Muswell Hill Lib Dem Councillor Lynne Featherstone has described as ‘constructive’ a meeting with Haringey Council on the state of one of Muswell Hill’s few parking areas – the car park behind Marks and Spencer on the hill.

Discussions on the council-operated car park have resulted in Haringey agreeing to a clean up, and to provide better maintenance in future. The council has also agreed to look at better planting, and to consider a four-hour maximum limit on parking, once a usage survey has been carried out. It is hoped this will maximise use and benefit to local shops and businesses.

Lynne Featherstone also discussed how to resolve the present problems with leaving the car park. There are regular traffic jams, causing congestion and nuisance for residents in Hillfield Park and St James’s Lane.

Lynne Featherstone comments: “This was a useful meeting, and we have made some headway. Hopefully, the car park will be cleaner, and we can get some progress to ease the entry and exit problems. Making the most of the parking we have in Muswell Hill, including all the spaces at the Odeon as well as here at Marks and Spencers, will help ease problems in residential roads in the area. These improvements will be part of that.”

Lib Dems are demanding action, as new figures have revealed the growing scale of failure surrounding Haringey Council’s abysmal record on recycling household waste.

Figures buried in the council’s newlypublished Best Value Performance Plan show that the provisional rate of recycling has fallen further in the past 12 months, from an already low 5.5% to an even more dismal 4.6%.

Lib Dems say the figures indicate the total shambles surrounding Haringey’s recycling record, with the Labour-run council facing the prospect of being named, shamed and taken over by its own government for its abysmal record. Haringey’s 4.6% compares with a London average of over 10% and a government target of 17%. Labour Environment Minister Michael Meacher has warned that councils such as Haringey, which fail to meet his targets for recycling, will face having such services taken over.

Lib Dems say facilities are particularly bad in the west of the borough, despite the enthusiasm of local residents for recycling. At last week’s full council meeting, Neil Williams and Steven Gilbert, Lib Dem councillors in Highgate and Fortis Green wards, demanded more recycling points in their own areas, and forced Haringey to agree in principle, once suitable sites have been confirmed.

Councillor Bob Hare, Lib Dem spokesman on recycling, said:”Yet again, these are very poor figures. For them to have fallen further, for another year, is a major indictment of the council’s recycling policy. Haringey has got to do better.”

Commenting on major new plans to create new ‘police kiosks’ in Wood Green and Tottenham, Lynne Featherstone, Lib Dem Leader of the Opposition, said:

“I have always believed there was a role for police kiosks, but the lack of attention to the west of the borough is regrettable, given the closure of police front counters in Muswell Hill and Highgate.

“Although there has been some welcome progress on the Muswell Hill police station, sadly the same cannot be said for Highgate. I will be pressing the police to ensure they also consider taking action to improve policing in Highgate.”

Highgate Lib Dem councillor Neil Williams comments:”During the May local elections Labour attacked calls for the reopening of police front counters in the west of the borough and refused to give council backing for the restoration of Highgate’s police station. Yet they regularly support measures for the east of the borough. It is all too typical.”

Lib Dem Muswell Hill Councillor, Ross Laird, has labelled Haringey Council’s running of a Muswell Hill council block ‘a disgrace’ after a recent site visit. Cllr Laird has notified Haringey Council about the state of Connaught House, in N10, which is littered with several dumped cars, piles of rubbish, which is encouraging rats, and unsafe playing areas.

Ross Laird has written to the housing association that runs the site about a list of issues that need to be resolved, including dampness. He has also contacted the police and Haringey Council to try and clean up the abandoned cars and dumped rubbish, and encourage more regular communications.

Cllr Laird comments:

“Local residents are right to feel aggrieved about the state of Connaught House as it is in a very bad state of repair. My discussions with local residents have revealed a list of problems that need to be urgently resolved.

“The area needs a number of key safety measures, including door entry phones and better lighting. In addition, the local play area is in a poor state and there are many steps needing urgent repairs. Along with my colleagues Jonathan Bloch and Lynne Featherstone, I will be pressing the Council to do better in future.”

At last night’s full council meeting, Liberal Democrat councillors forced Labour’s Lead Member for Social Services to admit that the additional spending approved for staff recruitment and retention had only been agreed due to the recommendations on the Social Services Inspectorate Report.

Cllr Ross Laird, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, who pressed the issue in the Council Chamber, said:

“After years of under-funding it takes a government Social Services Inspectorate report to finally get the necessary finances to retain and recruit the staff needed for Haringey’s social services department.”

Cllr Ron Aitken, Opposition Spokesman on Health and Social Services, said:

“Labour’s spending on social services over the past four years has been woefully inadequate. It is unbelievable that despite the Laming Inquiry and an over-reliance on agency and temporary staff, until this week, the Council was still not prepared to put in the necessary resources.”

There was disappointment last night, as Haringey’s Labour Council failed to back a plan by the Lib Dems to introduce an innovative new pilot scheme to help relieve pressure on local GP surgeries. The move came at Haringey’s full council meeting last night.

