Richard Wilson

Residents of Nelson Road are furious with Haringey Council after a family council home that has been left derelict for almost a year has now been taken over by squatters.   The home was taken over last week after the Council failed to act on promises to start renovating the house, at least 11 months after evicting the last tenants.  One of the neighbours is an elderly lady in her eighties and I’m told she is quite upset by the situation, which will now probably take months more to resolve.

I’ve been demanding action from the Council for 3 months, ever since a local resident complained to local campaigner Katherine Reece about the state of the house back in November 2009 (see post from January).  I was told that the house would be back in use by 26 March at the latest – but Haringey have failed to even start work on renovating the building, so this promise was clearly not going to be kept.

I’ve emailed the Labour cabinet member in charge of housing to express our anger at the Council’s incompatence and to demand action to sort out the squatter situation so the house can be used by a local family.  There is such a long waiting list for larger council homes, and so many families trapped in overcrowded temporary accomodation, that this situation is a real scandal.

Stroud Green campaigner Katherine Reece joined our local MP and hundreds of local residents to march against the closure of the Whittington A&E last weekend.  The march gained lots of media attention, which has hopefully sent a clear message to the Government about how unpopular these health cuts are.  Sadly, I couldn’t make the march as I was at a school governors away day, but I’ve just been sent some great pictures (such as this one of Lynne) which show how the strength of feeling at the event.

Lynne also organised a public meeting which took place last night to give residents the chance to put questions directly to the health bosses responsible.  This is a great move by our MP to try to make these people accountable, but it is outragous that unelected quango appointees are having to answer these questions rather than their political masters in the Department of Health.  Given that Labour Health Ministers have refused to lift a finger to save the A&E (and it is Labour’s policy to cut A&Es by reducing the number of ‘general’ hospitals), I think the hypocrisy of senior Labour politicians going on the march is astounding.

Last week, local party members met to vote for the Liberal Democrat candidates for this May’s local elections.  I’m really pleased to announce that Ed Butcher and I have been re-selected, along with fantastic first-time candidate Katherine Reece.  This photo is a  result of a ‘photo shoot’ for the local papers which was held a few days ago.  The papers are obviously very interested in the Lib Dem team that could end 40 years of Labour control of Haringey in May.

Sadly, Laura Edge decided not to re-stand, and is moving on to pastures new after more than 6 years of leading the Lib Dem revolution in Stroud Green.  Laura has worked very hard to improve our area in her time as councillor and its been fatastic to work with her.  Laura’s stunning by-election success in 2004 (a 29% swing from Labour) and huge re-election vote in 2006 shows just how many residents she has helped and won over to the Lib Dems.

However, Katherine is a very worthy sucessor and has already been battling the Council on issues ranging from empty homes to gritting.  Please get in contact if you want to help our election campaign in any way.

Like all Haringey Councillors, I’m regularly contacted by families in desperately overcrowded or temporary accommodation looking for a family Council house.   These families wait for years, and there are over 16,000 families on Haringey’s housing waiting list – with 566 looking for a home with more than 3 bedrooms.

So when residents alerted local Lib Dem activist Katherine Reece to a large 3-storey empty council house in Nelson Road (N8) I was determined to investigate why it wasn’t being used.  I’ve now got a response which shows the house has been left empty and boarded up since April 2009, and will not be returned to use until March 2010 at the earliest.

Unsuprsingly the house now looks like a dump and the neighbours must be furious.  But what is really scandalous is that Haringey Council is happy to let this house, which could be a wonderful family home, lie empty for nearly a year.   No wonder we have such long housing waiting lists in Haringey, when our Labour-run Council is so wasteful with its own housing stock.

Co-incidentially, the national Lib Dems have just announced proposals to bring 250,000 empty homes back into use, to boost jobs and tackle our housing crisis.  Ideas like this are clearly badly needed in Haringey.

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.

A few weeks ago, I and some fellow Lib Dem activists went door-knocking on Connaught Road and Lancaster Road to ask residents what issues they were concerned about.   The issue that was most commonly raised was the state of the local pavements, and particularly the amount of dog mess.  Some residents were particularly concerned about the health impact on children – who can catch serious diseases.

As a result I have contacted the Council, and they have agreed to look to see if the area needs more dog mess bins and more notices telling dog owners to clear up after their pet.  A highways inspector has also been round and identified locations where repairs are needed to make the pavement more even.

The pavement that most annoys Lancaster and Connaught Road residents  is the narrow section at Lancaster Road near Stapleton Hall Road (see picture with Lib Dem activist Katherine Reece).  What makes people angry is that without any consultation the Council installed railings making the path even narrower.   It is now impossible to get big buggies down the road and lots of residents have told me how they’d love the railings to be scrapped and the pavements widened.

Sadly, despite repeatedly pressing the Council on this they are unwilling to budge.  Network Rail paid the Council to install the railings to reduce the risk of vehicles coming off the road and landing on the train tracks.  We’ll keep up the pressure on the Council to make this area more pedestrian friendly – please contact me with any practical suggestions.