Colney Hatch Lane

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War appears to have broken out in Alexandra ward in Haringey about the money I secured from Transport for London (£100,000) which is to be spent mitigating the rat-running following their implementation of traffic lights on Colney Hatch Lane which coincided with a disastrous decision by the local Labour Council to close off Grosvenor Road. Residents have spent two years agreeing two options to go forward to an agreed area for consultation. One of the options closes further roads – the other is for general traffic calming but no closures. Some local residents have organised a public meeting to raise the ante on this.

There was a lot of heated temper in the room where three hundred had gathered – traffic measures always have a high attendance. I am not personally in favour of road closures – particularly when they are sticking plaster rather than holistic solutions – and the feeling of the room was for Option 1 – the calming. However, the organisers were

encouraging residents to vote against both – which although fine in principal – may result in the anti closure vote being split. That is also an option – which will send Haringey back to the drawing board – which is fine unless TfL withdraw the money as it has been on the table for nearly three years now.

I think the residents should now be left alone to vote as they see fit on the options on offer. The options are a long way from perfect, but there are two real problems. Firstly, Haringey Labour have refused to put any money into the project, only the TfL money is on the table and it isn’t enough to do a really good job. Secondly, there are just too many cars, used too often and going too fast – which is why I spend so much of my time campaigning for better public transport – it’s the only way we will ever get people out of their cars. If they haven’t got a viable alternative – they have no other choice.

Kurdistan National Congress

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Went to meet two representatives of the Kurdish communities at the Nation Congress of Kurdistan. Really enjoyed meeting them and learning more about the desires of Kurds for recognition of their national status. Have agreed to help in any way they would find useful for the future.

Transport Committee Planning

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Meeting with my new Vice-Chair of Transport Committee, Roger Evans. I think he will be more helpful as my Vice-Chair than his predecessor who never turned up to a ‘Chair’s Planning Meeting’ except once last year – to make trouble. We discuss some priorities for the Committee for the year – obvious ones like PPP not working (understatement!), Congestion Charging and holding Transport for London to account. I have my own list of other scrutinies I want to do – but will also seek suggestions from all of the committee members and the public. Good ideas are always welcome.

LIB DEM CONCERN OVER ROYAL MAIL COLLECTIONS

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Lib Dem councillor Lynne Featherstone has expressed concern over the removal of ‘collection discs’ from local post boxes – and is seeking assurances from Royal Mail that this will not result in fewer collections in the area.

The issue arose when a local resident raised the issue of the discs’ removal from local post boxes. The discs are used to indicate that a scheduled collection has taken place. Without the discs, Ms Featherstone fears that the Royal Mail could dilute the collection service without residents noticing. She has pledged to monitor the situation to ensure that this is not happening.

The Royal Mail has responded to her concerns by saying that they have no plans at present to replace the discs with anything similar in the future – and that customers can ensure the collection of their mail by posting before the last collection of the day.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“I have serious concerns about this innovation by the Royal Mail. The old numbered discs allowed people posting letters to know about the collections and what time they were being made. This new system could give rise to abuse, in that if collections are not made throughout the day, there will be no way of telling.

“Delays in mail are bad enough as it is. I have therefore asked the Royal Mail for collection times from each post box in the N6 area, so that we can monitor that the promised collections match up to the reality.”

LYNNE FEATHERSTONE CHOSEN AGAIN AS GLA TRANSPORT CHAIR

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Lib Dem councillor and newly re-elected member of the Greater London Authority, Lynne Featherstone, has been re-elected as chair of London’s key transport committee following the recent GLA elections. Ms Featherstone, who was chair during the authority’s first term, is delighted to have been returned to the key post yet again. She has promised that the vital ‘watchdog’ will continue to press for transport improvements across the capital.

Ms Featherstone is an experienced transport campaigner, and has long campaigned for a full service on the Muswell Hill to Swiss Cottage bus route. She has also won praise in the past for the committee’s work on congestion charging.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“I am delighted to be chairing the transport committee again. There is a huge amount of work to do to improve transport across London, and to hold Mayor Ken to account for the important decisions he takes. I am looking forward to this new term as chair.”

Ms Featherstone has also retained her position on the Metropolitan Police Authority, the body which oversees the work of the Met. She has also been elected, for the first time, to sit on the London Board of the Commission for Racial Equality.

Policing Haringey

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Meeting with Haringey’s police commander, Steven Bloomfield. Lots on the menu to discuss. First and foremost – the re-opening of Muswell Hill police station front counter. At last, the Volunteer Coordinator is employed and getting feet under the table. I have written to her to suggest we meet up as I have a lot more people who have volunteered since the original ones I collected over a year ago and of whom, many filled in the Met application form (not easy – Met forms are a nightmare and enough to put off any but the keenest at the first hurdle). Sir John Stevens (Met Police Commissioner who has expressed a desire to open the front counter with me as soon as possible) and I am anxious to comply. Yes, Sir! Hopefully, it will open in July – or thereabouts.

