Local Liberal Democrat councillors Matt Davies and Lynne Featherstone are calling for action on a flyposting eyesore in Muswell Hill.

The disused orange phone kiosk on Fortis Green Road (near the Odeon Cinema) is a target for flyposters and an unwelcome blot on the area. With no-one willing to take responsibility for the kiosk, it is the perfect place for unwanted advertising and posters.

Islington Council has taken steps to smarten up similar boxes in their borough by covering the boxes with a wooden trellis and placing growing plants around them, as well as installing flower boxes around the base. The local Lib Dems in Muswell Hill have asked Haringey to consider taking the same innovative approach.

“We have asked Haringey Council to remove the latest flyposting which has been there for weeks,” explains Cllr Davies (Lib Dem, Fortis Green). “It is sad that Muswell Hill is being spoilt by this eyesore. I am aware that there are complications with the company who owns this phone box, but I am urging Haringey Council to do all it can to either bring the box back into use or remove it completely.”

Cllr Lynne Featherstone (Lib Dem, Muswell Hill) adds: “In the meantime, we would like to see if Haringey can take a novel approach to the problem and turn it into an opportunity. Whatever the long-term future of this box, Haringey Council must ensure that illegal flyposting is not tolerated.”

Mystery surrounds the disappearance of a Royal Mail letterbox in Highgate, with local councillors urging the company to take action to find it.

Concerned residents living near the Archway Road alerted Highgate’s Lib Dem councillors last week of the removal of the letterbox outside the former Archway Road post office – controversially closed last year as part of the Post Office’s closure programme in the area. Residents had complained at the removal, saying that the nearest alternative letterbox, on Langdon Park Road N6, has a slot that is large enough to take only the smallest packages.

However, the Royal Mail has told the Lib Dems that it did not authorise the removal of the box, and its disappearance is a mystery. The company has been in touch with the contractors currently working on the major gas mains project in the Archway Road to see if they were responsible for taking it away – a move that the Mail says it did not authorise.

Neil Williams, Lib Dem Leader and Highgate Councillor, comments:

“I am pleased that the Royal Mail has moved swiftly to investigate the disappearance of one of our local letterboxes, as it must be put back in place immediately. I don’t remember a case of a red box having gone walkabout before. It is bad enough that local resident have lost the post office on the Archway Road, so I will be watching to ensure it is back in place as soon as possible.”

Stroud Green councillor Laura Edge has sharply criticised Haringey Council for once again allowing a council-owned property in her ward to become occupied by squatters. The move follows criticism from Councillor Edge in June about the failure of Haringey Council to recover a number of squatted properties in Perth Road N4.

Haringey had allowed one of two social housing properties in Perth Road to become occupied once again, shortly after they had finally evicted a previous set of squatters from the other property. The properties had become empty and were boarded up in late July, but Councillor Edge says this must have been inadequately done, because a new set of squatters moved into one of the properties again last week.

Cllr Laura Edge comments:

“It is extremely frustrating, as this means we are back to square one in trying to sort out this problem. Squatters will always take advantage of empty buildings if Haringey Council does not move to secure them properly, repair them, and ensure that they are swiftly occupied. Given the demand for social housing in the borough, this is unacceptable and is also a blight for nearby residents.”

Local Lib Dems have expressed their extreme disappointment that London Buses will not be expanding the trial service of the popular Muswell Hill to Swiss Cottage bus service following a review of the service released to Lib Dems and key campaigners at a meeting on Wednesday.The trial route has been running since January and the review was set up to consider its operation and to look at a full service, thus far refused by Labour Mayor Ken Livingstone.

While the Lib Dems have expressed relief that the existing service, which runs in the early morning and was secured following their campaigning earlier this year, will be continued, there is to be no expansion to the fifteen minute, all-day service that local campaigners had been pressing for.

In its report on the trial service, London Buses states that: “There is no evidence from the outcome of the current trial which would point to a change in the original conclusion. The gross annual cost of operating such a route is currently estimated to be £1,500,000. This is based on existing scheduled running times and thus a peak vehicle requirement of seven buses (consistent with the original evaluation). Revenue from passenger fares is estimated to be £270,000, leaving a net deficit of over £1 million each year.”

