Liberal Democrat councillor Gail Engert has been pressing Haringey Council to carry out urgent repairs at Muswell Hill Library, following an admission that there is a budgetary allocation for repairs at the library – yet parts of the library are being left in a sorry state.

Councillor Engert recently visited the library to examine the state of disrepair that is the result of a long period of neglect by Haringey Council. She sent a series of photos to Haringey Council to highlight the terrible state of the public areas in the Children’s Library, the public toilets and the baby changing area, with a request that the Council take immediate action to rectify this neglect.

Councillor Gail Engert (Muswell Hill) comments:

“If there is room in this year’s budget for repairs at the library, why have they not yet been carried out? This is just the latest example of the Council’s indifference to the users of the library – they have been without hot water in the public toilets for months, and despite the very cold winter a new heater was only installed in February. The Council must take action to rectify the terrible conditions at Muswell Hill Library.”

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.”

Residents and tenants’ representatives at Thursday night’s Hornsey Area Housing Forum expressed outrage at the lack of scheme managers at a number of sheltered housing schemes across Haringey.

Five full-time scheme managers moved to become part of the ALMO team in January and over eight weeks later the sheltered housing residents in those schemes have not had appropriate full-time cover.

Cllr Gail Engert (Lib Dem, Muswell Hill) has already been in correspondence with Haringey Council to ask why the scheme managers have not been replaced and received assurances that the service to residents was not being affected. However, the meeting at Hornsey Town Hall backs up previous conversations Cllr Engert has had with residents of sheltered housing schemes which contradict this.

Cllr Engert comments:

“These residents are deeply concerned about the ongoing lack of scheme managers to look after them. Full-time scheme managers have been replaced with just a short morning visit by an area relief manager and emergency cords in the properties, which is clearly not the same level of cover to the residents.

“It is essential that full cover is resumed as soon as possible for all these residents, many of whom are elderly and vulnerable. The Council must also explain why the previous scheme managers moved into their new ALMO roles in January, without plans having been made to ensure unbroken cover for the sheltered housing residents. It seems to be very poor planning and residents are rightly angry about the situation.”

Sir Menzies Campbell’s election as Leader of the Liberal Democrats has left the Haringey Liberal Democrats with a sense of optimism and conviction, and they are now gearing up to fight Labour for control of Haringey Council in May’s council elections.

The final election count was held locally at the Electoral Reform Services Election Centre on Clarendon Road in Noel Park. Sir Menzies’ election coincides with a resurgence of national support for the Liberal Democrats across the country in recent polls – a recent MORI poll shows that national support has risen in recent weeks – up 3 points since January.

Lynne Featherstone MP said:

“Ming will lead a charge against inequality in what has become an ever widening gap between the rich and the poor under Blair and before that the Tories. That is the challenge of our time and scourge of our communities. Studies show that extreme gaps create tension, crime and unhappiness – for everyone. Our challenge is to close the gap.

“Moreover, Ming has put at the top of his agenda the swing away from personal taxation and a move towards behaviour taxation – so that eco-taxed can both improve our environment and be used to take the lowest paid out of tax altogether. With ice caps melting global warming is no longer somewhere else or some time in the future – it is now!”

Councillor Neil Williams, Leader of the Haringey Liberal Democrat Group, said:

“With Ming at the head of our party, we feel even more confident than before about taking on the Labour Party in May. He has made it clear what the Liberal Democrats stand for – a fairer, greener, more locally governed and democratic Britain that is at peace with itself both at home and abroad.

“The complacency and incompetence of the Haringey Labour party has not gone unnoticed by local people. Just as the British are fed up with the Labour party’s poor record on value for money on a national level, the people of Haringey are fed up with Labour wasting their Council Taxes and providing poor local services. I look forward to May when local people will get the chance to decide who they believe should be running the Council.”

Haringey Labour party have been caught red-handed after it emerged that they have been planning and holding their party election meetings in Haringey Council buildings and using Council resources to distribute the agenda and minutes of meetings.

A copy of a confidential Labour party campaign meeting agenda has been obtained by Liberal Democrat Group Leader Neil Williams. The agenda notes that embattled Leader of the Council Charles Adje, was due to attend the meeting and must have been fully aware that the meetings have been taking place in the Civic Centre.

