A Highgate Lib Dem councillor is calling on Haringey’s Labour-run council to take action to repair the lighting on the Archway Bridge. The move follows months of lame excuses to Councillor Neil Williams (Highgate) and attempts by Haringey Council to dodge questions on the issue.

Two of the famous and elegant globe lights on the famous bridge have not been working for as long as Archway locals can remember. Since his election in May, Councillor Williams has repeatedly asked the council to take action and has been offered a range of weak excuses.

Neil Williams comments:

“I am simply not accepting Haringey’s excuses on the bridge lighting. If Islington can work so hard on the traffic calming plans on Hornsey Lane, the historic route of the bridge, Haringey ought to be able to get two lightbulbs working on the bridge. It is such a shame, as this is one of our most historic landmarks.

“I will now be asking the council to provide solid evidence that the cost of getting the lights to work is as high as the council says. I am rather sceptical.”

Note:

Under an agreement between Islington and Haringey, the former looks after Hornsey Lane while the latter has the lead on the bridge. The whole route forms the Haringey’s southern boundary with Islington.

Lib Dem GLA member and local councillor Lynne Featherstone has won assurances on local police numbers following questioning of the Chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA).

She was questioning him over fears that police numbers in Haringey may plummet after March 31st, which is the deadline for meeting the Met’s police numbers target. Ms Featherstone, who also sits on the MPA, was acting on information she had received suggesting that police numbers may then fall once the target had been met as around 40 officers in Haringey were being prevented from proceeding with their applications for jobs in other areas or other police squads until after March 31st.

Those approaching Ms Featherstone feared that having made the target, officers would then be able to move on to new jobs, so that from next April, numbers might start to plummet and the same problem of understaffing in Haringey’s police force would reappear all over again.

After close questioning by Ms Featherstone the MPA’s chair undertook to ensure that numbers would not fall after the target date.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“Making sure that Haringey gets and then keeps its full compliment of police officers as promised is absolutely vital. I am glad to have a public assurance from the Chair of the MPA that those numbers, once we have them, will not only be maintained, but may be increased. However, I will be watching very closely to see what happens to numbers in Haringey after 31st March.”

London Mayor Ken Livingstone has written to the Leader of Haringey’s Labour controlled council on the controversial issue of backland developments. The move follows a meeting with local councillor and GLA member Lynne Featherstone.

Ms Featherstone had raised the issue with Mayor Livingstone because she says that both local developers and Haringey Council are using the London Mayor’s requirement for more housing, and especially social housing, as an excuse to grant permission to backland developments, however inappropriate they are.

Ken Livingstone has reminded Haringey that his plan is about quality and not quantity: “London must get the quality as well as quantity of new housing it deserves,” he has told Haringey.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“I only hope that this timely reminder from the Mayor will stop Haringey continuing to grant permission to cram in any new building anywhere. Sadly, it has come too later for the Aubrey Road development which went through last week, but hopefully this will help save the Priory Avenue backland site, which is the next on the hit list.

“I hope this letter will help strengthen Haringey’s resolve to stick to its own urban development plan, which should not allow for this sort of development.”

Muswell Hill’s Lib Dem councillors are taking action to improve lighting and remove rubbish on one of the area’s busy walkways. The underpass and walkway to Muswell Hill Primary School, at the end of the Parkland Walk, is dark and has been in desperate need of clearing of both leaves and rubbish.

Lib Dem councillor Lynne Featherstone has written to both the council and the Alexandra Palace Charitable Trust to ask them what they intend to do about the lighting problem, which makes the area very unpleasant at night.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“Kids, parents and staff at the school find this walkway very intimidating in the winter. The police are advising people not to enter parks after dark, so this must be remedied. Good lighting is needed to make people as safe as possible when they walk about the area.”

Fellow Muswell Hill Lib Dem councillor Jonathan Bloch has been tacking the council about the rubbish problem on the route. Cllr Bloch has called for a massive clean up of the Parkland Walk route from Cranley Gardens through to Muswell Hill primary school, and says that litter and leaves lying on the path represent a danger to kids and parents taking their children to school. The council has agreed to a clean up, and a commitment from the Neighbourhood Officer to ensure that the route gets a once a week clean.

Jonathan Bloch comments:

“This is some good news, as the area has been a disgrace in recent weeks. Kids need a better environment, and it’s a pity if a pedestrian walkway suffers these sorts of unnecessary problems. It should be a bright and pleasant route.”

As Haringey remembered its war heroes and veterans this November, Crouch End Liberal Democrat councillor Ron Aitken travelled to France to join local people and former French servicemen in the village of Pontchartrain, near Versailles, France, to honour his uncle, Robertson Aitken, who was killed in a bombing raid over Paris in 1944 aged 22.

Robertson Aitken’s Lancaster bomber of XV squadron RAF crashed in the grounds of the local chateau just two days after the D-Day landings began.

Councillor Aitken, the Mayor of the French town, and local citizens laid wreaths from the Royal British Legion and the RAF on the war memorial and Sergeant Aitken’s grave. Former French Resistance fighters were also honoured.

