The decision by the Overview and Scrutiny Chair, Cllr Gideon Bull, to reconsider recommendations over the use of wireless internet access in schools has been welcomed by Lib Dem councillors. The Lib Dems made the recommendations at the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on 2nd July 2007.

Lib Dem councillors suggested that wireless internet connections should be turned off in schools until consultation with parents could be carried out. However, this was not included in the formal recommendations taken forward by the Committee. Committee Chair Cllr Bull (Labour) has now agreed to ask the Labour Cabinet to recommend a time limit for a consultation to take place to ask parents and staff to decide whether to continue with Wi-fi in schools and whether it could be viable for the Council to ask schools to turn off Wi-fi connections until the consultation has been completed.Lib Dems say this is a step in the right direction.

Cllr Martin Newton, Lead member on Overview and Scrutiny, comments:

“I am glad that Cllr Bull and I have come to an amicable agreement as this is how joint scrutiny should work. In the end it comes down to allowing parents and staff a say in the issue. The Overview and Scrutiny Committee was very clear in what it wanted.”

Cllr Dave Winskill, Overview and Scrutiny Member, adds:

“Overview and Scrutiny always tries to work on a non party political basis and I hope councillors working together will be able to come up with a solution that will serve the needs of our most precious asset – children being educated in the borough.”

The announcement by Haringey Council that recycling services will be expanded to include three new streets in Crouch End has been welcomed by Lib Dem councillors.

The increase in service will affect Gladwell Road, Drylands Road and Aubrey Road. Lib Dem councillors see this as vindication of their hard work with residents and council officers to improve recycling in the area.

Cllr Lyn Weber, Lib Dem Deputy Sustainability Spokesperson (Crouch End) comments:

“We very much welcome this increase in recycling service in Crouch End and is as a result of the Lib Dem work that has gone into ensuring that this problem was solved.

“The initial response from Haringey Council was to wait until a special narrow vehicle was purchased (subject to funding) in order to access the roads. We are still awaiting the purchase of this vehicle and without Lib Dem pressure to suggest the change in parking restrictions the problem would have still been there.”

Cllr Dave Winskill (Crouch End) adds:

“When the residents came to us they had no full recycling collection it became clear that the reason was over-parking on corners of the roads. By talking to local people and officers we were able to find a satisfactory solution.

“We are also currently trying to get recycling made available to a new residential development in Haringey Park, Williams Close, New Road and Christopher Lodge and would love to hear from any other people in the ward who need recycling.”

Haringey Liberal Democrats have expressed their outrage at the changes made to recommendations agreed by Haringey Council’s watchdog committee without the consent of its members.

The Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee had agreed at the July 2nd meeting that the Council should recommend to schools that wireless internet access (Wi-fi) should be switched off prior to a formal consultation of parents and staff over its continued use.

However, despite the Committee’s decision, these proposals have now been watered down by the Chair of the committee to include only a recommendation advising schools to have a consultation at some future point and continue to use Wi-fi in the meantime. Lib Dem Overview and Scrutiny members are furious that they were not consulted and have demanded that the recommendations made by the Committee are reinstated.

Cllr Martin Newton, Lib Dem lead member on the Overview and Scrutiny committee, comments:

“It is a disgrace that the committee’s concerns about the use of Wi-fi in schools are being brushed aside in this way. This means Labour do not want parents and staff to have a proper say. This a real test for the credibility of scrutiny in Haringey.”

Cllr David Winskill, Lib Dem member on Overview and Scrutiny, adds:

“This is an utterly contemptuous move by the Chair of the committee. Councillors all agreed that the recommendations made on 2nd July 2007 should go to the Cabinet to consider. To change the recommendations to something that the committee did not agree is totally unacceptable. The committee’s decisions have basically been entirely re-written behind the scenes. It’s a complete disregard of the scrutiny function of the Council.”

In a rare, yet welcome, show of unity with the Liberal Democrats, the Labour Council group unanimously supported a Liberal Democrat amendment to a motion at the Full Council meeting on 16th July 2007. Lib Dems believed that the Labour motion did not go far enough to ensure full consultation of local residents, on issues such as relocation of services and the provision of transport provision to new health care facilities, would be carried out.

Carolyn Baker, Lib Dem Health Spokesperson, comments:

“We welcomed the Labour motion, but felt it didn’t go far enough. We want Haringey Council to set out concrete proposals to the local Primary Care Trust (PCT) for consultation with local people. We want to see all people being properly consulted over the potential relocation of their GP services to polyclinics.