Councillor Neil Williams said:

“Councillor Adje should know better than anyone else that local taxpayers’ money should not be used to further the ends of the Labour party. The document shows clearly that the Labour group has been abusing the Council’s resources in a disgraceful manner – and this has happened before. It is sheer arrogance after 35 years in office, and it must stop. How long has this been going on? He must apologise and reimburse the Council.”

Haringey’s Liberal Democrat councillors have exposed the extent of the eyesore caused by 416 square metres of self-promoting banners erected on lampposts by Labour-run Haringey Council.

Lib Dem councillor Gail Engert (Muswell Hill ward), who has been investigating the matter, has extracted from the Council information that 130 lamppost banners measuring 2m x 0.8m have been installed across the borough. These banners are over four times the size of the previous notice boards that the Council say they are replacing. Not only that but of the previous 140 boards only 90 are being decommissioned, whilst the remaining 50 are staying for further advertising.

Councillor Engert was further told by Haringey Council that these 130 banners which cumulatively represent 416 square metres (taking both sides of the banner) do not require planning advertising consent as long as they promote Council events or information. However, they would require Advertising Planning Consent for any commercial advertising, as intended by the Council.

Councillor Engert comments:

“Given that one side of these banners is devoted to selling commercial advertising I am writing back to the Council to ask exactly how they plan to consult in each case when advertising consent is required by the commercial contractors. This is especially important as there does not seem to have been any meaningful consultation before the banners went up.

“I am also pursuing how many of these banners have been put up in or near conservation areas.”

Newly published figures put Haringey in the bottom third of London Boroughs for the amount of recycled waste. Figures complied by the Association of London Government reveal that Haringey is underperforming in recycling in spite of Haringey Council’s pre-election publicity campaign that implies the contrary.

Haringey came 23rd (out of 33) and only recycles 8% more than the lowest performing Borough – Newham.

Haringey’s official opposition Lib Dem Group Leader Councillor Neil Williams comments:

“Haringey likes to talk up its recycling performance but as these figures prove, the service does not compare favourably with most other boroughs.Haringey has wasted money on huge wheelie bins when they should have directed resources to bigger and better recycling.

“There should also be less spending on self-satisfied publicity, with money channelled to real measures to improve the service.”

Lynne Featherstone MP added:

“As late converts to the benefits of recycling, the Haringey Labour administration was always playing catch up. This poor record just shows how far Haringey still has to go.”

Haringey Labour failed on Monday night to support moves that would have encouraged the Government to increase the maximum sentence for carrying a knife in public without good reason from 2 years to 7 years.

In a motion proposed by Lib Dem Opposition Leader Cllr Neil Williams, the Council would have pushed for the maximum sentence for carrying a knife to be brought into line with the maximum sentence for carrying a firearm – but Haringey Labour voted against that motion.

Cllr Neil Williams (Lib Dem, Highgate) comments:

“It is very disappointing that Haringey Labour chose to try making this a party political issue. Knife crime is a serious problem around London and it needs a serious solution. Current maximum penalties are insufficient – whether you are killed by a knife or by a gun, the end result is the same and the law should reflect that. “

The Lib Dems are pointing out that Haringey Labour tabled a party political amendment, containing untruths and misrepresentations of Lib Dem policy – both concerning the original motion and a range of other subjects.

Every Haringey Labour councillor present in the chamber at last night’s Full Council meeting voted for a motion that had been exposed as containing a blatant falsehood.

In an amendment to the Lib Dem motion designed to help tackle knife crime, Haringey Labour stated that Lib Dems in the GLA had voted against the introduction of Safer Neighbourhood teams for every ward in Haringey (and across London). Despite the Council meeting being told that this was completely false, the Labour councillors still voted through the amendment.

Cllr Matt Davies (Lib Dem, Fortis Green) comments:

“It really beggars belief that Labour councillors would pass a motion ‘deploring’ something which never actually happened – despite having been told that the statement in the amendment was untrue, with documentation to back that up.

