Haringey Liberal Democrats were today celebrating a major victory in their campaign to extend the consultation process on the CPZs and other parking schemes planned across the borough. Following a public meeting in Crouch End, Labour councillor Brian Haley bowed to pressure from Lib Dems and residents and agreed to extend the consultation process on the controversial parking schemes.

Councillor Haley explained at a packed public meeting at the Holy Innocents Church that the Council’s timetable for taking a final decision on the CPZ schemes has been pushed back from September to November, to allow a new stage of ‘communication’ to take place.

Councillor John Oakes, Lib Dem Spokesperson for Community Involvement, comments:

“This U-turn is a fantastic victory, but we cannot allow ourselves to reduce the pressure on Labour. It has been quite clear from the beginning that Labour are determined to ignore residents and impose these parking schemes.

“It is only with huge reluctance that they have given in on the timing of this issue, and they have shown that they cannot be trusted to conduct an adequate consultation without our scrutiny. Now we must ensure that we continue to press Labour on this issue so that the residents and businesspeople of Haringey get the right result, street by street, whether they are for or against a CPZ scheme. “

Councillor Wayne Hoban, Deputy Leader of the Lib Dem Group, comments:

“This Labour-led council has consistently failed to properly consult with local residents on major local issues such as CPZs, traffic management and education. Although we are pleased that Labour has finally seen sense and have indicated that they are now willing to widen the CPZ consultation process, we will remain vigilant to ensure that the outcome accurately reflects the views of the local community.”

Lib Dem councillors today celebrated a major campaigning victory as news came in that the X-ray unit at St Ann’s Hospital is to remain open. Representatives from the North Middlesex Hospital Trust met with councillors this week to explain that the campaign to keep the service open had been successful.

The Lib Dem campaign to stop the closure of the unit has gathered considerable pace in the last few weeks, as councillors and activists supported local people in their bid to preserve the borough’s only X-ray service, through coordinating a petition of hundreds of signatures from local residents.

Harringay ward councillor Karen Alexander comments:

“I am absolutely delighted to hear that we’ve managed to convince the Trust to keep this vital local health service. NHS cuts are being made left, right and centre, and it is local people who are bearing the brunt. So many people have worked hard to collect signatures for the petition, to drum up support at meetings and demonstrations, and I’m over the moon that the PCT has listened to us.”

Lib Dem Councillor Wayne Hoban, who has also taken part in the campaign, comments:

“The closure of this unit would have been a real blow to the people of Tottenham and Haringey. Labour need to understand that their mismanagement of the NHS, and the resulting knee-jerk budget cuts are hitting local people hard. This has been a hard-fought campaign, and we’re delighted that it has ended in a victory. We will be monitoring the situation closely however, to ensure that the service is not subject to further cuts over time.”

Labour shenanigans over chairing the Planning Sub-Committee could cost Haringey taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds through breaking the Council’s constitution and potentially exposing the decision to costly legal challenge, it was discovered yesterday.

The committee gave the go ahead for the controversial Cecile Park ‘backlands’ in Crouch End in the face of strong opposition from residents, councillors and local MP Lynne Featherstone. The development will see a number of houses crammed into the space behind a large number of existing homes.

Nevertheless, the whole decision is now open to legal challenge at taxpayers’ expense. In what is supposed to be a politically neutral body, Labour chair of the committee Cllr. Sheila Peacock on leaving the meeting simply ‘ordained’ another Labour councillor as chair rather than letting the committee decide for itself as set out in the Council’s constitution (Part E.8 Section 33, subsection 3). Cllr. Peacock was forced to step out of the meeting because of a connection with the developers. The Deputy Chair was absent for the same reason.

Lynne Featherstone MP has written and spoken to the Chief Executive urging her to suspend the issuing of permission certificates and let the committee reconsider the matter.

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“I am simply aghast at the blatant disregard Labour has for the rules and the people of Haringey.They think no-one will notice if they run the Council like their own private club, even when the taxpayer has to cough up when they make a mistake.

“This matter should be referred back to planning committee for proper procedure to be carried out. They cannot simply tread on the wishes of residents.”

Haringey Labour has terminated the Council’s contract with the company Recycling Works without debate, following a meeting of the Council’s Executive. Lib Dem councillors have criticised the decision, and fear that it may be a sign that Labour are moving away from hand-sorted recycling in preference of ‘co-mingled’ collections, which are far less environmentally friendly.

