Liberal Democrat Environment Spokesperson Bob Hare has called on the Councilto address the lighting problem on the Muswell Hill section of the ParklandWalk, N10.

The tunnel that runs under Muswell Hill currently has six of itseight lights out of action. This makes the tunnel very gloomy, even duringthe daytime. Cllr Hare has written to Haringey Council requesting that theyinvestigate the issue and take immediate action.

Cllr Hare says that Haringey Council should increase its efforts in maintainingParkland Walk including removal of graffiti and litter, and regular lightingmaintenance to ensure that the walk, enjoyed by thousands, is welcoming andfeels safe.

Cllr Hare comments:

“I am requesting that Haringey Council takes immediate action to repair thelighting and clean up the Parkland Walk. It is a wonderful resource forHaringey to have and I am keen to ensure that the Council does not neglectit.

“People need good illumination to feel safe. When most of the lights in atunnel are not working, and when there is graffiti on the walls, the placestarts looking derelict. This is why I am requesting immediate action to getthe lights working and to have graffiti painted over as soon as possible.”

Lib Dem councillor and newly re-elected member of the Greater London Authority, Lynne Featherstone, has been re-elected as chair of London’s key transport committee following the recent GLA elections. Ms Featherstone, who was chair during the authority’s first term, is delighted to have been returned to the key post yet again. She has promised that the vital ‘watchdog’ will continue to press for transport improvements across the capital.

Ms Featherstone is an experienced transport campaigner, and has long campaigned for a full service on the Muswell Hill to Swiss Cottage bus route. She has also won praise in the past for the committee’s work on congestion charging.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“I am delighted to be chairing the transport committee again. There is a huge amount of work to do to improve transport across London, and to hold Mayor Ken to account for the important decisions he takes. I am looking forward to this new term as chair.”

Ms Featherstone has also retained her position on the Metropolitan Police Authority, the body which oversees the work of the Met. She has also been elected, for the first time, to sit on the London Board of the Commission for Racial Equality.

Lib Dem councillor Lynne Featherstone has expressed concern over the removal of ‘collection discs’ from local post boxes – and is seeking assurances from Royal Mail that this will not result in fewer collections in the area.

The issue arose when a local resident raised the issue of the discs’ removal from local post boxes. The discs are used to indicate that a scheduled collection has taken place. Without the discs, Ms Featherstone fears that the Royal Mail could dilute the collection service without residents noticing. She has pledged to monitor the situation to ensure that this is not happening.

The Royal Mail has responded to her concerns by saying that they have no plans at present to replace the discs with anything similar in the future – and that customers can ensure the collection of their mail by posting before the last collection of the day.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“I have serious concerns about this innovation by the Royal Mail. The old numbered discs allowed people posting letters to know about the collections and what time they were being made. This new system could give rise to abuse, in that if collections are not made throughout the day, there will be no way of telling.

“Delays in mail are bad enough as it is. I have therefore asked the Royal Mail for collection times from each post box in the N6 area, so that we can monitor that the promised collections match up to the reality.”

Lib Dem councillor Lynne Featherstone has continued her campaign to clean up Haringey’s scruffy railway stations by successfully pressing for a major clean up of Harringay Station.

Local residents were delighted to see waste contractors leaving the station site with a skip full of litter gathered from in and around the area. The action follows months of effort byMs Featherstone who has successfully campaigned hard for the last year to improve four of the main stations in the borough – Harringay, Alexandra Palace, Bowes Park and Hornsey.

Cllr Featherstone is pleased with the steady progress that is being made with the improvements. However she has vowed to continue to press rail companies to bring the stations in the area to an acceptable standard.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“I am pleased that litter has been removed from Harringay Station. Both myself and my fellow councillor Laura Edge (Stroud Green ward) had received many complaints about the litter in and around the station.

“However, it is an ongoing problem and we will continue to work hard to ensure that this and other stations in the borough continue to improve and become more pleasant places for those who live near and use them.”

• Lib Dem Lynne Featherstone is first London-wide member elected
• Second highest rise in London for Lib Dem Wayne Hoban
• In Euro-Poll, Haringey Lib Dems second, as vote more than doubles

Haringey’s Liberal Democrats have been celebrating their huge progress in the London and European elections this weekend.

Lib Dem GLA member Lynne Featherstone was first across the capital to be elected as a London-wide member on Friday. In the poll for the Enfield and Haringey constituency, local councillor and Lib Dem Deputy Leader Wayne Hoban was the only major party candidate to increase his share of the vote, securing the second highest rise for the Lib Dems in London.

The Lib Dem vote was also up substantially up in the ‘London-wide’ part of the election, where local Lynne Featherstone heads up their party’s list of candidates.

In the European election, the only election where figures relating solely to Haringey have been published, support for the Lib Dems more than doubled as the party confirmed its position as the main challengers to Labour in the area.

The Lib Dems finished ahead of the Conservatives across Haringey, whose attempts to challenge Labour once again fizzled out.

Newly re-elected GLA member Lynne Featherstone comments:

“I would like to thank everyone locally who came out to vote for the Lib Dem team. These have been further significant advances for the party, which augur well for the General Election, particularly in the Hornsey and Wood Green seat.

