Big annual social at my house. There is a huge turnout because our guest speaker is Shami Chakrabarti from Liberty. She is a complete star – comes early – stays late and entirely captivates the audience who are natural territory for Liberty. Many of my members are her members – and I think she recruits quite a few more by the end of play. Why does Shami work so well? I think it is because she hasn’t sold out to anyone. She really does fight for right and justice – and in a non-partisan way. And it’s interesting hearing her talk about the difference between coming to this event and similar ones organised by other parties!She can reach beyond the TV screen or radio direct into people’s lives because the language she uses and the pictures she paints with her words pull on people’s instincts and conscience.In the current climate of authoritarian governance there is a pressing need for all voices of freedom and human rights to rise up together as Labour continues its juggernaut assault on our civil liberties. Every Bill that I come across removes our rights and increases the power of the state. These are frightening times.
Care and crime in the community
Rather a coincidence – after Friday’s launch of a new scheme involving Neighbourhood Watches, today I am giving a speech to the Haringey Borough Neighbourhood Watch AGM. I am talking about anti-social behaviour etc – but use the opportunity to have a rant about ‘care in the community’ or lack of it.
Part of my speech is about the importance of us all working to tackle crime:
“I would like to pay tribute to Neighbourhood Watches and all those who serve on them. The work they do is invaluable and beneficial and they create and forge a strong sense of community and looking out for each other, working with the police safer neighbourhood team, the Council’s anti-social behaviour teams and health partners is the way to go.
“Robert Peel, the founder of the Met once stated that: ‘the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give fulltime attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interest of community welfare.’
“Fighting crime isn’t just something you can pay for through your taxes and can then ignore. It’s something that the whole of society has to do.”
I also talk about how it is both crime levels and fear of crime we need to concern ourselves with:
“Haringey Council’s own research indicates that crime is the number one concern of just under half (49%) of Haringey residents. However, crime levels, measured by the number of total notifiable offences is dropping – 19% down (5,346 fewer) than the same period last year.
“Even with this drop the figures are still high, but also it is often fear of crime and the experience of small misdemeanours as well as major crimes themselves that worries local residents and that most people contact me about. Far too often fear of crime is treated as if it isn’t really a proper problem to acknowledge – ‘oh the problem isn’t actual crime, it’s just people’s whipped up fears’ etc. But fear is real, it affects people, it hurts lives and it hinders freedom.”
Although crime is a much debated issue, I feel that one key aspect is talked about too little.
Part of anti-social behaviour that arises from people with mental health issues. Many of the cases I see of neighbour disputes are caused by mental health problems – not youths, not petty vandals – but people living in the community who have mental health issues and for whom the ‘care in the community’ package cannot be enough to watch over them 24 hours a day. There is a gap that people are falling through. More love and attention needs to be focused in this direction.
I am not talking about the major headline cases that burst, only occasionally but totally unacceptably, into our papers, when someone who should be in residential care is released and murders their next door neighbour – those are tragic cases which we all gasp at and wonder how such a person could be thought to be safely let amongst us. I am instead talking about the far less obvious cases.
It’s a difficult issue. But this gap in care – despite best efforts of those who work so tirelessly in this area – does lead to a chain of events or experiences – both for the person themselves and for those around them.
The person themselves can be shunned by their neighbours and feels depressed, upset and socially excluded and isolated – which helps not their situation.
Neighbours feel aggrieved that they live close to someone who behaves oddly, or aggressively and sometimes feel or are genuinely at risk of assault, or verbal abuse, or fear of arson or whatever. And the police cannot intervene before such an offence has been committed. This all means that such situations can get out of kilter and ratchet up the behaviour scale. In the end it is the police and the prisons that end up dealing with what is not – and should not be – their job. This is a health issue.
Think of it this way.
If you imagine a person with mental health issues lying in bed in hospital to be treated – you wouldn’t imagine a policeman being called on to intervene if such a patient starts shouting out and swearing at a nurse.
And yet – that is pretty much what is happening when such a person is out on our streets – the police are having to deal with what is reported as anti-social behaviour but which is an area of care or behaviour exhibiting as anti-social but in reality mental illness.
Tories and climate change
There’s a Private Members Bill on climate change coming up in Parliament today for which I am going in. So many constituents care passionately about this – that I have changed surgery etc (whose normal time would have clashed with the debate) to make it in.
But, having made great efforts to be there – I might as well not have bothered. Don’t get me wrong – the Bill should be supported. But the games played by the Tories to muck around by talking out, or putting stupid amendments, and threatening to keep doing so in order that we have to come every Friday to listen to rubbish being spouted is a disgrace to politics. It is a joke. And the waste of public money, Parliamentary time, Members’ time – not to mention the joke it makes of Private Members Bills is appalling.