The Lib Dem plan was based on the highly promising Croydon Pharmacy scheme, and could have been of huge benefit to the area’s health services, says Lib Dem Leader Lynne Featherstone, who put forward the idea.

The scheme has relieved pressure on GP surgery time in Croydon. People who cannot afford to buy over-the-counter remedies often go to their doctor so that they can get a prescription for such medicines in order to avoid charges. The Croydon approach uses a voucher scheme to redirect people to local pharmacies to receive their medicines for free. GP time is thus freed up for treating other patients.

Lynne Featherstone comments: “I am very disappointed. This is a good idea that was put forward in good faith, but Labour decided they could not be seen to support our motion. Haringey would be a great place to trial this scheme, particularly in the east, as we believe that the skills of local pharmacists are underutilised by the local health service.

Councillor Wayne Hoban, Lib Dem health spokesman, who also spoke in favour of the plan, adds: “It was an all too predictable response. I had hoped Labour would cooperate, but as usual, they would not take up the challenge.”

Haringey’s Labour Council has provoked a storm of criticism for failing to answer key question put to it by the opposition Liberal Democrats regarding the council’s much-criticised Social Services department.

At last night’s full council meeting, Lib Dem Social Services spokesman Ron Aitken had asked for details of how many times, and in which years, the department had been reorganised since 1970. But Labour’s lead member for social services failed to answer, calling the questioning “a complete waste of time.”He said that the Council did not have to provide the information, and implied it could not, saying of Haringey only that: “We are keeping our records as of now.”

Lib Dem Social Services Spokesman Ron Aitken comments:

“There was a disgraceful arrogance and lack of information forthcoming form the council. The Victoria Climbie tragedy was years in the making, yet the council will not even provide this basic background information as to how the department has been run. I will be calling again for these details to be published.

“It is also clear that enquiries by councillors about child protection and children’s homes have also been destroyed, because the Council says, they are destroyed after six years.”

Labour-run Haringey Council stripped assets to pay off the Council’s massive debts and fund the controlling Labour Group’s pet projects at the expense of children at risk and the mentally ill, say Haringey’s Opposition Liberal Democrats and their social services spokesman, Ron Aitken.

Over a 15-year period, the Council closed and sold off children’s homes, social services offices and family support centres, but refuses to say whether the money went into better child protection or facilities for the mentally ill.

Haringey recently received zero stars for its children’s services and has been heavily criticised for withholding information from the Victoria Climbie Inquiry.

“At the height of the property boom Haringey sold off children’s homes and cut funding to organisations supporting children and the disabled, yet they failed to put the money raised from their asset-stripping back into improved services,” says Lib Dem spokesman Ron Aitken.

The Council last night at full council approved an emergency increase in funding for social services in an attempt to stave off further criticism from the Social Services Inspectorate. “This has come too late to save Victoria Climbie,” said Cllr Aitken, “and only partly compensates for the daylight robbery of the social services and voluntary sector by the Labour Group.”

Haringey’s Lib Dems celebrated another ‘golden jubilee this week, with the 50th edition of the party’s popular FOCUS newsletter in Muswell Hill ward.

The party first began delivering FOCUS in the area in the mid-nineties, when the Lib Dems had no representatives on Haringey council. FOCUS triggered the party’s dramatic breakthrough to Haringey council, where the Lib Dems, having wiped out the Tories and gained many seats from Labour in May, are now the official opposition party with 15 seats.

From humble beginnings in Muswell Hill, the party now delivers their regular FOCUS newsletter across all of Hornsey and Wood Green.

Lynne Featherstone, who represents the ward along with Jonathan Bloch and Ross Laird, comments:

“Regular community newsletters are the cornerstone of the Lib Dem approach, as they signal to people that we are committed to working with them, and keeping in touch throughout the year – not just at election time. It has been a vital part of our success in Haringey, and I can hardly believe we have now reached number fifty in Muswell Hill ward.”

In the battle to reopen Muswell Hill police station front counter, Lib Dem Leader Lynne Featherstone is to organise a public meeting following a further offer of help from the Met.

Lib Dem Leader Lynne Featherstone held discussions last week with Met consultant Helen Smith, who is coordinating their ‘Volunteers in Policing’ initiative. Along with local Inspector Simon Heffer, the two discussed ways of bringing forward volunteers and create greater community involvement at the station.

Ms Smith told Lynne Featherstone and local Police Inspector Simon Heffer that the Met was willing to back a scheme of local volunteers if local people were determined to see the station open.Ms Smith has been involved in a successful bid to reopen a police station in Merton, and had even stood herself outside a local Sainsbury’s to find the volunteers needed.She suggested a public meeting would help establish the degree of local support.

This is now aimed for the Autumn, with the Lib Dems coordinating efforts to persuade local residents’ associations, neighbourhood watches and individuals to back the idea.

Lynne Featherstone comments:

“This was a very positive meeting, as Helen Smith has shown that she can get things done. Met Commissioner Sir John Stevens is now firmly backing this approach, so hopefully we can make real progress.I am going to visit the Merton Scheme myself, and we will now begin work on the public meeting to bring the scheme to Muswell Hill.”