Out on a limb

There is a small section of my Fortis Green ward that you might be forgiven for thinking is in Barnet, not Haringey - part of Aylmer Road and half of Bancroft Avenue.

If you look at a map, you'll see what I mean - it's the bit of Haringey that pokes out the other side of the Great North Road. Fortis Green ward has a small section of Aylmer Road and half of Bancroft, but everything else north of Aylmer Road in that 'segment' is part of Barnet.

My ward colleagues Martin, Sara and I know very well that it's Haringey, having delivered leaflets, campaigned and done casework for residents there for (in my case) eight years now. Indeed, early in the new year we'll be doing another street surgery for those roads and the residents along Great North Road and Aylmer Parade - precisely because this bit of the ward is some distance from our regular surgery venue.

The reason for saying this is that I have been helping a resident sort out a traffic issue on Aylmer Road recently and Haringey Council didn't realise it was part of Haringey! No wonder these residents might sometimes feel a little isolated from the goings on at the civic centre...

But the Council helpfully attended a site meeting along with Transport for London, everyone has now agreed that the houses are in Haringey and we have an agreed way forward, so good progress.

Residents vs planners

A lot of my casework over the last eight years has been dealing with objections to planning applications. Maybe not the most glamorous part of the job, but it's an area that causes a great deal of concern and frustration to local residents.

When a bad proposal is made, they contact me and get help objecting - sometimes written, sometimes in person at a decision-making meeting - and on big developments we can generate a lot of extra comments from people who might be affected. So we make sure that residents' voices are heard and put all our objections as clearly as possible.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But the fight is always worth fighting - even if you don't stop a development altogether, you might at least get some concessions.

But one of the most frustrating parts of the planning process for residents is that the battle against a proposed development can seem never-ending. Fighting bad development proposals can be time-consuming and energy-draining and when you win there is an immediate sense of relief. But more often than not, new plans are submitted - frequently with only minor changes - and the developers have another go.

For example, there is a current planning application in for Chessing Court on Fortis Green in my ward. The proposal is to add an extra floor on the top of the building, which already towers over neighbouring properties. Residents are objecting, as I am, and hopefully the plans will be turned down.

It's a bad case of deja-vu though. An application for an extra floor on top of Chessing Court has only recently been rejected. The new plans are no better than last time - newly added windows and roof terraces will in fact make it worse. But thinking they had won the fight already, residents are now faced with the realisation that they just won one battle and are now in a war - that could go on forever, with slightly revised plans coming up again and again.

This sort of situation can be demoralising for campaigning residents and in some cases seems to be a deliberate effort to wear them down until they give up. So the message is: don't let developers get away with anything and get your local ward councillors to do as much of the fighting for you as you can!

Children's centre snub for Fortis Green

My Lib Dem ward colleague Martin Newton recently highlighted just one way Haringey Labour are neglecting Fortis Green.

Haringey Council are only providing £5,000 to fund a new children’s centre in Fortis Green ward. This was revealed as part of a welcome announcement of further funding for children’s centres across Haringey - but the allocation for Fortis Green compares with other wards getting up to £495,500.

Fortis Green is the only ward in the borough not to have a children’s centre and with 5,000 quid that looks set to continue.

Facilities like this should be where there is need, of course - but there is need in Fortis Green. Haringey Labour like to ignore the West and pretend it's a perfect paradise with lots of rich people. But while average wealth is high in Fortis Green compared with many other wards in the borough, the average is just that - an average - and there are plenty of people who do need support.

Haringey Labour have missed a chance to show they understand that and start addressing the situation instead of ignoring it.

Something different for Christmas

If you’re struggling for a Christmas presents (and have already bought a Save Fortis Green Allotments calendar) then here’s a great idea for you.

At www.adoptaword.com you can do just that – adopt a word. I visited this site when Stephen Fry tweeted about it (he adopted “wordy”) and it is for a great cause. The money raised from adoptions goes to I CAN, the children’s communication charity.

As the I CAN website explains, one in ten children has a communication difficulty – almost three in every UK classroom – impacting on all aspects of children’s lives.

You can choose a word to adopt for yourself or as a present – and if you order before midnight tonight then you will also be in time to get an adoption pack sent out in time for Christmas.

Enjoy. (Sorry, “enjoy” has already been adopted, by the way).

