Posted on by

It is the eve of poll in our local council by-election and tomorrow Muswell Hill will let us LibDems know what they think of us!

So, not the timing of choice, but I have a social fundraiser at my house for around 60 people and the guest of honour is Sir Menzies Campbell (or Ming as he is known). What a fabulous man he is. Whenever he appears on TV to comment on foreign affairs and in recent months, he makes me really proud that we are in the same party.

He commands respect across all parties. In his speech he, not unnaturally, makes reference to the LibDem decision not to join Blair’s new enquiry behind closed doors into the intelligence that led to the Iraq war – the Butler inquiry.

Lord Butler aka Sir Robin Butler, Cabinet Secretary during the Thatcher/Major times was sent to Australia in the late 80’s to testify at the Peter Wright (Spy Catcher) trial. Unfortunately, the Oz defence lawyer had a brain and was good with words. Butler was made to look a complete idiot.

Anyway – Ming did allude to the fact that Michael Howard has now seen the light and withdrawn the Tories from the enquiry. Better late than never. But he could have and should have never joined the inquiry at all. It was clearly going to not reveal anything that the government did not want revealed – but I think was mooted to get Blair out of trouble by being seen to be actively trying to get to the bottom of it. Hogwash!

So – the evening was a roaring success – food and alcohol consumed and money raised.

Peoples' Question Time

Posted on by

Peoples’ Question Time with the Mayor and Assembly. This is the twice-yearly statutory duty to appear before the public so we can be asked questions in public. It’s really the Ken show – as people want to question him as Mayor rather than us as Assembly Members. We ordinary members are sat in a row behind the Mayor – like some chorus line. Feel like the backing group.

Still – at last my long ambition to be on the stage is fulfilled by appearing at the Mermaid Theatre.

I am not sure that these occasions deliver anything new – but they do have an importance in that we are there in public to be grilled. Inevitably the audience want to question the Mayor on congestion charging, the tube, housing and so on. I gather from the later TV coverage that the highlight of the evening for the media was the ejection of a member of the audience who was shouting throughout the proceedings until he was escorted out. Difficult situation really – clearly someone with learning difficulties and it’s never nice to have to eject someone – but the audience was turning on him because they couldn’t hear what was being said.

Of course, that was the only bit that was reported. Just love the media, dontcha?

LTUC again

Posted on by

Meeting between London Transport Committee transport leads and the chair and deputies of London Transport Users Committee. We discuss our differences and the problems they are having with understanding just what we mean by bringing their organisation into a modern and accountable framework. Suffice to say – LTUC are trying.

FEATHERSTONE HOSTS YOUTH FORUM AT GLA

Posted on by

Lib Dem GLA member and local councillor Lynne Featherstone last week welcomed members of Haringey Youth Forum to City Hall to see Cllr Featherstone and the Greater London Authority in action.

Young people from six of Haringey’s schools attended Mayor’s Question Time, the monthly chance for GLA members such as Ms Featherstone to grill the Mayor on the work of the London-wide authority at its new headquarters.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“It’s always a pleasure to welcome Haringey residents to the GLA, especially the voters of the future. We need to work hard to engage young people in London’s political process and these visits give us the chance to do just that.”

COUNCIL FAILING RESIDENTS ON 'RUBBISH SERVICE'

Posted on by

Liberal Democrat councillors are maintaining the pressure on Haringey Council over its failure to properly address the problem of residents living in managed blocks of flats being double charged for waste collection in Haringey. Many are charged for waste collection through their block management charges but also pay Council Tax – which should also cover waste collections, as it does for people living elsewhere.

The assurance comes from Lib Dem councillor Matt Davies who is unhappy with the response that Haringey Council has given to his question regarding waste collection. The Council say that the reason for double charging is that many managed blocks hire a waste container for all residents to store their rubbish. They argue that this should not come under the standard service that the Council provides.

However Cllr Davies, who represents Fortis Green ward, believes that the response does not justify why residents living in these properties should have to pay extra to receive the same service as other residents in the borough.

Cllr Davies comments:

“These residents have not received wheelie bins or green recycling boxes like every other resident in the borough. Services provided as standard by the Council to most residents are not being provided to all. These residents are paying as much Council Tax as everyone else, but when it comes to refuse collection they are only getting half the service of everyone else.

“Other residents are provided with waste containers inclusive of their Council Tax, so why is the container hire cost for these residents not also included in the Council’s waste contract?”

Cllr Featherstone, who has also been pressing the Council on this issue, added:

“It is simply not fair that some residents have to pay more than others for the same service. We will continue to press the Council on this issue until we reach a satisfactory conclusion.”

FEATHERSTONE SECURES MORE NEW BINS FOR STATIONS

Posted on by

Cllr Lynne Featherstone has continued her campaign to clean up Haringey’s railway stations by securing new bins from Haringey Council for three of the borough’s worst. This week the Council confirmed that they are to install litter bins at Hornsey, Harringay and Alexandra Palace stations.

This is the latest in a long line of successes for Cllr Featherstone who has been campaigning hard since early last year to improve the state of the borough’s stations. To date she has secured new fencing, embankment clearance and track clean ups – and now new bins.

