Between 12 and 2pm there will be a ‘health fair’ with stalls to find out more about local services and participate in health awareness activities.  This will include information on cancer screening information, diabetes prevention, and stopping smoking.  From 2pm-4pm will be the actual Assembly, which will include a presentation on the area’s new Neighbourhood Health Centre on Park Road, and also the usual opportunities for residents to raise issues from the ’soap box’.

This is the second Assembly we’ve had in the Park, and I hope that this one will be as successful as the ‘intergenerational’ one 2 years ago in getting a wider group of people involved.  Crouch End Councillor Lyn Weber has been the driving force behind these Assemblies and will be chairing as usual.

Afte meeting with local residents and visiting the site, I’ve urged the Council to reject the application for a number of reasons:

1. Poor access:  Access to the site is extremely poor with the path down the side of 2 Elyne less than 1 metre wide in places.  This will make construction very difficult and building materials cannot be delivered to the site without causing a great deal of disruption – as they will have to be unloaded onto the street and then carried up the path.
2. Loss of green space and natural habitat:  The gardens between Stapleton Hall Road, Quernmore Road and Elyne Road – with this site at its centre – are an important green space for local residents and for birds and animals.  Building in the middle of the site will badly degrade this green space and destroy the habitat of the animals and birds that residents regularly see in their gardens.
3. This is a greenfield not a brownfield site so building housing here will not help the Council meet its targets for building new homes.
4. Bulk and density:  The proposed dwelling is too large and bulky for the site – taking up a very large proportion of the plot and goes up very close to the borders of neighbouring gardens.  It is therefore an unacceptable increase in the housing density in the area.
5. Loss of amenity for residents:  There must be well over a hundred residents living in homes that back on to the site, who would all have their view from their back windows and gardens affected by this development.  Many of these gardens will also duffer from overlooking from the new dwelling.  There would therefore be an unacceptable loss of amenity from residents who will lose some of the enjoyment of their gardens.

The decision on the application won’t be taken till early September and there are already over 40 objections submitted on the Council’s website.

In this patrol a few weeks ago, four cars were stopped for speeding, a penalty notice was issued for failing to stop at a crossing, and a ticket was given out for using a mobile phone whilst driving. The action is necessary because so many residents have raised concerns about cars driving too fast and failing to stop at the busy crossing, which is a route to a local primary school.

Another partial success from the campaign has been getting electronic speed signs installed, which flash a warning when vehicles break the speed limit.  However, the locations they have been installed don’t seem ideal – as one of them is after the crossing and partially obscured by vegetation.  I’ve contacted the Council asking them to re-assess whether the signs are in the optimum positions!

However, our real aim is to get traffic lights at the crossing – and we are collecting signatures for a petition to make the Council take action.   Please sign up.

Last week I attended a Stroud Green Residents Association meeting, where it was clear residents wanted to try to stop the development.  The official deadline for objections is next week, but I’m concerned that the summer holidays mean many people wont get a say.   The site is bound by Elyne, Quernmore and Stapleton Hall Roads, but many people on Quernmore and Stapleton Hall have said they never received any notification from the Council about the planning application.

I’ve written to the Council conveying residents concerns and demanding an extension to the consultation to make sure everyone can have their say.  I’ve also provided them with a list of 13 properties that did not receive any notification from the planning department about the plans.

I can understand why people are so keen to object to this proposal.  I don’t think the site is really suitable for development – and certainly not for a house of this size.  I hope that the consultation period is extended so that all residents can make their views known to the Council.

It was a fantastically sunny day, and I’ve been sent this great picture of me, John, Dan and Fatuma by the crossing on the corner of Upper Tollington Park and Florence Road, with the petition on our clipboards.  Please sign up online here if you’d like to back the campaign.

At the last consultation session in May (see previous post)  it was clear that there was strong support for the new play area to emulate the old fort design that is so well loved – but to improve on it and create something even more fun and adventurous.  Working with local children, Groundwork (the charity that is designing the new play area) has now come up with three different fort designs, and they now want the views of the local community on these options.

Please do bring your family along and have your say on this brilliant project, which should ensure another generation of local children can play on a fort at Stationers Park.

The full consultation with residents will happen in the Autumn, with residents inside the CPZ being asked if they still support the CPZ and whether they want the rules changed (different hours and different sub-zones within the CPZ). Residents outside will be asked if they want the CPZ extended, and what the hours of the extension should be.

It is proposed that the consultation will extend up to and including Ridge Road.  Roads to the north of Ridge Road would be notified about the consultation, but as there is no strong campaign for a CPZ in those roads the Council do not plan to include them in the formal consultation area.  There will be a simultaneous consultation on extending the Crouch End CPZ which will cover Ferme Park Road and and roads to the west.

Over the next few months the Council will be drawing up the consultation questions and finalising the consultation zones, and will be running focus groups of local residents from different roads to help them with this.  If you want to take part in the focus groups then please get in contact.

The process is very ponderous, and any changes or extensions to the CPZ will not be implemented till 2011.  However, these focus groups should hopefully mean that the consultation works better and that there is less criticism of the consultation process than last time.

This story has made me re-double my efforts to make our local roads safer.  Top of my list is of concerns is Inderwick Road, which is in a very steep and in a very poor state.   It is part of the London’s cycle route network and cyclists are directed towards the road by signs and cycle maps.  A large number of cyclist whizz down the steep road and I am worried that potholes could cause another serious accident.

The Council wont do a blanket inspection for potholes – but will only patch holes that are reported to them.  Earlier this month I reported nine potholes on Inderwick Road, which have now been filled, but when I walked up the road today there were more potholes that had been missed or had been created since then.  The road is covered in grit that has escaped from these holes – the Council say they have received 12 complaints about potholes in the last year and put in at least 16 pothole patches.

I’ve been lobbying Haringey to properly resurface Inderwick Road for years to make the road safer and stop these endless patching. I’ve demanded a meeting with a senior highways officer on Inderwick Road so I can put the case for sorting out the road (the pavements and lampposts need action too).  This meeting is happening in two weeks.

The house, which is at the top of Stapleton Hall Road by the junction with Mount View Road, is owned by the Council and was left derelict awaiting conversion to a hostel.  This is the second derelict Council home to be taken over by squatters – a similarly large council home in Nelson Road has also been occupied, after being left derelict for a year (see previous post).

I’ve been pressing the Council and the Police to take urgent action to deal with residents concerns about anti-social behaviour, and to get this large house back in use by those who need it most.   I’m told that the police are now being very active and the Council are trying to get a Court date to evict the squatters.

However, the key issue is why are Haringey leaving valuable homes empty (and vulnerable to squatters), when there is such a shortage of family housing.  I have set up meetings in July with both the CEO of Homes for Haringey and the Director in charge of Housing at the Council, and I will be pressing them to make sure empty homes are swiftly refurbished, not left as derelict eyesores.

This is one of the most distinctive houses in the Stroud Green Conservation Area, and I agree that hiding it behind a high wall would not be right.  So I put in an objection to the Council’s Planning Department – supporting the concerns that have been raised about the wall.

UPDATE:  I’ve now been told that the application has been completely withdrawn and the wall will not be built.   The owners have told me they understand and sympathise with the concerns about the wall and it won’t be included in any new application which they submit.