Lib Dem councillors have welcomed Haringey Council’s confirmation that there will be a full roll-out of the kerbside green box recycling scheme within six weeks, covering four Lib Dem wards in the west of the borough. The announcement was made at this week’s Muswell Hill Area Assembly and fulfils a Lib Dem manifesto commitment made last May to extend door-to-door recycling across Haringey.

The good news comes on the back of the recently published Best Value Performance Plan for 2003/2004 that exposes Haringey Council’s failures in recycling with only 4.4% of waste recycled in 2002/03.

Lib Dem environment spokesperson, Bob Hare is pleased with the news, which will guarantee recycling collections for cans, glass, textiles and paper in much of the west of the borough. However, he was keen to add that this was only the start and that the Lib Dems would continue to campaign for better recycling facilities and a more comprehensive collection service. He also promised to continue to press the Council over their policy to charge for garden waste collection.

Cllr Hare (Highgate) comments:

“Finally the Council is listening to Lib Dem ideas on recycling and acting on some of them. It is a good start but Haringey is way off meeting the 2005 national target of 25% of waste recycled, set by the Government.

“The Council needs to address issues regarding waste minimisation as well as re-assessing its policy on charging for collection of garden waste. While we will continue to press the council to address these and other recycling issues I hope that local residents play their part and use their green boxes.”

Lib Dem Cllr Bob Hare has secured a promise from Haringey Council that it will promote the availability of smaller wheelie bins in a forthcoming letter to residents that will be accompanying new green boxes when the borough’s recycling scheme is expanded.

The promise, made at this week’s Muswell Hill Area Assembly, comes after Cllr Hare expressed his extreme disappointment that despite previous commitments from the Council, a new wheelie bin leaflet to be distributed to all residents only offers residents even bigger bins as an alternative to the standard size.

Instead of pushing the big bins, the Lib Dems believe that promoting the alternative smaller size will encourage more people to recycle their rubbish and as a result lead to a less waste. Lib Dems say that residents are being kept in the dark about the smaller bins, which are still much bigger than a dustbin, but take up less space and are easier for elderly and disabled residents to manoeuvre than the standard wheelie bin.

Cllr Hare comments:

“It is a great pity the Council has missed the opportunity to give all the borough’s residents full information on wheelie bin sizes in its new leaflet. Nevertheless, we are pleased it has promised to include information on smaller wheelie bin sizes in its letter to residents on the new green box rounds, although this will only cover a small proportion of the borough’s residents.”

“It is important that the issues of more recycling and minimizing waste are taken seriously and promoted by the Council. I will be working hard to ensure that the Council looks at other measures that will help. There are many extra things that can be done, such as encouragement for composting.”

• Whittington and North Mid stay with two stars, as elite band of three-star hospitals grows
• Haringey patients set to lose out through bogus figures, say Lib Dems
• A&E services given poor scores at both hospitals

Haringey hospitals are in danger of being left behind as other London NHS Trusts reap the benefits of ‘foundation’ status, according to the local Liberal Democrats. The comment comes as the Whittington and North Middlesex hospitals today retained their ‘two-star’ status from the CHI (Commission for Health Improvement) the Government’s NHS star ratings ‘watchdog’.

Across the country, the number of three-star trusts has leapt from 52 to 63. These hospitals will now be able to join the controversial queue for ‘Foundation’ status, attracting the best staff and resources. As a result of the Government’s narrowly defined and much criticised starring system, the Whittington and the North Mid will not be among them.

Lib Dem Parliamentary spokesperson, Lynne Featherstone, has also expressed concern about Accident and Emergency Services at both local hospitals, after both have today been rated poorly in the CHI findings.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“These results are a blow to acute health care in the borough, because the key services at the Whittington and the North Mid are in increasing danger of finding themselves on the wrong tier in Labour’s new, two-tier health system.