“In more doubling our vote in Haringey, local people have sent Labour the clearest possible message that they are dissatisfied with their performance at every level of government. The Iraq issue in particular has been a big factor in this election.”

Liberal Democrat councillors and stakeholders will meet this week (Monday 14th June) to discuss Highgate tube station issues in follow up March’s successful meeting. The discussion group, made up of representatives of London Underground, TfL, Tube Lines, ward councillors and residents, will discuss proposals on a number of issues including the fencing and replanting of the bank on Archway Road.

Residents had been unhappy with proposals to install a barbed wire fencing on Archway Road. In response Tube Lines have produced three viable alternatives to the original proposals, some of which will also reduce noise from the Archway Road.

Additionally, the group is to agree on replanting for the bank on Archway Road to replace the trees and shrubbery that was removed last year by contractors working on the site. This will largely be made up of laurel bushes and ten small trees, with planting taking place between November 2004 to March 2005 – although some reseeding will take place over the summer.

Lib Dem councillor and Chair of the GLA’s transport committee Lynne Featherstone is pleased with the progress made at the last meeting and is hopeful that a number of other issues will be resolved this week.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“I am delighted that the last meeting has been productive. Groups have gone away from the meetings and found viable solutions to the problems. I am confident that this group will produced more constructive solutions that will help resolve the problems. We also need to make progress on resolving the crash barrier issue.”

Lib Dem Lynne Featherstone has had her popular website shortlisted for the prestigious New Statesman Media Awards 2004. The Muswell Hill councillor, GLA member and Lib Dem PPC for Hornsey and Wood Green joins eight other UK politicians in the shortlist, six of which are MPs, in the ‘Best Elected Representative website’ category.

The awards, which will be presented in central London in July, are in their sixth year. The key themes this time are “innovation and efficiency” with the New Statesman saying they intend to award those who have really achieved something good for society.The news follows on from Lynne Featherstone’s blog (web diary) being awarded a runners-up prize in the Guardian newspaper’s prestigious awards.

Cllr Featherstone is pleased with the nomination that she says reflects the importance the Lib Dems give to communicating with local residents.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“I am delighted that the website has been nominated for this award. It is a tribute to local members and councillors who work hard ensuring it is kept up to date. The sharing of information and letting the electorate know what we are doing in the borough is something that we take seriously and I am glad that our website has been recognised as an invaluable source of information by local residents.”

Lib Dem councillors are encouraging residents living in the Dukes Avenue area to get involved in the new traffic consultation proposed by a Council sponsored focus group. The documents have been distributed over the weekend and offer two different proposals for calming.

The group, made up of officers, councillors and resident representatives has for the past two years been working hard on the proposals to spend £100,000 that has been assured by TfL following persistent pressure from Lib Dem GLA member, Lynne Featherstone. It is hoped that this will go some way to solve the traffic problems that have seen this area suffer from both excessively high volumes and speeds from through traffic.

Lib Dem traffic spokesperson Susan Oatway is delighted that the consultation has finally arrived and is keen for residents to get involved in the consultation:.

“I am delighted that the group has worked so constructively and the residents groups involved should be praised. I hope now that residents will now take this opportunity and get involved in the consultation.”

An exhibition of the two options for road calming will be held at Alexandra Park School, 14th June from 6-9pm.

Lib Dem Councillor Laura Edge (Stroud Green) is calling for Haringey Council to take urgent action over a local garage in Stroud Green which residents say has regularly been dumping broken down cars on Upper Tollington Park, N4.

The residents in the road, which lies within the Finsbury Park CPZ, contacted Cllr Edge after failing to get satisfactory action from the Haringey Council on the issue. The Council has attended the site and removed some vehicles on a number of occasions butresidents claim that as soon as the Haringey Council leaves the cars are back on the street.

The Haringey Council has claimed that it is devising a ‘multi-agency’ approach to tackle the problem but Cllr Edge is concerned at the length of time this is taking. She wrote to the Council at the beginning of March but to date has not seen any details of any proposed strategy to resolve this problem.

“The Haringey Council must take tough action to prevent these persistent abuses which are blighting the lives of residents in Upper Tollington Park.So far, they have been to slow to address the problem,” says Laura Edge.

Liberal Democrat councillor Lynne Featherstone has successfully lobbied for the inclusion of bank holiday waste collection arrangements on Haringey Council’s website. The assurance made this week by the Council follows months of pressure from the Lib Dems who have pressed Haringey Council to take action.

The Lib Dems recent residents’ survey highlighted the problem with many dissatisfied residents complaining that the Council did not make them aware of alterations to the usual collection.

Cllr Featherstone has welcomed the assurance that the Council is currently in the process of updating its website to include bank holiday waste collection information. However she is concerned that a relatively simple exercise has taken so long to implement:

“It is very irritating for residents to put out rubbish or recycling to find it is not collected on the usual day. I am therefore pleased that Haringey Council is finally addressing this problem. I hope that it will greatly reduce the inconvenience to residents caused by lack of information currently available.

“However, I am concerned that it has taken months for the Council to take any action to inform residents about alterations to services and that simply is not acceptable.”