LIB DEMS CONCERN AT COUNCIL'S PAVEMENT REPAIR DELAY

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After months of chasing Haringey Council, the Lib Dems have finally secured repairs to a badly damaged stretch of pavement on Colney Hatch Lane, near Greenham Road, N10.

The problem was first reported by Lib Dem councillors last winter after a leak from the shops on the road caused damage to the pavements and made the surface muddy. Hairngey Council logged the complaint for inspection in February of this year.

However it remained unrepaired, despite pressure from the Lib Dems, with Haringey Council citing poor weather or lack of materials as reasons for the inaction.

Finally this month repairs have been made following further complaints from Cllr Lynne Featherstone and her Fortis Green colleagues. She is pleased that the repairs have taken place but is concerned at the length of time it has taken to repair the pavements that have been hazardous for the best part of a year.

Cllr Featherstone comments: “I’m pleased that the Council has finally taken action to repair this pavement which has been particularly hazardous to elderly and disabled residents who have had to contend with the slippery and unstable surface.”

Cllr Gilbert (Fortis Green) adds: “It is a concern that it has taken nine months for Haringey to take action over this particular issue. We will be paying close attention to make ensure that the Council doesn’t make a habit of this kind of inaction.”

ACTION NEEDED ON MUSWELL HILL TRAFFIC HAZARD

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Lib Dem Councillor Lynne Featherstone is calling for Haringey Council to install more bollards and lay an anti-skid surface at an accident blackspot near the foot of Muswell Hill, N10 after the wall of a local resident was demolished for the fourth time.

The request comes a year after Ms Featherstone secured the installation of bollards in the area to protect pedestrians and homes on the accident blackspot. However Ms Featherstone says that the bollards, installed by Haringey Council, do not protect all the homes. This has meant that some houses have remained exposed to vehicles losing control on the road.

Following advice from local police, Cllr Featherstone is calling for Haringey to invest in additional bollards and an anti-skid surface to protect pedestrians and residents on Muswell Hill from further damage. She says that Haringey Council needs to act quickly to ensure the safety of local residents.

Cllr Lynne Featherstone comments:

“It is important that Haringey Council immediately addresses this issue to protect residents, properties and pedestrians, and make this part of the road safe. Action has been needed for some time, and these extra measures are absolutely necessary to improve safety.”

Education in Haringey

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[If you’ve come to this post looking for information about Baby P’s tragic death, please see my most recent posts about it.]

Met with Sharon Shoesmith, Director of Education at Haringey Council. Wanted to float a couple of ideas with her as well as getting updates on some key Haringey education issues.

The TUC are planning to sell their education centre in Crouch End. My fellow councillors in Crouch End have been pushing for it to be considered as a possible site for a new school. The good news is that this is now happening and a feasibility study is about to be published.

Also asked about the situation on school places for local children in Muswell Hill. The planning mess at Haringey meant that this year something like 40 children were unable to go to school anywhere near where they lived. I am assured that planning is well advanced and more sophisticated than has been the case to date. We’ll see.

One of the ideas I raised with her was the issue of pupil behaviour near schools. A few months ago I went to see the Head of Highgate Wood School about this. I often get complaints from residents around schools (not just this one) about the behaviour of pupils. I wanted to see how the school and local community could work together on the issue.

The Head suggested I follow up the idea through the LEA (local education authority) and Haringey Council channels. I’d heard nothing from them for some time, but the Director said she would follow up on this and let me know where the idea had got to.

My ‘big’ idea (well – the brilliant idea sent to me by a local resident) was to find if there were any retired teachers in Haringey who would like to help children with their homework after school in libraries. The person who had the idea was herself a retired teacher.

I thought this was brilliant – it would help children, help libraries and help retired teachers who still wanted to be active in this way. So I put this to Sharon Shoesmith, who liked the idea very much.

