Lynne Featherstone MP has this week stepped up her effort to help a 79 year old lady from East Finchley who cannot carry shopping for more than a few yards get her disabled parking badge reinstated.

Kirsten Land, a student at Hornsey School for Girls has been awarded a certificate for being the highest reviser on SAM Learning in the borough of Haringey. Kirsten has completed an impressive 131 hours of revision!

The Award was presented by Lynne Featherstone MP and Justin Baron, Managing Director of SAM Learning.

Students at Hornsey School for Girls have been using SAM Learning, an award winning e-learning online revision service that has been used by more than half of all secondary schools in England, for their GCSE revision, as well as homework and other activities in the classroom.

SAM Learning Managing Director, Justin Baron, said: “With 1.7 million students across the country completing around 3 million hours of work with SAM Learning in the last year, students and teachers are working together to ensure they get the best results they can. Kirsten Land is one of our highest users and we’re pleased to be able to acknowledge and reward her great effort.”

Lynne Featherstone MP, said “Kirsten is such a hard worker, and it was fantastic to be able to celebrate her achievement with this special award for being the highest reviser on SAM in Haringey! No doubt she will go on to greatness and I wish her the best of luck in her GCSEs!”

Like Kirsten, the highest users in selected counties will have their efforts rewarded. Annual studies have shown that, with as little as 10 hours use, students do, on average, 1.5 GCSE grades better than expected. SAM Learning feels it is very important to award high using students like Kirsten, in the hope that this will encourage them, as well as the other students, to continue their hard work.

To support Macmillan, Lynne Featherstone MP and Councillor David Winskill on Friday joined the team at Barclays in Crouch End as they were hosting a Big Coffee Morning to fundraise for the cancer charity. The Crouch End staff were selling home baked cakes and cakes from Dunns Bakery, as well as coffee donated by Starbucks.

Last year, the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning raised over £8million, and this year the fundraising effort is looking to surpass that. Over 50,000 hosts have helped raise funds, which go towards the funding of Macmillan nurses and other cancer services.

Barclay’s Bank was hosting coffee mornings in each of its London branches. They were raising money for a GP facilitator in Wandsworth, as well as providing financial grants for cancer patients in London. Together with Macmillan badge sales, London branches were hoping to raise over £160,000. In addition, branches in The Eastern Region are raising £150,000 to fund a Pancreatic Nurse in Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge and financial grants for cancer patients in the East of England.

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“I am proud to once again be supporting Macmillan on a Big Coffee Morning. This is the third year I have joined coffee mornings across the constituency, and local residents continue to come out in force to back the fantastic work carried out by Macmillan every day.

“It’s great to see Barclays staff across London going the extra mile to help support Macmilan and fundraise for a GP facilitator in London. And I have to say – very impressive baking skills too!”

Crouch End Councillor David Winksill adds:

“Events like these make me feel proud to represent Crouch End – local businesses and local people coming together to raise funds for this important charity. Dunns has donated cakes, Starbucks has donated coffee and Barclays staff have baked their own cakes. Great effort indeed, let’s hope it raises lots of money for fantastic Macmillan.”

To get more local people to respond to a consultation to end Haringey’s unfair school funding, Lynne Featherstone MP and local Liberal Democrats were yesterday out in force, speaking to parents outside Rhodes Avenue School in Alexandra ward.

The consultation, which ends on the 11^th October, is the second part of a review into school funding which has been welcomed by Liberal Democrats as it proposes a fairer funding system for all schools and specifically mentions “6 London authorities who are required to pay inner London weighing to teachers, whilst receiving outer London funding.” which includes Haringey.

The historical unfairness has resulted in Haringey’s schools getting £1500 per pupil less than the students at schools in neighbouring boroughs like Hackney. However if the new ‘combined approach’ was adopted as proposed in the consultation, this historic injustice would come to an end.

To get local parents to respond in force, Lynne Featherstone MP has contacted thousands of local residents and written to all head teachers in Hornsey and Wood Green, calling on them to spread the word.

To explain the current school funding situation to parents and ask them to do their bit, Alexandra Councillors Juliet Solomon and David Beacham, Children’s spokesperson Cllr Katherine Reece, and Lynne Featherstone MP were yesterday speaking to parents outside the Rhodes Avenue school.

Any local residents who want to respond should contact Lynne Featherstone’s office for more information on 020 8340 5459 or by emailing lynne@lynnefeatherstone.org

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“This is an historic opportunity to fight for an end to a long-standing unfairness. Our kids deserve the best, our schools deserve the best, and to get that they need fair funding.

“I was really pleased to get such a strong response from parents at the school gate, and I hope that we will now see a last minute surge in the number of responses from Haringey parents to the consultation.”

