.”

Haringey Liberal Democrats have expressed their concern at reports that Phase Two of the expansion to Coleridge Primary School, planned to be completed in September 2008, has been delayed.

The two month delay will come as another major disappointment to parents and children in the area plagued by school delays and school place shortages in the past. Lib Dem councillors are writing to Haringey Council to demand a full explanation of why the contract negotiations took longer than planned and to receive guarantees from Haringey Council that the expansion will not be delayed further.

Cllr Gail Engert, Lib Dem Children and Young People spokesperson, comments:

“Not only do parents struggle to obtain a local reception place of their choice, they now have the added anxiety of whether the place will be there at all at the start of the school term.

“This just goes to prove what Lib Dems have always said: Haringey Council needs a more long-term planning process and not just a knee-jerk reaction to a shortage crisis which inevitably means that places are not provided on time.”

Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, adds:

“Yet again the Labour Council has shown its inability to provide new reception places on time and on budget. It’s a real let down for local parents and children who just want local school places and an end to uncertainties.”

Liberal Democrats have demanded that Haringey Council acts decisively and prioritises the interests of children when deciding any changes to the future arrangements for Haringey’s Children’s Centres. They have set out a five point plan to show Haringey Council the way forward and will be writing to all Children’s Centre heads to show their support:

1.Pressure the Government to guarantee long-term future funding.

2.Safeguard provision for disadvantaged children and those who have special educational needs.

3.Pledge that none of the wide-ranging existing services provided by these centres are cut.

4.Consult fully and transparently with parents and staff over the options and ensure decisions reflect this.

5.Provide assurances for staff that their jobs are secure.

Cllr Gail Engert, Lib Dem Children and Young People spokesperson, comments:

“Haringey Council needs to do all it can to make sure parents and staff are fully included in all discussions and decisions over the future of these excellent centres. Children attending deserve the best service possible and I’m yet to be convinced that tendering these out is the best option.”

Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, adds:

“I am extremely concerned about our local Children’s Centres’ future and who runs them.Yet again, Haringey Council have launched their proposals in their usual bull in a china shop fashion with scant regard for what parents really want.Yet again, it is the Lib Dems that have to lead the way on how to properly engage local residents in important decision that affect their future.”