Lynne Featherstone has this week launched her annual Residents’ Survey for people living in her constituency. The four-page survey will be delivered to over 84,000 people in 47,000 households in the Hornsey & Wood Green constituency by local volunteers over the summer.

The survey is an opportunity for local residents to tell Lynne what they think of services such as schools and the police as well as to bring to her attention any particular local issues needing action.Local residents can also highlight issues that they would like raised in Parliament.

Any resident requiring additional copies can ring 020 8340 5459 or email lynne@lynnefeatherstone.org.

Commenting, Lynne Featherstone MP said:

“My annual survey is a mammoth exercise, but I am not an MP who is happy to rest on my laurels. My job is to listen and take action for the people I serve.

“Throughout the year I do thousands of pieces of casework for people who contact me, but my survey is a chance for people to get those niggly issues off their chest that they perhaps wouldn’t bother writing to me about.

“I want to hear about every grot-spot, poorly lit alleys and pothole. I promise to take action on all the specific issues raised, whether it’s with Haringey Council, local service providers or in Parliament.”

Liberal Democrats are demanding swift repairs to control the slippage of land on an embankment at a prestigious stretch of Highgate Hill, and have criticised Haringey Council for failing to secure action. Local councillor Bob Hare says that the vital safety work is needed now, so that it is completed by the end of the school holidays.

Liberal Democrat councillors in Highgate first raised the issue over a month ago. Cllr Bob Hare says he is worried about the potential collapse of The Bank, which runs parallel to Highgate Hill. He says the rate of movement, with large cracks opening, indicates the high section has become unstable, and fears pedestrians could be at risk on the well-used pavement on Highgate Hill underneath.

On this stretch, there is a bus stop, used in term time by large numbers of children from nearby Channing School.This means that people, including many children are not just passing by, but kept in the danger zone under the wall and road, which are some seven feet above.

Cllr Bob Hare comments:

“We need a rapid solution to this problem – and now is the perfect time to act, while local schools are closed. The problem is only likely to get worse and anything less than swift action just isn’t good enough.”

Local Liberal Democrats have challenged Haringey Council to help struggling retailers in Crouch End. High rents, Council parking schemes and, more recently, the effects of the economic downturn, have all contributed to very difficult trading conditions for Haringey’s second largest shopping centre.

Concerned by the threat to Crouch End’s unique independent shopping environment, Cllr David Winskill has written an open letter to Haringey Labour’s Lead Councillor for Regeneration calling for an urgent meeting to discuss possible action by Haringey Council to help local businesses.

Currently there are sixteen empty shop units and many businesses are reporting trading problems.

Cllr David Winskill, Crouch End, commented:

“I have lived here all my life and seen the effects that several recessions have had on the area. I have written to Cllr Amin to ask for help to see Crouch End through what is fast becoming a crisis. There are a lot of ideas we can discuss and I hope she agrees to treat this as a priority.”

Chris Freeman, of Crouch End Baker Dunns, added:

“The fundamental problem facing shopkeepers is the record levels of rents in the area. If they keep on rising, we are in danger of losing the very businesses that attract people to Crouch End in the first place.”

Andrew Thornton of Budgens, added:

“The Crouch End Project is trying hard to encourage local people to shop local – it’s good for the local economy as well as the environment. I hope Haringey recognise that we want to work in partnership with them and together we can come up with some creative solutions to the challenges all traders face.”

Text of open letter to the Lead Member for Regeneration:

I am sure that you will have picked up from press reports over the last few months that Crouch End (the second biggest shopping centre in the borough) is increasingly coming under severe pressure from the effects of enormous rent rises. The latest casualty, a retail glass and framing business established for over thirty years, has been forced to reduce its floor space by half as it could not afford to trade following a rent review.

When I became a councillor in 2002 it was common for individual shops to be paying £25k – £30k a year in rent. It has been reported that a shop near the Clock Tower is paying £70,000.

Sixteen businesses have already been lost including a travel agent, general store, delicatessen, restaurant, carpet shop, chemist, clothes shop, record store and various others. There are now more empty shop units that at any time in a generation.

The shops that have (eventually) been coming in are not replacing like with like. We are becoming over-provided with hairdressers, expensive fashion shops, financial services and coffee shops. There is also the phenomenon that small, independent, family owned businesses are being pushed out by large high street chains who are able to pay above market local rents to secure premises, thus putting more pressure on rentals as they are reviewed. As we lose independent and family shops, Crouch End loses some of its character and attractiveness.

I am concerned that the ability of Crouch End to offer a wide and diverse range of goods and services is becoming compromised. This will be exacerbated when the large Sainsbury’s on Hornsey High Street opens: I fear for the ability of our small family run grocers and green grocers to compete and survive.

Other negative factors affecting Crouch End include –

·The recently introduced Pay and Display which deters impulse buying and disadvantages small shops in relation to large supermarkets with free car parking.
·Wider economic factors which are increasingly starting to bite in peoples’ purses and reduce their spending power.

You will be aware of a self-help initiative run and paid for by our shopkeepers called the Crouch End Project. It sets out to encourage local people to value and use their local shops – completely in accord with the environmental aspirations of Haringey Council and supported by residents.

I would like to invite you to visit Crouch End and meet some traders so they can have the chance to tell you their stories and share their worries for the future.

Then we can perhaps discuss ways that the borough can offer help to this important shopping centre.

Please let me know what dates would be convenient.

Local MP Lynne Featherstone today has published a full breakdown of her Parliamentary expenses to demonstrate openness in they way she uses the public money to support her duties as a Member of Parliament.

