A Lib Dem councillor has persuaded Haringey Council to start using much clearer envelopes when informing local residents about planning applications.

Lib Dem Jonathan Bloch (Muswell Hill) says that residents often complain that they have not been made aware of controversial up-and-coming planning applications, when in fact they may have thought that ‘just another letter’ from the council about a planning application was no more than junk mail.

Now, Haringey has agreed that it will order new envelopes for future consultations with residents, which clearly state: “This is not a circular, this letter affects your property”.These envelopes will be in use from next week, and follows good practice in other boroughs.

Lib Dem councillor Jonathan Bloch comments:

“I am pleased that this change is being made. Often residents don’t realise that they are receiving important mail from the council that affects their area.This should go some way to sorting out this problem, and hopefully make more residents take notice. It’s vital that as many residents as possible have their say on planning issues.”

• Dangerous pedestrian crossing corrected
• Confusing lights to be addressed
• ‘Wrong type of green light’ to be replaced

Transport for London has agreed to take further safety action following the many problems in evidence at the newly designed Highgate/Muswell Hill Road junction.

After meeting Highgate Lib Dem councillor Bob Hare on the site, Transport for London (TFL) have taken swift action to remove the worrying danger at the pedestrian crossing light on Muswell Hill Road, which was showing green in the face of oncoming traffic from Archway Road.

TfL have also taken action over potentially confusing signals for drivers travelling from Southwood Lane to Muswell Hill Road. Two sets of lights are visible from the Southwood Lane side, but one controls the Wood Lane pedestrian crossing and works to different timings.

The Lib Dems say the situation is a potential danger, and that Tfl has agreed to do the work in the next two weeks.

Furthermore, in an echo of that other autumn cry of ‘leaves on the line’, TFL have admitted that they have fitted the ‘wrong type of green light’ on the southbound Archway Road. The light shows ‘ahead only’, instead of the full green, now that the successful campaign to restore the left turn into Muswell Hill Road is complete. They have agreed to take action, again within two weeks.

Councillor Bob Hare comments:

“I am pleased that following our meetings, TfL has agreed to act on some of the major faults still at the junction. It is a vital and very busy link between Muswell Hill and Highgate, and we must get the junction working correctly. I am pursuing a number of other points with TfL which could solve all the outstanding problems, but it is safety first, and I am glad they have agreed to act on some of the major problems.”

Lib Dem leader and GLA member Lynne Featherstone has welcomed a vital new safety initiative launched by the London Mayor and the Met police.

The ‘Know what you’re getting into at night’ campaign warns Londoners, especially women, of the dangers of getting into illegal minicabs. In the past 12 months 214 London women were sexually assaulted after hailing illegal cabs, according to figures released by the Metropolitan Police.

The campaign will use poster sites, pubs and clubs to get the message across London.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“We have to tackle the problem of the huge number of assaults reported by unlicensed taxi operators.There are alternative forms of transport, and minicabs are now being licensed and can be booked from a licensed operator.

“I hope women will heed the message from this excellent initiative and never take a taxi from a stranger in the street. It’s not worth the risk.”

Local Lib Dem councillor and GLA member Lynne Featherstone has called for a meeting with London Mayor Ken Livingstone to protest about Haringey’s attempts to push through controversial ‘backland’ developments in the borough.

The Lib Dem leader says that Haringey cannot use the Mayor’s ambitious London development plan to push through such unpopular developments and she will be urging Ken to make this clear to Haringey in future.

Ken Livingstone’s London Plan requires Haringey to find 19,000 new homes over the next 16 years.

The Lib Dem leader says Haringey is using the target as an excuse to squash houses into inappropriate ‘backland sites’, despite the fact that this was never the intention of the Mayor when the plan was drawn up. On Friday, Ms Featherstone visited one such controversial development site in Hornsey, situated between situated between Priory Avenue, Clovelly Road and Lynzee Roads.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“I am asking Ken to write to Haringey to make it clear that this kind of development is not what is intended by his plan. This particular application is an abomination and should be thrown out before it gets any further. The need for houses in Haringey can’t be met by tiny developments which stuff houses into inappropriate places like this.

“Haringey needs to fill up its empty homes and increase housing around transport hubs. I am sure Ken Livingstone will make it quite clear to Haringey that backland developments are not any part of his London Plan.”

Lib Dem councillors in Muswell Hill have succeeded in having a confusing traffic light moved.The change affects the left filter light at the junction of Park Road and Muswell Hill itself.

The traffic light, which directs drivers travelling up Muswell Hill from Crouch End, has been badly positioned for years, so that drivers at the front of the queue were often not aware that it had turned green. This caused general confusion, tooting and abuse from drivers further back, who enjoyed a clearer view.

The secondary filter light at the junction has now been moved to provide motorists at the front of the queue a clear view of the filter light.

Local Lib Dem councillor Lynne Featherstone comments:

“Every couple of minutes, you would get an onslaught of angry drivers tooting their horns because the light was badly positioned. The move should sort the problem out.”

Muswell Hill councillors have succeeded in securing double yellow lines at a busy junction on Muswell Hill Road.

The Onslow Road turning was the only junction on the road not to have double yellow lines – a situation which greatly concerned residents worried about visibility at the junction, and the difficulty of access for cars, given the narrow width of the residential street.