Then we discuss the police kiosk in Wood Green. Given the constant refusal to reopen Highgate police station, I have been nagging for some permanent base for police here – to no avail. A kiosk might be the answer. Steven says that the main problem is because it only opens certain hours, people complain that it is always closed. He says they never write in to say how wonderful it is – when it is open. Of course, there is an answer – open it longer hours. That battle goes on.

We have our usual skirmish over my work and any adverse publicity it has brought to his door. Recently, my work on unreported crime which was based on a crime survey distributed to every household in Hornsey & Wood Green found that out of 1119 people who had been a victim of or witness to a crime 421 did not report it. I presented this at the last full meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority and it found support from Sir John Stevens amongst others. The work will now continue to make this a performance indicator for the Met. However, Steven was cross because although it was bad – it was better than the year before and coincided timewise with an improvement in crime detection in Haringey. Well – we all have our jobs to do – and mine is to improve matters where people tell me they need improving. Police resources are targetted where crime is reported – which would explain why it is important for people to feel that it is worthwhile to report crime, however minor, to the police. The vast majority of people who did not report a crime did not do so because they either thought the police would do nothing (often true) or they couldn’t get through to their local police station!

We then meandered over my work on Stop & Search and a variety of individual cases that obviously, I am not going to discuss here. I like Steven and I think the police in Haringey do a really good job over all – but there are still huge unmet needs across the borough – so no doubt our future meetings will continue to be interesting.

Pond Square Summer Festival

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Wander into Pond Square in Highgate Village for the summer street festival. Music, stalls and a small fun fair. Bump into lots of local luminaries and residents. It is so picturesque – so quintessentially English. Buy a booklet from the Hornsey Historical society on walks in Highgate. Given that I stomp around the area delivering leaflets on such a regular basis – will be nice to know a bit more about the buildings I pass by.

Annual Meeting

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First meeting of the London Assembly. This meeting is by law required to take place within 10 days of the election. It is really a matter of formalities. We have now signed an agreement with the Tories which states clearly that there is no policy agreement – but which delivers the Chairs of 4 of the key committees between us. They will chair the Assembly and the Budget Committee in the first year and we will chair Business Managers and Transport Committee in the fist year.

Lots of concern that we have linked with the Tories – but it is a matter of power broking and keeping faith with London. As uncomfortable as it is to have any agreement with the Tories as we are diametrically opposed on most policy issues – it is important for London and holding the Mayor to account not to have a Labour member in these posts.

Can you imagine a Labour chair examining a Labour Mayor on his budget? How testing for him that would be – not!

All the other subject committees will be decided, hopefully consensually, by the now five party groups and will be sorted out over the next week.

I am extremely happy as I am elected Chair of Transport again – and retain my place on the Metropolitan Police Authority. I love both my portfolios – transport and policing and am keen to continue the work I have been doing to date.

One real addition to my role is that I am nominated and elected to the London board of the Commission for Racial Equality – which will tie in very well with my police work on race issues such as Stop and Search.

Really looking forward to the year ahead.

Group Meeting

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Group meeting of us Lib Dems to establish what has been offered so far in negotiations. Both Tories and Labour are offering us Chair and Vice Chair turnabout for the Assembly, Budget Committee, Business Managers and Transport Committee. We try and include the Greens – but they appear to be taking the Mayour’s shilling. Not unnaturally, the Mayor wants them stitched up for the budget – for without their votes he won’t be able to simply get his budget through. Hope they don’t sell out London for

patronage.

First day back at work

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First day back at proper work. The negotiations continue over the future workings of the GLA.

My first concern today was to expose a really scandalous letter from Met Police to black men who refused to give voluntary DNA samples in a suspect trawl in South London. The Met are trying to catch a serial rapist – a very serious criminal – and they have been able through his DNA samples to trace his ancestry. They are therefore asking the community to come forward for voluntary DNA testing to eliminate them from the inquiry.

However, you can imagine the sensitivities around this process. In an opportunity for the community and police to work together to find this criminal – it looks like the police have not been handling it too well. I am making enquiries as I write.

Later go to a meeting regarding the Highgate Tube works where residents are concerned over the finishes to the work – fencing, crash barrier and planting. This is the second of two meetings that I originally had to bang heads together so that Highgate didn’t end up looking like Colditz with terrible finishes following remedial work to stop the Archway Road falling into the station embankments.

Amazingly, after some discussion, agreement was reached on all the issues and everyone went home happy Amazing and so pleasant!

Decide I want a drink in my local in Highgate Village. Haven’t been out for a casual drink for months virtually – and wander in to find all the ‘usuals’ in there. Have a bit of a chin wag and enjoy the summer evening, or what’s left of it, with a very welcome gin and tonic!