Housing and other Haringey Labour failings

At the last Full Council meeting, I asked the Labour Cabinet Member for Housing when he had last reviewed the payment terms offered to leaseholders and how they compared to neighbouring boroughs.

What I was interested in seeing was if Cllr Bevan had started to look at the Haringey Leaseholders Association (HLA) proposals for making the payment terms fairer. The HLA passed a motion at their AGM last month calling for two things – the interest free payment period to be extended to five years and for the interest free period to be available in part to those who cannot pay the full amount in that period. I blogged in more detail about these at the time (including explaining what that second one means in practice).

Cllr Bevan was not at the HLA meeting, but I assumed he would have either been informed what had happened or perhaps taken an interest in the goings-on at the AGM of the group that represents leaseholders across Haringey and asked for a briefing. But when I asked in my follow-up question if he had specifically looked at these proposals he told me that he had not had any feedback from the meeting and so had not considered them. At least now he is definitely aware of them and will hopefully be asking for a full briefing on leaseholder issues.

There were also a number of targets that Haringey Labour are currently missing tucked away in a Cabinet report that came up at Full Council. I’ve copied a list below and I asked the Leader of the Council what action was being taken to deal with these problems.

As housing spokesperson, I asked the Leader specifically to explain the big increase in the time taken to re-let council housing and the 43.3 day wait for people to have their benefit changes or new claims processed – against a target of just 17 days. You can listen to her answers on the webcast of the meeting.

I also challenged the Cabinet Member for Safer Communities and Enforcement on Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) policy. Cllr Canver had been responding to a planted question from a Labour backbencher about HMOs so that she could try and show she is being tough with rogue landlords. However, when I stood up and asked why there had been a delay in implementing HMO planning policy and when that would be sorted out, she knew nothing about it… although I only got that information direct from Cabinet papers. Oh well.

Haringey Council targets not being met (July and August 2009):

• Levels of recorded offences of serious violent crime and knife crime rates are higher than targets set.
• Children’s social care initial assessments improved slightly in August but core assessments completed in time reduced and both remain below target.
• Household waste sent for recycling remains below the 32% target.
• Average time for processing new benefit claims and change events increased to 43.3 days in August and remains above the 17 day target for 2009/10.
• Average re-let times for local authority dwellings declined to 45 days in August against a target of 31 days.
• Call centre telephone answering - 82% of calls presented to the call centre answered against a target of 90%

Labour failing Haringey residents

News that Haringey is one of nine local authorities to have been rated “poor” by Ofsted for its children’s services is not really surprising.

I don’t think anyone underestimates the scale of the challenges facing Haringey on child protection, following the tragic deaths of Victoria Climbie and Baby Peter. Attracting enough social workers is difficult for most boroughs, but for Haringey – which has come under so much pressure from the media – it is all the more so.

There are a range of services which Haringey Labour is failing local residents on however. On the new oneplace website the Audit Commission’s overall statement for our area is:

Haringey London Borough Council performs poorly

Haringey is rated 1 out of 4 for managing performance, which is defined as “an organisation that does not meet minimum requirements, Performs Poorly”.

Haringey Labour have had more than three decades to get things right in Haringey and have failed. For the last 12 years they’ve had a supposedly supportive Labour government and still failed. Compare this with Lib Dem controlled Islington, where we took over a failing council in 2000 after years of Labour mismanagement – their overall statement is “good” with 3 out of 4 for managing performance.

Not to worry, local elections in May 2010 and Haringey’s taxpayers have the opportunity to turf Labour out and elect a Lib Dem council to start making a real difference to Haringey – from Highgate to Tottenham and everywhere in between.

Have your say

If you live in Fortis Green, Muswell Hill, Highgate or Alexandra wards then tomorrow night (Tuesday 08.12.09) is your chance to raise concerns directly with the Haringey Council, including two Labour cabinet members.

It is the regular Area Assembly and this time being held at Highgate Primary School, North Hill, London N6 4ED.

The meeting starts at 7.30 pm but council officers will be available before the meeting from 7.00 pm for residents to raise any individual matters of concern.

My Lib Dem colleague for Muswell Hill ward Cllr Gail Engert chairs these meetings and the agenda for tomorrow covers Archway Road, transport to Hornsey Health Centre, low-carbon zones, school travel and lollipop service, youth services in Highgate and an update on 'Making the Difference' funding. Phew - lots to get through, as always. But there is also a Question Time for quizzing Labour cabinet members on any aspect of how they run Haringey Council.

