Lib Dem concern over future of Tottenham Cancer Information drop-in service

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Liberal Democrat councillor Wayne Hoban has told Haringey Council that it must do more to support the Macmillan Cancer Information drop-in centre in Bigbury Close, Tottenham. Councillor Hoban has written to Haringey Council to express his concern that Labour-run Haringey Council is failing to provide support and adequate advertising to attract people to this valuable service.

Cllr Hoban visited the centre after an invitation by the manager concerned that potential users of the service may not be aware that it exists. The centre provides support and information for cancer patients and their families. Cllr Hoban has asked the council to assist in advertising the service through a donation of advertising space in council publications – this request has been denied.

As the charity is currently administered from several private homes, the manager has asked the council for permission to make available space on the site for construction of a small office which would allow them to operate this vital service more effectively, the cost of which would be borne by the charity, but Haringey Council has yet to respond effectively to this request.

Cllr Hoban comments:

“This cancer charity delivers a vital service to vulnerable people who need professional care and assistance within their community, which is completely in line with government policy. Haringey Council has a duty to ensure that the charity is given all possible support and assistance to ensure that the service is maximised and potential users of the service are reached. I will continue to push for an effective response.”

Lib Dem concern over gale damage to the Alexandra Triangle site

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Liberal Democrat councillors in Alexandra ward have asked Haringey Council to explain why, nearly three weeks after the strong winds uprooted two trees on 18th January 2007, the Triangle in Alexandra ward has yet to be cleared of debris caused by the storm.

The Triangle, situated at the junction of Palace Gates Road and Crescent Road, had been badly neglected by the Labour Council over many years. Following a successful community-led bid for funding from the Muswell Hill Area Assembly community budget last year, a residents’ working group, supported by local businesses and councillors, has worked hard to revive the site through a three year upgrade project.

Cllr Wayne Hoban (Alexandra ward) comments:

“Local residents were extremely disappointed to see two healthy trees on the site lost in the storm, but it is even more distressing to see the council dragging its feet in clearing the site from the aftermath. I have asked for urgent action to clear the site and replace the destroyed trees to ensure that the upgrade programme is not unnecessarily delayed.”

Haringey Council Budget a wasted opportunity, Lib Dems say

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Liberal Democrats have slammed the Labour budget presented to Haringey Council on 5th February 2007, and have presented their own alternative proposals. The party also challenged Labour to provide evidence of how their own savings would be achieved.

Lib Dems proposals include cutting back on extravagant Labour propaganda and publications, energy saving across the council of 4%, and cutting council travel expenses. Savings identified by the Lib Dems would be used to reverse Labour’s rubbish collection cuts and the planned closure of the Keston Road Centre, an increase the budget for graffiti clear-up, funding a commercial waste reduction programme, investing in an additional youth worker for each Area Assembly and planting more trees in the borough.

Matt Davies (Lib Dem Finance spokesperson) comments:

“Our proposals show that there is much more that the council can do to meet the key concerns of local residents. And what a pity so much money is wasted by Haringey Council on disasters like the $15 million overspend on Tech Refresh.”

Robert Gorrie, Deputy Finance Spokesperson, adds:

“The 1,318 pages of the budget are uninspiring, lack real content and only highlights that Labour are not in control of their finances. Haringey Council has no concept of providing output targets to show what impact their budget will have on indicators their performance is measured. One can only assume that they have no idea what effect their budget will have.”

'We can cut crime' say Haringey Liberal Democrats in new campaign

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The Liberal Democrats in Haringey have launched their new campaign – We can cut crime – as the centrepiece of their efforts to tackle crime and improve the lives of all the citizens of Haringey.

Cllr Ron Aitken, Lib Dem Spokesperson on Crime, along with Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, launched the campaign on Saturday 3 rd February 2007 in Wood Green.

The Liberal Democrats have a five point plan to beat crime involving more police on the beat, taking back the streets from criminals and making them safe for the public, honesty in sentencing so that life will mean life, making prison work with training and education, and using the proceeds of prisoners work to fund a Victims Compensation fund.

