Liberal Democrats have demanded that a senior Labour councillor apologises after he attacked a popular environmental scheme run by local residents and traders at last Monday’s Full Council meeting in Haringey.

Local Lib Dems were outraged after Labour environment boss Cllr Brian Haley branded the Crouch End Bag for Life, aimed at reducing plastic bag use in Crouch End, as “just a fashion statement”.

Cllr Lyn Weber (Crouch End) comments:

“People involved in this initiative will be deeply disappointed at these insulting remarks. Local traders worked very hard to introduce a scheme that truly shows a commitment at a local level to reduce the effects of climate change. I am shocked and appalled at Labour’s attacks that belittles what has been achieved.”

Cllr Neil Williams, Liberal Democrat leader and Highgate councillor adds:

“This just goes to show that Labour’s environmental credentials only go skin-deep. To brand a community effort aimed to help reduce the number of plastic bags as only a fashion statement is just what we expect from a Labour Council that could not bring itself to support similar schemes proposed by the Lib Dems for the whole of Haringey.”

Concerted pressure from Highgate residents and the Liberal Democrats has paid off, with Haringey Council agreeing to implement much needed extra pay-and-display parking at the Highgate Group Practice.

The move followed questions in Full Council by Highgate councillor and Group Leader Neil Williams, and questioning by local MP Lynne Featherstone at the recent area assembly in Highgate, where Labour’s controversial parking boss agreed to implementation of the scheme by the end of February. This has now been confirmed in a council email to the Lib Dems.

However, the Lib Dems say that Haringey Council’s treatment of Highgate residents over parking issues remains extremely shoddy, with Haringey Council taking far too long to sort out problems with parking controls resulting from mistakes in their own parking schemes, causing misery and frustration for Highgate residents.

Lib Dem candidate in the Highgate by-election, Rachel Allison, says:

“I’m pleased that there are to be more bays at the Highgate Group Practice, but it took some fight. Making parking easier for patients is one of my key pledges, so there must be an election on.However, I do think the charges are unreasonable given the kind of use and users these bays will have, and I will be pressing Haringey Council to look at this as well.”

Cllr Neil Williams (Highgate ward) adds:

“Getting Cllr Haley to take action on his own parking blunders is like drawing blood from a stone, but we will continue to press him until he sorts out the problems of his own making.”

Note:

Further pay and display provision will be provided on a shared use basis (joint resident/pay and display bays). The maximum stay is being increased from 1hr to 2hrs. As part of this proposal the software for the pay and display machines will be amended to allow for motorists to pre-pay within the parking bays i.e. insert money before 10am so that, for example, they can park and pay at 9am, which covers them for the 10am to noon period.

Rachel Allison, the Lib Dem candidate in the Highgate by-election, is thanking residents in Highgate and across Haringey for their huge response to their local petition to save Post Offices from closure – but says that every objection is vital if the devastating closure plans are to be defeated.

In just over a week, over 800 people have signed the Lib Dems’ on-line petition, and responses from angry residents have also been flooding back to Liberal Democrat headquarters. Rachel Allison is inviting as many residents as possible to sign the Lib Dems’ borough-wide petition: http://ourcampaign.org.uk/haringeypostoffices

Rachel Allison comments:

“The Government’s closure programme is madness. I hope as many people as possible will sign the Lib Dem petition to protect our local branch network, in Highgate and across Haringey.

“In the case of Highgate, it is outrageous to suggest that we should have a High Street without a Post Office. Local residents, other shops and the entire High Street depend on our Post Office. We will fight to keep it.”

Liberal Democrats are this weekend celebrating victory over Haringey’s ‘head-in-the-sand’ Labour Council, which has finally been forced to replace confusing and contradictory parking signs that have been making life a misery for ticketed residents and motorists in Muswell Hill and Crouch End.

After months of denial by Labour that there was anything wrong with their parking signage, Haringey Council has finally replaced their signs after information revealed by the Lib Dems showed that they fail to adhere to government regulations.

Liberal Democrat Transport spokesperson Cllr Martin Newton wrote to the Department of Transport (DfT) following many requests from motorists who had fallen foul of confusing signs in Muswell Hill and Crouch End. The DfT confirmed that Haringey’s signs failed to conform to ‘Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions’.

Cllor Martin Newton, comments:

“This is a great result, finally getting Labour-run Haringey Council to change these signs and make parking times clearer for residents and visitors. I hope this will teach them not to put up signs which fail to show people clearly when they can or cannot park.

“However, Haringey Council should have listened earlier when it was originally pointed out their signs did not comply with regulations. It is an absolute scandal that it has taken so long to put an end to what had become a ‘nice little earner’ for Haringey Labour.”

Liberal Democrat Leader and Highgate councillor Neil Williams adds:

“You’d think that Labour could get something as simple as this right, and I congratulate Martin Newton for going all the way to the Department of Transport to get Haringey to mend its ways.

“It’s time for Haringey Council to apologise to the many residents and visitors who were caught out and ticketed and towed away as a result of their confusing and ambiguous signage.”

This week Lynne Featherstone MP took her fight for more sustainable packaging to Parliament in chairing a top-level policy forum on waste.

Bringing together key players from government and industry, including Environmental Agency Head Baroness Young, Ms. Featherstone led the debate on how to address this burgeoning problem.The event was organised by Policy Connect.

Lynne Featherstone’s efforts follow recent attempts by local Liberal Democrats to force Haringey Council to do more to encourage alternatives to plastic bags. The proposal was blocked by Haringey Labour.

Commenting, Lynne Featherstone MP says:

“From my postbag and my regular surgeries I know how genuinely angry local people are about the huge amounts of unnecessary and completely un-recyclable packaging.

