Water bosses in charge of the major mains renewal project in Hornsey have undertaken to communicate better with local residents and look at ways of clearing up their works more effectively following a meeting with council officials attended by Lib Dem councillors Neil Williams and David Winskill.

The works, due to finish in August six weeks behind schedule, are one of the largest water mains replacements projects currently taking place in London. For many months considerable disruption has been caused to local residents as Thames Water replaces once of the leakiest parts of its London network.

Lib Dems raised many concerns over the works, including leaks, plant and equipment left unattended, inadequate repairs to roads, and poor communication with residents throughout the scheme. Thames Water undertook to come back with a number of improvements in the final weeks of the project and make residents more aware of the works.

Crouch End councillor David Winskill comments:

“This was a useful meeting, and Thames Water did listen to our concerns. Some residents in the area have put up with holes that have been left in their streets for many months, and this and other issues must be tackled before the mains renewal programme moves to Crouch End in the future.”

Cllr Neil Williams adds:

“With a very big and long lasting project such as this it is vital that Thames Water keeps in regular contact with local people so they know on a regular basis how works are progressing and how this will effect their street.One or two letters at the start of the process is not enough. We have undertaken to work with the company to ensure that residents are kept better informed.”

Lib Dem Deputy Leader Cllr Wayne Hoban has expressed shock and anger in response to applications from mobile phone companies to install two separate mobile masts and base stations on Durnsford Road and Albert Road, N22.

The two ten-metre high masts would, if approved, be sited within half a mile of each other, on the same stretch of road.The sites would also be adjacent to Rhodes Avenue Junior and Alexandra Park Schools, a local park which is used extensively by children for school access and recreation, and a popular garden centre.

O2 installed a mobile mast in Albert Road last year against the wishes of the local community, and there has also been an attempt by Vodafone to install a mast and base station by a pocket park in Durnsford Road, which is still being resisted by Cllr Hoban and local residents.Cllr Hoban has contacted Haringey Council to express his opposition to these applications.

Cllr Wayne Hoban comments:

“Council Executive members in the past have assured me that where mobile masts adversely affect the environment, they would be opposed. It is clear that on this basis, these applications should be refused. Mobile masts and base stations should be subject to the full planning process. I will continue in my efforts to persuade the Council to back this policy in the interests of all residents.”

Lib Dem councillors for Fortis Green today met with Haringey Council traffic chiefs to discuss proposals for traffic calming in Woodside Avenue, N10. The meeting follows the securing of £120,000 from Transport for London (TfL) through the Safer Routes to Schools scheme to fund safety measures around St James’s Primary School last month.

Residents living in and around the Woodside Avenue area are to receive a consultation letter later this month offering them two traffic calming options:

1. Priority Give-Way – featuring raised entry treatment, 20mph signed zone, raised intersection, mini-roundabout, priority give-way build-outs, zebra crossing and waiting restrictions

2. Refuge Islands – Same as option 1 except the build-outs are replaced with refuge islands

Fortis Green councillor Martin Newton, who has campaigned with Lynne Featherstone MP on the issue of safety in and around Woodside Avenue, is pleased that residents are being given the opportunity to comment on the proposals.

Cllr Newton comments:

“Whilst broadly welcoming these measures to slow down traffic along Woodside Avenue, I would have preferred more options on the table rather than essentially just one scheme with alternative build-outs or refuge islands.

“However Hairngey Council has said that some changes may be made depending on the feedback from the consultation. I would encourage all residents to take this opportunity to respond to the consultation.”

Local Liberal Democrats have expressed concern over an expected joint planning application made by Haringey Council and a housing developer.

At this week’s Overview & Scrutiny meeting, the Executive Member for Children’s Services revealed that the Council’s plans to build a new 6th form centre for the London Borough of Haringey on land in White Hart Lane purchased from North Middlesex University had fallen through. The university is now planning to sell the land to a housing developer instead.

He then explained that Haringey Council had agreed in principle to purchase part of this land from the new buyer, to enable plans for a 6th form centre to go ahead. However, the agreement with the developer is that a joint planning application for the housing and 6th form centre will be submitted.

