Residents and MP demand last minute re-think on mast

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An urgent appeal for a last minute re-think on the Mount View Road (N8) phone mast was made today directly to senior phone company officials by local residents and Lynne Featherstone MP.

Residents and Ms Featherstone had requested the eleventh hour meeting to put the case against the mast’s location.

Commenting Lynne Featherstone MP says:

“I really wanted the mobile company to see how unsuitable this location is.It is not acceptable that the mast will be pointing directly into local residents’ bedrooms.

“Together residents and I made a plea for an urgent investigation of alternative sites that are as far away as possible from residential properties.Failing that, then the company should consider repositioning of the antennae putting residents’ bedrooms out of the waves’ direct path.”

The Hutchison 3G officials gave a commitment to give further consideration to the residents’ and Ms. Featherstone’s representations before going ahead.

Flooding in Muswell Hill

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Going to my constituency office today, I get a call from the police telling me of a flood in Muswell Hill at the bottom of Ally Pally – so I head over on foot to see what’s up. (See the photos over on Flickr). All traffic had been stopped. Encountering a policeman I ask what is happening and he gets a car to take me up to the meeting place where Chris Donaldson from the Metropolitan Police is in charge and all of the agencies were coordinating their work. A 24 inch main had burst and a torrent of water was cascading down through Alexandra Palace Park into the backs of houses on Redston Road. The fire service were diverting and channelling the water away from residences as well as they could and sand-bagging up houses’ entrances to protect them.

The water board reckoned they would get the main turned off within a half hour – but as this was at a pumping station they had to turn off a series of mains across London before this one. The emergency services seemed extremely efficient and I then walked down through the park to see the worst affected houses.

It was terrible to see the gushing torrents coming out of peoples’ houses. The high odd numbers on Redston Road were worst hit. I went inside with Mrs Catherine Harper – one local resident – to see how bad it was. Her carpet was sodden and the patio out the back completely submerged. Other residents I met couldn’t speak highly enough of the fire service who had rushed into peoples’ houses and helped householders lift all their moveable possession upstairs or at least piled above where the water had come to.

In another house, where builders were working, they had erected barriers to protect three or four of the houses at the back by diverting the water around. Other local neighbours were coming out of their houses with broom and wellies.

My councillor Lib Dem colleagues Gail Engert, Martin Newton and Robert Gorrie were also all there to offer help. I left after about an hour and a half (with rather wet feet!), stopping at The Priory – which is sheltered accommodation for the elderly on Priory Road. I briefly met the warden and manager there who were all coping magnificently and trying to get hold of more sandbags – which were on their way. They were keeping everyone safely inside.

It was certainly quite a bad burst water main – and I guess that all of us who have been watching the dreadful floods throughout the country over recent days never dreamt that a part of Muswell Hill would experience flooding. It’s not on the scale of the rest of the country – but for those affected – it is dreadful.

Congratulations to all of the emergency services who really worked fantastically to help local people – well impressed!

Meeting Peter Hendy

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Wednesday evening met with Peter Hendy, Commissioner of Transport for London. My three asks were: extending the 603 bus route to run all day and evening (as always); the transport issues around the new London Health Trust plans including the polyclinics (we need to ensure there are good public transport links for any such); and whether he would think about encouraging car clubs (where people share cars) via a congestion charge incentive.

So – number 1 – the 603 bus from Muswell Hill to Swiss Cottage. Well – the possibly good news is that it comes up for review next year. So our job is to make sure we feed into that review with thousands of requests to extend the operating hours from its current school run times only. People keep asking me about this – so we will have to ramp up our campaign again.

On number 2 – well it was interesting – because there are huge transport implications in the proposals to restructure health services. Firstly – the need to access in emergency for stroke, heart attack and major trauma the proposed super-specialist hospitals. Surely travel time trials from every part of London need to be done to establish the worst scenario time taken when traffic is bad and no air ambulance available? If we can’t get the victims to the right place in time – then this plan won’t work.

Secondly, the establishment of polyclinics – which are to serve up to 50,000 residents – may raise big transport issues. Will people be able to get to the polyclinics in reasonable time and at reasonable cost?

Peter was saying that this could be an issue and was going to arrange to meet with the Government to talk over the transport implications. Hurrah!

On number 3 – yes – Peter is considering how best to encourage the expansion of car clubs – so he agreed to look at the congestion charge in that regard – but I think any discount will be along the lines of discounts to people within the zone but not outside. Anyway – it is in and on his mind.

