Richard Wilson

There was consternation at this week’s Area Forum, when the Council spelled out its plans for forcing households to have two wheelie bins – and cutting the non-recyclable waste collection from weekly to fortnightly.  Residents from streets like Woodstock Road have complained that they just don’t have enough space in their tiny front gardens for so many bins – and that people wont be able to get in and out of their front doors if the Council push this change through.

Whilst lots of residents are really keen to get a recycling wheelie bin because they have the space and the boxes aren’t bin enough, many Stroud Green properties are not suitable for this change.  If the Council had bothered to consult with residents it would have found out that people have completely different requirements – but in typical Haringey style decisions were made in secret behind closed doors.

Haringey say that everyone’s front garden will be assessed, and that people may be able to request smaller bins.  However, its unclear what happens if your front garden just isn’t big enough to cope with two weeks worth of black-bag waste from all the flats in your house – or if your neighbours don’t recycle properly and put smelly food waste in the black bin (or what happens with nappies and cat litter which can’t be recycled).  Ed Butcher and I have been out knocking on doors in Upper Tollington Park and neighbouring roads and most residents are hugely supportive of attempts to increase recycling, but desperately want to keep their weekly bin collections.

The Area Committee agreed to put residents concerns to the Labour Councillor in charge of waste collections.

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.

At Monday night’s Area Committee meeting in the Hornsey Library, I and the other local Lib Dem councillors agreed which community groups would benefit from small ‘Making the Difference’ grants to improve the local area.  This year we had some great bids in from Stroud Green residents – all of which got funded.

Projects that got the go-ahead in Stroud Green were:

• £3,500 for Mind to recruit and train volunteers to help out at their centre on Stappleton Hall Road (see cafe in picture).
• £500 for the Friends of the Parkland Walk to help clean up embankments and cuttings on the Walk.
• £2,500 for Farnefields Court Residents’ Association to create a community garden (with another £2,500 of match funding levered out of Homes for Haringey).
• £3,000 for Stroud Green Residents Association for new seats for people waiting for the W5, tree planting and other improvements.
• £3,000 for Friends of Stationers Park for new community picnic benches.
• £750 for the Friends of Stroud Green Library for a new noticeboard and signs.

Well done to all these organisations for putting in bids and working so hard to improve our area.

Parkland Walk safety will be discussed at a public meeting, with police invited, after a spate of attacks on and around the local park.  Ed, Katherine and I have made sure park safety is discussed at the next Area Forum – to give local residents an opportunity to ask questions about what is being done following the attacks, and what steps users can take to make sure they are safe on the park.

The overwhelming majority of people who use the Parkland Walk know how safe it is – but the recent spate of attacks has been a worry (see press reports here and here).  This is a chance for local residents and users to seek reassurance and to share their views

We have asked the Council and police to make sure it is doing all it can to protect the hundreds of people who use the park every day.  The Parkland Walk is a local treasure and we want to keep it that way.

The Area Forum will be held at 19:00 on Monday 26th September, at Hornsey Library, Haringey Park N8 9JA.  Other issues on the agenda include parking, Hornsey Town Hall and update on the Tottenham disturbances.  All residents are welcome to attend.  If you cannot make it, please contact us directly to get your get questions answered.

Tomorrow is the Area Assembly for the Stroud Green, Crouch End and Hornsey area, which is being held in Priory Park from 12 noon.   The focus will be on health and sport. There will be lots of opportunities to hear and ask questions about health provision in Haringey, how to register at a GP; penalty shoot outs with the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation and the opportunity to find out about volunteering to help at the Olympics.

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.

Tonight is the local Area Assembly 7.30pm to 9.30pm in Stroud Green School (entrance on Perth Road).  The theme this time is green issues, and there will a number of presentations from local community groups working on green projects. These include a talk from ‘Urbivore’ on urban growing, healthy eating and sustainable living, and ‘Foodcycle’ on food recycling and a community cafe for Haringey.

The Assembly will also give people the chance to have their say on the bids that have been submitted by local residents to the ‘Making the Difference’ grants programme. There has been a wide range of applications, such as new benches for bus users and new kits for a youth football team.

As usual there will be the opportunity for residents to have their say in the ’soap box’ segment and to quiz a Haringey Council cabinet member, and Cllr Lyn Weber will be keeping order as Chair.  Please do come along and join in!

As well as being the deadline for views on the W3 Bus (see previous post), this Friday is also the deadline for submitting ideas to our local neighbourhood improvement fund for 2010/11.  The way it usually works is that all the feasible ideas go to an Area Assembly meeting for residents to comment on and then local councillors make the final decision based on these views.

In previous years we’ve managed to get a few good little projects approved, such as the children’ s mural on Quernmore Road by Harringay Station and improvements opposite Tesco on Stroud Green Road (see picture of me planting a tree outside Charter Court a few years ago with local residents and representatives of the Council).

But despite the Council’s whopping £3 million ‘communications’ budget there is not enough promotion of the fund, and we don’t get enough bids in from Stroud Green residents.  So I’m trying to drum up interest by contacting individuals and by posting here.  The leaflet and application form for the “making the difference” programme 2010/11 is here.  And if you’re interested in finding out more then please attend the next local Area Assembly meeting which is tonight at 7.30pm in St Mary’s Junior School in Rectoiry Gardens – details here.

And this really could be the last chance for Making the Difference, because if the Liberal Democrats take control of Haringey in May we’re determined to replace it with a bigger and better system of devolving spending down to local neighbourhoods.  We want to give people real power over their local area and to encourage greater participation in local decisions.