Muswell Hill Councillor Lynne Featherstone, who lives nearby, comments:

“If properly enforced, the yellow lines should improve safety and access at the junction. We will be monitoring the situation now that the lines have been painted.”

Haringey’s Liberal Democrat councillors have criticised the Labour-run council after controversial revelations that it plans to spend much-needed extra money for the troubled Social Services department on improving its media manipulation and spin doctoring, rather than on frontline services.

The plans, now revealed in a document leaked to Liberal Democrat councillor Lynne Featherstone, state that:

“In June, the Executive agreed additional resources for Social Services. These will be used to audit and improve all Social Services publications and website information. Media plans will be prepared for key milestones such as the Star Ratings, PAF tables and the publication of the Climbie Inquiry report.”

The leaked document is the council’s redrafted ‘Draft Corporate Communications Strategy,’ dated 3rd October.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“It is deeply depressing that Labour councillors seem more concerned with trying to spin their way out of trouble than in improving frontline services. The lessons of Victoria Climbie are that Haringey needs to sort out its social services department – not just try to spin things better in future.”

Highgate Lib Dem councillor Neil Williams is seeking assurances from Camden Council that it will not go ahead with the implementation of the CPZ plans for Highgate until the end of Haringey’s consultation process on the current plans.

Haringey is currently consulting on a CPZ of its side of the village, but has fallen behind Camden in the consultation process, with Camden already consulting local residents on the issue. Haringey is only beginning its own process.

Councillor Williams is calling on Camden to wait for Haringey to ‘catch up’ if Camden should decide to go ahead. Cllr Williams wants the maximum number of local residents on the Haringey side to participate in a public meeting on November 6th. The Lib Dems have secured a special Highgate meeting of the Muswell Hill and Highgate neighbourhood assembly to consider the present plans.

Cllr Williams comments:

“The two schemes are now out of sync, at least at the level of consultation. This is causing worry for local residents.

“We must have a co-ordinated approach between the two boroughs on all aspects.It would be a nonsense if Camden just presses on regardless of what is happening on the Haringey side.If this scheme does go ahead, and it is a big if, then there are issues which need to resolved, such as whether parking permits can operate on both sides of the High Street.

“All of these issues need to be discussed in a co-ordinated and thorough manner, with the maximum possible consultation possible so that residents and traders have the fullest possible say.”

Alexandra councillor Wayne Hoban has received assurances from the Chief Executive of North Middlesex University Hospital over the provision of key worker accommodation as a result of the PFI deal now being proposed for the site. The move followed a presentation to Haringey’s September full council meeting on the PFI project, in which the hospital stated that ‘the target figure was 25%’, but failed to offer any guarantees.

Wayne Hoban had written to the hospital asking for assurance that, in view of the acute shortage of NHS key-workers, a minimum of 25% of the new accommodation provided within the terms of the proposed PFI rebuilding contract should be reserved, at affordable rates, for NHS key-workers. It has been confirmed that this will be the case.

Wayne Hoban comments:

“With the planned building works taking away the existing accommodation for nurses and other key workers on the hospital site, it is absolutely vital that accommodation in the area is firmly set aside for these staff. Without this, the scheme would be grossly unfair on these key workers, who already have a hard job finding affordable accommodation in the area. These assurances are welcome.”

Lynne Featherstone, Lib Dem health spokesperson at the London Assembly adds,

“Shortages of affordable housing for public sector works are a huge problem across London. It is excellent news that the North Middlesex deal will contribute to alleviating the problem.”

Local councillor and London Assembly Member Lynne Featherstone has forced assurances from the Metropolitan Police that performance on 999 calls will be significantly improved.

The Met was responding to Ms Featherstone’s severe criticisms of their poor performance on answering emergency calls. The assurances were made at a high level meeting on Friday 11th October between Ms Featherstone and senior officers of the Metropolitan Police Service held in response to her concerns.

Recent figures have revealed that every month more than 5,000 * urgent calls for assistance are still unattended 23 minutes after the call was made. The statistics also showed that over 28% of all 999 calls took 63.5 seconds to answer * * . Given that these calls are made in crisis situations where every second counts, the performance was a cause of serious concern.

However, the Met has reacted positively to the uncovering of the problems. At their meeting with Ms Featherstone they stated their commitment to improving response, and outlined a number of measures put in place to bring about improvements. Ms Featherstone welcomed their efforts, but maintained a tough stance, stating that the MPA Performance Review Committee on which she sits would be closely monitoring progress over the next few months.

Ms Featherstone was particularly anxious to ensure that GLA-funded additional staff for the Met’s call centres, due in the New Year, would bring about a reduction in the time taken to answer 999 calls

Commenting, Ms Featherstone said:

“Time and time again local people bring up with me the issue of poor response times. When people are in real trouble, rapid response, both in answering 999 calls, and arriving on the scene is absolutely vital.

“It plays a highly significant role in building public confidence in policing, and, if performed successfully, can increase feelings of safety for people. That is why I consistently flag up this issue in my role as a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority and am working with the Met to bring about improvement.”

Notes:

* 21,869 calls over the period April – July, 5,467 per month were not responded to for at least 23 minutes.

* * Between mid-July and mid-August, the average time to answer the calls outside 15 seconds (over 28% of all calls) was 63.5 seconds.