I am very annoyed to discover that nobody from Haringey is attending the board meetings of cross-brough regeneration agency FinFuture. Along with Islington and Hackney, Haringey gets one place for a councillor on the FinFuture board, but have refused to offer this to any of the Lib Dems who represent the Finsbury Park area. Instead they subbonly insist on giving the position to Labour councillor Gina Adamou who has long track record of not attending.
Ed Butcher and I first raised this issue in 2007, when it was revealed that Cllr Adamou hadn’t attended a single meeting in the previous year. At the Full Council meeting in May, I nominated Ed to replace Gina on the Board – but the Labour group unanimously voted to keep her in place. We were assured it was a temporary issue – connected with Gina being Mayor that year.
However, this summer I decided to ask about Labour’s attendance since May 2007 and got this reply from the Council’s Chief Executive:
In 2007/08 there were 13 Board Meetings, of which, Cllr Adamou attended 4
In 2008/09 there were 6 Board Meetings, of which, Cllr. Adamou attended 0
In 2009/10 there has been one scheduled Board Meeting so far and Cllr Adamou gave her apologies.
This means Haringey’s seat on the Board of FinFuture has been left empty for almost all of the last 3 years – and we have lost our say on how taxpayers money should be spent in the area. This is completely unacceptable - the area around Finsbury Park is visited by thousands of Haringey residents and commuters and is in desperate need of regeneration.
This isn’t really about Cllr Adamou – I’m sure she has made it very clear to the Labour Group that she does not want to attend these meetings. What it shows is the low priority Haringey Labour put on the Finsbury Park area. The fact that they would rather have a non-attending Labour loyalist on the Board than a robust opposition councillor also shows their determination to put party politics ahead of the interests of local residents.
September 7th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
I look forward to the action photo of you pointing to the empty chair at the next meeting!
October 4th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
As a Finsbury Park resident (hackney side) of 9 years I have lived through multiple incarnations of promised working together by the 3 boroughs.
The case of Cllr Adamou demonstrates the self serving paradigm of the current Labour party, and they wonder why the electorate has switched off (them).
All 3 boroughs have consistently and collectively failed to understand the commercial and reputational opportunity that Finsbury Park could bring. Far safer to burn cash in the centre of the boroughs where the fortress-like town halls protect their comfy seats.