Recycling Works provide a hand-sorted recycling service, which allows glass to be reused to create new glass items. Haringey Council may now rely more heavily on a so-called ‘co-mingled’ glass recycling service, where recyclable waste is mixed at the point of collection. Glass collected in this way is suitable only for re-use as road aggregate.

Lib Dems fear that Labour are focussing too heavily on overall targets for bulk waste collection, at the expense of the environment. Incredibly, in the report presented to the Executive, there was no mention in the written reports of the environmental impacts of the various options for running the services.

Councillor Martin Newton, Lib Dem joint spokesperson Environment, comments:

“Recycling Works is an innovative Company that is committed to best practice over recycling and has been publicly congratulated for helping to boost Haringey’s participation rates in recycling. They employ local people with an emphasis for getting people off the unemployment register. They have been awarded grants to pilot door-to-door collections for estates in Tottenham. They have also been in talks about collecting recycling from Businesses, including collecting cooking oil to produce ‘Green’ Diesel. This company appears to be a credit to the borough and further ways should be sought to achieve a satisfactory negotiation with them.”

Councillor Bob Hare, Lib Dem joint spokesperson for the Environment adds:

“If the commitment of this Council is to now move further away from hand-sorted recycling and to increase the co-mingled collections, this will have a detrimental impact – it is far more environmentally friendly and energy efficient to re-use glass to create new glass items, rather than using it for road aggregate, which is the end result of co-mingled collections. Labour need to look very carefully at the detail rather than blindly chasing targets without considering the environmental impact. We want recycling to be expanded, but not at the expense of environmental efficiency.”

The publication of the 2006 crime statistics has shown a 60% increase in robbery on the streets of Stroud Green shows the need for CCTV to protect the neighbourhood worst affected areas say the Liberal Democrats.

Cllr Ed Butcher comments:

“As Nick Ross might say, we cannot be alarmist about these figures, but any increase in overall robbery trends is a real worry.We have already been campaigning for CCTV to watch over our hotspots and these statistics just prove the point.”

Cllr Laura Edge adds:

“There have been a number of serious incidents at the entrance to the Parkland Walk and the Haringey Station bridge. People need to feel safe and CCTV would certainly offer that protection.The Council needs to act now before the situation gets further out of hand.”

Lib Dem Crime, Policing and Community Safety Spokesperson Cllr Ron Aitken has appealed for calm following the stabbing of a 21 year old man outside the KO Club in Wood Green at the weekend.

Councillor Aitken attended a meeting with Detective Superintendent Wood who gave an update on the investigation. Members of the Turkish and Kurdish communities met at Tottenham Police Station yesterday to hear what progress had been made on the investigation into the incident.

Councillor Ron Aitken said:

“Knife crime continues to be a serious problem here in Haringey.The police are working hard to engage with local people and we will continue to do all we can to assist them.My colleagues and I are also working closely with Lynne Featherstone MP who is campaigning in Parliament to get knife crime and its sentencing on the Government’s agenda.”

Councillor Ali Demirci comments:

“Speculation as to motive, and about the background of the victim or his attackers, whilst understandable, is not helpful at this time. The police investigation is a robust one and whilst it is in progress people should remain calm and encourage witnesses to come forward. Our thoughts are with the young man and his family.”

Haringey Labour councillors are coming under serious criticism for their refusal to respond to requests to make public the results of the public consultation on the controversial parking schemes they plan to impose on the borough.

Lib Dem councillors and local MP Lynne Featherstone have written to the Chief Executive to demand that Haringey Council make public the results of the consultation on the parking schemes proposed in the London Borough of Haringey, as suspicion over the propriety of the consultation continues to mount.

Labour-run Haringey Council has until now ignored a request that Lib Dem councillors be allowed to see the results. The request was made by Councillor Martin Newton over a month ago. Now the Lib Dems are demanding that residents are also allowed to see the responses to the consultation document, in the interests of transparency.

Lib Dem councillors are also increasingly frustrated by the lack of response to their request to hold an emergency meeting of the Muswell Hill Area Assembly. They had been promised a reply from Labour members by Friday. While chasing the reply, it came to light that Labour’s lead member for Community Involvement, Councillor Lorna Reith, who is responsible for the consultation, is on annual leave until the 16th August, having left before providing a response to her Lib Dem colleagues.

