Hornsey Carnival are currently looking for contestants for the Hornsey Carnival Selection – you can get details and an application form here.
Wood Green Animal Shelter – and a very cute kitten
Went to the opening of the revamped Wood Green Animal Shelter in Lordship Lane today. Having visited a little while back – before the renovations – it was just fantastic today to see how vastly improved the new facilities are – no comparison.
Before it was miraculous that the very committed staff could even work in the cramped conditions. The building hadn’t been touched since the early seventies.
Now – there is a beautiful reception area, consulting room, proper operating and prep rooms, X-ray room, hospital cages for the sick animals and outside in addition to the existing out buildings for cats a new homing facility. It was a joy to see.
It’s just a wonderful thing for us to have in Wood Green so that people who love their pets can take them to a vet when they are sick without the worry of the disgusting amounts that private vets now charge. Here it is really a donation / nominal fee.
The service Wood Green Animal Shelter provides has always been exemplary and fantastic – mostly due to the dedication and commitment of the staff and the organisation. Now they finally have the facilities to match the service.
A special treat for me was getting to hold a kitten that one of the cats for rehoming had given birth to. There were four just beautiful little kittens and I held the greyish tabby – and desperately wanted to take him home with me. There’s nothing to match a kitten for pure adorability!
The morning after the night before: the moment when it looked like Paxman might punch Johnson
So – Newsnight’s Jeremy Paxman grilled the three main candidates for Mayor last night. Personally – I thought Jeremy won hands down. Boris was appalling – and Paxman nailed him on his waffle approach by asking him for a figure for something he was proposing re-replacing bendy buses. Boris was baffled. Boris was bamboozled. But Boris didn’t answer the question. Boris was exposed as not knowing a thing really about bus costs.
At one point I nearly thought Jeremy Paxman was going to punch him – as he strode menacingly towards Boris repeating his question as Boris refused to answer!
Ken was somewhat downbeat – but competent. And Brian, despite a slightly nervous start in his statement, went on to make good substantive points about how to really tackle gun and knife crime – not just talk about it like Boris or say you can’t do anything about it like Ken.
Brian attacked Boris over his lack of experience of delivery and management. When asked about second preference votes – Ken said without hesitation that he would prefer Brian to Boris – but Brian said basically a plague on both their houses and that they were both bad in different ways. So true Brian – so true!
UPDATE: Here’s the Paxman/Johnson face-off from YouTube:
Liberal Democrats call for suspension of health plans to allow residents to give views
Haringey Lib Dems have called on Haringey NHS bosses to come clean on their plans for relocating GPs – and let local people have a real say.
Liberal Democrats on Haringey Council’s Scrutiny Committee argued on Monday night that the Primary Care Trust’s strategy was too vague on plans for when GPs move into new polyclinics.
The proposals, which include the provision of minor surgery and emergency facilities at polyclinics, were debated at a meeting of the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) on Monday evening. Liberal Democrat Councillor David Winskill said the proposals were ‘vague and uncertain’, particularly plans to radically change GP coverage in the borough.
Liberal Democrats have asked Haringey Primary Care Trust (PCT) to suspend the timetable of the adoption of their ten year strategy and come back with more detailed plans to allow for further public consultation.
Liberal Democrat Councillor Martin Newton comments:
“We have no real idea what the criteria will be to decide which surgeries will remain and which will be relocated – never mind what the actual changes will be.”
Liberal Democrat Councillor David Winskill adds:
“The report is basically a work in progress. Both political parties agree that, like the Post Office, the GP network is too precious to be tampered with without informed input from residents. I have suggested that the Council should hold a health scrutiny review to give residents a choice.”
Liberal Democrat Adult Social Services Spokesperson Cllr Richard Wilson adds:
“Haringey Liberal Democrats will continue to press for the PCT to respond to and take account of residents’ worries about access and continuity of care that GPs provide.”
Brian Paddick's new website: take a look
Good to see that Brian Paddick’s new website is up and running – and worth waiting for.
Having had a look at Ken and Boris’s sites – Brian is now definitely winning the website battle! It’s direct, well-designed, colourful and easy to use.
Looking at Ken’s very dull, very drab effort, strikes me he feels that he has so much publicity through the state publicity machine that he doesn’t feel the need to put anything into his website. Lord knows he has plastered his face on enough things during his term of office – albeit with ‘Mayor of London’ as opposed to ‘Ken’ as the wording – to make sure his beautiful mug is burned into our brains at every turn. As for Boris – well his website at least shows willing – in that you can see effort has been made and thought has been given – but it’s not very interesting with a format that is too intense in terms of content on the home page etc.
Anger at further Haringey Council incompetence over parking plans
Plans to help beleaguered residents in Crouch End beset by parking displacement chaos since last summer faces yet more delays.
The new setback follows Haringey Council’s failure to send the promised draft consultation documents to local residents’ representatives via email which resulted in only five responses arriving before the initial deadline.