I manage one vote after several hours of debate – or farce – and then have to leave to launch a new initiative by Haringey Neighbourhood Watch. They have organised with the Primary Care Trust (PCT) to put up their posters in every doctors’ waiting room in Haringey – so lots and lots of residents will see it. It is a good way to prevent crime and good to see health and crime and community all working together. So with two burly policemen and two doctors I put up the first poster!
TECH REFRESH – IT OVERSPEND FIASCO CONTINUES
Serious issues about Haringey Council’s massively overspent IT project ‘Tech Refresh’ still remain unresolved, following Thursday afternoon’s reconvened meeting of Haringey Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
Despite repeated requests for information, Lib Dems say that two key areas remain unclear. No senior councillors or council officers have been held accountable for the failings which led to the £10.6 million overspend and there has not been a full explanation for the delay in calling in the District Auditor once the catastrophe was uncovered.
Haringey’s Lib Dem opposition are now submitting Freedom of Information requests to obtain some of the background facts that have not yet been provided:
·What degree of involvement and control the then Executive Member exercised over this multi-million pound project;
·What caused the delay between the Chief Executive being told of the massive overspend (April 2005) and the calling in of the District Auditor (July 2005)
Cllr Wayne Hoban (Lib Dem, Alexandra), Deputy Leader of the Lib Dems, says:
“It is unbelievable that no one seems to have been held responsible for this project which more than doubled its budget. The whole system failed – but who was responsible for monitoring this system and ensuring that taxpayers’ money was not wasted?”
“We belatedly received some more information from the Executive Member, which has addressed some of the outstanding questions about this fiasco. But there are still far too many unanswered questions.”
Cllr David Winskill (Lib Dem, Crouch End), Overview & Scrutiny Committee Member, adds:
“An external review has been ordered to look at the working relationship between councillors and officers and we will be seeking to take as full a part as possible in that and the future Value for Money review. We will continue to press for answers on this issue – Haringey residents deserve to know exactly what went wrong.
“The implementation and cost overrun of the IT ‘Tech Refresh’ project is a blot on the political landscape of Haringey that will last for a very long time.”
LIB DEMS WANT MORE POLICE FOR LOCAL COMMUTER LINES
The Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Policing and Community Safety in Haringey has written to the British Transport Police with a request that they increase police patrols on commuter routes in the borough to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour against users of the rail network.
Cllr Ron Aitken has written to the Inspector of the BTP covering Haringey to ask for a breakdown of crime rates on the Silverlink, WAGN, Piccadilly and Victoria Line Underground and rail services in the borough, as well as costings for the provision of extra police and community support officer (PCSO) patrols.
“In the British Transport and Met Forces we have two tremendous assets doing a good job,” said Cllr Aitken.
“However, we need to find additional resources to pay for more police and PCSOs for the transport network as other boroughs are doing. Ken Livingstone rejected the Lib Dem proposal to spend £20 million on 272 new police officers on the system, so we are exploring our own plans as Lib Dems in other authorities have done.”
COUNCILLOR URGES COUNCIL TO FUND REPLACEMENT CHILDREN'S PLAY FORT
Lib Dem councillor Laura Edge has discovered that Haringey Council is not willing to make room in their budget for the replacement of the very popular play fort in Stationers Park in Stroud Green.
A survey has determined that the fort has reached the end of its life and needs to be taken down and replaced. The fort has been widely used and is popular with local children, who are disappointed to hear that Haringey Council is not currently intending to replace it with a similar structure. The Council is intending to consult residents over the matter, but has already advised that there is not currently enough funding available to provide a new fort of the same design.
Councillor Edge says:
“Without wanting to pre-empt the wishes of local people and children, if residents want the new facilities to be of the same design, I hope very much that the Council will find the money to provide a replacement fort that is not a quick-fix solution.
“Despite the Council telling local residents that they are spending pots of money on parks, they are also being told that the money is not available in this case. Given the obvious benefits that the fort has for local children – encouraging them to be active and stimulating their imaginations – I strongly urge the Council to mount a big effort to find the necessary additional funding.”
Coroner troubles
First thing over to City Hall for private briefing on Operation Minstead. It was basically the same presentation that I had had some while back – and still they haven’t got their man. They are still painstakingly sifting through lists and lists of possible persons of interest. And all the DNA trawl in the world hasn’t yielded up the perpetrator. Will it ever? Leave in a rush as I have my session with Ming at 11.15am.
