Tag Archives: haringey council

How not to treat leaseholders

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My Liberal Democrat councillor colleagues on Haringey Council are doing a great job on holding the Labour administration to account. Suspend your disbelief for a moment – Labour Haringey have decided that leaseholders should pay in advance for major works. If you are a Haringey leaseholder – you will be seeing pigs flying at this moment.

Would you want to pay Haringey Council in advance for anything? This is carte blanch for shoddy work and botched repairs. Nobody in their right mind would pay the full amount before the work is even started. Talk about a leaseholder rip-off.

Prior to the new scheme leaseholders would pay for major work after completion, however under the new scheme Homes for Haringey will be allowed to pressure leaseholders to pay before work has started. Leaseholders who refuse to pay the full amount upfront will be charged on average £325 more.

And I would just like to add that I have seen a breakdown of leaseholder charges brought to me by a leaseholder that she had managed to get. The breakdown seems to show the same job being done several times – and charged for.

Thank goodness our councillors have succeeded in forcing a review of Labour’s decision to change the way leaseholders are charged for work to their properties.

Haringey Council: 13 years behind schedule

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I think this press release pretty much speaks for itself!

Delays in Haringey Council making important decisions effecting residents’ schools, houses and key services currently total 4,937 days – or more than 13 years – it has been revealed by the Liberal Democrats.

Haringey Council’s monthly forward plan, which lists important decisions to be made by the Labour-run council in the next four months shows that only three out of sixty-three decisions will be made on time. Local Liberal Democrats have criticised Haringey Council for failing to decide on key projects and have said that residents will bear the brunt of the failure to deliver on time.

Cllr Robert Gorrie, Haringey Liberal Democrat Leader, commented:

“Haringey Labour have for forty years failed to deliver the services needed by residents in Haringey. Their history of delivering major projects late and over budget is legendary. Now we see that they can’t even manage the process of deciding what to do. Their performance is an embarrassment to the Borough.

“Decisions that would hopefully tackle major issues in Haringey have been delayed by the Council and residents will be the ones that will lose out as a result.”

Lynne Featherstone MP added:

“Haringey Council runs a lot essential services such schools, elderly care and services for people with disabilities; so no-one wants important decisions rushed. But when time and time again Labour procrastinate and dither about making choices that will have a real impact on people’s lives, it is the quality of these services that suffers.

“No organisation can function properly with such indecision at its top and sadly local residents bare the brunt.”

Top nine delays by Haringey Council (based on difference between original date and current date the decision will be made):

  1. Tree Policy and Planting programme (302 days late)

  2. Disposal of properties in NDC area (186 days late)

  3. Bull Lane/Pasteur Gardens (186 days late)

  4. Parks Asset Management Plan (150 days late)

  5. Markfield Park listed buildings refurbishment contract (136 days late)

  6. Electrical re-wiring to Winkfield Road N22 (136 days late)

  7. Accomodation Strategy (118 days late)

  8. Sports Club charges (114 Days late)

  9. Building Schools for the future (BSF) contract for John Loughborough School (100 days late)

Ten most popular blog postings (2nd quarter, 2008)

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In traditional reverse order, here are the ten postings which have proved the most popular over the last three months:

10. The morning after the night before: the moment when it looked like Paxman might punch Johnson – one of the (few) TV highlights of the London Mayor election: Boris Johnson flounders over his bus policy.

9. The real lesson of the 10p tax rate fiasco – it wasn’t just the tax policy that was wrong, it was the whole way we do budgets.

8. What will Boris Johnson be like as Mayor of London? – no prizes for guessing the topic of that piece!

7. The London results – yes, Boris is Mayor.

6. Olympics protest – I joined the protests as the Olympic torch passed through London.

5. Crewe & Nantwich by-election: are the rules wrong? – should election campaigns really be rushed through at the convenience of the incumbent party rather than giving the public time to find out about the candidates and their policies?

4. Iris Robinson – homophobia is certainly still alive in Northern Irish politics.

3. Nine years in a squalid and infested flat – a tale of failure that should make Haringey Council ashamed.

2. David Davis and his resignation to fight a by-election.

1. What did you think of the BBC TV local elections results program on Thursday night? Not a lot by the looks of it, though given the amount of traffic to this post long after the poll has closed it’s clearly an issue still on some people’s minds!

No surprise to see the London elections features so heavily in the list – but interesting to see that several of these posts are very brief and basically just me saying what my view is on an issue of the moment. I guess people have read them either because they’ve been very timely – or perhaps because they do want to know my views on issues!

Crouch End CPZ and road safety measures

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Thursday saw the AGM of the Haslemere, Waverley and Christchurch Road Residents Association, which was in Sue Hessel’s garden. And how lovely it was as she provides refreshments so it is social as well as business.

My Liberal Democrat colleague Cllr Lyn Weber was there too – as was Sergeant McGrath from the local Neighbourhood Team. So – after drinks etc – the three of us sat to take questions.

The big issue was the CPZ. What shocked me was that many people there had not received either the consultation on the proposed CPZ nor the consultation on Coleridge School Safety Scheme. The latter is about the road traffic and safety schemes needed to deal with Coleridge School’s expansion from two to four form entry and which will mean that the school is divided by a very, very busy road.

The school will be up and running this autumn – but the CPZ and the safety scheme (or rather, whatever emerges after the consultations) won’t be there in time for its opening. That has to be a concern both in safety terms for the kids but also in terms of the residents who will have extra pressure on parking from the school in their roads (the triangle of roads around the new building) – where parking is already under stress.