After investigations by local Liberal Democrat councillor, Lyn Weber it was discovered that some of the residents’ representatives groups had not received correspondence from Haringey Council asking for their views. It has emerged that Haringey Council department had handed over the names without complete contact details. The deadline for groups to respond has now been extended until this Friday.
Cllr Lyn Weber (Crouch End) comments:
“Haringey Council has an unfortunate and uncanny knack of destroying any confidence built up surrounding this project.The time is ticking away and whilst it was agreed to extend the submission deadline to this Friday it still leaves a sour taste.One hopes that the future is brighter and more positive.I am sure Cllr Haley will be disappointed and I have asked that he resolve this communication issue today to enable residents to respond by the new deadline of Friday.”
Thames Water urged to plug dangerous Stroud Green leak
Action from Thames Water over an ‘abandoned’ water leak on Upper Tollington Park, Stroud Green (N4) has been demanded by local Lib Dem councillor, Ed Butcher. There have been reports the leak has been running for several weeks causing disruption to traffic and excess water flowing over into neighbouring streets.
Councillor Ed Butcher has been in urgent contact with Thames Water head office demanding action to repair the leak.
Commenting, Councillor Ed Butcher says:
“It difficult to see why anyone should take any future pleas to save water seriously when thousands of litres of water have been wasted here.
“I was chatting to one resident who told me it has been like this for weeks – this is completely unacceptable.Thames Water should be treating it as an emergency, not as a ‘whenever we get round to it’ repair. “
Councillor Richard Wilson, Liberal Democrat ward colleague, adds:
“Traffic has to circumnavigate this whopping great hole and it is on the corner of a busy junction.It is causing unnecessary danger to drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.This should be treated as a priority.”
Devastating impact of Post Office closures
The proposed closure of local Post Offices will have a devastating impact on people’s lives, particularly on small businesses and home workers. That was the verdict of local Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone as she handed in her official response to the Post Office consultation that ended on Wednesday, April 2nd.
Ms Featherstone handed in her detailed response calling for all the Post Offices to be kept open along with more than 2000 letters, petitions and emails she has received from constituents supporting her stance. *
Her response also included the emails she had received supporting the government’s plans for closure – there were just 4 of them!
Ms Featherstone comments:
“The scale of the response and the detail of people’s comments show just how much these Post Offices will be missed if they close. The Government must listen to what is so clearly the will of the community to keep these Post Offices open.
“Closing these Post Offices is madness. Many form the beating heart of local shopping areas – if they go then other shops on these parades will become more marginal and less able to survive in a retail environment where they are more and more under fire from the big out of town supermarkets. We risk empty shop units which in turn lead to vandalism and crime.”
* Whilst over 2000 responses of various sorts were received, it is possible that some of these may be duplicates where the same person has responded through several different media.
Olympics protest
Joined the protests earlier today – with Hornsey councillor Monica Whyte – over China’s record on Tibet and human rights as the Olympic Torch passed through London.
Free speech – and speaking out against that which we oppose – is a key part of our society, and it was great to see so many people exercising that right to speak out today – a right, of course, that China doesn’t extend to people in Tibet or China.
The Chinese Government has been repeatedly politicising the Olympics for its own ends – and yet Gordon Brown seems too timid to show any real displeasure at China’s repeated abuse of basic human rights.
Numerous other government heads have spoken and acted – but not our own. What is the point of having the privilege of holding a post such as Prime Minister if you’re not willing to use it to speak out when needed?
Three-form entry at Rhodes Avenue school?
The news story from my main website is pretty self-explanatory:
Liberal Democrats councillors have expressed fears that the crisis over a shortage of reception places for schoolchildren in Alexandra ward is now widening out to adjacent areas.
Of the 136 children (nearly double the number in 2006) who did not receive any of their parents’ four preferences for a reception place in September, 25 came from Alexandra ward, 17 from neighbouring Muswell Hill and 14 from next-door Bounds Green ward. Together, they make up over 40% of the total, whilst the cut-off distances around popular local schools such as Rhodes Avenue and Bounds Green continue to shrink. Liberal Democrats say that action must be taken to deal with the worsening shortfall.
Cllr Gail Engert, spokesperson for children, schools and families, has been pressing Haringey Council since the summer to undertake a feasibility study on expanding Rhodes Avenue to three-form entry, which could provide an extra 30 places to allow local children a choice of a local school.
Cllr Engert comments: “This situation is going from bad to worse, while Haringey Council just turns a blind eye. Expansion may have taken place at Tetherdown, Coleridge and Coldfall primaries, but this is now history and these schools are full. The Labour Council needs to act now to make sure that increasing numbers of parents around Alexandra are not let down.”
Local MP Lynne Featherstone adds: “It is heartbreaking having to deal with local families who can’t get a place at a much loved local schools for their child. Haringey seems paralysed by inaction when it comes to dealing with the problem in this part of the Muswell Hill. It’s time Haringey Council took up the Liberal Democrat plan for three-form entry at Rhodes Avenue.”
Lynne Featherstone 