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“I’m very disappointed that after such a successful trial, the route is not be expanded at this stage – but we will continue to fight for it, as the trial service has shown that it is sorely needed. I believe that an all dayservice would result in a whole new group of passengers using the route – the only way to establish this is to give it a trial, and that is what we will pressing for.”

Lib Dem Group Leader Neil Cllr Neil Williams, who represents Highgate and sits on the TfL steering group dealing with the bus, adds:

“After a successful trial, this is not the right outcome. The morning service has been a success, and local groups in Highgate, especially the Highgate Society, have put in an immense amount of hard work on the details of the route. A trial of an all-day service is the only logical way to assess overall demand.”

Haringey Lib Dems have expressed serious concerns about plans by developers to erect large buildings on a site in the Campsbourne, Hornsey, which would have a terrible impact on local residents.

Builders are planning to erect nine new business and residential units on a small site at the end of The Campsbourne cul-de-sac, off Hornsey High Road. The buildings would rise immediately behind the residential blocks in nearby Pembroke Road. Current plans allow for three-storey buildings with a 13 metre high brick wall (the rear wall of the proposed buildings) to be erected within 27 feet of the windows in the rear walls of the Pembroke Road residential properties and sited immediately in line with the bottom of the gardens of Rectory Gardens.

Lib Dems says that planning permission should never have been granted for the buildings. If the works are carried out, local tenants and residents would only have the view from their windows of a very high blank wall, depriving them of direct air flow and light. Such large buildings would also overshadow other nearby properties on Rectory Gardens, The Campsbourne, and Campsbourne Road.

Lib Dem Leader Cllr Neil Williams, who has written to all residents in the area about the scheme,comments: “We are looking at ways in which this terrible decision by the planning authority can be challenged.There is no way that such a large building should have been allowed near these homes.It will seriously effect the lives of a lot of residents in the area, and should not go ahead. I have asked Haringey to explain the terrible decision in 2001 that allowed for this development.”

Haringey Council have finally agreed to answer the serious questions being posed by the borough’s Liberal Democrats about the Alexandra Palace accounts.

The move came at last week’s General Purposes Committee, where Lib Dem councillors Matt Davies (Fortis Green) and Jonathan Bloch (Muswell Hill) challenged Haringey Council on the issue.

The Lib Dems have twice asked Haringey Council to answer the detailed series of questions in recent months, but the Council has wriggled, saying the questions were not for them. At this week’s meeting, Haringey has now finally agreed to answer the Lib Dem questions, with the Director of Finance agreeing that he has overall responsibility for the accuracy of the Alexandra Palace accounts.

Local Lib Dems say that Ally Pally’s accounts appear to present a worse picture for the Palace than is actually the case, and serve to obscure the profits and losses from concessions such as catering or the Phoenix pub.

These factors inevitably lead to more pressure for an effective sale of the building. Even Labour councillors raised concerns at the meeting, with one suggesting that they presented the Council as paying interest on what are only hypothetical debts.

Cllr Jonathan Bloch (Muswell Hill) comments:

“I am pleased that Haringey Council has now agreed to answer these serious questions, but they have waited far too long to do so. We can’t have these issues left obscured any longer.”

Muswell Hill councillor Gail Engert has requested that Haringey Council urgently restore and replant gardens in a couple of estates in the N10 area following complaints from residents that plants and shrubbery had been crudely and drastically pruned.

The calls come after a visit by Cllr Engert to Valette and Winkley Courts, off St James’ Lane, with officers and residents last month.

Local residents, supported by Cllr Engert, expressed their concerns at the ‘excessive pruning’ and clearing of flowerbeds and shrubbery by Haringey Council. In response the Council agreed to look into ways of resolving the problem.

However when Cllr Engert made a follow up visit to the sites, she found there to be no improvement. She has now contacted Haringey Council to seek assurances that action will be taken soon to restore and improve the beds.

Cllr Engert (Muswell Hill) comments:

“The visit that I made with Haringey Council to these sites was highly productive and many of the other issues that were raised by residents are now being addressed. However I am a little concerned the flowerbeds issue may have been pushed to one side.

“Having spoken to some of the residents on my visit, I know how important the greenery around the courts is to them. The Council need to make sure that they review their ‘slash and burn’ methods for pruning and reinstate attractive planting in the flowerbeds.”

