Local Lib Dems have expressed dismay at Haringey Labour’s callous disregard for the huge Council Tax burden now being placed on local residents. Lib Dem Leader Neil Williams says that the Labour Leader’s expression of “delight” at keeping the rate “low”, and the Lead Finance Member’s description of the charge as “affordable” was an insult to local residents and shows how totally out of touch the Labour party has become in the borough.

Last night’s charge set at the Full Council meeting including the hefty increase levied by the Labour Mayor, raises Haringey’s band D council tax to £1,383 pounds, fully £400 more than it was four years ago – a massive 41% increase that local residents can ill afford to pay.

Neil Williams says the charge is a double blow to Haringey residents, already struggling with huge electricity and gas bills this winter. They will also have to do without the £200 sweetener handed out by the Government last year as a pre-election bribe.

Cllr Neil Williams comments:

“I find the complacency of Labour over the Council Tax staggering. They should join us in efforts to press for change. To express delight at the charge, or to call it affordable is simply an insult to local residents, many of who can ill afford to pay. At least local residents will be able to give their verdict on this extraordinary inflating tax at the ballot box in May.”

Local Fortis Green Ward Councillor Stephen Gilbert has resigned from Haringey Council. Stephen, who has represented Fortis Green since the local election in May 2002, is moving to Cornwall to be nearer to his father who is seriously ill.

Stephen said:

“I have thoroughly enjoyed the last four years on the Council representing Fortis Green and working with local residents.

“Working with residents I hope we have achieved much in the past four years.I’m particularly proud that we now have the new bus route the police station has been reopened.

“I have a very real love for London and its communities, but I will always be Cornish and I hope people will understand that it is important for me to be close to my family at this time.”

Colleagues have paid tribute to Stephen Gilbert’s work in Fortis Green since his election in 2002.Cllr Matt Davies, one of Stephen’s Fortis Green ward colleagues, said:

“We are very sorry to see Steve leave, but of course fully understand the reasons behind his decision. Our thoughts are with him and his family, and we wish his father well.”

Recently released figures published by the Department of Education & Skills show that Haringey’s Children’s Service has the second highest rate in London of children on the child protection (CP) register.

In 2005 Haringey had 240 children on the register – giving a rate of 48 children per 10,000 children under 18.Lib Dem Deputy Leader Wayne Hoban had put down an oral question for the Executive Member for the Children’s Service on these worrying figures at the last Council meeting. However, the question was not reached due to Labour filibustering, where the Labour Council Leader took 25 minutes to answer a single question.

Haringey is the only authority in the country to show an annual increase in CP registrations for each year between 2000, the year Victoria Climbie died, and 2004, when it hit the highest figure in England for the number of children per 10,000 on the register. The overall trend for England has shown a gradual decline in the rate of registrations since 2000, whilst in Haringey, the trend rose inexorably, climbing throughout the Climbie Hearing in 2002 and then rising sharply after 2003, when the inquiry report was published, to a peak in 2004.

Cllr Hoban states,

“It is clear that the shock of Victoria Climbie’s death and the ensuing public condemnation of Haringey Social Services caused Haringey to lower the threshold for CP investigations, with the intention of identifying as many children as possible who may be in need of protection from abuse. This process has clearly increased the number of CP referalls, often at the expense of protecting the interests of innocent parents who have been subjected to unnecessary trauma and suffering by the process.”

Cllr Hoban has dealt with several cases of Haringey families with children with disabilities whose children have been referred to the Children’s Service on suspicion that their children were in danger of serious harm, but who were subsequently found innocent.

Cllr Hoban comments:

“I want the Children’s Service to be far more open to the public about how it sets the threshold for identifying children it suspects are in danger of serious harm. It is clear that the Children’s Service has been placing more and more children on the CP register year by year between 2000 and 2004, when no other local authority was following this trend. The Children’s Service must be subject to greater scrutiny and openness if the public are to be reassured that they are acting responsibly when placing children on the CP register.”

Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone is demanding answers from the Government after she uncovered shocking figures showing that the number of constituencies for which key official election documents have been lost doubled at the 2005 general election.

The figures, in response to a written Parliamentary question to the Department for Constitutional Affairs, show that all or part of the marked register for the 2005 general election was lost for 98 constituencies, up from 45 in 2001.

After each general election, local returning officers are required to send in the complete marked register – which shows who has voted and is therefore a crucial safeguard against electoral fraud – to the DCA for safe-keeping. However, not only have large numbers of these documents been lost, but also the DCA has failed to investigate how the losses have occurred or who is responsible for them.

Lynne Featherstone MP said:

“I am appalled that the Government does not appear to give a damn about the fact that Woking’s marked register has gone missing and that 98 others were not complete. Even when I first raised the issue with the Government, their answer to my first written question was incomplete and half-hearted at best.

“We simply don’t know whether these documents are being lost locally, in transit or by the DCA’s contractors responsible for the central storage.Given in particular the recent high-profile concerns over electoral fraud, it is staggering that so many documents are being lost – and so little being done about it.

“The Government’s plans to have these documents stored locally in future (under the Electoral Administration Bill) will make matters even worse if the losses are happening at local level – because they we wouldn’t even have any national figures for the scale of the problem.”