Cllr Matt Davies (Lib Dem, Fortis Green), a member of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee, questioned whether such a deal was appropriate:

“The provision of educational facilities and housing are two of the key challenges facing Haringey, and hopefully these two projects will prove to be a success on both fronts,” says Cllr Davies. “However, these should not be inextricably linked. But Haringey Council has agreed to purchase land from the new owner on the basis of a joint planning application and one will not happen without the other.

“I am worried that this will not be seen to be an open and fair process. The need for the Council to provide new educational facilities is such that councillors could feel themselves under pressure to accept this joint application – even if they feel there are problems with the housing part.

“With luck, plans for both the centre and the housing will be perfect and a problem will not arise. But if objections to the housing are made then I am concerned that because of this arrangement the public will see it as a stitch-up, rightly or wrongly.”

Lib Dem councillors will be calling on Haringey Council to unite in opposition against the Government’s plans to introduce compulsory ID cards in the UK.

The motion has been proposed by Lib Dem councillor for Stroud Green, Laura Edge, who along with her Lib Dem colleagues is deeply concerned at the Government’s proposals.

In the motion which has been tabled for the Full Council meeting next Monday (18th July) the Lib Dems raise concerns over the cost, to both citizens and local authorities, the infringements on civil liberties and the detrimental effect upon community relations of the cards.

The motion will call on Haringey Council:

To submit objections to the legislation to the Home Secretary

To ask Haringey’s two MPs to oppose the ID Card Scheme

Cllr Edge is hopeful that Council members will support the important motion. She has already received the support of Hornsey & Wood Green MP, Lynne Featherstone who will be voting against the Government’s Bill in Parliament.

Cllr Edge (Stroud Green) comments:

“The ID card proposal would have a negative impact on citizens of Haringey and we need to make the Government aware that we as a borough oppose these plans. I hope that Council members put their political allegiances to one side and support the motion on Monday.”

Lynne Featherstone MP adds:

“Haringey needs to take a stand on ID cards, especially given the enormous sums involved.”

Liberal Democrat Councillor Wayne Hoban has today called on Haringey Council to explain why a last-minute decision has been taken to withdraw funding for the refurbishment of a Muswell Hill after-school club building.

The Grove building in Alexandra Palace Park was closed two years ago on health and safety grounds and had been earmarked for renovation. However, the Council has now withdrawn funding because, according to them, at £150,000-£200,000 it is “not good value for money”. This is despite the fact that George Meehan, Executive Member for Children & Young People, had given an assurance only six months ago that it would go ahead. Parents had originally been told that the new after-school club would be up and running in the Grove workshop building by early 2005 and this has since been kicked into the long grass.

The Grove Workshop Advisory Group and Cllr Hoban had worked with the Council on this project since June 2004. Encouraged by the Council, architects had been appointed, full and detailed plans had been drawn up, costings presented and approved, and planning permission sought and given. Yet at a meeting with council officers last week, attended by Cllr Hoban and Cllr Gail Engert, Lib Dem Education Spokesperson, shocked and angry parents were informed that the project has been abandoned.

The decision effectively leaves parents back where they started, with inappropriate ‘temporary’ playgroup facilities in the basement of the Baptist Church in Dukes Avenue and no viable solution to their childcare dilemma, and the summer holidays fast approaching.

In view of their concerns over this decision, Cllr Hoban and Cllr Engert have asked the Council to provide a copy of the project feasibility study and costings at the earliest opportunity.

Cllr Hoban comments:

“It beggars belief that the Council has decided to withdraw funding at this late stage due to “lack of funds”, especially given that the Government is pumping £2.5 million into Haringey primary and secondary schools over the next three years to enable the school day to be stretched to ten hours for pupils who want to take part in before and after-school clubs.”

Cllr Engert adds:

“Haringey Council has recently trumpeted that an extra £5 million has become available due to overestimation of the budget to tackle homelessness in Haringey last year. It is therefore frankly not credible that funds could not be found to ensure completion of this vital project.”

Haringey’s Lib Dem Opposition has expressed its outrage that a special full council meeting is to be held next Monday to vote through the retirement package of the Chief Executive, David Warwik.