She suggested that instead of libraries – which might be difficult – the venue should be the after school clubs. This would make easier the police checks which have to be carried out on anyone working with children as they are venues already covered by this work.

I said that I would see if we could find if there were any retired teachers out there who would like to come forward. We will see – but she was open and enthusiastic about it – which is a good start.

Traffic and more traffic

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Back in London after the end of our party conference (and a great speech from Charles).

Yesterday presented the finding of my GLA transport committee’s investigation into road humps to a road safety conference. Today, my mind has turned to our investigation into parking enforcement in London again. Have noted that a couple of councils are a bit nervous about what we might find. Pressure has already been brought to bear to try and amend some of the terms of reference. Only thing I can say is that the louder someone squeals that the Assembly should keep it’ nose out of their business – the more convinced I am that the issue needs looking at.

We shall see how this all develops. I hope that all the boroughs and organisations will comply with our request for written evidence. (You can let me have your views through my feedback form).

Hartlepool by-election

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Big build up to the appearance and speech of Jody Dunn – who is our megastar candidate in the Hartlepool by-election which polls next Thursday. If rapturous welcomes mean anything – she’ll storm Hartlepool. Perfect candidate – mother of four, studied to become a barrister after having children, fighting to save local hospital and winsome for the media too! Half Finnish, an ex-disc jockey and a fellow blogger – way to go.

LIB DEMS BACK RESIDENTS' OPPOSITION TO PHONE MAST

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Lib Dem Deputy Leader, Wayne Hoban has written to Vodafone to confirm that residents in Alexandra ward remain opposed to their proposal to install a mobile phone mast and base station in Harcourt Gardens pocket park, N22.

The action follows a meeting held with local residents last night organised by Cllr Hoban and chaired by fellow Alexandra Councillor Susan Oatway at Alexandra Park School.The meeting was called to discuss the current status of Vodafone’s plans for the pocket park based at the junction of Albert Road and Durnsford Road, as well as feeding back responses from Haringey Council and Vodafone to questions raised at the previous meeting held in March.

Concerns had been raised over the summer when a BT contractor team turned up unannounced one weekend during the summer to undertake preparatory work, including digging up the road, without being required to submit their plans to Haringey Council.

Cllr Hoban believes that this act demonstrates that the law needs to be changed to ensure that mobile phone mast installations are subject to planning control, which they are not at present.

Cllr Hoban (Alexandra): “This is an issue of great importance to local residents and Haringey must press the Government to look into reforming current legislation to give local planning departments more power to control the growing number of base units and aerials.

“I have written to Vodafone to express local opposition to their current plans, but in the absence of legislation to control such developments, we can do little more than protest.”

Parking in London

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Lying in bed watching BBC news. Blow me if they are not doing a whole package about parking as a result of the announcement of the London Assembly’s investigation into parking enforcement in London.

I telephone the Beeb to ask if they can give out a number or email as they say there are hundreds of people contacting them with stories of unfairness etc. By the time I get over to the conference centre and go down to my press officer – BBC at conference are onto it and I do a number of interviews, TV and radio about the scrutiny. It would seem that both London residents and the media are very exited about this one. If you’ve got views yourself – let me know through my feedback form.

Later in the day, I put in a card to speak in the policing debate. You never know if you will be called, but you have to be in the auditorium just in case. In fact, I am called straight after the motion has been moved. My speech is really about the need for local response from local police to local people. I go through some of the work I have done on trying to get the Met to set up a system of call answering phone calls to the police locally. Far too many people say they can’t get through to their local police station at the moment. Finish on a happy ending – that our campaign to re-open Muswell Hill police station’s front counter has succeeded – Sir John Stevens (the Met’s top cop) is coming to do the honours on Monday.

Livingstone hikes our fares

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Ken Livingstone announces that he will raise fares in London in the region of inflation + 20%. Lots of smoke and mirrors around peak hours and this and that – but bottom line – mega fare rise. And the bugger compounds this by stating that we can expect inflation busting rises for the next three years as well.

