In the tightly fought battle for the Hornsey and Wood Green constituency, the Liberal Democrats have received the support of prominent writer and film maker Tariq Ali, who says he will be backing the party in the forthcoming General Election. Mr Ali, who lives in the constituency, is a long-time critic of the Government over the war in Iraq.

The move will come as a blow to the local Labour party as it battles to hold on to the seat. Writing in the Guardian on Saturday, Mr Ali says:

“Those who opposed the war must think carefully before they cast their votes. Abstention is not a serious option. The aim should be to return an anti-war majority to the House of Commons. This requires tactical/intelligent voting in every constituency.”

He is also highly critical of the local Labour MP’s record:

“In the warmonger constituencies we should vote tactically. In my north London constituency, the MP is Barbara Roche: pro-war and pro everything else this wretched government has done. I don’t simply want to vote against her. I want her to be defeated. That is why I will vote Liberal Democrat.”

Local Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson Lynne Featherstone comments:

“This is yet another sign that more and more people are moving towards the Liberal Democrats in this election. With many websites urging people to defeat pro-war Labour candidates such as our sitting Labour MP, this is a welcome boost from a very prominent campaigner.”

Lib Dem councillor Lynne Featherstone has secured a commitment for extra street sweeping in Hillfield Avenue, Hornsey, following complaints from local residents.

Local residents had complained that the street, which joins Hornsey High Street, suffered from litter blowing down the road which was not cleared often enough. The Council has now agreed to increase the schedule for sweeping the first 30 metres of the road in an effort to address the problem. This will now be done twice daily on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, with a daily sweeping on the weekends.This regime should commence from the beginning of April.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“I am pleased that action is being taken, as roads adjoining busy High Streets in Haringey often have inadequate sweeping. Once a week is not enough in these locations, and the Council should keep this under review. Giving the first part of the road the same sweeping times as Hornsey High Street should improve the situation in the coming weeks.”

Lib Dem GLA member and chair of the Greater London Authority’s Transport Committee, Lynne Featherstone, is calling on London Buses to look at providing a direct bus link between the centres of Highgate and Crouch End. Ms Featherstone says that the lack of a direct bus link between the two centres is a constant issue in her mailbag and has launched a local campaign to get London Buses to consider the issue.

Ms Featherstone says that such a service would fill in a significant ‘missing link’ in the local bus network. Many local people have mentioned their wish to see a direct bus service.The W5 service from Crouch End only takes passengers half way up the hill to Highgate before it heads for Archway.Similarly, taking the 210 from Highgate leaves you the other side of the hill from Crouch End.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“I have written to the Head of Surface Transport at London Buses asking for this issue to be properly considered when local bus services are reviewed. This is a vital missing link in Haringey and I hope they will now respond.”

You can download a petition sheet to sign and collect more signatures (pdf format).

Liberal Democrats have sharply criticised Haringey Labour for blocking a debate on mobile phone masts at last night’s full council. The move caused disappointment to local residents addressing the council last night on the issue and goes against recent practice in the council.

Liberal Democrats had asked that Haringey Council consider the issue along with the two deputations by local residents, so that the groups could hear the debate as has happened over recent issues such as skateboarding and the future of Red Gables family centre in Crouch End. However this was not allowed.

The motion proposed by Lib Dem councillor and Parliamentary spokesperson for Tottenham, Wayne Hoban, would have sent a message to the government that Haringey Council was unhappy with present law in relation to masts. Current law does not allow local councils to bring mobile phone masts under strict planning control or to introduce the ‘precautionary principle’, giving extra safeguards for schools, homes, and medical facilities from the risk of excessive radiation. The move backs a Lib Dem bill, with all-party support, currently moving through Parliament.

Cllr Wayne Hoban comments:

“It is very disappointing to see Labour break with their own conventions to stop the Council taking a view on the issue. Local residents had expected to take a stand and this was cynically blocked. There is real concern over the placing of mobile masts in the borough and pressure needs to be put on the Government to give planning authorities more powers. Local residents will now know that Haringey Labour is simply not willing to put pressure on the government over this issue. We will continue to press for action.”