“We need to tackle excess packaging at every level. I was proud to have supported local traders and the Crouch End bag and now, I am pushing for this issue to be addressed nationally.

“The alarming rate at which we are filling our landfills shows how urgent this problem is and action is needed now.”

Reacting to the shocking news that five local Post Offices are being consulted for closure, Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“I am absolutely furious that a third of Post Offices in my constituency are threatened with closure. One thing local residents have not been telling me is that there are too many Post Offices in our community and there is no way we will take this lying down.

“These offices are the lynch pin for small parades and their closure could be the death knell for small independent retailers who rely on these Post Offices as draw for customers.More than that, where will this leave older people and those with mobility issues who already have limited choice about how far they can go for shops and banking services?

“Any small financial savings the Labour government thinks it can make can in no way offset the huge cost to the community these closures will have. I have already started working with residents to draw up a battle plan to fight these closures tooth and nail. “

Note: the five local offices threatened with closure are:

Highgate High Street
Alexandra Park Road
Ferme Park Road
Salisbury Road
Weston Park

Outrage descended into farce as yet more confidential files were found in a vacated council building occupied by squatters – despite Labour-run Haringey Council announcing that it had rescued the files and made them secure.

The issue arose when local Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone was at the Crouch End site with a BBC TV crew to conduct an interview on the issue. Squatters occupying the building produced yet more files from inside.The Lib Dems, who reported the matter to Haringey Council, believe the files are now back in the possession of Haringey Council – but are demanding to know how this could have happened.

MP Lynne Featherstone comments:

“It is almost impossible to believe that having been aware of this problem since Friday, Haringey Council appears to have failed to take effective steps to clear this building of confidential information.

“As ever with Haringey Council, it is clear their concerns were mainly to protect their own backs by issuing misleading claims that the information was secured, even though it seems they hadn’t even checked the building. It is scandalous.”

Lib Dem Leader and Highgate councillor Neil Williams, who successfully secured an apology and an independent investigation from the Labour Leader of Haringey Council in an emergency debate at last night’s Full Council meeting, adds:

“It is disgraceful that four days later, we are still in the dark about whether Haringey Council has secured these records. Haringey must indemnify anyone against potential breaches of their privacy, and we will be watching to ensure that a truly independent inquiry takes place. It beggars belief how incompetence on such a grotesque scale can happen.”

Older people have been let down again say the Liberal Democrats in Haringey, after Labour-run Haringey Council revealed yesterday a botched attempt to backtrack on deeply unpopular leisure charges for older people.

Bowing to pressure from local residents and Lib Dems, Haringey Council partially reviewed their policy of axing free leisure facilities for over 65s but failed to support Lib Dem calls for a complete reversal.

Labour councillors rejected a Liberal Democrat motion to stop the leisure cut at last night’s Full Council meeting, and have decided to press ahead with the plan despite the opposition of many older people across the London Borough of Haringey. Labour’s controversial vote caused anger amongst the many older people watching the debate in the public gallery.

Cllr Richard Wilson, Lib Dem Deputy Leader and Health spokesperson, comments;

“This leisure cut plan is complete mess. Older people have not been consulted on this idea at all: it has not featured in any consultation documents or papers from Haringey Council, and seems to have been dreamed behind closed doors with no outside input.

“This restriction on when older people can use leisure centres for free will discourage those who need to keep active and independent from taking exercise.Many pensioners want to use leisure centres in the evenings and at weekends.

“One pensioner in my ward told me how she attends a disabled swim class at Park Road Pools on a weekday evening.Is she one of the people that the Labour wants to discourage from exercising with these new charges?’

Cllr David Winskill, Lib Dem Leisure, Culture and Lifelong Learning spokesperson adds:

“Haringey Labour councillors seem to live in a parallel universe where making a few phone calls means consultation. The current proposals are in complete chaos – policy made up on the hoof. We want them to suspend these cuts and talk to the people most affected to find out how the services can be improved and more use made of facilities.”

Commenting on the apparent discovery of Housing Benefit records relating to 20,000 people abandoned by Haringey Council, local Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“I am shocked and extremely concerned for the people affected.They urgently need to know the risk they have been exposed to by Haringey Council’s incompetence.They must be contacted immediately so they can check whether or not they have been a victim of identify theft or fraud.

“Then, Haringey Council leaders need to sit down and seriously review their archiving system.With benefit claims, child protection documents and council tax records, Haringey Council holds some extremely sensitive information on virtually every person in the Borough.Local residents deserve cast-iron guarantees that their private records will not have the same fate.”

Ms. Featherstone has made urgent representations to Haringey Council’s chief executive demanding the council contacts those involved and carries out a full independent investigation.

Haringey Opposition Lib Dem Leader Neil Williams is calling for an urgent independent investigation into a shocking and disastrous breach of security involving the personal details of thousands of Haringey residents.

Reports in The Sun newspaper today show how Haringey left the personal details of thousands of local residents in an abandoned building in Crouch End, North London, that has been occupied by squatters.

Cllr Williams comments:

“This is an absolutely appalling blunder and shows incompetence on a scale that is truly grotesque.

“We must have an independent investigation so that lessons are learned. Sadly experience shows us that this council rarely investigates its own mistakes properly, so you can bet there will be an attempt at a whitewash by Haringey Labour.

“But the most important question of all is what steps are Haringey Council taking to inform those whose confidentially has been so disgracefully breached? Given that the police appear to have confirmed that criminals would have all they need for identity fraud, this must be done straight away.”

Cllr Williams is tabling an emergency motion to today’s full council demanding a full explanation, investigation and apology.