Update: you can read my article subsequent article about polyclinics here.

Comment on Muswell Hill flooding

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Commenting on the flooding of houses south of Alexandra Park following a burst water main, Lynne Featherstone, Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green said,

“The resilience shown by local people has been incredible. Everybody has rallied round to help their friends and neighbours. We are a strong community and that was proven today.

“I was with the police and fire brigade talking to local residents in the first few hours and I have to say I was impressed with the speed of their response.

“I will now be pressing Thames Water to find out how this happened and asking them to ensure it won’t happen again.”

Photographs of the flooding are available on Flickr.

New mobile phone mast on Mount View Road

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At Lynne Featherstone MP meeting residents and Hutchison 3G representatives at the proposed Mount View Road mobile phone mast locationlast we have a meeting with Hutchison 3G who are the mobile phone company erecting a mast on Mount View Road – where residents have been fighting tooth and nail against it.

Even Haringey turned it down – but Hutchison won on appeal. This is really a last ditch attempt to try and get Hutchison to change their mind.

These meetings are never easy – and I am grateful to Mike Davies from Hutchison for coming to face us. The mast will be situated barely 20 metres from residents’ houses, and very close to children’s bedrooms.

For me the important issue is to follow the precautionary principle – don’t site masts near young children, vulnerable people and schools etc. So – back to this mast. Robin Derham and near neighbours with a range of phenomenal skill sets were there for the discussion. There had been deliberately no demonstration organised this time – the idea was to talk and persuade.

Attending as well as Mike Davies, who is the Corporate Affairs Manager for H3G, was the planner for the site and on the residents’ side – Barbara Derham (Co-ordinator of the Neighbourhood Group, Mount View Road); Dorothy Livingston (lawyer); Peter Sommer (radio and telecomms expert); Chris Turrell (businessman) and Dr Chris Wood – doctor specialising in immune systems. Sadly Neil Morrissey could not be there – but was quoted as saying he was willing to chain himself to the railings if it came to it!

I won’t go into the techy arguments – but Mike Davies agreed to take back to the decision makers the question that Robin put – were Hutchison willing to look for alternative sites even at this late stage? And also – to look at the angles and direction of the coverage which appeared to mostly go towards the houses where there was already coverage as opposed to H3G’s stated aim of filling in the coverage gap in the other direction.

I hope they will look for a new site as far away from residential properties as is possible. They mentioned a site that seemed to be arbitrarily rejected before, but I don’t know enough details to judge whether it would be better or worse than this one.

So – we wait and hope.

One problem H3G voiced was that Haringey Council has put a moratorium on masts on council property, land or buildings – and that is forcing the mast companies on to residential streets. The criteria should surely be not who owns a possible site – but how suitable or not the site is.

Second problem – and one I will be pursuing – is that the conditions set by the Government for the licence for mast companies requires that they have an independent network. With five companies in the field all erecting their own sites – that’s a lot of masts. So – I’ll be pressing the Government to allow for more sharing of resources.

We do all (well many of us – including me) use mobile phones – which is why I’m happy with arguing for the precautionary principle – and not an outright ban – because we should put health concerns first, whilst also recognising that people do like having decent reception on their phones.

Rwanda

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Meetings, meetings, meetings – from blogging, to China to trying to Stop the Trafficking of children in the developing world – and Shadow Cabinet too. Later today, I lead for the Liberal Democrats on the Conservative Opposition debate on Attacking Global Poverty. The Tories have spent 18 months producing a huge tome from their commission. But – they barely mention climate change. Given that is the most catastrophic threat the developing world is facing – a bit of an omission I thought. I’ve put down an amendment on the climate change aspect – but it won’t be selected because the Government amendment (which is almost identical to the Tory motion) always gets selected.

Listening to Nick Ferrari this morning though, Cameron was getting it in the neck for being in Rwanda rather than Witney which is under water. Cameron isn’t doing himself any favours by going when Parliament is sitting (rather than waiting a week and going during recess – after all, that’s part of the justification for having recess, so you can devote chunks of time uninterrupted to a particular issue) and surrounded by a press pack (compare with Paddy Ashdown’s trips to spend time with people when he was our party leader – done without a trailing press pack). That having been said – Iain Dale’s blog is a window on the aftermath of genocide and worth reading.

