As Haringey’s graffiti initiative rolls through the west of the borough, local councillor David Winskill has been working with residents to identify graffiti hotspots that the Council needs to tackle. He has submitted a list of sites for cleansing in the west of the Crouch End area.

Councillor Winskill has already passed information on to the Council and says he wants as many residents as possible to report graffiti on the new council hotline on 0845 073 1979 to ensure that the problem is tackled as fully as possible.

Lib Dem councillor David Winskill comments:

“Graffiti is an issue we have campaigned long and hard on. I am pleased that at last Haringey is putting an effort into this most basic civic housekeeping chore.

“It’s therefore crucial that local residents use the new freephone number to give the council the information to clamp down on graffiti in the area.”

A Highgate Lib Dem councillor is calling for action from Haringey Council after their failure to meet requests for more litterbins in the N6 area. Cllr Neil Williams says he has repeatedly asked the Labour run council to introduce more litter bins in Highgate – and to reinstate bins that have vanished and not been replaced – but the Council has not acted, and are overdue on a promise to consult on new bin locations in the Highgate and Archway areas.

Cllr Williams wants bins missing for months replaced in North Hill, near a primary school, and off Archway Road, near the Magistrates Court, as well as a host of bins in new sites. At the recent ‘Graffiti Summit’, Haringey Council agreed to consult on the location of new bins for Highgate in time for the graffiti clear up now beginning in the west of the borough – but nothing has yet happened.

Cllr Neil Williams comments:

“I know from my postbag that residents in Highgate are fed up waiting for the Council to take some action on replacing bins and installing some new ones in and around Highgate. This has long been promised by Haringey Council, and a number of locations have already been suggested.

“At first, I was told that bins were ‘out of stock’, but then Muswell Hill has had a series of new bins installed. Many Highgate residents ask me for bins in particular locations, which would contribute to a better environment in Highgate.It’s time Highgate received some action from the Council, as residents have waited long enough.”

Liberal Democrat councillors have expressed deep concern over the length of time families are staying in emergency accommodation in the borough. The figures have been revealed in the Council’s Best Value Performance Plan 2003-2004. They show that families are staying in emergency homes almost twice as long as the Council’s target for 2002/03 with the average stay in bed and breakfast accommodation for a family being almost two years.

The statistics, which include families with dependent children, pregnant women, and unintentionally homeless, display the result of a severe shortage of ‘decent’ accommodation in the borough, with 58% of local authority homes viewed as non ‘decent’ at 1st April 2002.

Liberal Democrat housing spokesperson, David Beacham blames the failure of the Council and successive governments to replace council housing stock over the last 20 years for the housing crisis. Now he is calling for the Council to lobby hard to gain the extra funds needed to improve the housing stock and look at ways to rapidly reduce the time families are having to spend in bedsits and hostels.

Cllr Beacham (Alexandra) comments:

“Decades of neglect by both government and council have brought us to this situation. Tenants have slowly bought up good quality discounted housing stock over the last 20 years and it has not been replenished. The result in 2003 is that much of the accommodation is below the Government’s decent stock standard.

“It is totally unacceptable to have families living in bedsits for the length of time that some of them are. The Council needs to address this situation urgently and make the government aware of how bad the problem has become in Haringey.”

Lib Dem councillors from Muswell Hill, Fortis Green, Highgate and Crouch Endvisited the borough’s new Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) atMuswell Hill police station on Friday 15th August, to find out how they weresettling in three months after their introduction to the borough.

The officers were introduced to Haringey in April to provide a visiblepresence in and around the community as well as a vital link between localresidents and the police. It was an opportunity for both local councillorsand the officers themselves to find out more about their roles and discussways of establishing strong links on issues such as car crime, vandalism andanti-social behaviour.

Lib Dem crime and community spokesperson, Lynne Featherstone comments:

“It was very useful to meet our new PCSOs and find out more about what theyare doing in the borough. I know how much it means to local residents to seemore officers on the beat. We hope to work closely together following thismeeting.”

Lib Dem leader, Ross Laird adds:

“The PCSOs have made a very positive impact on the streets of Haringey. Wehope that we can work closely with them in the future and build on theservice that we both already provide the residents of Haringey.”

Liberal Democrat councillors have criticised the Labour run Council, afterit admitted this week that it sacrificed consultation with residents inorder to meet a London Recycling Fund target of 40 mini recycling ‘bringsites’ by this month. The mini sites springing up around the borough aremade up of five portable recycling units and have already upset manyresidents across the borough since their appearance, without warning, a fewweeks ago.

Lib Dem Environment spokesperson, Bob Hare is concerned that the Council isrunning the risk of damaging people’s good will towards recycling by itsfailure to consult even the local residents’ associations for the areas withthe new sites. He is disappointed that the Council again appear to haveignored the issue until it was too late, when the issue of findingappropriate sites could have been discussed at the local assemblies manymonths ago.

Instead, the Council seem to have belatedly realised there was a target tomeet, and have missed the opportunity to consult residents as to where wouldbe the best places to roll out these new units. As a result, Cllr Hare saysmany of the units may be greatly underused, while residents continue to feelthat decisions are being taken that affect their area but without theirinvolvement.

