Richard Wilson

Like many councillors I’ve spent the last few weeks reporting all the potholes I can spot on our local roads.  Its a pretty thankless task – sometimes you think it would be easier to send in a list of all the places that don’t have potholes.  So far I’ve reported them on Granville, Inderwick, Nelson, Stapleton Hall and Mount View Roads (this photo is from Mount View).

Of course, the current rash of potholes has been caused by the snow and ice, and the Lib Dems have pressed the Council to do a special survey to identify these new holes.  However, the Council have refused to go out and find the holes themselves and instead say they will only fill them if they are reported by residents or councillors.

I think this neglectful policy is absolute madness, as it gaurantees some potholes are missed and not repaired.  The Council has a duty to keep our streets safe and potholes are incredibly dangerous for cyclists and motorcyclists.  Its not acceptable for Labour to just decide potholes are not a priority.

The long term solution is for the roads with the most potholes to be completely resurfaced.  It’s such a waste of money to keep patching-up roads where the surface is completely worn out and crumbling away.  I’ve called time and time for these roads to be resurfaced – but too often the Council refuse to act, even though it would mean saving money in the long run.

I was out and about in the ward at the weekend and was really pleased to see that the grit bins that I had complained about (see previous post) had been filled, and that some residents had made use of the grit on their pavements and front paths.  I’ve also sent people who live near the grit bins on Mayfield and Inderwick Road a letter with the number to call to get the Council to refill the bin next time its empty.

However, it struck me how few of the hill roads in Stroud Green have a grit bin at all.  I couldn’t see one at all on Uplands, Denton, Albany or Oakfield Roads, and these are all quite steep and difficult when its icy.   So please contact me if you think your road needs a grit bin, and you and your neighbours would make use of it.  The Council’s website says that “suggestions for new sites are welcome”, so in theory this shouldn’t be difficult to sort out.

I also think the Council should do more to make residents aware of grit bins.  I suspect many people don’t know what the yellow boxes are for or are not sure if the public are supposed to make use of them (which they are).  Recently a Stroud Green resident emailed me a link to this website that promotes the use of ‘disused’ grit bins for community recycling.  Most of the ‘disused’ bins are in Haringey – so it seems some enterprising residents are using the bins for other purposes (probably because the Council doesn’t actually put grit in them very often).

After the chaos caused by the snow before Christmas, local activist Katherine Reece and I thought we would check to make sure the grit bins in Stroud Green are full. The bins allow local residents to grit the pavements clear near their home if they wish, and are usually provided in hilly areas.  Our steep streets can be treacherous when icy, and I know many local older people feel trapped in their homes when the pavements aren’t gritted.

Therefore, we were surprised to find the bins at the top of Inderwick Road and Mayfield Road (both at the Ridge Road end) were empty apart from some litter.  We immediately contacted the Council yesterday to ask them to urgently refill it.   I know that the bins at Chettle Court on Ridge Road were empty a few days ago too, and residents were having to keep asking for them to be refilled.

The Council is supposed to check and refill the bins regularly over winter – but it appears this hasn’t been happening.  Obviously main roads have to be a first priority, but the Council can’t ignore entirely the need to keep pavements in residential areas clear and safe.   And it makes sense to give residents the opportunity to do their bit.

This week I’ve been helping to deliver our local Stroud Green FOCUS leaflet, which is a great opportunity to spot problems that need sorting on local roads.  For instance, I’ve reported this graffiti at the top of Inderwick Road near the junction with Ridge Road (see picture).

Of course, you also see all the problems you’ve raised with the Council but which they’ve failed to take proper action on.  Sticking with Inderwick Road -I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve raised the appalling condition of the roads and pavements.  Bizarrely, the Council have taken half-action by replacing the pavement on one side of the street (but not the other), and re-tarmacing the northern half of the road (but leaving the southern half).  The result is to make the unrepaired sections look more obvious – its like cleaning one pane of a window but leaving the other pane dirty.

I’ll keep up the battle for the Council to finish what they’ve started on Inderwick Road.  I hope they remove more than half the graffiti.

Like many local people I today noticed the offensive and racist graffiti that has appeared on the fence round the building site to extend Hornsey Girls School.   I immediately contacted the Hornsey ward councillors (the school is just outside my ward) to see if they were aware.  They were – and have already reported it urgently to the Council.

I believe the Council are supposed to remove offensive graffiti within 24 hours, and this is pretty nasty stuff so I hope it is dealt with ASAP.  This must be pretty depressing for Inderwick Road residents as the fence has only been up a week or so, and there will be worries that this will keep happening during the long period of the building work.

An objector's poster on Inderwick Road

I have just returned from tonight’s planning meeting, where the committee voted 5 to 4 in favour of building a new admin block for Hornsey Girls School right up to the pavement of Inderwick Road.   I think this was a very poor planning decision, which will ruin the character of this residential road, where all the other buildings are set back behind gardens.  You only need to look round the corner on Weston Park to see the only other nearby example of where a one story building has been built up to the pavement - and its a complete eyesore.

Its a real shame because everyone wants to see investment in Hornsey Girls School and everyone agreed with 95% of the proposal.  The objectors were only asking for a small change – for the admin block to be set 1-2 meters back to allow trees and greenery to be planted between the wall and the road – and compromise should have been possible.

Indeed, I tried to bring forward a compromise whereby we defered the decision to a later meeting and asked the architects to revise their proposal.  However, the Labour Councillors present voted this motion down, and the committee then divided on party lines with the 5 Labour councillors pushing the proposal through and the 4 Lib Dems opposing.  This is really sad as I know several Labour councillors thought the proposal ought to be changed, but decided not to break ranks.

It is very dissapointing that some councillors aren’t willing to listen to residents and take on board their concerns – when this is what they are elected to do.

Unfortunately, the Planning Committee ran out of time last night and we weren’t able to discuss the planning application for Hornsey School for Girls.  I presume it will now go on the agenda for the next regular planning meeting on 8th December (hopefully much nearer the start – so that we reach it this time!).

I’m fairly new to the Committee, but it does seem to me that the way it handles its business could be improved.  It must be infuriating for residents to have to sit through hours of debate on other applications to then be told that the proposal they are concerned about won’t be reached.  Local residents deserve to be treated better.