I have another meeting tomorrow as well, the scrutiny review looking at support for victims of crime, but as soon as that finishes I will be over to the Area Assembly myself. Hope to see some of you there.

Lib Dems - we're everywhere!

Even on a weekend away, there's just no getting away from my fellow Lib Dems.

Up in Aberdeenshire to visit my school friend Suzanne, we were told on arrival that we were heading to the nearest town, Alford, to see the Christmas lights switch on.

Turns out that doing the switch on was none other than Lib Dem MP for Aberdeenshire West and Kincardine, Sir Robert Smith. An easy man to spot, at his height! Suzanne, ever sociable, bounded over to him once he'd finished his raffle-drawing duties to introduce her family and, of course, me.

After explaining how a Haringey Lib Dem councillor came to be at the Christmas celebration in Alford, I had a good chat with Sir Robert. Hadn't met him before, a very nice chap. So, an unexpected treat - always nice to meet fellow Lib Dems from around the country. Pleased too that he didn't miss the opportunity to ask us if we wanted to go leaflet delivering!

I did take a quick photo during the raffle draw as proof, as you can see.

Clear opposition to A&E proposals

Monday night's council meeting saw a motion to fight the mooted closure of the accident and emergency departments at both the Whittington and North Middlesex Hospitals, proposed by my Lib Dem colleague Nigel Scott (Alexandra ward councillor and opposition spokesperson on health).

I am pleased to say that the motion got unanimous support from both sides of the council chamber. As I have previously blogged (and local Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone has also blogged, in much greater detail), it is vital that A&E services remain at the Whittington and at the North Mid.

These are two essential services for Haringey residents - as we don't have a hospital actually in the borough. As I said in the debate on Monday evening, I'd like to place on record my thanks to the A&E staff at the Whittington. In July I had to rush my partner there and the treatment was quick and first-class.

Within about 10 minutes of arriving at Whittington A&E my partner was put on a drip. That means he was getting treatment only 20 minutes after we left our flat in Muswell Hill. That is impressive - and reassuring for anyone that needs urgent medical treatment like this.

There is a wider debate about specialisation of services - not every hospital can provide specialist services for every condition. But by its very nature A&E is not a specialised service. It needs to be local and needs to be there when local residents need it, at any time of day or night.

If you haven't yet done so, please sign our petitions to save the Whittington and North Mid A&E departments. And please lobby your local MPs and councillors on this issue!

Fumni & Areeb set the standard

After a lovely weekend in Aberdeen visiting my old school friend Suzanne (more on that tomorrow...), Monday night's Full Council meeting was a lively affair, as usual.

We started by hearing from the two co-chairs of the Haringey Youth Council, Fumni Abari and Areeb Ullah. They were probably the most impressive speakers we heard all night, giving an interesting account of all the work the Youth Council has been doing. I was tempted to ask them if coming to meetings like ours made them more or less likely to want to become local councillors themselves... But at any rate Fumni has already gone much bigger than that, becoming the first non-MP to speak in the House of Commons.

Areeb said that the Youth Council had met representatives from other countries - including China, where their definition of 'youth' for these purposes was 18-45 year olds. As was pointed out, that gives lots of us some (false) hope! Worth watching both of them speaking on the webcast of the meeting.

It wasn't all good though. Labour cabinet member Cllr Dhiren Basu, made an extraordinary (even by his standards) speech, where he quoted a press release from Sutton Conservatives about trees in south London - of great relevance to residents in Haringey, I'm sure. Maybe he is thinking about defecting to the Sutton Conservatives?

Our emergency motion on the future of A&E services for residents in Haringey was the main debate, with my Lib Dem colleague Cllr Nigel Scott speaking very eloquently - but more on that in my next post. I spoke a few times as usual, including raising some housing issues, but I'll cover those off in a separate post too, as this one is already far too long.

I should also mention that for 'opposition business' Cllr Ron Aitken gave an excellent speech on policing in Wood Green (and across the borough) in his capacity as Lib Dem spokesperson on crime and community safety.

World Aids Day

Late in the day, but today is of course World Aids Day.

You can read a little bit more about the day and, if you can, make a donation to the Terrence Higgins Trust by clicking here - a great charity that I raised money for the first time I did the marathon, back in 2003.

And the BBC have an excellent slideshow of HIV/AIDS campaign posters which is definitely worth a look.