“Labour’s unfair league tables do not properly measure patient care, and patients in Haringey, as well as local doctors, nurses, and NHS staff, are losing out in this arbitrary system.”

In a further move to assist recycling in the borough, a local Lib Dem councillor has demonstrated how residents can turn their old dustbins into useful compost bins by drilling ventilation holes in the bottom.

Highgate councillor Bob Hare, Lib Dem Environment Spokesperson, says that as well as cutting down the amount of household waste, old bins can be used to make useful compost, and gives dustbins which would otherwise be dumped a new lease of life. About a dozen holes of two to three centimetres (one inch) in diameter are needed in a typical dustbin.

Local Lib Dem supporters have offered their help to anyone who would like this done but who cannot do the job themselves.

Cllr Bob Hare comments:

“Old dustbins can be put to good use with a few simple holes. Composting is a great way of recycling waste in your own household, and is very good for your garden.”

Muswell Hill and Rhodes Avenue Primary school pupils will be a lot safer when they return to school in September when a £75,000 road-calming plan around the schools is implemented in August. The decision comes after months of pressure from local residents and Lib Dem councillors.

The £75,000 from Transport for London (TfL) will be spent on road calming measures in two speeding black-spots, Dukes Avenue and Alexandra Park Road and is the result of work done since March by the focus group made up of local residents and Alexandra councillor, Susan Oatway (Lib Dem).

Over the last few months Council traffic engineers have worked closely with the focus group. The engineers have submitted amended costed plans and the group now has to make a decision on the final proposals – given that £75,000 is not enough to do everything they want. Residents associations therefore have until the end of this month to give the council their final views on the amended proposals.

Lib Dem councillor Susan Oatway is pleased with the progress that has been made in the last few months and is grateful for the work of local residents and council officers in bringing this action about. However she acknowledges that the Council must do more to improve safety around schools in the borough:

“The residents and officers have worked very well together. I am very pleased with how well the plans have progressed and I am hopeful that by September we will have made considerable progress in dealing with the speeding problem in these two roads.

“The Lib Dem aim is to ensure safe routes around all schools in the borough and we will continue to press the Council to work towards this as well as pushing for further road calming measures around Alexandra ward.”

Liberal Democrats in Haringey have warned that Haringey Council and the Labour Government must not forget the lessons learned from the tragic death of Victoria Climbie. Six months after the publication of Lord Laming’s report in which senior managers and politicians were severely criticised, the Lib Dems say there are worrying signs that the much hailed ‘sea-change’ in child protection may not happen.

Liberal Democrat Social Services Spokesperson Cllr Ron Aitken is highlighting many concerns over delayed action. These include the delay, until the autumn, of the Government’s long promised Green Paper on child protection.

Furthermore, Haringey Council, heavily criticised not only over their handling of Victoria’s case, but also for withholding documents from the enquiry, has still not implemented the Council’s internal Plank Report which criticised councillors and senior officers.

Labour councillor Gina Adamou, whose role as Social Services Lead member was criticised by Lord Laming, has been appointed to the Children’s Services Advisory Committee charged with implementing the recommendations of Lord Laming’s Report together with Cllr Takki Sulaiman.

Councillor Aitken has also demanded an explanation as to why a key presentation by the Carezone Trust on 3 July about measures to empower children in care was cancelled.

The Council has also lobbied the Government’s Social Services Inspectorate to delay until September publication of the results of an inspection of child protection carried out in March. The SSI had promised publication in June.

For the 7th month in a row a key child protection indicator has fallen – the figure for six-weekly visits to children on the at-risk register.

The Lib Dems also say that a £4m overspend in Haringey’s Social Services budget may threaten resources and that councillors Sulaiman and Adamou lack the clout to ensure that these resources remain with Social Services. At a recent Council Executive £240,000 was paid back to reserves from the Child Protection Budget.

