Richard Wilson

Ed, Katherine and I want to know what you think about Haringey Council’s plans to allow a 10 day music festival in Finsbury Park this summer. The ‘Jamaica Village’ event will take place during the Olympics from 3rd-12th August and will be the longest ever event held in the Park.

The organisers have already been granted a license by Haringey Council and will be able to serve alcohol and play amplified music until 10.30pm at night.  In December I attended the licensing committee meetings, and with other residents argued successfully for restrictions to the event try to protect residents from noise and anti-social behaviour.

Sadly, there has been very little consultation with local residents about Jamaica Village.  The only publicity the Council gave to the licensing application was a few posters put up in the park in the middle of winter, which meant few people realised what was happening or had their say.

However, after I criticised the lack of consultation, the Parks Department has agreed to listen to comments made during February about their plans to manage the event.  As your local councillors we want to know your concerns about issues such as noise, litter, parking, anti-social behaviour and lack of access to the park.  The Council plan to hand the southern part of the park over to the organisers for over 3 weeks during August, and I know some families have concerns about losing access to such a large portion of the park for half of the school summer holidays.  We’re also very worried about the impact such a long event will have on the state of the park.

Jamaica Village sounds like great fun for those attending, but it is essential that residents are protected as much as possible from noise and disruption. Please tell me your views so that I can respond to the Council before their deadline for comments ends on 29th February.

Earlier this week I was part of a group of councillors who turned up to thank volunteers who had spent the morning clearing rubbish and dead vegetation from a section of the Parkland Walk.  The session was organised by the Council’s waste contractor Veolia, who encouraged their own staff to volunteer.  In the space of two hours four lorry loads of debris was removed.

It’s great to see a large company like Veolia putting something back into the local community.  Many of the Veolia volunteers I spoke to lived locally and used the Parkland Walk, so were delighted to have been able to help improve the area.

However, even this big event only cleared a short section between Oxford Road, Upper Tollington Park and Stapleton Hall Road.  That’s why as local councillors we’ve also awarded a small £500 grant to the Friends of the Parkland Walk to help organise more volunteering sessions to try to clean up the Walk (see previous post about the small grants).  I hope this volunteering push can bring people together and really make a difference to the Walk.

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.

Stroud Green councillor Katherine Reece has joined local MP Lynne Featherstone on a last minute push to get local parents to back the campaign for fair funding for our schools.   The Government are holding a consultation on school funding formulas which ends on Tuesday 11th October – and this is an opportunity to end the long-standing unfairness of Stroud Green schools receiving less funding than those in nearby boroughs.

Schools in Haringey receive as much as £1,500 less per pupil than schools over the border in Hackney and Islington, because Haringey is counted as Outer London by the Department for Education – even though Haringey teachers get paid inner London salaries.   This anomaly has existed for decades – but thanks to Lynne’s campaigning it may be coming to an end as the Government consultation proposes a better ‘combined approach’ formula that would remedy the situation.

You can respond to the consultation and demand fair funding for Stroud Green’s schools on the Department for Education’s website.  It’s outrageous that children who live on the north side of Stroud Green Road receive thousands of pounds less school funding than those who live on the south side.  Lets hope Katherine and Lynne’s hard work pays off.

Ed, Katherine and I have launched a survey in Stroud Green to find out what residents views are on the Labour Council’s plans to introduce fortnightly collections of non-recyclable rubbish next year Collection of recyclable rubbish would remain weekly. However, very few people are aware of the plan, because the Council are remaining silent on the subject, and have held no consultation with residents.

Council flats and flats above shops will be unaffected, but all street properties will be covered – including the many houses that have been broken up into flats. My understanding is that this is the first time fortnightly collections have been attempted in a dense urban area like Haringey.  I’m very sceptical that it will work in a place like Stroud Greens where gardens are so small and there is such little space – and the population is so dense. And some really smelly things such as bones, pet litter and nappies can’t be recycled – and will therefore be sitting in wheelie bins for up to two weeks.

So please do tell us what you think of this plan so we can present the results to the Council and hopefully get them to listen to residents.  The survey is here.