Cllr Featherstone is pleased with the progress that has been made and believes that new bins will help prevent the stations falling into the state they had prior to her campaign.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“It’s an ongoing battle, but we are making progress on cleaning up the stations. It is vital work that will encourage more passengers. Everyone must take an interest, and I will continue to press the station authorities to work with the Council on making sure improvements are made.”

LIB DEMS SECURE PARK ACTION

Posted on by

Liberal Democrat councillors have called on the police to clamp down on aggressive and abusive youths in the Albert Road Recreation Ground, N22. The request comes following a number of complaints from local residents and the Friends of Albert Road Park that youths between the ages of 14 and 17 are hanging around the Park’s play area and threatening young children using the facility.

Lib Dem councillors Lynne Featherstone and Wayne Hoban have contacted the local police and asked them for assistance on the matter. They have been assured that a beat officer will visit and discuss the problem with staff and patrols will be increased to identify the youths causing the problems.

Cllr Featherstone comments:

“Teenagers are prohibited from using the facility for the precise reason that younger children can feel intimidated by them. However what is of a deep concern to me is the aggressive nature of some these teens and I am pleased that the police are addressing it.”

Lib Dem councillor Wayne Hoban, who is involved with Friends of Albert Park added:

“We want to ensure that everyone is able to enjoy this wonderful park without abuse and intimidation and I am confident with the help of local police and park staff we can achieve that.”

Underspending on transport

Posted on by

Mayor’s Question Time at the London Assembly. Always a bundle of fun. I am leading for the LibDem group with a question on Mayor Livingstone’s (lack of) success at getting money out of the government. In fact, the transport grant is going down – less money equals no successes by the Mayor!

Sods law (and probably no coincidence) in his update report to the Assembly Livingstone announces that the Government has decided to ‘allow’ prudential borrowing – and Ken’s application for £400m has been granted. Labour’s in a hole over transport and trying to dig itself out and through Ken a lifeline.

Obviously Labour’s polling is showing that people are fed up so suddenly – Bob’s your uncle, it’s OK to borrow.

I’ve long argued that the GLA should have the power to raise money through bonds (prudential borrowing isn’t quite that but is a form of it). Given how Gordon Brown has always firmly refused to allow this, I guess it is a sign of Labour’s political troubles that he’s finally had to relent a bit.

Of course, this totally undermined the thrust of my questionning – but a quick bit of thinking and I ran through the above with the Mayor and reminded him that it was now even more important to make the case for London as the Government in future could simply say – “well you can borrow” and reduce what should rightly be paid for by the Government still further.

I then drifted onto the Mayor’s £350million underspend on the tube. I think Ken is misleading the Assembly and I am trying to flush him out on what this is really about. He keeps saying ‘it isn’t me who is underspending, it’s just that the private companies haven’t sent in all their bills’.

Not so – there are no bills due. In fact, the service charge on the PPP money is always up front – so that’s a bit of a porky.

Ken slithers around on this one – but basically admits that I am right about the money being up front. So I ask him to publish a list of the projects he thinks are in the pipeline and will have to be paid for with price-tag and time-line. He wriggles into ‘commercial confidentiality’ as a get out of this.

But it’s not over yet – my allotted time for questionning runs out (and we have a very rigorous Assembly Chair who is a stickler for timings). But I’ll be back!

During question time a group of young people from the Haringey Youth Forum are present to see how London is run. Afterwards I go to Committee Room 9 where the youngsters are having sandwiches and take questions from them. Bright kids, bright questions.

Cow in the lift

Posted on by

First informal meeting of the Stop and Search Scrutiny panel to discuss the first draft of our Met Police Authority report on Stop and Search.

The first draft is a bit adrift (understatement). Everyone agreed it was strong and hard hitting with good recommendations – but the structure was appalling, the referencing non-existent, the context entirely missing, the statistics not up-to-date and there was a lot of academic sociological waffle about the issue.

So – a fair bit needing to be done to knock the report into shape. However well it is then put together, there will still be ructions as the basic tenet and thrust is still pretty critical – hopefully constructively so.

PS Emerge from lift on 7th floor of City Hall. The London Assembly member who I didn’t name earlier in my blog when describing them as someone ‘who could talk for Britain’ at an Assembly press lunch, was entering the lift as I emerged. I think they may have twigged – for as I walked away from the lift the word ‘cow’ emanated from said member’s lips.

Student debt

Posted on by

To Haringey for a Full Council meeting. For reasons that are unclear to me it was a very good humoured meeting. Not a common experience in the chamber where the usual sport is shouting at me individually or the LibDems collectively for daring to exist – let alone having the temerity to challenge the status quo.

By the time we got to council motions the public (there were none this time) and the media had long left. So only council members were left to pontificate amongst themselves on the local MP’s failure to vote against top-up fees, despite much previous media coverage of her ‘rebellion’.

More seriously, my concern is the number of Haringey’s young people who will now not go on to a university education because of debts they will incur. Whilst the government may argue that future graduates will pay back their debts out of their very high and advantaged earnings, many will find that if they go to worthy but lower-paid jobs, like teaching or working for voluntary organisations, they will have to pay back an extortionate tax rate out of very low income.