Lib Dem spokesman Ron Aitken comments:

“An all-too familiar pattern is emerging. After the headlines and media spotlight have moved away from Victoria’s tragic case, Labour councillors and ministers back away from the hard measures needed to prevent another such tragedy. We must not allow a scenario where it is ‘business as usual’ after the fuss has diminished.”

Lib Dem GLA Member and local councillor Lynne Featherstone has asked to meet Transport for London officials to discuss traffic jams at a busy Highgate junction. Ms Featherstone says that the junction of Archway Road and Shepherds Hill needs action to reduce long rush hour tailbacks, increase safety for pedestrians and enforce the ‘yellow box’.

Ms Featherstone wants TfL to look at the phasing of the traffic lights, and take action to reduce havoc and danger for pedestrians caused by the failure of some drivers to observe the yellow box. Ms Featherstone says it is clearly a case for cameras and enforcement.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“We have had several complaints from local residents about the junction, and it needs looking at again. I will be meeting TfL on the site, and will be pointing out the need for better enforcement measures.”

Haringey Council has once again been told to improve its miserable record of settling its own bills, after figures released by the council show that the Labour run authority pays only 72% of its bills within 30 days, despite cutting its own target to 80%. The average for London boroughs is 77%.

The Lib Dems say that the figures have hardly moved over the past two years, from 70 to 72% despite promises of action from Labour. The figures are also bad for local businesses, which must wait for payment as the Labour run council fails to settle its debts on time.

Lib Dem Parliamentary spokesperson, Lynne Featherstone, comments:

“Haringey is quick enough to ask for money from local residents when it sends out the Council Tax bills. The council’s poor record at settling its own debts is not much help to local businesses, and it also reveals the inefficiencies in the Labour council bureaucracy.

“Every year, improvements are promised, but the figures show little sign of improving. At this rate, it will take years for Haringey to reach the Government’s target.”

Lib Dem councillor and GLA member Lynne Featherstone has stepped in to help the campaign to safeguard the future of mental health day hospitals in Haringey, following the recent publication of a highly critical report into mental health services in the three north London boroughs of Haringey, Enfield and Barnet.

Despite deep concerns over mental health care, the local mental health trust is proposing to close two vital day care hospitals in Haringey – Canning Crescent and Kate Marsden.As a result of representations from Lynne Featherstone, Paul Burstow MP is tabling a Parliamentary question on the availability and geographical pattern of vital day hospital provision in each London borough.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“We must protect and improve mental health services in the borough, and ensure that Haringey’s provision is at an acceptable level.

“Around 40% of the population will at some time experience mental illness, so we can not afford to lose the facilities at Canning Crescent and Kate Marsden day hospitals.

“Many carers have told me what these valuable services do to improve life for themselves and their families.”

Lib Dem GLA member and Haringey councillor Lynne Featherstone has asked Transport for London to address concerns about the narrowness of Southwood Lane in Highgate for use as part of the long hoped for Muswell Hill to Swiss Cottage Bus route. The move follows concerns expressed by some Highgate residents that the road may be too narrow in places for a bus service.

Ms Featherstone has asked TfL to provide a demonstration journey along the road to determine whether it is suitable, using the actual size of bus likely to be deployed on the route. While route consultants Faber Maunsell have not seen the issue as a problem for the possible new route, Ms Featherstone says Southwood Lane residents need this reassurance and deserve the chance to see a bus in action first.

Transport for London have also confirmed to Ms Featherstone that residents along Southwood Lane, previously not used for buses, will have another chance to comment if the route becomes a formal proposal.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“Seeing is believing, so I have asked TfL if they will invite residents of Southwood Lane to witness a bus of the right size using the route at peak times.

Highgate Lib Dem councillor Neil Williams adds:

“The roadway certainly seems narrow, but on the other hand it is the most direct route from Muswell Hill and there are many vans and lorries using it at present. It is an important concern that needs to be addressed as the prospect of the route moves nearer. I hope that Transport for London will oblige.”