Liberal Democrat councillors are repeating warnings of an impeding crisis due to the chronic shortfall of secondary school places available to children in the London Borough of Haringey. Some 189 children have not received an offer of a place at a secondary school in the borough, and the number of places compared to the number of applicants is becoming increasingly worrying.

A total of 1,080 children applied to Alexandra Park School, of whom just 216 were successful in gaining a place. Fortismere School attracted even more applicants – some 1130 applicants were competing for only 243 places. Parents were asked to list six schools in order of preference – 189 pupils were left without a place at any of their six choices.

Councillor Gail Engert, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Education, comments:

“Haringey Council need to take action to solve this crisis. There is an acute lack of school places in the borough, and the problem is getting worse every year. We warned last year that this problem would only get worse as more and more children come through the primary school system, and Haringey have done nothing to address the problem.”

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“Haringey Council’s record on education planning is just not good enough. Their whole approach is reactionary – to fix the holes that appear in the system and then do nothing until the next crisis. This approach is unacceptable – this is our children’s future at stake. We must begin to put in place a long-term strategy to ensure our young people get the quality of education that they deserve.”

Residents of Noel Park and Wood Green were outraged to find that the police kiosk had been demolished after months of disuse. Anger at the decision hinged on the fact that tens of thousands of pounds had been wasted on the kiosk. Many residents were asking why the kiosk had to go, and why it had not been used more regularly by police officers.

Liberal Democrat councillors were last night pressing Haringey Council to respond to questions over the total cost of the erection and subsequent removal of the kiosk, which is expected to total tens of thousands of pounds.

Lynne Featherstone MP for Hornsey & Wood Green said:

“Local policing is always the best idea and having a local base in the middle of the busiest shopping area in the borough was common sense. The problem was it was almost always closed. This expensive pilot was never given a real chance and now demolishing it without any consultation or replacement of any sort is a slap in the face for the people of Wood Green. Local people should be able to say what they want from their police force and where they want it.”

Councillor Neil Williams, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, comments:

“The police kiosk was a good idea, and we have campaigned hard to see it stay open and be used by police and community safety wardens.When the kiosk was in use, it made the people of Wood Green feel safer and provided a reassuring police presence in a crime hotspot.It is very hard to see the logic in the decision to demolish it, and residents are understandably upset about what was simply a waste of money.”

Haringey Council is being criticised over an inability to reign in its contractors to ensure an acceptable level of service to residents. Performance figures show that since records began, EDF, Haringey’s ‘District Network Operator’ – in effect the contractors in charge of the electricity supply – has consistently failed to meet its own targets. When Lib Dem Leader Neil Williams raised this in the council chamber, Labour’s lead member simply blamed the contractor rather than take responsibility.

EDF have in their customer charter a target of 10 days to repair street lighting power supply faults, but have missed this target every month since June last year, and have taken an average of 22 days to repair faults this year. Haringey admit that this is “particularly disappointing”, but have failed to take action – the records show that all that has occurred is that “the Council has sent a letter to EDF” to point this out.

Lib Dem Leader Neil Williams comments:

“It is bad enough simply to blame a contractor for a lack of good service, but to take no proper action to address the situation is ludicrous. The residents of Ringslade Road know all too well what this poor service means – they have spent weeks without lighting on their road during the winter months.

“The Council cannot simply blame their contractors for poor service without taking ultimate responsibility for the failures. The people of Haringey deserve as good a quality of service as private customers of EDF, and if this is not being provided it is the Council’s responsibility to do something about it.”

The Sustainable Energy Partnership, which represents all the major environmental and ‘fuel poverty’ NGOs today, thankedLynne Featherstone MP for being in Parliament on Friday March 10th to supporta vitally important Bill dealing with climate change and fuel poverty – The Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill.

Partnership Organiser Ron Bailey said:

“It is absolutely vital that this Bill succeeds. Emissions of CO2 continue to increase and rising energy prices will mean that even more people are suffering from cold homes and fuel poverty this winter. This Bill contains practical measures to deal with both problems.

“We appreciate that it is difficult for MPs to be in parliament on a Friday, so we are especially grateful to Lynne Featherstone MP for having been in the House to help this Bill succeed.This is exactly the example that MPs need to set – action not just fine words. We thank Lynne Featherstone MP for making this commitment to the environment and to ending fuel poverty. We hope she is also able to support the Bill again later this week.”

Lib Dem councillor Laura Edge has discovered that Haringey Council is not willing to make room in their budget for the replacement of the very popular play fort in Stationers Park in Stroud Green.

A survey has determined that the fort has reached the end of its life and needs to be taken down and replaced. The fort has been widely used and is popular with local children, who are disappointed to hear that Haringey Council is not currently intending to replace it with a similar structure. The Council is intending to consult residents over the matter, but has already advised that there is not currently enough funding available to provide a new fort of the same design.

Councillor Edge says:

“Without wanting to pre-empt the wishes of local people and children, if residents want the new facilities to be of the same design, I hope very much that the Council will find the money to provide a replacement fort that is not a quick-fix solution.

“Despite the Council telling local residents that they are spending pots of money on parks, they are also being told that the money is not available in this case. Given the obvious benefits that the fort has for local children – encouraging them to be active and stimulating their imaginations – I strongly urge the Council to mount a big effort to find the necessary additional funding.”

The Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Policing and Community Safety in Haringey has written to the British Transport Police with a request that they increase police patrols on commuter routes in the borough to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour against users of the rail network.

Cllr Ron Aitken has written to the Inspector of the BTP covering Haringey to ask for a breakdown of crime rates on the Silverlink, WAGN, Piccadilly and Victoria Line Underground and rail services in the borough, as well as costings for the provision of extra police and community support officer (PCSO) patrols.

“In the British Transport and Met Forces we have two tremendous assets doing a good job,” said Cllr Aitken.

“However, we need to find additional resources to pay for more police and PCSOs for the transport network as other boroughs are doing. Ken Livingstone rejected the Lib Dem proposal to spend £20 million on 272 new police officers on the system, so we are exploring our own plans as Lib Dems in other authorities have done.”

Serious issues about Haringey Council’s massively overspent IT project ‘Tech Refresh’ still remain unresolved, following Thursday afternoon’s reconvened meeting of Haringey Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Despite repeated requests for information, Lib Dems say that two key areas remain unclear. No senior councillors or council officers have been held accountable for the failings which led to the £10.6 million overspend and there has not been a full explanation for the delay in calling in the District Auditor once the catastrophe was uncovered.

Haringey’s Lib Dem opposition are now submitting Freedom of Information requests to obtain some of the background facts that have not yet been provided:

·What degree of involvement and control the then Executive Member exercised over this multi-million pound project;

·What caused the delay between the Chief Executive being told of the massive overspend (April 2005) and the calling in of the District Auditor (July 2005)

Cllr Wayne Hoban (Lib Dem, Alexandra), Deputy Leader of the Lib Dems, says:

“It is unbelievable that no one seems to have been held responsible for this project which more than doubled its budget. The whole system failed – but who was responsible for monitoring this system and ensuring that taxpayers’ money was not wasted?”

“We belatedly received some more information from the Executive Member, which has addressed some of the outstanding questions about this fiasco. But there are still far too many unanswered questions.”

Cllr David Winskill (Lib Dem, Crouch End), Overview & Scrutiny Committee Member, adds:

“An external review has been ordered to look at the working relationship between councillors and officers and we will be seeking to take as full a part as possible in that and the future Value for Money review. We will continue to press for answers on this issue – Haringey residents deserve to know exactly what went wrong.

“The implementation and cost overrun of the IT ‘Tech Refresh’ project is a blot on the political landscape of Haringey that will last for a very long time.”

Haringey Liberal Democrats, led by Lynne Featherstone MP and Councillor Neil Williams, are launching a campaign to save Wood Green’s police kiosk – and get it used more effectively.

Lynne Featherstone MP said:

“This kiosk was launched with a major fanfare and now sits empty and useless. Haringey is not a crime-free area and we need to use all the resources available to fight crime and the fear of crime.”

Councillor Neil Williams, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Haringey Council added:

“The community safety wardens could be based here with additional coverage by the police and police community support officers. The kiosk should be used better, not axed.”

You can download a Wood Green police kiosk petition form (pdf format) to help the campaign.

Lynne Featherstone MP and the Liberal Democrats have launched a campaign to safeguard the future of Muswell Hill’s police station.

The police station’s future has been put into doubt by a police review into their properties. The local borough commander has said, “There are question marks over Muswell Hill police station.”

Lynne Featherstone MP said:

“I appreciate that the building would need work to make it fit for future police use. But Muswell Hill must keep its police station, whether by improving the current building or by using a new building. Closing the station and moving services out of the area simply isn’t acceptable. Policing is at its best when it is local and engaged with the community.

“I welcome Sir Ian Blair’s commitment that if the building is closed any replacement would be as nearby “as possible” – but we must ensure that really means in our area, not far away.”

Muswell Hill Focus Editor Sheila Rainger added:

“Muswell Hill needs a police station and I welcome the comments by Simon O’Brien, Haringey’s Police Commander calling for a public debate on the future of the police station.”

Lynne Featherstone and the area’s Liberal Democrat councillors have previously worked successfully with residents in a high-profile campaign to get the police station’s front counter reopened to the public.

You can download a Muswell Hill police station petition form (pdf format) to help the campaign.

Lynne Featherstone, Lib Dem MP for Hornsey and Wood Green has obtained from Tony Blair’s government the most up to date figures on the cost of the Iraq war.

In a reply to a parliamentary question from Lynne Featherstone MP, the Secretary of State for the Ministry of Defence has admitted that the first three years of the Iraq war have cost a staggering £2.8 million per day, with a total cost to April 2005 of over £3,000 million.

These figures do not include the costs of rebuilding or dealing with the aftermath from the war.

Lynne Featherstone MP for Hornsey & Wood Green said:

“This huge sum of money makes a mockery of Gordon Brown’s claims to be the ‘prudent Chancellor’. By supporting an unjust and illegal war, he and Tony Blair have wasted billions which could have been better spent on modernising police stations, building new schools and hospitals or more key worker housing – stuff we need.

“The decision to go to war was made by a Tony Blair and George Bush. It’s clear that it was a decision made on incomplete information and with no plan for peace. Liberal Democrats said it then, and we have been proven right every step of the way.”