Ron Aitken comments:”It was a privilege to be able to honour my uncle, and also to remember so many French people who fought to defend our freedoms in both world wars.”

Haringey’s Lib Dem councillors have expressed astonishment after revelations that embarrassed local Tories have written to their own supporters to apologise for their negative campaigning in the area.

The Tory move was made to coincide with an ‘anonymous’ leaflet currently being issued by the Conservatives in an attempt to discredit and smear Haringey’s hard working Lib Dem councillors.

The move from the disgruntled Tories follows their wipe-out at the hands of the Lib Dems in the May council elections and their dismal third place in last year’s general election.

The fake leaflet uses the well know Liberal Democrat ‘FOCUS’ title and designs taken from previous Lib Dem leaflets. The leaflet does not say anywhere that it is from the Conservatives, having only a cryptic reference in small print to being printed by “HWGCA” and a PO Box number. HWGCA stands for Hornsey & Wood Green Conservative Association.

Lib Dem Deputy Leader Ross Laird comments:

“It seem the local Tories have sunk to a new low – and it will not get them anywhere.It is no wonder the Conservative’s party chairman, Teresa May, has warned about the party being the ‘nasty party’. They have so little to offer they have to hide where their leaflets come from and write to their supporters in advance to apologise. It is a rather sad spectacle.”

Reacting to the news that Haringey’s Social Services is once again to be given a ‘zero star’ rating by outside experts, Haringey’s opposition Liberal Democrats have called for Labour councillors to admit their failure to sort out social services.

The Government’s Social Services Inspectorate (SSI) report into the Social Services department is due tomorrow (Friday 15 November) and will announce updated Star Ratings for local authorities.

Haringey, despite the lessons of the Laming Inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie and an injection of £2m funds into children’s services, has once again been given the bottom ‘no star’ rating.

This news follows the SSI criticising Haringey Council for its attempts to rig the results of a questionnaire to users of the Children’s Services and the revelation in leaked Labour documents that extra money for social services was not going on front line services but instead on improving the press operation for the troubled department.

Liberal Democrat Social Services spokesman Cllr Ron Aitken said:

“Haringey will try to put the best gloss on this very poor showing. However, cosmetic changes and the scapegoating of relatively junior employees hide the lack of real accountability by the Labour politicians who remain in charge. Decision-making is still made behind closed doors in one-party meetings.”

Liberal Democrat councillors have condemned the decision at last night’s Haringey Council Planning Committee to give the go-ahead to a controversial planning application on Aubrey Road.

The application, to build four new luxury houses on a “backlands” space will result in the loss of local garages, small workshops and a car repair business.

Residents have strongly opposed the application, saying it will harm the area, cost local jobs, reduce much-needed off-street parking and put extra pressure on public services in the area.

Crouch End councillor David Winskill comments:

“Haringey Council had the opportunity either to defer or reject this controversial planning application, but chose instead to side with the developers against residents. This is another example of how the planning system is letting down people and will lead to great disillusion with the planning system.”

Councillor Lynne Featherstone, who has met with London Mayor Ken Livingstone over the problems with backland developments, comments:

“We will continue to work with residents to fight other similar controversial applications that are in the pipeline.”

Highgate’s Lib Dem councillors have expressed satisfaction that the special neighbourhood assembly that they secured for Highgate enjoyed a record attendance of over 120 people on Wednesday evening. The meeting gave residents a chance to grill the council on the CPZ issue facing the area, and also covered local policing issues.

Councillors Melanie Simpson, Bob Hare and Neil Williams had pressed for and secured special assembly meetings for Highgate, which had been left without its own neighbourhood assembly by the Labour-run council.

Cllr Melanie Simpson comments:

“It was a good meeting, and will certainly help to keep the council listening over the CPZ issue. Highgate residents turned out in numbers unheard of in other neighbourhood assembles in Haringey which just goes to show the benefits of holding special meetings in our patch.”

Highgate’s Lib Dem councillors also distributed a door-to-door survey on the parking issue to coincide with the meeting.

Councillor Neil Williams and local campaigners are hoping for a big turnout for their ‘Fight Graffiti’ campaign meeting in Highgate on 19 November, 7.30pm, at St Michael’s Primary, North Road, Highgate.The Highgate Lib Dem councillor is organising the meeting after working successfully with local campaigners in a huge and successful effort to remove graffiti in Highgate Village.

Without support from the council, local campaigners raised funds for a clean up, and are spreading the costs among themselves. Councillor Williams says he wants to promote awareness among residents on what they can do to beat the problem. Local campaigner Mike Read, of Southwood Graffiti Action, will be speaking on how the group has wiped graffiti out across a blighted area between Archway Road and Southwood Lane, and Lynne Featherstone from the Greater London Authority, will be reporting on ideas from other boroughs. The police will also be there to report on recent developments.

Cllr Neil Williams (Highgate) comments:

“I hope for a really good turnout at the meeting, because what has been done on graffiti recently in Highgate is absolutely fantastic. We must try and give help and encouragement to areas where they want action. We want graffiti wiped out and then kept out in Highgate. If we all work together we can do it.”