Councillor Katherine Reece, Liberal Democrat Children’s spokesperson adds:

“This is the opportunity for us to take a stand. The future of our children’s education is in all of our hands – it’s down to us to show the schools minister that Haringey parents care, and that this injustice must end now!

“If you haven’t done so already, please get in touch with Lynne’s office and respond to the consultation – we have until the 11th October.”

To hear of the inspiring work of Haringey citizens who have come together to fight unemployment, for safer streets and greater community cohesion,  Lynne Featherstone MP recently met ‘North London Citizens’.

‘Citizens’ is an alliance of 40 civil society organisations from across North London, seven of which are based in Haringey. The Haringey branch of the alliance was formed in March, and consists of Alexandra Park School, Highgate Wood School, Highway of Holiness Church, North London Progressive Jewish Community, Rainbow Church, St Ignatius Church and St Ignatius College.

To find out what matters to local residents, the new alliance has spoken to thousands of local people, and identified areas that needed improving. In Haringey, unemployment, street safety and community relations came out top, and ‘Citizens’ will now find specific campaigns to improve these areas.

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“Unemployment, street safety and community cohesion are all areas that I know are of concern to Haringey residents, and letters on these issues form a big part of my postbag.

“So it was great to hear from this dedicated team of citizens who have listened to local residents across Haringey, and now will develop specific campaigns to improve the area.

“I look forward to hearing how these campaigns develop, and to see how I can join in. Anyone who wants to get involved in this great initiative let me know and I’ll pass on your details!”

Local MP Lynne Featherstone recently met with RNIB at the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham to hear how at least 50% of sight loss in the UK is avoidable if detected and treated early enough.

Visiting the award-winning RNIB exhibition stand, designed to look like an old-fashioned haberdashers, she heard how sight loss currently costs the UK economy more than £6bn per year and how ensuring early treatments are available both saves money and prevents unnecessary sight loss.

Lynne Featherstone MP said:

“Sight loss affects two million people in the UK, which means there are likely to be over 3,000 people in Hornsey and Wood Green living with sight loss.

“The RNIB stand demonstrated the importance of early treatment of eye problems – in a very eye-catching way! I will be keeping an eye on availability of treatments locally and urge everyone to make sure they get their eyes tested regularly.”

Steve Winyard, Head of Policy and Campaigns at RNIB, said:

“We are pleased that Lynne took the time to come and discuss these issues with us during the busy party conference.

“Regular sight tests are vital as they pick up early signs of eye disease and save sight. In addition, reducing unnecessary sight loss makes financial sense for both national and local government.”

Hornsey and Wood Green MP Lynne Featherstone has this weekend announced that in March the government will start a formal consultation on how to implement equal marriage for same sex couples.

As part of its commitment to advancing equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGB and T) individuals, the government announced in February this year its intention to look at how legislation could develop on equal civil marriage.

The plans to get marriage equality for all were made into official Liberal Democrat policy at last year’s party conference.

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“I am delighted to confirm that, in March, the Government will begin a formal consultation on equal civil marriage for same-sex couples.

“This would allow us to make any legislative changes before the end of this Parliament.

“Civil partnerships were a welcome first step, but to deny one group of people the opportunities to get married is not only discrimination, it’s just not fair.

“This is Liberal Democrats delivering Liberal Democrat policy in Government, and I am proud to be taking this forward in the New Year.”

Lynne and Andrew Thornton of Thornton's Budgens

Budgens supermarket boss Andrew Thornton has recently taken a big step forward in the battle to become an Olympic torchbearer by reaching the last stage of nominations. The green shop boss has made it through to the next round in the fierce battle to win the honour of being one of the 8,000 UK residents to carry the torch to the Olympic Games next summer.

The successful nomination was made by Hornsey and Wood Green MP Lynne Featherstone, who chose to nominate the Crouch End trader for his support of local charities and his green credentials. Thornton’s Budgens has launched a number of initiatives to help make the local area greener, including the ‘pennies for plastic’ scheme, sourcing local produce including growing the supermarket’s own greens on the roof of the shop, and recycling 94% of the shop’s waste. The Crouch End Broadway shop has also recently launched a community hub, available for local charities to use as a platform to meet local residents.

Mr Thornton will find out if he has been successful on the 5th December, when the final list of torchbearers will be released.

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“I’m thrilled that Andrew has beaten fierce competition to make it through to the final round of nominations.

“He is a credit to Haringey, with his green work and support of local charities. I think he is a real Haringey hero and deserves to represent us all in the Torch Relay.

Budgens boss Andrew Thornton adds:

“I’m very excited to have made it this far in the competition. I know that there are many deserving people out there, but it would be great to have my work recognised in this way. Being a torchbearer would be a real honour. I’ll just have to be patient until the 5th December, and fingers crossed!”