Richard Wilson

At the end of December I was alerted to the fact that there had just been a public exhibition about a huge proposed new development on the Stroud Green Road.  As the image on the left shows the John Jones arts centre plan to put a large 6 storey development on their site.  They are at an informal consultation stage – the formal planning application has not yet been submitted.

The development is on the Islington side of the road, and Haringey don’t seem to have made much effort to get involved in the process.  Councillors such as myself weren’t alerted to the event - which meant I couldn’t advertise it on this website.  So I immeadiately put an email into Haringey Council asking how they were going to ensure that residents on the north side of Stroud Green Road were able to have a say.  This week (5 weeks later) I got a response just directing me to Islington Council’s website and saying no Haringey panning officers had even attended the December consultation event.

Clearly this development would have a major impact on Stroud Green.  Its great to see people wanting to invest in Stroud Green Road, but this proposed building does seem quite tall, given the height of the Victorian terraces surrounding it.  I think everyone should have their say on this development – regardless of which side of the borough boundary they live, and  I will press for wide-scale consultation when the planning application is submitted.

Like many councillors I’ve spent the last few weeks reporting all the potholes I can spot on our local roads.  Its a pretty thankless task – sometimes you think it would be easier to send in a list of all the places that don’t have potholes.  So far I’ve reported them on Granville, Inderwick, Nelson, Stapleton Hall and Mount View Roads (this photo is from Mount View).

Of course, the current rash of potholes has been caused by the snow and ice, and the Lib Dems have pressed the Council to do a special survey to identify these new holes.  However, the Council have refused to go out and find the holes themselves and instead say they will only fill them if they are reported by residents or councillors.

I think this neglectful policy is absolute madness, as it gaurantees some potholes are missed and not repaired.  The Council has a duty to keep our streets safe and potholes are incredibly dangerous for cyclists and motorcyclists.  Its not acceptable for Labour to just decide potholes are not a priority.

The long term solution is for the roads with the most potholes to be completely resurfaced.  It’s such a waste of money to keep patching-up roads where the surface is completely worn out and crumbling away.  I’ve called time and time for these roads to be resurfaced – but too often the Council refuse to act, even though it would mean saving money in the long run.

Good news!  In a previous post I mentioned that for a number of years now I have been nagging the Council to remove the derelict old phone box by the shops on Weston Park.  It was installed by a private (non-BT) phone company and hasn’t been in operation for many years (see picture).

The Council have previously refused to remove it unless the company that installed it paid to do so – but of course the company has long since vanished.  However, for the first time, I have now gained a commitment from Council that the phone box will be removed, regardless of whether the costs can be recouped.  I’m really pleased – but its a shame that it has taken so long to make the Council see sense!

We have also been trying to make the shops feel safer in the evenings.  A couple of residents contacted Cllr Ed Butcher and me last year about groups of young people gathering near the shops in the evening, and creating an intimidating atmosphere.  We contacted the local ‘safer neighbourhood’ police team and they agreed to increase patrols.

I chatted to the local police sergeant about the issue again this week – and they have talked to the shopkeepers and think they have identified where the kids are coming from.   It sounds like the issue is in hand, but I’ve also written to local residents urging them to contact me if the problem persists – or returns when the evenings are warmer.

Like all Haringey Councillors, I’m regularly contacted by families in desperately overcrowded or temporary accommodation looking for a family Council house.   These families wait for years, and there are over 16,000 families on Haringey’s housing waiting list – with 566 looking for a home with more than 3 bedrooms.

So when residents alerted local Lib Dem activist Katherine Reece to a large 3-storey empty council house in Nelson Road (N8) I was determined to investigate why it wasn’t being used.  I’ve now got a response which shows the house has been left empty and boarded up since April 2009, and will not be returned to use until March 2010 at the earliest.

Unsuprsingly the house now looks like a dump and the neighbours must be furious.  But what is really scandalous is that Haringey Council is happy to let this house, which could be a wonderful family home, lie empty for nearly a year.   No wonder we have such long housing waiting lists in Haringey, when our Labour-run Council is so wasteful with its own housing stock.

