Richard Wilson

The next Crouch End, Hornsey & Stroud Green Area Forum will take place this coming week on Tuesday 17th January. It will be held at Stroud Green School (entrance of Perth Road), starting at 6.45pm.

There are a host of controversial issues on the agenda, including an update on the boundary review and on the parking controls, as well as discussion of the Council’s plans to change our waste collections. Haringey controversially plan to cut weekly collections of non-recyclable waste later this year, with black bin waste only collected once a fortnight.

If you want to find out more about whats going on in your local area please come along on Tuesday.

Ed, Katherine and I have today submitted our response to the Boundary Commission’s consultation, on behalf of the hundreds of residents who have contacted us or filled in our survey.  An amazing 98.5% of those who have responded to us (401 out of 407 responses) are opposed to the Commission’s proposal to move Stroud Green ward from the Hornsey Parliamentary Constituency to the Tottenham Constituency.

The change would mean Stroud Green residents would vote for and be represented by the MP for Tottenham after the next election.  Instead of the boundary between the two constituencies being the railway line to Finsbury Park, the dividing line would wind round and split local residential roads in half.  A local campaign group have made a video to explain.

The Commission’s proposal for Stroud Green has been opposed by local residents associations, community groups and school governors and all the main political parties.  The clear message that everyone has put to the Boundary Commission is that Stroud Green has much stronger community ties with Crouch End and Hornsey than with Tottenham.  Our survey found that just 3% of respondents (11 out of 402) think that Stroud Green has strong community ties with Tottenham, whilst 96% (388 out of 404) say we have strong ties with Crouch End.

Our consultation response has pressed the Commission to listen to residents and keep Stroud Green in Hornsey.  With so much support, I’m sure we can win.

Local residents are trying to spread the word about the Boundary Commission consultation on whether Stroud Green should move out of Hornsey Constituency and into Tottenham.  The deadline for people to have their say in the consultation is just 13 days away.

The Stroud Green Residents Association is holding a public meeting tomorrow (Thursday) night to discuss the proposal.  The meeting is at 7pm upstairs in Stroud Green Library.

And even better, local community group GreenN8 has made a film about the issue, speaking to lots of local residents, as well as Lynne Featherstone, Katherine Reece and myself.  I’ve just watched it myself for the first time and I think its a fantastic way of communicating the issue.  Please make sure you have your say.

Ever since I’ve started raising awareness of the Boundary Commission’s proposals to move Stroud Green from the Hornsey parliamentary constituency to the Tottenham one, I’ve been amazed at the strength of feeling from local residents.  Katherine, Ed and I have been conducting a paper and online survey, and have been asking people to contact the Boundary Commission directly.

I’ve now looked at the first 100 responses to the online survey, and the results are:

• 100% of respondents oppose the Boundary Commissions proposal to move Stroud Green into Tottenham constituency
• 97% believe that Stroud Green has strong community ties with Crouch End and Hornsey.
• 2% believe that Stroud Green has strong community ties with Tottenham

So its clear that Stroud Green residents are completely opposed to the proposals.  All we need to do now is convince the Boundary Commission, whose consultation closes on 5 December.   We have now received hundreds of survey responses and we will sending these to the Boundary Commission demanding that they listen to local residents.  I think this is a battle we can definitely win – if everyone makes their views clear.

I’ve been contacted by a number of residents concerned about new proposals to change the parliamentary constituency boundaries in our area. The Boundary Commission has suggested moving Stroud Green ward from the Hornsey and Wood Green constituency to the the Tottenham constituency.

This would mean that in the next General Election residents in Stroud Green ward would not have a say in who is MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, but would instead vote for who represents Tottenham. Local elections would remain the same, with Stroud Green remaining in the London Borough of Haringey.

The proposals in the Commission’s report would divide our area from Crouch End and Hornsey.  Streets such as Weston Park, Nelson Road, Inderwick Road, Ferme Park Road and Mount View Road would be spilt, with one half in Hornsey Constituency and the other in Tottenham. However, this proposal is not set in stone, and could change if residents in Stroud Green argue against moving to Tottenham constituency.  The Commission’s proposals are supposed to protect local community ties, and not divide areas where communities are strongly connected.

We want know what residents think of this proposal and have therefore set up a survey to find out your views.  Please fill out this survey to help us put residents’ views to the Boundary Commission.