Anger at further wait for delayed Haringey Council parking plans

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Parking chaos continues for residents in Crouch End following further delays by Haringey Council over the promised start of a key local consultation.

Parking boss Cllr Brian Haley told representatives of Crouch End residents’ groups in December 2007 that a draft plan to alleviate the parking problems would be presented in January 2008. The area’s Liberal Democrats are concerned that delays to the start of consultation will hold up the implementation of solutions to the parking problems.

Last summer, local Lib Dems highlighted the parking misery endured by Crouch End residents inundated with cars displaced by parking restrictions in nearby roads after the implementation of Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs) in Highgate, Stroud Green and in Hillrise (Islington) and also Stop n Stop schemes in the area, coupled with the temporary closure to the Highgate station car park.

Cllr Lyn Weber (Crouch End) comments:

“Haringey Council only seems to have excuses, not solutions to this problem.I thought we had made good progress. A lot of good will had been built up between resident groups and Haringey Council who were working together to find a solution. How do Haringey respond – with excuses and delays. How long will it be until residents have a solution?

“Last August we found out that people in Crouch End faced seven months of parking misery. Now, due to the inaction of this Labour-controlled council this is likely to be longer.

“There is also the ongoing cost: to the environment with cars circling like vultures for spaces to park in, residents’ stress levels are rising, family life is being disrupted and small businesses don’t want to go to areas blighted by no parking spaces.All we get is excuse after excuse: it’s just plain wrong.”

Cllr David Winskill (Crouch End) adds:

“Although I am a cyclist I can sympathise with the difficulties that residents face. It’s impossible for people to park. Had Haringey talked to other boroughs about their experiences of the effects of CPZs we might not have been in such a mess.”

The interesting case of Seb Green

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I don’t know about Seb Green other than how his case has been reported in the media, so with that caveat – it looks an interesting story of how someone who has committed a crime paying restitution to the community can be better outcome for all concerned than simply locking them up.

This teenager from Weymouth stole a boat in 2003, headed out to sea, ran into trouble, had to be rescued (running up large costs for the emergency services), was prosecuted – and given a supervision referral order. So far, so normal – and you can easily imagine how this case might have seen people jumping on the ‘tough on crime’ soapbox demanding tougher sentences for people in such cases etc etc.

Except – and to his credit – Seb Green is now carrying out a sponsored walk around Britain to raise funds to give the local coastguard and also another charity in order to pay amends for his earlier behaviour.

All in all, I think his future (not a trivial matter – both because he’s a fellow human and also because even if you give someone a tough jail sentence in such circumstances – they still come out of jail again at some point) and also our community are better off for this outcome.

This makes it a good reminder that simply always demanding longer jail sentences isn’t the smart answer to tackling crime. Having youth and charity workers help put Seb Green back on the straight and narrow has almost certainly worked much better than sending him to jail would have.

Pay gap between men and women

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Important report from the Commons Select Committee just published – details courtesy of the BBC. (Select Committees are made up of MPs from all parties – which gives reports like this more weight as you know their conclusions are ones shared across parties).

Haringey Labour remove free leisure passes for the over 65s

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Campaigning to keep Haringey's free leisure passes for pensioners with Cllr David WinskillWent to Park Road Pools to launch a petition to reverse Haringey Labour’s ridiculous decision to remove the free passes for leisure for the over 65s.

You can sign the petition online at ourcampaign.org.uk/leisure

I did a photo op with Crouch End councillor David Winskill, and two older ladies who are incandescent (as are the three hundred who attended a meeting at Tottenham Leisure Centre last week) about Haringey Labour’s budget cut of £52,000 removing the free passes that our elderly residents currently have.

This is nuts. It’s a small sum compared to the huge Labour waste, and yet the activity, social engagement and exercise that these older residents get from using their passes to go to classes or swim or whatever is a wonderfully productive investment – not to mention the enjoyment it brings – as it helps people keep fit and happy and socialised.

My Liberal Democrat colleagues identified £3million waste in the Haringey Council budget last week. Cut that waste – not the leisure passes!

In other local news – I met the minister to put the case for fair funding of Haringey’s schools, as reported over on my website.

Haringey Liberal Democrats launch petition to save free passes for over 65s

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In a bid to overturn Haringey Labour’s decision to scrap free access to local leisure centres for the over 65s, Lynne Featherstone MP and Councillor David Winskill visited Park Road Leisure Centre to launch a petition together with concerned residents.

