Highgate Liberal Democrat councillors Bob Hare and Neil Williams, along with local MP Lynne Featherstone, are calling for urgent action from Haringey Council to make repairs to the Jacksons Lane Community Centre on Archway Road. The Centre has been closed for several days following serious problems with the roof exacerbated by recent storm damage, with many classes and performances cancelled.

The Liberal Democrats also say that Haringey Council, which owns the freehold of the building, has been aware of the need for structural repairs for over a year, but has taken no action. Apart from the disastrous closure of the centre, the Lib Dems say Haringey Council may well have put the surrounding area in danger. The Council says it is unable to start repairs for three weeks, which is not good enough, say the Lib Dems, as the centre needs to re-open quickly to avoid potential bankruptcy, as its major sources of income have been cut off.

Local councillor and Lib Dem Leader Neil Williams comments:

“What has happened to the centre is nothing short of disgraceful and Haringey must take responsibility. It is a much loved community resource, and one of few council premises in the Highgate area.The Council should have acted before to secure the safety of the roof, and any delays are just not acceptable.

Cllr Bob Hare adds:

“We are awaiting an urgent response from the Council to this crisis. This simply cannot wait. The centre has been severely let down. We are lucky the falling masonry did not kill or injure anyone. Now the building and surrounding area must be made safe. The centre must also be compensated for the substantial revenues they have lost as a result.”

Liberal Democrats are dismayed at the news that Haringey is facing further cuts in health spending. The Primary Care Trust (PCT) budget issued at the latest Haringey Council Scrutiny Committee meeting showed another 3.6% of funding will be ‘top-sliced’ by the London Strategic Health Authority (SHA) this year – equivalent to £12.5 million.

The Lib Dems believe that Haringey Primary Care Trust (PCT) is determined to avert the financial crisis by using “demand management” to limit bills that they receive from the Acute Trusts – resulting in less people being referred to hospital for treatment and those that are referred being discharged earlier. The PCT will also look towards the private sector to fill gaps in the budget.

Cllr David Winskill (Crouch End) comments:

“We are on the verge of a financial spiral. The London SHA takes cash from the PCTs to bale out the acute sector; PCTs respond by cutting expenditure on acute services and diverting other cash to the private sector. All this adds more pressure on the acute providers – the bits they were trying to save in the first place.”

Liberal Democrat Health Spokesman Cllr Richard Wilson adds:

“This is the second year our local health service has had its budget raided.Over £20m has now been diverted away from frontline health services in our borough to bail out cash strapped hospitals in other parts of London.We have already lost a hospital ward for the elderly and several sexual health clinics as a result.More services now face being squeezed as a result of the continuing financial crisis in the NHS.”

Stroud Green Councillor Laura Edge has uncovered a lottery that no local residents would want to enter. Cllr Edge, in questions to Haringey Council’s Urban Environment directorate, has unearthed that many streets in Stroud Green are without a recycling service for plastic bottles or food waste.

The roads affected are Beatrice Road, Carlisle Road, Dagmar Road , Mount Pleasant Crescent, Scarborough Road, Stroud Green Road and The Grove. Haringey Council indicated that they were unsure when this service was to commence for these areas.

Cllr Edge comments,

“It is ridiculous that access to these recycling services depend on your location. All residents in these roads pay Council Tax but do not receive the same level of service.

“If the Labour party in Haringey is committed to providing recycling scheme then these need to be consistent for all residents.”

Lynne Featherstone, Lib Dem MP for Hornsey & Wood Green, has shown her enthusiastic support for National Story Telling week by telling a short story to a small group of St. Mary’s Junior School Children.

She says:

“As the digital revolution continues relentlessly around us, it’s often forgotten that one of the easiest and cheapest ways of entertaining ourselves is to tell a story.

“Story telling is also such an important way of getting kids into books and reading.

“I read a really ghastly tale of a boy who, to cut a long story short, watched so much television and ate so many crisps he ended up a crisp. And there was no happy ending!