There seemed to be also quite a lot of concern that Haringey Council would provide parking permits for teachers of infinite number. Whilst everyone was quite happy for a few permits to be issued on the basis of need – there was a view that simply being a teacher at the school should not be the qualifying criteria for any such permits. If that were the only criteria – then the number of permits would make parking impossible for the residents who are already going to experience the extra weight of traffic in their roads.

So – we will see what Haringey Council is going to do to both ensure safety and deal properly with the parking stress. It simply cannot be right for the school to open without any measures in place.

The Scouts in Haringey

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On Thursday night I went to the AGM of London North Scouts at the Scout Park which is in my constituency – although the group also covers several others.

It is a fine organisation – and this was a timely visit as Haringey Council has decided to withdraw the very paltry support funding it gives them. I am fighting this , particularly as it has been taken away and the Scouts told to get funding from the Youth Opportunities Fund. However, the object behind that fund wasn’t to replace what local support there was – it was meant to be additional.

Anyway – I’ve written to the Council and to the Government. But back to the AGM – the keynote speaker was Terry Grimes of the Clash. Sadly I couldn’t stay for this speech as I had another engagement – but after I spoke he said he would call me as he is part of the Hackney YMCA and wants to chat with me in my role as Youth Spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats.

Imagine though – the Clash – they were so it, back when I remember I briefly had a stall at Camden Lock market. How the years roll by…

Haringey Council leaves confidential files abandoned – again

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Confidential files left insecure by Haringey CouncilThey may say that lightning never strikes twice, but when it comes to Haringey Council and stuffing up – one often wishes they could never make the same mistake twice!

It was bad enough when the news broke that Haringey Council had left files containing personal data on thousands people abandoned in a building (see my blog posting or watch the news report).

And then – after being told about it and saying they’d secured all the files – it turned out there were yet more files still left behind in the building.

After all that, Haringey Council promised that it had re-checked all council property for any other files that might have been abandoned.

Well – clearly they didn’t check very carefully because it’s now turned out that other files containing confidential information about people have been left insecure for over a year in a different building, despite the Labour-run council being repeatedly told about the problem.

It was only when Robert Gorrie (leader of the Liberal Democrats on Haringey Council) personally wrote to the council’s Chief Executive that something was done.

Dreadful, truly dreadful.

It could only happen in Haringey, part 94

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More problems with the plans to redevelop / expand Muswell Hill Library as it turns out that the latest plans to sell off land at the back of the site to pay for the work … wouldn’t leave enough land left over for the library to expand after all!

In other words – sell off land to pay for work that they can’t be done because, er… the land has been sold off. So very Labour Haringey!

As my colleague, Cllr Gail Engert (Muswell Hill) put it, “It is ludicrous to think that the very development that was meant to pay for the extension is now the very barrier stopping this happening. Original plans showed the library and the development sharing the land equally – now the development takes nearly all the land, leaving the library with very little.”

Number of families in temporary accommodation soars

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New figures show that since 1997, when Labour came to power nationally, the number of households living in temporary accommodation in Haringey has soared from 2,322 to 5,447 – the second highest number in London and four times the London average.

This extraordinary increase in the number of people living in temporary accommodation, often in terrible and run down states, is one of Labour’s biggest failings.

Not only is Haringey failing to find decent housing for these often vulnerable people, but my casework postbag offers evidence of the terrible state of many of these temporary homes. Haringey Council needs to own up to this failing, and address this as a matter of urgency.

(You can read more about this story in the news release on my main site.)

Nine years in a squalid and infested flat

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Lynne Featherstone and Bonnie Tarpey WronskiA mother of two who has been living in a squalid and infested one bedroom flat for nine years as her family has grown, had her dreams of a new home shattered last month by Haringey Council.

Bonnie Tarpey-Wronski, her two young sons, husband and sister, were overjoyed to hear that they had finally been allocated a new home, only to find out minutes later that Haringey Council had made a mistake and withdrawn the offer.

The flat they are currently living in has been deemed unfit to live in by Haringey Council, yet nine years on the family are continuing to live, eat and play in two overcrowded rooms, which are currently also suffering from a serious larvae infestation.

This young family has been messed around by Haringey Council – enough is enough. After what they have been through, it is sheer torment to be told one minute you have a home only for it to be taken away the next.

Day in, day out, I help lots people who have been let down by Haringey Council, but this takes it to another level. It adds insult to injury after the years of squalid housing they have had to put up with.

Bad news on school places in Haringey

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BlackboardGlum news on school places “choice” in Haringey unfortunately.

As I report over on my website, one out of three children in Haringey have not received a place at their preferred secondary school – figures released by Haringey Council show that only 67% of children starting secondary school in 2008 would be able to attend their first preference school.

Worse still – the number of children not receiving their first place increased by 3% from last year and no progress was made in children receiving their first two preferences. Over the past four years children not receiving their first or second preference have increased from 11% in 2005 to 18% in 2006, 20% in 2007 and 20% in 2008.

This has been a problem since before I became a councillor ten years ago, and the Liberal Democrats have constantly reminded Haringey Council that better forward planning is needed before this reaches crisis level. Again, we see a failure in planning, and again we see an increase in this figure. Labour have poured money into education without results – how long will it be until children in Haringey have the service they deserve?”