On Monday, Labour councillors voted to scrap the concession. The new charges will come into force in less than eight weeks, saving £52,000.

People wanting to support the campaign should visit http://ourcampaign.org.uk/leisure or contact Lynne Featherstone on 020 8340 5459.

Lynne Featherstone MP says:

“£21 for a monthly pass is a big chunk out of the state pension.People are very angry about this unfair proposal and I have heard from many worried elderly people who fear that this will put a stop to them using the pool and gym.

“This is such a ridiculous piece of penny pinching. The £52,000 saving would not be necessary if Labour had been able to make the cost cuts it had promised.”

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

“What kind of a message is this sending out to old people who have heeded the government’s call to get out and exercise? It shows just how short-sighted this Labour council is. This policy is almost bound to lead to costs to the NHS that far exceed £52,000.

“Regular exercise can keep older people fit and out of doctors’ surgeries, as well as provide companionship and social contact for those living by themselves.”

Cllr Winskill will meet with Haringey Council officials on Monday to express the anger of all sections of the community about these new proposals.

The truth behind Ken Livingstone's financial claims

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The BBC report on Ken Livingstone really says it all:

London’s mayor knew there were financial problems with some community projects before he publicly denied it, it has been revealed.

London Development Agency (LDA) chairman Manny Lewis said he told Ken Livingstone there were “discrepancies” in some of the projects’ accounts. The mayor subsequently stated publicly that all finances could be accounted for.

If, say, a Conservative MP had been caught out in the same way do you think Labour MPs would just turn their backs and ignore it, or would they be demanding blood, resignation and 1001 other punishments?

How many phone tap requests could you carefully consider each and every day?

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Following Nick Clegg raising the issue of Labour’s love of surveillance (mandatory ID cards, innocent people on DNA database etc etc) at Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, there’s one particular statistic that is troubling me.

In the last nine months of 2006, the Home Secretary authorised 1,333 warrants to intercept telephone calls or letters. That’s the equivalent of just under five each and every day – with no time off for weekends or holidays and without counting any requests that may have been rejected.

Now – that Home Secretary also has to do the job of running that department (no easy job!) and do all the constituency duties of an MP. So – how much time do you really think goes into those authorisation decisions?

I think this matters for two reasons – first, it raises questions about how well that system might be working (and let’s not forget – if you get a decision wrong, it means the state is unnecessarily spying on the personal conversations of an innocent person) and second – the whole “but the Home Secretary would have to authorise it” defence is increasingly used to justify all sorts of infringements of our civil liberties. It’s not much of a protection is all it really means is a few seconds scanning a memo before saying ‘ok’.

And lo, Gordon Brown spends, spends, spends to bailout Metronet

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A few days ago I wrote about the huge financial headache left when tube maintenance company Metronet collapsed. Labour has now had to bail out the mess – a mess caused by their part-privatisation of our tube network in the first place.

It again shines a light on one of the real problems with these sorts of PPP deals: there were sold as shifting the risk to the private sector (who also got the chance to make profits). Instead, we’ve seen firms making profits – but in the end the risk still stays with us taxpayers. As Norman Baker (Lib Dem MP and general scourge of all things wrong) put it: “Just like Northern Rock, the private sector takes the profit when they can, and the public sector bails them out when matters go pear-shaped.”

The one small piece of good news in all this? The bailout bill looks to be coming in at £1.7 billion rather than £1.9 billion.

Minister rejects Haringey residents' school fair funding plea, but fight goes on

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Local MP Lynne Featherstone has vowed to carry on the fight for a fair deal for Haringey’s students after schools minister, Jim Knight, has refused residents’ demands to scrap the school funding system that sees every Haringey pupil receive £1,183 less until 2011.

The Government’s lack of action was confirmed yesterday in a face-to-face meeting between the Labour Minister and Ms Featherstone, where she put the case for fair funding.

Ms. Featherstone also presented a petition backed by 615 local residents who supported the campaign.

Commenting, Lynne Featherstone MP says:

“How the Government calculates Haringey schools funding bears little relation to the needs of our schools. Our teachers are rightly paid inner London wages, but the schools are being short-changed by around a thousand pounds a year for every pupil.

“This is not a problem that can be kicked into the long grass as part of another protracted review.It is clear from the level of support we have received that local parents and guardians want action now.

“I will continue to badger Jim Knight and Ed Balls at every turn to give our schools a fair funding deal.”