Archway Bridge needs a concerted campaign to restore the famous landmark to its former glory – that was the message from Neil Williams, Lib Dem local councillor for Highgate, speaking at the Hornsey Lane Residents Association (HLA) Annual General Meeting on Wednesday evening.

The HLA has been in the forefront of plans to renovate the famous bridge, which is in dire need of strengthening, painting and maintenance. The local Lib Dem councillor has taken up the challenge to campaign for improvements to the bridge alongside the residents’ association.HLA Chair, John Gordon, also called for bridge improvements to be closely linked with the Archway Road regeneration plans.

Councillor Neil Williams comments:

“Our bridge needs care and attention, for safety reasons, but also because it is a great landmark and we should look after it.I will be working with local residents to ensure that funding is secured as soon as possible for improvements. At present, even the bridge’s lighting is largely out of action. This can’t go on, and must be remedied.”

A Lib Dem councillor has welcomed the refurbishment at Highgate library to coincide with its 100th anniversary. Cllr Neil Williams, who represents Highgate on Haringey council, now wants the library service to keep up the momentum and is calling for Sunday openings as well.

Speaking on Sunday after the reopening of the library following its refurbishment, Lib Dem Leader Lynne Featherstone said:

“There is no doubt that Diana Edmonds, the Instant Libraries Team, and the local library groups have made huge strides. And I welcome Diana’s assurances that the library will be open on an extra day in the near future.”

Local councillor Neil Williams adds:

“Sunday opening is vital for the future of the library. The real course to a viable and vibrant library service must surely be through opening hours which meet the needs of modern lives, with people demanding an ever more flexible service, and other imaginative uses. The library must be there when people want to use it.”

A Lib Dem councillor is calling for tougher action from local bus companies on bus drivers who use mobile phones while driving. Lib Dem Neil Williams, Highgate, has made the move after seeing a driver using a mobile phone while driving down Wood Green High Road on Saturday evening.

Cllr Williams, who was going to the cinema in Wood Green with friends, at 9.00pm, was waiting at a pedestrian crossing opposite the Showcase multiplex, when a 243 bus passed by. The driver was talking on his mobile phone, and seemed highly distracted.

Neil Williams comments:

“Bus companies absolutely have to get a grip on this problem. Drivers need all their senses when doing a job of such responsibility. I would urge anyone who sees a similar incident to report it to the bus company straight away. They can also send an email to buses@lynnefeatherstone.org – we will pass on the information and keep up the pressure for action.”

Local Lib Dems are pushing the council to force a clean up in a mud-covered street in Muswell Hill. The party wants action in Burlington road, which is covered with mud as a result of building works at nearby Tetherdown School.

Haringey Council has failed to act, despite repeated requests from Lynne Featherstone and the newly elected Lib Dem councillors for the Fortis Green ward. Councillor Stephen Gilbert, Fortis Green, is asking the council to remove the mud and charge the costs back to the contractors – and if not explain why it is not doing so. He is tabling a question on the issue at next week’s full council meeting.

Steve Gilbert comments:

“Its about time this mess was cleared up. The council is reluctant to act, but somebody has to clear up this mess, as local residents are fed up with it. The contractors should do so, and if they fail, they should be made to pay for it.”

At next Monday’s full council meeting, Lynne Featherstone will move a motion to introduce a pilot scheme to help relieve pressure on local GP surgeries. The plan is based on the highly promising Croydon Pharmacy scheme, and could be of huge benefit to the area’s health services, say the Lib Dems.

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. People receive their medicines for free and GP time is freed up for their other work.

The Lib Dems believe that Haringey is an ideal place to pilot this successful scheme – particularly in the east of the borough where there are many single-handed GPs and high numbers of patients entitled to free prescriptions.

Lib Dem Leader Lynne Featherstone comments:”Local pharmacists are a much underutilised resource. They have expert medical knowledge, and are located in virtually every local high street. I hope Haringey Labour will accept this good idea and work with the Liberal Democrats to persuade Haringey Primary Care Trust to pilot this scheme here. It could hugely help local doctors.”

Note: the motion reads: “This Council: recognises the immense pressures on GP’s surgeries in Haringey; acknowledges the extraordinary success of the Croydon Minor Ailment Voucher Scheme in freeing up surgery time, and resolves to propose to and work in partnership with the Haringey Primary Care Trust to introduce a pilot of that scheme in Haringey; proposes as a first step a presentation of the scheme to both Council members and Haringey Primary Care Trust by those involved in the Croydon scheme.”

Pressure is growing on the local police to reopen the front desk service at Muswell Hill police station. Lib Dem Leader Lynne Featherstone will this week meet Inspector Simon Heffer of Haringey Police to discuss in detail what will be required of local volunteers, as part of the drive to find local recruits to run the desk.

Lynne Featherstone also wants to see the police building in Muswell Hill, still used by the police, used to hold neighbourhood watch meetings and other community meetings.