Muswell Hill Library and Hornsey Central Hospital

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Muswell Hill and Highgate Neighbourhood Assembly – centred for its theme on older people in the area. Featuring were both the plans for Hornsey Hospital to become a polyclinic and the abandoning of the idea from Haringey for a restaurant in the centre of Muswell Hill Library – at which we cheered as the detailed case had never been made for it.

On the rest of the plans for the library (which is much in need of care) – there was still no timetable at all – and the Director of Libraries who was there didn’t know the timetable and didn’t have information about some of the basics of the plans. Not impressive. And the tragedy is that some of the ideas that have been talked about have been excellent – but it’s all being lost in a mess of vagueness and foot dragging.

And then the poor woman presenting the Hornsey Hospital update got it in the neck for the shameful consultation process taking place at present on the local Primary Care Strategy. Sue Hessel said that only seven people attended the first meeting and the second which is tomorrow night may attract just as few. They said they were happy to go to other meetings if invited but as I pointed out – having a meeting isn’t consultation – nothing like. So I’ve written my Highgate Handbook and Muswell Hill Flyer column on this issue (will post after it is published) as local people need to know what is going on.

Update: my article about polyclinics is now here.

I become a Labour MP

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Last of the Westminster Hours before recess. They have all three of us (one MP from each main party) in to chew over the by-election, housing, floods and so on. Ten minutes between three doesn’t go very far – and it was a bit of a gallop. Mark d’Arcy kept referring to me as Lynne Jones (a Labour MP). I didn’t comment at first – and then thought perhaps humour would be best – but as it was Radio 4 I settled for hissing under my breath. It happens. I have been called in the chamber as Julia Goldsworthy before now – and given the disparity in our ages (she’s half my age) am simply grateful!

Parkland Walk: progress from Haringey Council

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Mosey along to the ‘consultation’ on the plans for Parkland Walk. It would seem from the number of times that officers told me that the priority for the walk was its role as a nature reserve followed by a walk for pedestrians – that the message has got through from we local people.

The fear was that Haringey Council – in order to get the dosh from Transport for London (from their cycling department) – were going to turn Parkland Walk into a commuter cycle track. I had, subsequent to hearing local peoples’ concerns, got with a Freedom of Information request documentary evidence that indeed that was what the Parkland Walk money was for.

Having put this in the public domain and got loads and loads of people to give me their views on the then proposals (which I forwarded to the Council consultation), it would now seem from looking at today’s plans that the Council has taken note. Mainly the grant now seems to be being proposed to be used for improving access, patching paths, putting in drainage and introducing better signing.

It was still quite hard to tell what surface material they were proposing for the patching of the paths – as they displayed a range of about four – with no indiction of their favourites.

If the work goes ahead as displayed – outside of a bit of concern about the steps that will be replaced by ramps for cycles, wheelchairs and buggies – it looks OK.

So – fingers crossed!

Elections, surgery, police

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Wake up to the pleasant news that Liberal Democrats had pushed the Tories into third place in Sedgefield and improved their second place in Ealing Southall.

It is a terrible result for Cameron – particularly as on the actual ballot papers in Ealing their candidates was described as “David Cameron’s Conservatives” rather than simply “Conservative”. This was very much his personal campaign, with the message being “David Cameron wants you to vote for this man”. Reputation on the line – reputation very damaged! Serves him right for hiking someone to stand, Tony Lit, who wasn’t a Conservative but was someone who Cameron thought could attract votes. Poor judgement and poor practise.

Labour majorities were slashed – but they didn’t lose – which is also one in the eye for the Tories. Though still don’t think Gordon will rush into a General Election – having waited all his life to get where he is today would he really risk losing it all so soon?

UPDATE: There’s a good round up of what the press are making of the by-elections over at Lib Dem Voice.

Surgery in the morning followed by my regular meeting with police borough Commander Simon O’Brien. I raise the issue of gangs, the parks constabulary and the need for even more Neighbourhood Policing. The parks constabulary now are on the same radio band as the police. I had been concerned that the two systems were making a farce of the parks police chasing a criminal, for example, who runs out the park – but they cannot radio the Met to catch him. Simon assured me that the radios were now all up to modern standards and working together on the new Airwave system.

I discussed some ideas I have for youth diversion – and am putting some proposals together on this. And I also asked whether Haringey Police and PCSOs had any capacity that could be used (if paid for) to deploy to particular projects or areas of need – and the answer is yes. So my council colleagues will be pushing to use this capacity to tackle the persistent areas of anti-social behaviour.