There was further controversy over the future of the Red Gables family centre at last night’s Full Council meeting, when the Labour Lead Member seeking to shut down the much-valued centre refused to answer a question from Lib Dem councillor Ron Aitken on how many local families used the service.

The Lib Dem question from Councillor Ron Aitken was in response to Labour claims that the centre is essentially a borough-wide facility that serves families from across the borough, many of whom have to travel considerable distances to get to it.

Cllr Aitken last night asked what proportion of the users were in fact from the local area – but was told the figures were not available.

Ron Aitken comments:

“Local users and campaigners value Red Gables as a local centre. The refusal to reveal how many of the users of the service are local will cause suspicions that this information is being withheld.

“Haringey does not want to admit that Red Gables is a vital resource for the local community in Crouch End. If their policy to shut the centre really is based around it being a borough-wide facility, why can’t they come clean about where the current users come from?”

Liberal Democrats are calling on Haringey Council to conduct and publish a full and proper assessment of the destination and environmental impacts of household items collected for recycling in the borough, following growing national concerns that such waste is being illegally exported.

The call, by Lib Dem councillor and Environment Spokesperson Bob Hare, follows the issue of a letter from the Department of the Environment (DEFRA) to all local waste authorities earlier this month. The letter expresses serious concerns about the issue and instructs waste authorities to check that no waste from their area is being exported illegally to countries outside Europe.

Lib Dems have received expressions of concern from residents in recent weeks about the Council’s new recycling service, where paper, card, glass and plastics are collected together and then mixed and crushed in new collection wagons. Lib Dems fear this may be a step back from previous collection regimes or collection at recycling centres, where waste is typically sorted out into separate streams.

Cllr Hare says that clear and detailed answers areneeded on what happens to this mixed crushed waste and what proportion of it cannot be separated and recycled.

Specifically, Cllr Hare fears that glass collected under the new system cannot be turned back into bottles and is typically used as road aggregate. Clothes, full of glass particles, cannot be sent to charity shops, where they would have had a much higher value. Bob Hare is concerned that paper and card collected under the mixing process in Haringey is already being exported to China. This was first denied and then appeared to be accepted by the Labour Lead Member for the Environment when the issue was raised at last week’s Muswell Hill neighbourhood assembly meeting.Cllr Ray Dodds also admitted that residents wishing to see their clothes reused would be better taking them to places such as Oxfam shops rather than using the new system.

Cllr Bob Hare comments:

“This DEFRA letter is very worrying, given the seriousness of the concerns it expresses. It is vitally important that Haringey conducts a full audit of how this new stream of mixed recyclables is handled. Haringey is very much in the front line on this, as it has rushed headlong into this system in order to boost its very poor recycling figures.”

Cllr Hare has admitted that until the fate of these recyclables become clearer, he is continuing to take his own recyclables to more traditional centres where glass, paper and cans are separated.

Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson, Cllr Lynne Featherstone, who has been corresponding with many local residents on the issue, adds:

“We need to know precisely what happens to these waste streams, how much of this waste can’t be separated at all, and what happens to it. It would be extremely disturbing, if, in the rush to meet targets, any local councils were engaging in ineffective recycling, or indeed, even breaking the law.”

A Highgate councillor has expressed his disappointment and dismay at works on one of the area’s Neighbourhood Assembly projects this year, and has questioned the £5,000 price tag put on the project.

Cllr Bob Hare says the fence Haringey Council has put around the Peace Park on the Archway Road looks ridiculous and that the Council has failed to respond to his attempts to provide input on the project.

Cllr Hare spent considerable time trying to set up a meeting between local people and the Council on the issue, which he says was largely ignored by the Council. While the project was meant to enhance the whole site, the final result has produced an odd and pointless fence around the green space, with a mixture of thick and thin posts and caps which extend oddly above the fence. However, the part of the fencing that was arguably most needed, along Muswell Hill Road, has not even been completed.

Cllr Bob Hare (Highgate) comments:

“Haringey Council has handled this project very badly. I am staggered, as are local residents, that these works can have cost £5000 according to the figures we’ve been given. I will be pursuing this with the Council to see if we can get a better result.