Lib Dems have also demanded effective action from Haringey Council to tackle crime in Haringey. They have submitted a motion to be considered at the 19th February 2007 council meeting urging Haringey Council to do more to tackle anti-social behaviour in the community.

Cllr Aitken comments:

“Labour have been in power for ten years, but haven’t managed to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour effectively. We don’t need spin that shies away from reality – we need real action.

“The reality in Haringey is that 272 firearms incidents were recorded in just the last two years, 68 of which involved the firing of a weapon. One person was fatally injured and 58 others received injuries when a firearm was discharged. For the victims this is an appalling toll of trauma and misery.”

Lynne Featherstone adds:

“We have five simple steps that could really make a difference in our area. We would spend the billions of pounds the Government is spending on ID cards on extra police. We want to take back our streets and make them a place where families aren’t afraid to go after dark and we want prison sentences to mean something and make prison work.”

Saudi Arabia and corruption: Parliament debates

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It was the Liberal Democrat Opposition Day in Parliament today (where we get to choose the program) and we had two motions down – the first on the scandal of the dropping of corruption investigations into the BAe arms deal with Saudi Arabia, and the second on our campaign ‘We Can Cut Crime’.

The debate on corruption was clearly a red rag to Labour’s bull (Tough on crime? Only when it suits). The whole issue also embarrasses the Tories deeply – as the original deal was done when they were in power and because of the financial links between their party’s fundraising operation and one of the deal’s middlemen.

The Solicitor-General (Labour) did a very loud and aggressive ‘righteous indignation’ act. How dare the Liberal Democrats imply there was anything wrong.

Well – if you have serious allegations, a long investigation and mounds of evidences – you need to have a pretty darn good reason for not pursuing the case further. No amount of indignation can hide that nor the suspicious timing of events: investigators finally make serious progress, rumours of Saudis switching business to France, investigation dropped.

The Government likes to say it was the Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) who made the decision to drop the case – but this is the decision of the Attorney General, and the Prime Minister had certainly made his views clear to the decision makers.

A big difficulty for the Government is that there are now conventions / treaties on bribery and corruption and you are not allowed to use jobs or relations with another state as a reason for dropping such an investigation.

So the Government called on ‘National Security’ in the public interest. Public Interest is a legitimate reason so long as it is really about the security of the nation. We all would abide by that. But hey – this is the Government of the dodgy dossier and WMD and we know that they are capable of misleading the whole country let alone Parliament when they decide that they know best and don’t have to play by the rules. (Though this time the security services have not been willing to let their name be taken in vain by the Government and have refused requests to back key parts of the Government’s case).

The damage Labour have done to our international standing through the war in Iraq and now this dropping of the investigation will come home to roost as our influence in the world declines thanks to an immoral government. And the turning of a blind eye to corruption in many countries in the Middle East is just what fuel violent opposition to those governments– the sort of violent opposition that in turn fuels the very terrorism Labour says we’re at war with.

New Secondary School: how the meeting went

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So – the second meeting of the ‘New School Bidders’ for the competition to take control and author a new secondary school in in Haringey. If you remember, we kicked up at the first meeting because there were only six were members of the public.

This time it was a packed meeting – maybe a hundred people. I had put out an email to my lists as I am never convinced that a notice in a local paper – which is the standard Council approach – really reaches everyone. It’s a good thing that other people did promote this meeting as Haringey Council did not even get round to updating their website pages about the new school to mention the second meeting. But this time we didn’t leave it to just the Council – and got a far, far better attendance. And as a result the bidders did better and the questions were more testing.

Without going into the minutiae of the presentations – there are three outside bodies bidding and one from Haringey itself for a community school. What is so hard for everyone (outside of the fact we shouldn’t be having a competition at all) is how do you decide? They all say they will be part of the community. They all say they will abide by the code of admission and so on.

Of the bidders I thought the Haberdashers gave the best presentation – but that may be because their Chief Exec was the best presenter. She certainly gave it life and talking to a parent afterwards who has a child who may well attend the new school he certainly felt that out of the four this would be the best.