Co-incidentially, the national Lib Dems have just announced proposals to bring 250,000 empty homes back into use, to boost jobs and tackle our housing crisis.  Ideas like this are clearly badly needed in Haringey.

Since I started highlighting the lack of grit bins in Stroud Green, I’ve had a dozen requests from local residents to get a bin installed in their road.  In fact, residents of Woodstock Road and Denton Road pointed out that their roads used to have a grit bin but the Council took it away a few years ago.

As a result I’ve sent in a request to the new Cabinet Member for the Environment Cllr John Bevan, asking for grit bins to be installed in the following six roads:

• Albany Road
• Oakfield Road (between Stapleton Hall Road and Ridge Road)
• Denton Road
• Uplands Road
• Woodstock Road (near Stroud Green Primary School)
• Mount Pleasant Crescent

At this week’s Full Council meeting I had planned to raise the lack of grit bins and a number of other ways I thought Haringey could improve its preparedness for snow and ice.  Cllr Lyn Weber and I had put down a motion calling for the Council to hold a formal review to find out resident’s experiences and learn lessons.

However, in one of the most childish displays I have ever seen from a grown adult, Council Leader Claire Kober deliberately talked nonsense for half an hour to stop our motion being reached.   Its shocking that the Leader of a Council that is rated the worst in London thinks this is an acceptable way to behave, and presumably doesn’t think the Council has anything to learn from residents’ experiences of the recent snow and ice.

Today I did a walkabout with Stroud Green’s new ’street enforcement officer’, which was originally planned for earlier in the month, but delayed due to the snow.  It was a great opportunity to find out what progress he has already made and to point out some of the many problem issues that residents have raised with me over the last few years.

The officer had already sorted out one issue I’d raised with him, which was the builders at a house on Mount View Road who had spread all over the pavement, forcing pedestrians out into the road.  Enforcement action was taken a few days ago, and when we visited today the site was immaculate.

One favourite issue of mine which I also raised was the very many phone cabinets with missing doors in the ward.  I showed him a cabinet in Denton Road that I’d alerted the Council to in August (see summery picture) - but which still isn’t fixed.  The enforcement officer agreed to take action with Virgin Media – who appear to be the villain in not maintaining their street furniture very well.

One area we spent alot of time talking about was the Ferme Park Road shops, where residents and shopkeepers are unhappy about rubbish bags sitting around in big piles waiting to be collected by the Council’s binmen Enterprise.  This will be a tricky issue to solve due to the contract with Enterprise which apparently allows them to collect the rubbish whenever they like rather than at set times.

Haringey Lib Dems have long campaigned for officers to be based out in the wards, so they really get to understand and take responsibility for their patch.  From what I saw and heard on this walkabout, this strategy should work with this new local officer.

Local families really value the play facilities at Stationers Park, so its been very depressing to see the slow decline of the popular children’s playfort (see picture), with years of broken promises by the Council on repairing or replacing it.  But now there is some good news at last!

Thanks to the hard work of the residents in the ‘Friends of Stationers Park’ and our local parks officers, a bid for a Government ‘Playbuilder’ grant has been successful.  This means that part of the capital funding for a new big play facility is available – but more work and funding is needed to make this a reality.

I’m pushing the Council on a number of points:

• The Council need to facilitate a big consultation event at Hornsey Vale Community Centre so that more local families can have an input into the plans.  I know the Friends of Stationers Park are committed to getting a worthy successor to the much-loved playfort – but we need to make sure the Council don’t cut corners and push for something cheaper and less impressive.
• Getting in external grants is fantastic, but that’s no excuse for Haringey Council to wash their hands of their financial responsibility – this is a Council park.  I’m pressing Haringey to match fund any external grants to demonstrate their commitment and encourage donors.
• To get a move on – residents have waited long enough for action!

If you want to get involved with the Friends of Stationers Park to help improve the park and the play facilities please get in contact and I’ll pass on your details.