The declaration covers the first quarter of the financial year from April 2008 to July 2008.

All Liberal Democrat MPs are making similar disclosures as proof of the party’s commitment to integrity and transparency in the use of MPs’ allowances.

Lynne Featherstone MP commented:

“I want to show people how I spend their money and that I have nothing to hide. It is vital if politicians want to restore trust they must be open and accountable.

“It is completely improper that MPs vote on their own salary and I will continue to press for them to be set by an independent body.”

You can download the figures (as an Excel spreadsheet) here.

Note: as a London MP, Lynne Featherstone choses to claim London supplement of £2,812 pa instead of Additional Costs Allowance which is worth £23,083 pa.

Commenting on the decision by Grainger PLC to defer its planning application for the redevelopment of Wards Corner in Seven Sisters, Cllr John Oakes, Liberal Democrat Community Involvement Spokesperson, commented:

“Right from the beginning, Liberal Democrats backed the Wards Corner Community Coalition (WCCC) of residents and traders, by forcing Haringey and the NDC to debate Wards Corner in public, and face the logic of their approach. WCCC’s sustained campaigning has forced this delay. Now we want the Council to cost WCCC’s alternative plans, which have already cost the Coalition £8,000, and to be open with traders about their legal rights.”

Cllr Rachel Allison, Liberal Democrat Regeneration Spokesperson, adds:

“The battle has been won but the war to protect the heritage of the Wards Corner site is not over. The Ward Corner Community Coalition represents the very heart of Seven Sisters – both traders and residents. No one understands more what the site needs than the people who actually live and work there. All they have asked for is that their ideas should be heard and I hope this deferral by Grainger means that finally this will happen. Anything less would be a betrayal.”

David Schmitz, Liberal Democrat Tottenham spokesman, added:

“We are proud that, in backing the Wards Corner Coalition, the other parties have finally decided to follow where we have led.

“We are even prouder that for the past year, we have been following where the coalition has been leading. This is because as Liberal Democrats, we believe that the purpose of government is to celebrate community enterprise and civic pride not to stifle it.”

Local Liberal Democrats have launched a campaign to get the historic Bounds Green tube station protected for future generations. Bounds Green Liberal Democrat councillor, John Oakes, has written to the conservation group English Heritage, requesting that Bounds Green tube station receives listed status.

Bounds Green tube station was opened on 19th September 1932 and was designed by architect C. H. James in the “Box-style” of his colleague Charles Holden. The station is a well-preserved example of the modernist house style used by London Transport in the 1930s.

Any member of the public can apply for an historic building to receive listed status, which if granted gives statutory protection to that building, allowing its special interest to be taken into account before any changes are made that would affect its character.

Cllr John Oakes commented:

“Bounds Green station is a beautiful example of the art-deco design style of the 1930s adopted by London Transport. It has cheerfully decorated the Bounds Green landscape for well for over seventy years and I believe it deserves listed status due to its iconic character. I hope English Heritage agrees with me and that we can take the listing process forward.”

Lynne Featherstone, Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green added:

“I fully support Cllr Oakes’ quest to have Bounds Green tube station listed. I visited the station recently to view some upgrade work and was very impressed with how beautifully its 1930s design has been preserved.”

In advance of next week’s completion of major building works at Hornsey Hospital, Haringey Liberal Democrats are today launching the results of their local heath survey to prompt debate on the contents of the Hospital.

When asked what services they wanted to see in the facility, local residents supported a wide range of health services, including, x-ray services (59%) emergency care (54%) and homeopathic and alternative therapies (26%).

Survey responses was received from 1,281 Haringey residents.

Commenting, Lynne Featherstone MP said:

“We have the building, now we need to know what is going to go in it.We are absolutely clear that local residents do not want to see a reduction in number of GPs or mass forced relocations of local practices.But this is only one part of the story.

“I have been campaigning with local residents for over a decade to get Hornsey Hospital re-opened. To be called a hospital it must have more than basic GP services. Our survey has show there is significant demand for wider services.

“This is real opportunity; the Heath Trust must act now to engage with local people.”

Councillor Richard Wilson, Haringey Liberal Democrats Health Spokesperson added:

“Sifting through the responses one thing is clear; local people don’t want Hornsey Central to be just an enormous GP clinic. They want new hospital services brought onto the site.”

Haringey Council fails to keep track of over 500 young people aged 16-18 leaving school it has been revealed. Local Liberal Democrats are concerned that the increase in the number of young people whose whereabouts are ‘not known’ is a sign of a hidden group of young people falling through the education system.

According to recent figures released by Haringey Council last Tuesday (15th July 2008) the percentage of young people in Haringey aged 16-18 whose current status is not known has risen to 11.7%.

Cllr Gail Engert, Liberal Democrat Children, Schools and Families Spokesperson, raised her concerns over the high level of ‘not knowns’ with the Cabinet member for Children and Young People, Cllr Liz Santry, at the Haringey Council Cabinet meeting on the 15th July.

Cllr Engert commented:

“It is shocking that Haringey Council has managed to lose track of 500 young people. This is a really worrying sign. If Haringey Council does not know the whereabouts of these young people, how can they ensure they are helped to gain access to employment or further education?

“Worryingly we were the fourth worst in the country in figures compiled by the government – now Haringey’s figures show that we are pushing to be the worst. The Council really need to get its act together.”

Lynne Featherstone MP added:

“If we are to break the cycle of poverty in Haringey every single young person needs as much help as possible to get jobs. These young people are being let down by Labour, particularly in the current economic climate. It is therefore completely unacceptable that such little effort is made to stay in contact with a group of people who need our help most.”