I go in and up to the office where Ming is ensconced with Archie Kirkwood – his political adviser. We have a very good discussion I thought. There is a little awkwardness around our different sides in the leadership election, but that’s natural. More interestingly I get a chance to discuss where I might want to be in the future and also, more importantly, to bung my two pennies in on the organisation and campaigning aspects of the Liberal Democrats. Hopefully they will let me keep policing!
At lunchtime, I go to a meeting where three women (partners or parents) of someone who has died have had the most appalling and tragic experience and the most horrific mistreatment by a coroner. It seems to me from the evidence presented that there is plenty of reason for a public enquiry into the cases that appear to have been so poorly, or negligently handled. Watch this space.
And out on the campaign trail knocking on doors for a good session – which restored my soul. It was so good, and happy and people were just nice, nice, nice.
PS If you watched Question Time tonight you will have noticed that Nick Clegg who I was bumped in favour of, was not there. On Tuesday or Wednesday this week – QT had decided they wanted to change back to me. Unfortunately, by this time I had made another arrangement. So they bumped Nick in favour of Jean Lambert, Green MEP. C’est la vie!
LIB DEMS LAUNCH MUSWELL HILL POLICE STATION CAMPAIGN
Lynne Featherstone MP and the Liberal Democrats have launched a campaign to safeguard the future of Muswell Hill’s police station.
The police station’s future has been put into doubt by a police review into their properties. The local borough commander has said, “There are question marks over Muswell Hill police station.”
Lynne Featherstone MP said:
“I appreciate that the building would need work to make it fit for future police use. But Muswell Hill must keep its police station, whether by improving the current building or by using a new building. Closing the station and moving services out of the area simply isn’t acceptable. Policing is at its best when it is local and engaged with the community.
“I welcome Sir Ian Blair’s commitment that if the building is closed any replacement would be as nearby “as possible” – but we must ensure that really means in our area, not far away.”
Muswell Hill Focus Editor Sheila Rainger added:
“Muswell Hill needs a police station and I welcome the comments by Simon O’Brien, Haringey’s Police Commander calling for a public debate on the future of the police station.”
Lynne Featherstone and the area’s Liberal Democrat councillors have previously worked successfully with residents in a high-profile campaign to get the police station’s front counter reopened to the public.
You can download a Muswell Hill police station petition form (pdf format) to help the campaign.
LIB DEMS LAUNCH PETITION TO SAVE WOOD GREEN'S POLICE KIOSK
Haringey Liberal Democrats, led by Lynne Featherstone MP and Councillor Neil Williams, are launching a campaign to save Wood Green’s police kiosk – and get it used more effectively.
Lynne Featherstone MP said:
“This kiosk was launched with a major fanfare and now sits empty and useless. Haringey is not a crime-free area and we need to use all the resources available to fight crime and the fear of crime.”
Councillor Neil Williams, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Haringey Council added:
“The community safety wardens could be based here with additional coverage by the police and police community support officers. The kiosk should be used better, not axed.”
You can download a Wood Green police kiosk petition form (pdf format) to help the campaign.
Muswell Hill police station and the Wood Green kiosk
Had meeting with Sir Ian Blair to discuss a number of issues around policing. The number one for us is the possibility that our police stations in Haringey may be ‘reorganised’ as they are not ‘fit for purpose’.
So I use the opportunity to get assurances that nothing will close (having spent so many years campaigning to get the front counter open at Muswell Hill) before equal or better alternatives are put in place.
Sir Ian said he would like to know what people think – so I am doing my best to find out for him! I suggested a survey – and he immediately suggested a meeting between myself, himself, our local Commander Simon O’Brian and someone from Met Estates to establish their ‘vision’ first.
Of course “equal or better alternative” can mean a lot of different things to different people; for example, if someone believes in heavily centralised services a few super-police stations, they could say that means axing the local stations is ok as the alternative is – they would say – better. Now, that’s not a view I’d agree with – policing works best when it is based in the local community. So – we need to keep the pressure up despite this assurance. “Equal or better” must mean local policing, locally delivered. So – that means a petition amongst other things. (You can get a petition form from my main website).
I also tackled him about the police kiosk in Wood Green which was a great idea putting police on the street right at the crucial spot – but it was hardly ever open. And unless it was manned, and reliable – people would never feel confident to rely on it. Now it faces being demolished. It would be much better to keep it – and put it to full use. Sir Ian didn’t know about it but has promised to investigate. (More details on that on my main website too).
And some good news on another subject – I have been nominated for a New Statesman 2006 New Media Award in the “Elected representative” category.
Lynne Featherstone 