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.

Haringey have unilaterally withdrawn this funding despite the fact that dumping and littering remain huge issues – particularly on the roads leading off Stroud Green Road.   A few weeks ago Lynne Featherstone, Ed Butcher and I were doing a walk about and found this huge pile of dumped furniture on Woodstock Road.   We need more Council efforts – not less.

Fortunately, Islington and Hackney will continue to pay towards one enforcement officer for the area and have not insisted that this officer boycotts the Haringey side of Stroud Green Road.  But in the long term it is completely unsustainable for this Labour Council to keep washing its hands of Stroud Green Road issues.

Our lobbying was successful and lights went up for the first time for Christmas 2007, thanks to Islington Council stumping up the cash. However, Haringey Council refused to contribute, despite the north side of Stroud Green Road being in Haringey Borough, and we were worried that if Haringey refused to pay its way again this year the lights wouldn’t go ahead.

The latest good news is that council officers have now confirmed that Haringey will make a contribution and the lights will go ahead. It seems the local regeneration agency FinFuture helped broker a deal.

Unfortunately, I’ve also heard that the lights will only go half way up the road again (from the railway bridge to Upper Tollington Park). This is a shame as a number of people contacted me last year saying it would look much better if they went the whole length of the road up to the Old Dairy. However, with Stroud Green Road often getting ignored by Haringey, I am pleased that everyone is starting to work together – even if progress can feel slow.