Cllr Hare (Highgate) comments:

“Getting better recycling is a big issue for residents, unfortunately, theCouncil has made it clear that ticking boxes is far more important to itthan a genuine and open interaction with residents to get sites that will bemost effective at improving recycling.

“Bring sites are an important part of the borough’s recycling programme, butwork best if residents are consulted and support the new schemes. Theresidents of Haringey deserve better, but they can help the Council improve.All the Council has to do is ask in good time.”

As pressure mounts on Mayor Ken Livingstone to intervene in the campaign for the Muswell Hill to Swiss Cottage bus route, local Lib Dem Councillors say there has been a huge response from Muswell Hill and Highgate residents, who have written in large numbers to Mayor Ken Livingstone to express their support for the route.

Haringey’s Lib Dems have been urging local residents to join in the effort to overturn Transport for London’s controversial rejection of the proposed new service. Over 150 local residents responded within just the first 48 hours of the Lib Dem call to say that they had written to Mayor Ken to urge him to overturn TfL’s controversial decision – and Lib Dems say the true figure must be even higher.

Lib Dem GLA member and Muswell Hill Councillor Lynne Featherstone says residents should continue to write to Mayor Livingstone to show their support for the route. As well as emailing mayor@london.gov.uk, they can write to Ken at City Hall, the Queen’s Walk, London SE1 2AA.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“We have had a huge response so far, and we now need as many people as possible to tell Ken Livingstone how vital this new route would be for Muswell Hill, Highgate and Hampstead. It will cut journey times and displace large numbers of vehicles on this route, with great environmental benefits. The more people who write, the more pressure Ken will be under to overturn TfL’s ludicrous decision.”

Lib Dem councillors are calling for the Council to put more effort into improving road safety in Haringey after two separate statistics showed Haringey to be failing in reducing pedestrian road casualties in the borough.

Figures published in the Council’s best value performance plan last month showed the council failed to meet its road safety target for both serious and minor injuries to pedestrians last year (see notes). Statistics were also released by the Council, following a question from the Lib Dems, which showed that despite efforts, the Council is failing to reduce pedestrian casualties amongst children.

Lib Dem leader Ross Laird says that there is a need for imagination to be used by the Council in its approach to the issue of road safety. In the past the Lib Dems have put forward proposals for more innovative ways to improve road safety and more recently have supported schemes that have involved local residents in initiatives to stop rat running around schools.

Cllr Laird comments:

“The figures are very worrying, pedestrian casualties are above the London average and since 1998 there seems to have been no improvement in casualties of pedestrians under 16. The Council needs to look at new approaches to dealing with this issue immediately.

“Rat running is a serious problem in the borough and we need to look beyond plonking speed humps in every road in Haringey. There are plenty of new innovations such as interactive speed signs that have had a positive affect in other parts of the country.

“If the Council is serious about dealing with this problem it must start looking beyond the borough for inspiration.”

A bus shelter that was demolished earlier this year on Bounds Green Road is set to be replaced in September by Transport for London after pressure from Haringey councillor and GLA member, Lynne Featherstone.

Cllr Featherstone was made aware of the problem by elderly residents in nearby flats who complained that since the demolition of the shelter they have had to endure wind and rain while waiting for the bus over the last few months.

However TfL claimed they were unable to replace the shelter because there was not one of a similar configuration available. However after pressure from Cllr Featherstone, TfL have placed an order for a new shelter and assured her that it will be installed by the end of September.

Cllr Featherstone comments:

“This is good news for local residents and I am pleased that there will now be a new shelter before winter sets in. It is much needed.”

Residents of Middle Lane, Crouch End, finally had their communal footpath repaired last week following months of pressure from residents and local Lib Dem councillor Lynne Featherstone.

The essential repairs to a dangerous and uneven footpath outside council and private houses from 78 to 82 Middle Lane had been scheduled for June. However the repairs were never carried out.

Cllr Featherstone is pleased that the work has now been done and says issues that compromise the safety of residents, especially of the elderly and disabled, should be handled with greater urgency. She feels that the issue also highlights the problem that council departments have in communicating effectively with one another and that this needs to be addressed immediately.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“I am pleased that the residents of Middle Lane have had their path repaired. Poor quality pavements and broken paving slabs are often overlooked as non-essential repairs. However for many elderly and disabled members of our community they can be the cause of great misery, and the Council must be sensitive to that.

“What is also clear from this episode is that council departments appear to be failing to communicate properly. This needs to be addressed immediately so that important repairs like this are completed in days rather months.”

A dumped washing machine continues to blight a local path in Hornsey more than four months after it was reported to Haringey’s refuse contractor, Haringey Accord.

Lib Dem Environment spokesperson Cllr Bob Hare spotted the dumped machine on the Penstock Path back in March and contacted Accord with detailed directions to the path and the easiest way to access it. But it remains as a blight on the landscape of this popular route more than four months later.

Cllr Hare comments:

“In the hot weather we are currently experiencing, many of us would probably welcome somewhere to sit and take a break from walking. But if that seat is this ugly washing machine I think we would all still rather see it removed!

“It is getting on for five months since I first reported this to Haringey Accord. Local residents pay a huge amount of council tax for services including that provided by Accord – and this is simply not an acceptable standard.”