Amongst my concerns is that whilst I can understand inviting outside management in when schools are failing and they need someone to come in and take it on – this is a brand new school to be built. But regardless of what people locally might decide they want – power really still rests with Labour in Whitehall. Labour dictates that its rules and its preferences have to be followed and its hoops jumped through to have a chance of new money.

In fact, the Government laid a statutory instrument (an amendment to legislation) on 19th January which means that instead of our local Schools Organisation Committee taking the decision on who wins the bid – the decision is being taken out of local hands and will be given to the Schools Adjudicator appointed by the Secretary of State for Education. So even less local say courtesy of centralising Labour, again.

So – my offer to the meeting was to lay down some Parliamentary Questions to find out how transparent the process with the adjudicator will be. What are the criteria? Will we see the reasons for the final choice? Can there be access to the consultation submissions? And Cllr Gail Engert, my Lib Dem colleague, also got agreement (subject to confirmation) that the Schools Organisation Committee which will meet to decide its view will be open to the public. There may also now be the opportunity for a further public meeting with the Schools Adjudicator so that the local people can directly voice there opinions.

It is important that everyone submits there views to this process (it’s all we have). You can email your views to the council at bsd@haringey.gov.uk – though please also copy me in as it’s useful to get a wide spread of feedback. You can use my contact form or post comments on this blog.

Good riddance: Charles Stimson

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Charles Stimson has gone.

You may well not have heard of him – but he is the US official who, appallingly, decided that not only did he think there was nothing at all wrong with what the US is doing at Guantanamo Bay, but also thinks that no-one there deserves any legal representation – and that any lawyer who represents someone should then be boycotted and driven out of the legal business. To me, it’s one of the basic tenets of any civilised legal system that you believe everyone has certain rights – such as to have their case heard and to have someone help them make their case.

I’ve not met Mr Stimson personally, and who knows – in other ways he may be a lovely man, a caring father and a record breaking charity fundraiser – but it’s certainly good riddance to someone who has so little regard for the rights of other people.

Jacksons Lane closure – Haringey Council must act now

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Highgate Liberal Democrat councillors Bob Hare and Neil Williams, along with local MP Lynne Featherstone, are calling for urgent action from Haringey Council to make repairs to the Jacksons Lane Community Centre on Archway Road. The Centre has been closed for several days following serious problems with the roof exacerbated by recent storm damage, with many classes and performances cancelled.

The Liberal Democrats also say that Haringey Council, which owns the freehold of the building, has been aware of the need for structural repairs for over a year, but has taken no action. Apart from the disastrous closure of the centre, the Lib Dems say Haringey Council may well have put the surrounding area in danger. The Council says it is unable to start repairs for three weeks, which is not good enough, say the Lib Dems, as the centre needs to re-open quickly to avoid potential bankruptcy, as its major sources of income have been cut off.

Local councillor and Lib Dem Leader Neil Williams comments:

“What has happened to the centre is nothing short of disgraceful and Haringey must take responsibility. It is a much loved community resource, and one of few council premises in the Highgate area.The Council should have acted before to secure the safety of the roof, and any delays are just not acceptable.

Cllr Bob Hare adds:

“We are awaiting an urgent response from the Council to this crisis. This simply cannot wait. The centre has been severely let down. We are lucky the falling masonry did not kill or injure anyone. Now the building and surrounding area must be made safe. The centre must also be compensated for the substantial revenues they have lost as a result.”

The Sustainable Communities Bill: what's it about?

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That’s the topic of my latest article, just uploaded to my website:

Have you ever felt like screaming ‘it isn’t fair’ when – regardless of the whole neighbourhood being up in arms – the Government runs roughshod over local peoples’ wishes and carry out its own wishes regardless?

Well, although it doesn’t have a sexy title, the Sustainable Communities Bill could help bring about a major change in the way we are governed so that in future local people can more often say, “hang on, you don’t have the power to do that.”

You can read the article in full here and also watch my colleague Julia Goldsworthy talking about the subject.