I do a rash of radio interviews on Ken’s dishonesty and broken promises before the election about fare rises. Also cover issue of having the most expensive fares in the world already and this would drive people off public transport and back into their cars. The low paid worker can ill afford to live in London already – this will just be another nail in the coffin.

In the afternoon, big debate on the party’s “pre-manifesto” document – Freedom, Fairness, Trust. Basically sets out the party’s overall policy for the general election – though more details will be announced closer to the time. You can see the top ten points on our national website.

LOCAL COUNCILLOR RESPONDS TO FINSBURY PARK CPZ SURVEY REPORT

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Following the publication of the report on the Finsbury Park CPZ satisfaction survey, Stroud Green Liberal Democrat councillor Laura Edge has called on Haringey Council to adopt a more flexible approach to tackling parking problems in the area.

Many respondents living within the current CPZ commented that the hours of operation were too long and that a one-hour block at the beginning or end of the day or a two-hour block in the middle of the day would adequately deter commuter parking. In its report Haringey Council dismissed these concerns maintaining that such hours of operation would not act to discourage “inessential vehicle trips” outside the limited control period.

Ms Edge remains unconvinced and has criticised Haringey Council for adopting a “one-size-fits-all” solution to the problem. She argues that different streets in the area encounter different parking problems and have different needs. She also stresses the importance of balancing the need to secure adequate parking for residents against the needs of local businesses and schools.

Ms Edge is particularly concerned about Haringey Council’s current blanket approach in view of its decision to consult on the extension of the Finsbury Park CPZ. Responses to the survey of residents in roads surrounding the current CPZ revealed mixed feelings about its extension, with 52% of residents in favour and 48% against.

Laura Edge comments:

“The results of the survey of residents in areas surrounding the current CPZ indicate considerable division of opinion within the community over the expansion of the scheme. I hope that Haringey Council will adopt a flexible approach attuned to the particular needs and problems of the area.”

Ms Edge has also called on the Council to improve arrangements for obtaining residents’ and visitors’ permits after 58% of respondents said they were not satisfied with current arrangements. Ms Edge welcomed the decision to pilot the issuing of permits from Hornsey Customer Services but also called for the reduction of bureaucracy around the issuing of permits.

Ms Edge also called on Haringey Council to take immediate action over the problems associated with the garage in Upper Tollington Park, which has been dumping cars in the street. Residents of Upper Tollington Park expressed concern over the behaviour of the garage in their responses to the survey and in its report Haringey Council stated that it was “formulating a strategy”with local police, parking attendants and the DVLA to deal with the problem.

Ms Edge says that this is not good enough:

“I was told back in May of this year that Haringey was devising a strategy to deal with this problem. How much longer is this going to take? Local residents aren’t interested in strategies – they want concrete action to tackle a problem which has become a long-standing blight on their lives”.

Chairing a conference debate

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Meet my aide for the conference debate I’m chairing at noon to have a first look at the cards in from representatives to speak. (People wanting to speak in our of the conference debates have to submit a card first – so the chair knows who wants to speak and can balance the debate between people for and against the different parts of the topic).

Lots of cards to choose from. The skill is to find the crux of the debate and hang the argument around that part of a motion or amendment. Then you need to balance the debate in proportion to the cards in, add geographic, gender, ethnic, and age balance and take any really convincing personal experience of the issue. As you can imagine on asylum – there were really lots of good points to be made.

I am always nervous about chairing at conference. Not only is the auditorium huge and fairly full and it is broadcast live on TV. The ultimate fear is that someone will call for a suspension of standing orders and whilst there are orders and procedures for every eventuality – remembering what they are under pressure is scary.

However, it all went relatively smoothly, with excellent speakers and to time. I had been told in no uncertain terms that I had to bring the debate in on time at 3.30pm exactly as I would be directly followed by a Q & A session with Charles K. Phew…