“We also want to see detailed consultation with local people over the relocation of every service at St. Ann’s that serves a local need. In addition, we wish Haringey Council to urge the PCT to consult with relevant bodies over transport provision to any new health care centres and to ensure that where it is not possible for people in need to reach medical care individually, care is provided in the home or transport arranged by the facility.

“We welcome the fact that the Labour Council decided to agree with our points and that the Council could act unanimously over this issue.”

Haringey Liberal Democrats have expressed their concern at the announcement that the Tracey Baldwin is to replace Enfield’s Primary Care Trust (PCT) Chief Executive who left on 13 th July 2007. Tracey Baldwin is currently the Chief Executive of Haringey’s PCT and will take on both roles

Lib Dems are concerned that Haringey can ill afford to have a Chief Executive unable to concentrate entirely on Haringey, one of the poorest performing health trusts in the country and at a time when all efforts should be concentrated on the consultation to the comprehensive health strategy.

Lib Dems have requested a meeting with the Chief Executive to seek assurances that patients won’t suffer and targets won’t slip.

Cllr Carolyn Baker, Lib Dem Health Spokesperson, comments:

“This is a raw deal for the thousands of people in Haringey. I understand the cost savings that may come from sharing a Chief Executive however putting cash decisions before the priorities of the health provision in the borough is unacceptable. I am worried that a dual Chief Executive will not be able to put Haringey’s health needs first and this could only damage both Haringey and Enfield’s prospects for the future.”

Cllr Wayne Hoban, Haringey Lib Dem Spokesperson for Regeneration & Enterprise, slammed the Labour Regeneration and Enterprise Cabinet member at this week’s full council meeting over a damning internal audit report submitted to Haringey Council in September 2006, which highlighted serious management and accountability failings within the Bridge New Deal for Communities £50 million spending programme.

Councillor Hoban has also discovered serious discrepancies relating to statements made by the Bridge NDC Director and the London Region Head of Audit in response to his enquiries.The Bridge NDC Director informed Cllr Hoban in a letter of 26 July 2005 that the NDC accounts are contained within Haringey Council’s accounts, but stated that, “there is no specific line covering the Bridge NDC in the accounts.”The London Region Head of Audit, however, stated in a letter to Cllr Hoban of 19 February 2007 that, “NDC transactions are recorded in Haringey Council’s accounting systems and are separately identifiable”.

The Internal Audit report (the first time the Bridge NDC spending programme had been audited since it commenced in 2001), sampled 10 projects during the course of their audit and found that:

·No Project Proposals were found on file

·None of the projects contained the Project Appraisal for Health Checklists

·Project Appraisal forms were not always signed off by the relevant council officer

·No reconciliation was completed between System K, which records expenditure, output and outcome, and SAP.

Cllr Hoban (Alexandra ward) comments:

“This damning audit demonstrates clearly that Haringey Council, as the Accountable Body for this huge £50 million spending programme, has failed in its responsibility to ensure that expenditure is properly recorded and also ensure that output and outcomes are properly measured and recorded. In the absence of such controls it is impossible to determine whether the money has been appropriately spent and also impossible to determine whether the intended outcomes have been achieved.

“This is clearly an unsatisfactory state of affairs; we have clearly contradictory statements from the two key individuals charged with the responsibility for ensuring that this multi-million project has been appropriately spent.This is a clear case of ‘smoke and mirrors’, with precious little clarity and accountability as to the real benefits delivered to local residents on the ground.

“It is clear that nothing less than an independent forensic financial investigation of the NDC accounts for the period 2001-2006 will do if we are to be reassured that the massive public funds secured for the NDC project has been appropriately managed and spent.”

Liberal Democrats challenged the Haringey Labour Cabinet at the Full Council Meeting on Monday 18th July 2007 over their recent decision to spend £2.2m on a replacement IT system.

The new expenditure replaces a system for operating the Council’s Customer Services that has been operating for only eighteen months and which itself cost £1.4m to install.

The £2.2m expenditure will provide no additional customer service and the new system has less customer service functionality than the system being replaced.

The expenditure was not budgeted and has been agreed at the same time as £2m cuts are being made to the budget for street lighting improvements which have been requested on safety grounds.

Liberal Democrat Finance Spokesperson Cllr Robert Gorrie comments:

“What a tragic waste by Labour of the £1.4m spent on an IT system being thrown away after only eighteen months. The new £2.2m of expenditure brings residents no service benefit and shows the lack of clarity in Labour’s priorities which should be about improving the life of the residents of the borough rather than just the internal workings of Haringey Council’s administration.”

Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, adds:

“Haringey Council has clearly learnt no lessons after £11m Tech Refresh fiasco. It is staggering that they are now asking the Haringey taxpayer to foot the bill for what is in effect a software downgrade with no discernable benefit to local residents.”