“Thank you very much to the school and I hope the pupils at St. Mary’s enjoyed it as much as I did!”

Liberal Democrats have expressed their disappointment at Haringey Accord’s failure to respond to recommendations made by auditors in July 2006.

Haringey Accord, the company in charge of Haringey Council’s waste disposal, was widely criticised for its management of the rubbish strike last summer. It has now been revealed that they have failed to show that they have met any of the eight urgent actions requested by auditors last July.

Haringey Accord’s response to the auditors was due in August, but they requested a meeting with Haringey Council. However, they have rescheduled this meeting on several occasions – the latest scheduled date is February 9th – meaning that six months after making their recommendations, the auditors have no assurance that Haringey Accord has taken action.

Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Audit & Finance Cllr Matt Davies commented,

“Last summer residents were knee-deep in their own rubbish and residents will doubt the competence of Haringey Accord. The fact that they have failed to respond to auditors’ recommendations on basic account controls and reporting of waste volumes will do nothing to improve that perception.

“It is unacceptable that Haringey Accord have not addressed these basic problems for over six months. The Council need to be much firmer with Accord.”

The Liberal Democrats in Haringey are asking Labour some tough questions over their attempts to rush through a new system of parking charges in the borough. The Lib Dems will also be bringing the issue to the Haringey Council’s top watchdog committee in the coming days to make the Council address their concerns.

The key questions Liberal Democrats want answered are:

1.Why will the public not be consulted fully, as happened in Richmond?

2.Why has Labour chosen to invent a 4-band charging structure and chosen not to track the 7 DVLA bands?

3.Did the Council know it was going to massively increase CPZ charges when it conducted its most recent parking consultation?

4.Will the revenue created by the increased charges be ‘ring fenced’ for environmental projects?

5.Why has Haringey Council not provided any estimate of the introduction and administration of this scheme, and what is the cost?

6.How many cars in Haringey fall into each of the proposed bands?

7.What percentage of Haringey car owners will end up paying this tax? (including areas scheduled to become CPZs as a result of current consultations)

8.Which three wards will have the highest proportion of car owners paying this new tax? (including areas scheduled to become CPZs as a result of current consultations)

9.For how long has the Council been working on this proposal, and what advice was sought and from whom?

10.Given the incentives in the new parking schemes will Haringey’s Mayor now switch to a less polluting vehicle?

Liberal Democrat Leader of the Opposition, Neil Williams, comments:

“I am in favour of environmental taxes, but this is clearly a grubby cash grab by an utterly cynical Labour council. They have yet to present any evidence that their proposal will work, or work fairly.They must do so, or they will give green taxes a bad name.”

Cllr Martin Newton (Fortis Green), Lib Dem spokesperson for the Environment adds:

“Liberal Democrat controlled Richmond carried out a detailed consultation with local residents before going ahead with their scheme. The Labour group in Haringey are making a mockery of consultation. It’s a simple as that.”

A delegation of local pensioners has presented a petition of over 500 signatures to Number 10 Downing Street protesting against the neglect of the Hornsey Hospital site and demanding delivery of long promised NHS service for older residents.

Lynne Featherstone, Lib Dem MP for Hornsey & Wood Green, who helped organise presenting of the petition, comments:

“Local campaigners have done a fantastic job collecting these signatures and now it’s for the government to take action.Hornsey Hospital has stood empty for too long and a new community hospital will make a real difference to older people, some of whom will depend on local NHS services.

“The key to any development is consulting – NHS chiefs cannot steamroller through any plans.They need to engagement our community every step of the way.”

See also: blog entry about the Hornsey Hospital petition.

Liberal Democrats have raised doubts over the Labour Council’s new proposals for parking charges in Haringey. Labour has proposed a new scheme mimicking Lib Dem plans in Richmond that will tie charges to CO2 emissions.

