Lib Dem councillors in Haringey are to challenge the Labour Council to bring mobile phone masts under strict planning control and introduce the precautionary principle, giving extra safeguards for schools, homes, and medical facilities from the risk of excessive radiation. The move backs a Lib Dem Bill due to be voted on in Parliament this Friday, and is to be put in a Council motion next Monday evening.

The positioning of mobile phone masts has caused controversy across Haringey, with concern over the placing of masts near schools and residential areas.Local planning authorities do not currently have any powers to block applications for masts below 15 metres and only have limited powers for those above.

Lib Dem Parliamentary spokesperson and Muswell Hill councillor Lynne Featherstone comments:

“A lot of the present problems stem from a deal struck by the Tories with the phone companies when they were in government. This has cut planning controls for masts. It is therefore easier to get planning permission for a mast than it is for a porch. This problem needs to be addressed.

“Andrew Stunell’s bill will allow planning authorities to take account of health concerns and will require the industry to produce more evidence about the radiation emitted, and to justify the need for each mast.”

Ms Featherstone, along with Tottenham’s Parliamentary Spokesperson Cllr Wayne Hoban, is also asking the borough’s two Labour MPs to support the bill.

Cllr Wayne Hoban adds:

“I hope that the bill gains all-party support, and that our two Labour MPs back Andrew Stunell’s Telecommunications Masts (Planning Control) Bill. This anomaly must be resolved.”

Commenting at this morning’s demonstration which she attended on the issue of the proposed mobile phone mast on the BT building on Grand Avenue Muswell Hill, local councillor Lynne Featherstone said:

“This is yet another worrying example of how the law is stacked against local people when it comes to mobile phone masts.Vodafone must now listen to local parents and other residents and not proceed with their plans.Nationally, we need new legislation such as that being proposed in Parliament this week by Lib Dem MP Andrew Stunell.”

Liberal Democrat councillors have welcomed further commitments to improve policing in the Highgate area. However, they have vowed to continue the campaign to ensure that Highgate receives its full share of the borough’s police resources, including a new beat officer and a full compliment of neighbourhood police officers.

Cllr Neil Williams was commenting on a letter from Chief Supt Stephen Bloomfield, following recent complaints about the level of crime in the area.

Chief Supt Bloomfield has acknowledged there has been an increase in burglaries in recent weeks and that he has therefore increased plain-clothes patrols. The police are also arranging for a feasibility study on CCTV cameras and signs in the Archway Road area, as well as an environmental assessment of others measures which may deter criminals.

Cllr Williams comments:

“I welcome the attention that policing in Highgate is now receiving from Chief Superintendent Bloomfield. However, we will continue to press for full police numbers in the Highgate area in order to get on top of the current crime problem.”

Cllr Lynne Featherstone, who has been pressing for more resources for Highgate at the Metropolitan Police Authority, adds:

“Highgate should have the same police presence as other areas in Haringey. As recent events have shown, it is clearly needed and the area mustn’t lose out because it is on the edge of the borough.”

Liberal Democrats have attacked moves by a Labour lead member to authorise some £16,000 spending of the Haringey’s new area assembly budgets for special small projects.

The move follows an underspend on the new budget, which the Lib Dems say has been caused by lack of proper preparation for the scheme. In an email sent to all Labour councillors, but not Liberal Democrats (except for the Lib Dem assembly chair in the west of the borough), the Labour Lead Member has spent the money without consultation.

Lib Dem Leader Neil Williams comments:

“It is unacceptable that this has happened, and that large amounts of money are allocated without input from councillors and residents. Like my own area assembly in Muswell Hill and Highgate, I am sure other areas had projects in reserve where they would have liked to spend the money on local residents’ initiatives. This should have had first call.

“I specifically asked Cllr Reith at a meeting of the borough’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee what would happen if the budget was underspent, and this was brushed this aside and was said to be not an issue.

“Now, we have this rushed spending, which is being done without consultation with area assemblies.”

After pressure from Lib Dem councillor Laura Edge, Haringey is to extend double yellow lines on Weston Park.

The news follows complaints from residents that the present parking restrictions were causing problems and damage to traffic islands on the W5 bus route.

Cllr Laura Edge (Lib Dem, Stroud Green) says that the badly designed yellow lines on junctions along the route, designed to help the bus, have had the opposite effect. Painted too short near the traffic islands, the bus is often unable to pass. Time and again, the traffic bollards in the centre of the road have been demolished by buses and vans who drive right through them in order to pass, leaving the bollards regularly littering the street. Worse, some vehicles often drive round the bollards in the face of oncoming traffic to pass.

Cllr Laura Edge comments:

“The previous restrictions were woefully inadequate and I hope that the changes will solve the problem at the Ferme Park Road junction.

“However, there are problems elsewhere along the road. I will be watching to see if these changes lead to an improvement.”

Liberal Democrats in Haringey have criticised the Labour-run council for failing to provide an account of how £400,000 given to Haringey Council to provide care for older people with mental health problems has been spent.

This is despite repeated requests over the last six months by the Haringey Primary Care Trust (PCT) for this information. As a result, the primary care trust, whose own budget for patients is extremely stretched, is facing a £400,000 hole in its own finances.

Lib Dem Health Spokesperson Cllr Ron Aitken obtained a statement from the PCT at last month’s Social Services and Health Scrutiny Panel meeting in which they state that this funding was originally provided to them by the Department of Health and was passed to Haringey.The money was intended to meet the needs of people discharged from long-stay mental health institutions. However, the statement says:

“As most of these patients have now died, that funding is no longer provided by the DoH. The PCT has an obligation to ensure that any grant made is used for the provision of health services and has asked social services to demonstrate that the £400,000 is still contributing to the specific mental health needs of older people. The PCT is seeking to withdraw the proportion of the 400K funding given to social services that is not specifically used to address direct health needs.”

The PCT has told Haringey that funding would be withdrawn this coming year, but has now backed down from this position. However, they have still not received the detailed information they need from Haringey stating what the money has been spent on in previous years.

Lib Dem Health Spokesperson Cllr Ron Aitken comments:

“It appears that Haringey cannot say what it has used this substantial amount of money for, and that funding intended for direct patient care may not have been used for that purpose or that funding has been provided on the basis of people who are now deceased.

“This is an extremely worrying situation that should be cleared up straight away.”

Highgate’s Lib Dem councillors have welcomed moves by Haringey Council to restore a small section of double yellow lines in busy Southwood Lane. Cllr Neil Williams says that the lines will correct a mistake in the repainting of the road, and that the restoration of the lines will improve the flow of traffic through the narrow and congested route from the Archway Road to the village.

The issue was raised with councillors following the resurfacing of the road some weeks ago. When the double yellow lines were repainted at the section near the junction with Jackson’s Lane, they were painted shorter than before, causing traffic jams as drivers could not pass. Cllr Williams says he hopes that the correction of the mistake will improve traffic flow through the village.

Cllr Neil Williams comments:

“Southwood Lane has difficult traffic problems, and I am pleased this mistake is being corrected.

“The short stretch of double yellow lines at Jackson’s Lane is simply too narrow to allow cars to pass without causing congestion, and the restrictions should have been repainted as they were before.”