“It seems that in the rush to get these projects completed, the Council has carried out a half-hearted and very poor value job.”

Highgate councillors and Lib Dem London Assembly member Lynne Featherstone has welcomed the agreement by Tubelines to erect scaffolding with tarpaulins at the site of the controversial proposed Northern Line Tube control centre next to Highgate Wood.

The move follows pressure from local councillors and residents, so that they can see the visual impact of the new building on the sensitive site.

Lynne Featherstone and Bob Hare are continuing to press Tubelines to achieve a lowering of the building and other environmental mitigation which will reduce its visual impact. They say that the erection of the scaffolding will give residents a real feel for the impact of the scheme.

Cllr Bob Hare comments:

“I am pleased that Tubelines have agreed to this, as it is a very useful way of assessing the impact of a new building on such a sensitive site. It will make the scale of it visible to local people and I hope they will listen to the response of local residents.”

Lynne Featherstone adds:

“We will be looking closely at the impact of the scheme. There is certainly a need for the building to be lowered, and I think that the erection of scaffolding will inform the debate about this. It is a very sensitive site on the edge of the woods, not just because of its visible impact for nearby residents, but because of the existing wildlife in the area, which is largely undisturbed at present.”

Lib Dem councillors have expressed their disappointment that Haringey Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee has thrown out attempts to force the Labour-run council to conduct a sustainability audit of the borough’s proposed Unitary Development Plan (UDP).

The move is a disappointment to both the Lib Dems and the Federation of Haringey Residents’ Associations, who were represented by Dave Morris at the call-in hearing held last week.

As a compromise, Lib Dem environment spokesperson Cllr Bob Hare had suggested that the Council could conduct a headline sustainability audit of key issues rather than a full assessment – but this was also rejected.

Bob Hare comments:

“This is very disappointing, as the audit would have been of enormous use to local groups in assessing the impact of council policies, and could have been done in time. It would have been very much in the long term interests of us all.”

Lib Dem councillor and group leader Neil Williams is also questioning the behaviour of Labour councillors before the meeting, who appeared to be receiving a briefing on the issue from council officers and other Labour councillors – to which Lib Dem members were not invited. Cllr Williams comments:

“Labour’s behaviour is very disappointing and it shows there is no intention at all to allow proper scrutiny of council decisions. Scrutiny members should approach these issues in an independent manner. I will be asking for the notes of this meeting and why other councillors were not invited. It is an inappropriate use of officers’ time and council taxpayers’ money.”

Liberal Democrats expressed satisfaction and delight last night as Labour-run Haringey Council conducted an astonishing u-turn. The Council bowed to the party’s long-running campaign to scrap controversial charges for the collection of bulky rubbish, such as old fridges and freezers. The move came in an announcement last night at the Muswell Hill area assembly and follows a long campaign by local Lib Dem councillors on the issue.

The Council has announced that from April it will begin a scheme for the removal, free of charge, of items such as fridges from people’s homes. Until now, Labour has consistently refused to change its policy of a £15 charge on the issue, despite Lib Dem petitions signed by local residents and presented to the Council. The Lib Dems also made the issue a key feature of the three by-election campaigns in Stroud Green, Muswell Hill and Fortis Greenlast year (see photo)all won by the party with landslide victories over Labour.

Lib Dems have maintained that because of the present charges, large items such as old fridges and other large waste litter the borough’s streets. Lib Dem Parliamentary spokesperson Lynne Featherstone – who spear-headed the campaign – has labelled the policy a false economy, as it results in the unscrupulous dumping of these large items – with Haringey having to foot the bill anyway as they have to clear up the mess. The Labour-run council has admitted to Lib Dem councillors that demand for collections of bulky rubbish has declined by almost three quarters since the introduction of the unpopular charges.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“I am absolutely delighted at this climb-down by the Council.Haringey has finally admitted that the policy of charging has not worked and has led to much more dumping in the borough.

“We will be looking at the details of the reintroduced scheme, but it is certainly victory for the Liberal Democrats and local people who have supported the campaign. I am delighted that the Council has finally admitted the failure of its policy.”