Following reports of dozens of people being without phone lines due to a fault, Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, Lynne Featherstone has written to the Chief Executive of British Telecom demanding an urgent investigation.

The fault occurred in the early hours of 15th February and appears to have affected a number of businesses and residents in Crouch End, Hornsey and Muswell Hill, leaving customers without telephone connection.

BT’s stock response is that customers should report the fault individually to have the problem fixed and to claim compensation. But this is in spite of the fact that it is apparent that a significant number of people have been affected.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“It is simply not acceptable that BT should have such a ‘can’t do’ approach to paying customers.

“If BT is aware of a widespread fault it should be doing everything in its power to make sure all customers are reconnected as soon as possible and then automatically compensated for the inconvenience caused. Treating people like second class customers is just not on.”

Lynne Featherstone MP, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson, responding to an independent investigation into the treatment of children in prison, led by Lord Carlile, said:

“The amount of force being used to restrain children in custody highlighted by this report is unacceptable.

“The training of staff should be urgently reviewed to so that they have the skills which means they do not have to rely on physical restraint to the same degree in the future.

“The report highlights why many children currently in secure accommodation would be better undergoing rehabilitation outside of what all too often amount to colleges of crime.”

Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey & Wood Green, Lynne Featherstone has uncovered a scandal of Haringey Council not using money made available to help those with housing difficulties.

Each year the Government allocates councils money under the Discretionary Housing Payment funding.Since 2001, £¼ million has been unused under this scheme and returned to central government by Haringey’s Labour administration.

Lynne Featherstone MP said:

“I see some heartbreaking cases at my surgery where families are in dire need, often through circumstances beyond their control and that is what this fund is for. I dread to think how many families have been let down by Labour’s woeful administration of this housing fund.

“This is money that could have been used to help those most in need, when they most needed it.This is Labour failing on all accounts.”

Councillor Neil Williams added

“It is yet another confirmation of why Labour can’t be trusted to run public accounts.

“For a party that claims to be for social justice, it is the poorest in Haringey that get the rawest deal under Labour”

Note:The detailed figures are in a written answer to a Parliamentary Question from Lynne Featherstone, published on 9th February.

Voters in Haringey have until 13 March – just three weeks – to register so that they can vote for their local council representatives at elections on 4 May 2006.

With the registration deadline looming, Lynne Featherstone MP today helped the Electoral Commission launch a campaign urging all those people who are eligible to vote to make sure they are on the electoral register.

Names can be added later to the electoral register on a monthly basis but anyone not registered to vote by 13 March will not be able to vote in the 4 May local elections. An online electoral registration form can be downloaded from www.aboutmyvote.co.uk

Peter Wardle, Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission, said, “Many people assume that they’ll be automatically registered, but that isn’t the case. Politics affects every aspect of our lives, from rubbish collection and road safety to education and care for the elderly. We want to remind people in Haringey that they must be registered by 13 March so they don’t lose their right to vote.”

A recent report by the Electoral Commission found that up to 3.7 million people in England and Wales, between 8-9% of the eligible population, did not register to vote in 2000.

Liberal Democrats are questioning the actions of Haringey Council following many complaints from residents over the huge eyesore being caused by the very large lamp post banners that have appeared all over the London Borough of Haringey.Lib Dem Councillor Gail Engert (Muswell Hill ward), who has been investigating the matter, was shocked to learn that a 15-year commercial contract has been awarded for the signs without any consultation with local residents.

The information was brought to light in the papers for the Council Executive meeting to be held on 21st February at the Civic Centre. According to the Agenda papers, Haringey Council awarded a 15-year contract on 06/12/2005 to Bay Media to supply these banners. The company make their profit by selling one side of the banner to commercial advertisers. The other side is used to promote Labour-run Haringey.

Although there were some existing small lamp post notice boards for Council and community information, the new banners are about three-times larger, far more numerous and 50% for commercial use.

Councillor Engert has written to Haringey Council to raise several planning issues including the legality of these large banners when they are in or next to conservation areas, and the process of awarding and consulting over advertising consent for commercial users.

Cllr Engert comments:

“I was extremely surprised to learn that the Labour Council has tied the borough into a 15-year commercial contract to litter our streets with self-promoting banners. This will have a huge visual impact right across the borough. It is particularly ironic, just after the Council has published its Streetscene Manual promoting clutter-free streets. It is absolutely unacceptable that there appears to have been no public consultation about this decision.”

Lynne Featherstone has welcomed the news from the Metropolitan Police Authority that Highgate is to receive its own Safer Neighbourhood Team.

Highgate sits on the corner of three London Boroughs – Islington, Camden and Haringey – and has been the victim of neglect on occasions, with no individual borough taking overall control.

Lynne Featherstone MP has been campaigning for joined up policing in Highgate for a long time, including when she sat on the Metropolitan Police Authority herself as a member of the GLA before becoming MP for Hornsey & Wood Green in 2005.

Last month Lynne Featherstone wrote to Len Duvall, Chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority to ascertain when the Highgate team will be introduced.

Lynne Featherstone MP said:

“I welcome the reply I have received from the Chair of the MPA, informing me that the introduction of the first part of the Highgate Safer Neighbourhood Team will be in April this year.

“For too long Highgate has been at the bottom of the police agenda. At last a historic and geographic wrong will be righted.”