Liberal Democrats in Haringey have reacted with disbelief to information that indicates that the Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust is to open a new mental health day hospital, but not in Haringey where two day hospitals were closed just a year ago.

The documents presented to the Trust board on the 12th July containing a business case for improvements at Barnet Hospital appear to show that the Trust will be opening a mental health day hospital and associated facilities as part of an extensive investment in mental health services. However following the closure of the Canning Crescent and Kate Marsden hospitals in Haringey, the Lib Dems are disappointed that the new hospital is not being built in the borough.

The Lib Dems have campaigned for over a year to save the two hospitals through tabling Parliamentary questions and forcing council votes on the issue. However,throughout that period, Labour-run Haringey Council has rejected the pleas of service users and local Lib Dems to keep the hospitals open.

Cllr Aitken (Crouch End) comments:

“No one wants to deprive people in Barnet of a good service, however the needs of people with mental health problems in Haringey have not been taken into account with the closure of the Canning Crescent and Kate Marsden Day Hospitals last year.

“What is striking about the detailed proposals in the business case for Barnet is the complete contrast to the cavalier attitude of Haringey. Labour representatives in Haringey have failed to stand up for our NHS services.

“We have repeatedly said that these closures were foolish and it is time the Mental Health Trust admitted they made a mistake and restored day hospital facilities in Haringey.”

Urgent action is needed to restore the greens on Fortis Green (N10) before an accident happens, say local Liberal Democrats.

The two greens, near the parade of shops on Fortis Green at the end of Midhurst Avenue, are in a very poor condition. In addition to the visual impact of this, the state of the paths running through them is potentially hazardous. While some improvements were made last year following requests from local Councillor Matt Davies (Lib Dem, Fortis Green), restoration to an acceptable standard has still not happened.

“I first raised the state of these greens with Haringey Council over a year ago,” says Cllr Davies. “Some work was done in the area but the paths remained in a poor state. They have raised and cracked paving stones and the worry is that residents could fall and injure themselves. Money spent now on getting this problem sorted could save much more money – and distress – in the future.”

“I expected the paths to be replaced fully when improvements were agreed,” explains Cllr Davies. “When local residents told me this had not happened I asked Haringey Council to look at this again, but three months later and there does not appear to be any progress. These paths need to be laid again properly and maintenance of the greens needs to be tightened up to prevent them ending up in this condition again.

“Maintenance of the area in general appears to be inconsistent, with residents also having raised complaints about litter on the greens. On one occasion a dead bird was left on the greens for several weeks.”

Local Liberal Democrats have stepped up their efforts to stop a controversial planing application for a concrete batching plant on the Cranford Way Industrial Estate in Hornsey.

Cllr Laura Edge (Stroud Green ward), has set out in detail her objections, and has also welcomed the decision to hold a further ‘planning control’ forum in September to hear residents’ concerns about the issue.

In a letter of objection to Haringey Council over the proposals, Cllr Edge says that the plant would disrupt the lives of local residents. She says that while some materials will be brought to the plant by train, the concrete itself will be transported to surrounding building sites on local roads.

London Concrete has stated in its application that this would result in an estimated 56 additional lorry movements each day. Roads that access the site, such as Church Lane and Tottenham Lane, are residential and are already heavily congested, say the Lib Dems. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that the number of lorries entering and leaving the site will not grow in time.

The Lib Dems says the nature of the industrial estate would be fundamentally altered, as at present only light industries, such as warehousing and distribution, occupy the site, and the arrival of such a heavy industry on the site would only encourage further applications.

The Lib Dems have a further major concern – the potential that dust will be emitted from the site. Cllr Edge is concerned that local kids with asthma could face a plume of dust from the site that could make their condition worse. The site is just a few hundred yards away from the playground and basketball court in Chettle Court and in a densely populated area with several schools and a very high proportion of young children.

Cllr Laura Edge comments:

“I believe that the proposed site is in no way suitable for a cement batching plant. There must be other locations nearer transport hubs and further away from a densely populated residential area.”

Cllr David Winskill, Lib Dem Planning Spokesperson, adds:

“Haringey Council should reject this application. The local community is united in opposition to these plans and their concerns are real. We will continue to pursue this issue at the next planning forum and until these plans are stopped.”