Lib Dem leader of the opposition Neil Williams commented:

“While we support environmental taxes in principle, and welcome the proposals made by Liberal Democrat run Richmond Council,it has yet to be seen whether Haringey can come up with a workable scheme, and not just engage in a knee-jerk reaction to raise cash without coming up with a workable policy or consulting local people properly.

“Rather like Stop-and-Shop, Haringey propose to go straight to statutory consultation.Haringey Council has just “consulted” with residents in Fortis Green, Bounds Green, Stroud Green and Hornsey over introduction of CPZs – and the Council gave cost for residents permit as £25 for 12 months. Is it any wonder that residents are utterly cynical about the way Haringey consults?

“Also, it remains to be seen whether this policy will work as effectively in Haringey as compared with other boroughs. Camden is pretty much one giant CPZ, and Haringey is not. The Labour lead member was completely unable to say last night what proportion of residents would end up paying this tax.

We would love to support a fair and workable scheme, but let’s see the Council demonstrate that it has come up with one – they certainly have not done so far.”

Cllr Martin Newton, Lib Dem spokesperson for Transport, Highways and Streetscene, added:

“What is being proposed is just “gesture politics” owing more to a need to fill holes in the Labour budget plan rather than doing anything significant to reduce CO2 emissions. The Labour Council must also ring-fence any extra revenue raised as a result of this review for environmental projects.”

Cllr Serge Lourie, Leader of Richmond Council, says:

“Richmond upon Thames Council has had an extremely wide non-statutory consultation and local residents voted by 48% to 39% in favour in astatistically valid survey of 3,500 local residents. Richmond Council listened to residents and made some substantial changesto the original scheme, which has always been revenue neutral”.

[WATCH FILM: You can watch a film about the 5 point plan on the blog]

Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, Lynne Featherstone and Liberal Democrat Councillor Richard Wilson (Spokesperson for Health and Social Services) have launched their Five Point Prescription for Hornsey Central Hospital.

Lynne is backing a bid for £7 million of central NHS money to be invested in a new building on the hospital site.However, the MP and local Liberal Democrat councillors are calling on the local NHS to listen to the concerns of residents about the impact on existing GPs and pharmacists.

This prescription aims to ensure that the opportunity to improve Haringey’s health provision is not lost. The plan sets out five key areas that Liberal Democrats in Haringey believe need to be addressed. These are:

1.More GPs and clinic sessions provided – not just the existing GPs and clinics we already have reshuffled and centralised. It is essential that there remains a good coverage of GPs across the area. The PCT needs to persuade the large hospitals to provide specialist services in the new Hornsey facility, so less have to travel out of the borough for treatment.

2.Real engagement and consultation with patients, residents, voluntary organisations and health workers over the development and relocation of services. There needs to be a real dialogue between the PCT and local GPs if people are to have any confidence in these plans.

3.Improve public transport to Hornsey Hospital, to ensure it is accessible – particularly for older people and parents with young children. The PCT needs to work with Transport for London to get existing bus routes extended to reach the site and the W2 route reinstated.

4.Protect our community pharmacies by working with existing pharmacists and carrying out an impact assessment before opening a new pharmacy at the Hospital.

5.Save NHS land by not selling off property to developers before the new Hospital is built and unless the sale is vital to financing new facilities. Rushing to sell off NHS property puts the future development of local health services at risk – the land can never be brought back to health use once it is sold.

Lynne Featherstone commented:

“Like everyone else I want to see more money being invested in local health services.But it is vital that Haringey Primary Care Trust consults with local people and health professionals to get the project right.The development needs to expand health provision in Haringey – not just recycle the surgeries and clinics we already have in the area.”

Cllr Wilson added:

“The PCT should start building the facility in 2007. It is vital that they listen to the residents’ concerns and that they adopt our 5 point prescription.”

Lynne Featherstone and Haringey Liberal Democrat councillors will jointly write to Richard Sumray, the Chair of Haringey Primary Care Trust (PCT) and Bob Harris, Executive Member for Health and Social Services, to press for their support for the 5 point prescription.