Councillor John Oakes, Lib Dem spokesperson for Community Involvement, comments:

“Labour’s behaviour on this issue beggars belief. Our requests for emergency meetings of the Area Assemblies have still gone unanswered, and it is not hard to see why people have lost faith in Labour’s ability to manage this consultation.

“One solution might be to pass on the consultation to independent consultants. Labour have lost the trust of the public over this issue, and it is perhaps time to consider whether the only way to regain that trust might be to bring in expertise from an external group.”

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“I have never seen such an abuse of power as Labour have wielded over the proposed CPZs. A flawed consultation combined with Labour’s refusal to answer to local residents or even let them speak at Full Council means the outcome of the so-called consultation will be under suspicion. All responses must be available to the public so justice can be seen to be done.”

Cllr Gail Engert has welcomed the first step of progress on the refurbishment of Muswell Hill Library but expresses deep concerns on the lack of detail in the proposal.

To applause from assembled residents at Haringey Council’s consultation’ meeting, Cllr Engert publicly challenged Cllr Lorna Reith Executive Member responsible for Community Engagement, on the lack of real detail for residents to consider and respond to.

Cllr Engert comments:

“What residents really want to know and understand is how the changes are going to affect the choice and availability of their library facilities, so they can have their say.

“The proposals on offer were so lacking in detail it is difficult to see how anyone could be expected to make an informed opinion.

“Sadly, this is the poor quality of consultation that we’ve become accustomed from the Labour administration.For them it seems like consultation is a perfunctory process that they undertake with no real consideration or skill rather than a fantastic and valuable opportunity to engage with the people we serve.”

Note:

Issues of particular concern to members of the public, which were not included at the display at the Library or on the consultation leaflets there:

The measurements in square metres of all the elements in the ground plans (the measurements were only given for the proposed restaurant). This means that it is not evident whether the plans involve a space gain for library use or not.

The fact that the plans involved the sale of two thirds of the car park.

What money was to be raised by the sale of the car park land, and what money would be raised from selling the lease on the ground floor of the library for a restaurant.

Not only was the sale of the car park for development not mentioned in the library consultation, but there is no indication of what a development might involve or look like. It did come out at the meeting that it was for 9 residential units.

Whether the plans involved any more space for books. Residents wanted the current and proposed linear shelf space for books.

The fact that nearby residents had not been told of the consultation, as obviously the building of the library extension and the residential development would severely impact upon them.

Lynne Featherstone, Lib Dem MP for Hornsey & Wood Green celebrated the success of children’s literature this week at a House of Commons reception held by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Libraries and Information Management.

Every year, more and more children take part in the Summer Reading Challenge, undertaken in partnership with public libraries and supported by children’s publishers. This year an amazing 700,000 children are expected to take part across the UK.

“To get more readers, reading more we need to harness the power of public libraries,” said Lynne Featherstone MP, who presented some children’s books to Wood Green library to support the Summer Reading Challenge.

“What’s most exciting is that the range and quality of children’s books is better than ever, and working in partnership with publishers and booksellers, our local libraries can help expand the market. They help children get the reading habit early, and make it possible for parents and carers to give children a huge variety of books.

“I am pleased to support the Summer Reading Challenge and would encourage local children of all ages to visit their local library and take part. I am delighted to present Wood Green with a donation of books courtesy of The Reading Agency’s publishing partners,” said Lynne Featherstone.

Haringey Labour councillors this week voted unanimously to adopt the borough’s controversial Unitary Development Plan, despite heartfelt speeches from local residents and the concerns of Lib Dem Councillors.

Cllr Bob Hare said:

“This is a flawed UDP.While we won a late commitment to review the Housing Chapter, we will be pressing the council to ensure that that work on the housing review begins as soon as possible, and will be playing our part to support all those in the borough who have campaigned and worked on these issues.”

Lib Dem Planning Spokesperson Cllr Jonathan Bloch added:

“This decision leaves the borough operating its planning with a flawed UDP, and exposes us to a greater risk of high developments and shoddy tower blocks with poor infrastructure.The reviews of Open Space and Housing will take up to two years to become fully effective. That’s why work on the reviews must start as soon as possible, so that the borough’s planning can start to use the revisions.”