The Met has hired a consultant to give advice on the use of volunteers. The consultant has apparently indicated that the force will need about 80 expressions of interest from local people in order to achieve the 40 people needed to make the system work.

Lynne Featherstone will soon be visiting the London borough of Sutton to see in operation a front counter that is being manned by volunteers.

Lynne Featherstone comments:”We are determined to help Inspector Heffer find the volunteers and we will also be discussing how best to do this on Friday. There are lessons to be learnt from Sutton. Over there, as they couldn’t find enough volunteers to open it for full daytime hours, they started with just a few volunteers and opening for just a few hours – but that is now growing and the hours are extending. This could be the way forward, and I will be going to see this for myself.”

A Crouch End councillor is backing an anti-crime action plan formulated by CREOS (Crouch End Open Space), the Shepherds Cott Trust and local cricket and tennis clubs. Lib Dem Ron Aitken says the plan will set out to counter an alarming spate of car fires and vandalism on Crouch End Playing Fields – the sports fields bordered by Park Road, Wood Vale and Shepherd’s Hill.

Following these incidents, which have included the burning down of a cricket pavilion and the dumping of cars, the Trust has been spending up to £4,000 per month on security patrols.

In a further development Cllr Aitken has forwarded to the police the registration number of a vehicle seen in the area at the time of several incidents.

Ron Aitken comments:”There is a real crime problem here, and I am very anxious that further incidents should be prevented. The 300 people who watch or participate in spots activities in the area can play a part too. Public vigilance has a key part to play in the fight against crime.

“Crime problems in the area have regularly been raised by residents with myself and my colleague Lynne Featherstone. This is a welcome step forward.”

Haringey’s Lib Dem Opposition has revealed that the Social Services Inspectorate warned Haringey Council as long ago as 1988 about the risks associated with senior social workers having no supervision or monitoring. The same problems have come back to haunt the council during the Climbie case.

The Minutes of a Special Meeting of Haringey’s Social Services Committee dated 26 July 1988, attended by Cllr (Now Lord) Toby Harris indicate that the Social Services Inspectorate slammed Haringey for the lack of supervision of social workers and team leaders.

“There is a commitment to provide staff with supervision … but due to the staffing vacancies … this has not been carried out effectively and consistently.”

Regarding supervision of Team Leaders: “supervision is not taking place on a regular basis”.

The Committee agreed to set up a ‘working party’.

Lib Dem Social Services Spokesperson Ron Aitken comments:”Haringey has simply failed to act over a period of 15 years. It is simply not enough to blame junior members of social services for this – the political leaders of the time should be called to give evidence to the inquiry too.”

A local councillor has joined calls for urgent action over disabled access to a block of flats in Highgate. Residents say that Haringey Council has not acted to improve access to Dowding House, on the Hillcrest estate, despite years of pleas from locals.

Lib Dem councillor Neil Williams says it is now time for action from Haringey.

He comments: “We cannot have a situation where elderly and disabled residents, one 100 years old, have to struggle down the three steps at the entrance to Dowding House. Several are virtual prisons in the building for much of the time. And the same problem also occurs at some of the other blocks.

“Rosina Wells and other campaigners on the estate have waited for too long asked Haringey to sort this out. There must be a simple solution. Along with Lynne Featherstone, I am pressing for swift action from the Council.”

Lib Dem leader Lynne Featherstone has intervened after Haringey Council has failed for a second time to stop a developer from ‘annexing’ a piece of public land in the borough. The Lib Dems say this is a common problem and the council is repeatedly failing to act to protect this public property.

The site is the ‘pocket park’ at the junction of Bridge Road and Terrick Road, in Wood Green.An area near the electricity substation was fenced off in October last year by a developer of a new house on the site.

This was the second such encroachment on the site. An earlier incident had occurred in January 2001. On that occasion, the council seemed happy to let the land go, until Lynne Featherstone intervened on behalf of residents who asked the Lib Dem leader to take up the loss of public space.As a result, the council eventually took proceedings to reclaim the land.

In this latest development however, the council at first said they would ask the developer to move his fence back to the boundary.Now they say they have had site meetings with the developer, who claims there were construction difficulties associated with the close proximity of the substation and cables.The Lib Dems say this has as not been fully explained.

The council now says that it is offering to let the developer keep the fence, provided that a formal agreement be drawn up, the proviso being that he maintains the area around the tree in a clean condition, free of litter and rubbish, subject to six months notice in writing that the council requires the fence to be moved back.

Lynne Featherstone has written to the Haringey’s Chief Executive to say that Haringey’ behaviour must stop and that the fence should be moved back.

Lynne Featherstone comments. “This sort of situation is totally unacceptable. It sets a dangerous precedent, as we cannot allow Haringey to accept a situation that results form its own lack of action. It is a green light to all sorts of encroachers. The must stop trying to do deals, and take firm action.”