The Lib Dems were not even informed that Labour had scheduled the special meeting until the papers for it arrived through their letterboxes over the weekend. Lib Dem Leader Neil Williams is raising his concerns with the District Auditor and has suspended all cross-party agreements between the Lib Dems and Labour.

Cllr Williams asks why Haringey Council could not consider the issue at its normal full council meeting just a few days later on 25 July. Further, the papers for the meeting reveal that the Chief Executive remains in the employ of the council until September – despite the council publishing misleading statements that he is leaving in July.

Cllr Williams has asked the District Auditor for a ruling on this issue as the cost, through the appointment of an ‘interim’ Chief Executive, is likely to run into tens of thousands of pounds for Haringey’s hard pressed taxpayers.

In a further development Labour has thrown another veil of secrecy over a special a meeting of the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee to consider a £380,000 grant to the Haringey Business Development Agency, despite Labour members briefing that this matter and the departure of the Chief Executive are related. All the papers for this meeting have been issued as ‘exempt’ items.

Cllr Neil Williams comments:

“Haringey Labour are in utter disarray, but they must not be allowed to play fast and loose like this with council taxpayer’s money and abuse secrecy rules.This whole affair has become an utter shambles, and Labour are desperate to keep the public in the dark.”

Lib Dem councillors in Muswell Hill have welcomed the decision by Haringey Council’s planning committee to refuse planning permission for the controversial planning application at 30 Muswell Hill, N10 on Monday (27th June).

Haringey Council had recommended that the application be given permission with conditions attached, but the planning committee refused permission. They cited the complete lack of affordable housing included in the plans as the main reason. However, there were also concerns on the environmental impact of the modern building in the Edwardian surroundings.

The news has delighted residents and Lib Dem planning spokesperson, Jonathan Bloch, who has supported residents in their campaign against the application to demolish the current Edwardian house and garden and erect 12 grey and aluminium flats on the corner of the busy junction.

This application was the latest in a recent spate of controversial planning applications in Muswell Hill that Lib Dem councillors and residents have successfully fought against.

The Lib Dems are concerned that developers still see Haringey as an easy target for large profitable developments. Cllr Bloch says that the Lib Dems are determined to ensure that developments add to the area rather than detract from it.

Cllr Bloch comments:

“I am delighted that once again inappropriate development plans have been rejected. There is a need for more affordable housing in London, and this development failed to address this. It is also essential that new developments do not detract from the surroundings. That too was a factor for residents in this application. We place a premium on open space in the borough and will continue to work with local residents and Lynne Featherstone MP to ensure that developments that are to the detriment of the area continue to be opposed.”

Commenting on the latest reports over the departure of Haringey Council’s Chief Executive David Warwick, Lib Dem Leader Neil Williams said:

“These issues raise huge concerns. I have asked Haringey Council to release all the documentation in relation to the funding bid from Haringey Business Development Agency (HBDA), including any concerns expressed by officers over whether this substantial grant of funding is in the best interests of Haringey Council taxpayers.”

Local MP Lynne Featherstone adds:

“The Labour Leader’s term of office has brought the ruling Labour group to a state of total meltdown in just a year – and now we have a council without a Chief Executive as well. What potential chief executive is gong to want to work for Haringey Labour when they are in such a total shambles? It is hugely damaging.”

For further information on the controversy over the Chief Executive’ departure and the HBDA grant, see the Ham and High.

Lib Dem councillor for Crouch End David Winskill has met with Haringey Council officers to arrange better signs for the Hornsey Library car park, near Crouch End’s busy shopping centre.

Cllr Winskill says the facility, in Haringey Park, is already available free of charge to Saturday shoppers, but is currently greatly underused.

Cllr Winskill, who is keen to ensure the full use of existing facilities in the area, has asked officers to get the libraries facility staff to keep an hourly record of Saturday usage of the library car park over the next month. He says that from his own research on the fifty space car park it is never more than 70% full even at peak shopping times.

Cllr Winskill comments:

“Parking in Crouch End is very badly sign-posted. It makes a great deal of sense to ensure available parking spaces in the area are fully utilised. We will be asking the Council to look at ways in which the Town Hall car park could be better used at the weekends, but for now, we need to make sure there is good take up of existing places at the underused library car park just next door.”