“As in every year on the GLA, the Lib Dems this year proposed more spending on police, which the Mayor rejected. The Lib Dems proposals matched all the funding put forward by the Mayor and fully supported the roll out of Safer Neighbourhood teams. We actually proposed extra police in London: an extra 272 British Transport Police, but the Labour Mayor cut this down to just 89. The Lib Dem budget amendment proposed absolutely no cuts to the police service budget.

“Our Lib Dem colleagues at the GLA voted against the Mayor’s Transport for London budget, his core GLA budget and the LDA budget – as these are areas where he is unnecessarily pushing up the amount of tax Londoners pay or failing to spend their money wisely.However, the vote on the Mayor’s police budget was unanimous. Everyone in the GLA from all parties, including the Lib Dems, supported it. “

Cllr Neil Williams, Lib Dem Leader, comments:

“The Lib Dems fully support all extra investment in London ‘s police service including the money which will allow the Safer Neighbourhood rollout. This has always been the case and is backed up by everything our politicians around London have said and done – and backed up by plenty of official documentation too.

“For Haringey Labour to help the Mayor to spread these falsehoods makes them look at best very foolish. Like the recent rewriting of history they have been trying with their u-turn on plans to double the environment PR budget, it just shows that they are trying to fool Haringey residents. It won’t work.”

Liberal Democrat councillor Dave Winskill has expressed concerns that Labour-run Haringey Council is not doing enough to ensure that the employment prospect of those employed at Pembroke Works in Hornsey are assured for future years. Lib Dem say that the premises have space for several companies and can provide 50 or 60 jobs.

At Monday’s full council, Cllr Winskill asked the Executive Member for Planning and Regeneration to ensure Haringey wouldn’t be tempted by the lure of a substantial cash receipt in return for changing the terms of the lease of the Pembroke Works, of which it is the freeholder. He says the Pembroke Works could be a vital centre for employment and that the Council needs to retain the original lease – and the covenants in that lease that protect the jobs there.

Cllr Winskill comments:

“This part of the Hornsey ward has over the past few years seen many dozens of jobs completely disappear. The Hornsey Water Works and Haringey-owned Hornsey central depot have both closed, as well as many car repair workshops, light engineering factories and textile studios.

“It must be tempting for a borough that is raiding its reserve funds to pay for a £10 million plus overspend on IT to want to keep these reserves topped up. The Council would get a big cash receipt from an early termination of the existing lease.

“But the premises are purpose-built and quite modern, and fit in well with their area. Local residents want them to stay.Hornsey needs these jobs, and the Labour Council must resist the temptation to cash in.”

Lib Dem councillors in the London Borough of Haringey are demanding answers from Haringey Council over what it proposes to do to provide alternative local school places for around 77 reception children in the Crouch End area for September 2006.

Lib Dems say that a shortfall of 77 places has arisen because the Council rashly hoped to provide 60 extra places at Coleridge School as early as this year.

The 2006 date for the proposal has now been moved to 2007 by the Schools’ Adjudicator to whom the plans were referred and who held an official hearing in Crouch End on Monday. The Schools’ Adjudicator still needs to rule on whether the proposed expansion should go ahead at all.

Lib Dem Education spokesperson, Cllr Gail Engert, who was at the hearing, says Haringey Council must answer for why it did not assess the risks of offering such early provision at the Coleridge site. Lib Dems also want to know what ‘plan B’ the Council has for the provision of these places should the Schools Adjudicator turn the expansion down. In particular, the party wants to know what would be the time frame for any alternative proposal.

Cllr Gail Engert comments:

“I am disturbed that the Council does not seem to have thought through the timing on this issue, which was wholly unrealistic right form the start. The entire proposals will be the subject of a lengthy planning application, so there was never a realistic chance that places could have been provided for this year- and even for next year, the timetable looks very tight indeed. “

Local Lib Dem MP and Muswell Hill councillor Lynne Featherstone adds: “All this means disappointment and heartache for local parents who thought there would be more places availablethought so – because they were told so by the Council.It is yet another example of bad planning over the school places issue, with the Council seemingly unable to look into the near future, let alone planning for school places on a sensible, ten-year cycle.”