Richard Wilson

Our new Safer Neighbourhood Team sergeant Steve Whiting has hit the ground running with a series a consultation events planned across the ward this weekend. The team want to find out what local people think their policing priorities should be. They are encouraging residents to meet them at the following times and locations:

Saturday 7th January 2012

• 3.30pm Stationers Park, Mayfield Road
• 4pm Sunshine Café, Stroud Green Road
• 7.30pm Lancaster Road

Sunday 8th January 2012

• 10am Stationers Park, Mayfield Road
• 1pm Angel Café, Stroud Green Road

Tuesday 10th January 2012

• 12pm Charter Court, Stroud Green Road

I’ve already responded to their consultation suggesting the top three priorities should be: safety on the Parkland Walk; preventing burglaries; and safety around the W3 bus stops.  Although Stroud Green is generally a safe place, there have been some worrying incidents in recent months.  So this initiative is a welcome opportunity for residents to speak to the police about their concerns.

I’ve been contacted by a number of residents concerned about plans for a 2.2m wall to go most of the way round the large house at the Ferme Park Road end of Lancaster Road.  I am told that this imposing house was built by the man who developed the whole of Lancaster Road, to be his own family home – which is why it is grander and larger than the rest of the houses on the street.

This is one of the most distinctive houses in the Stroud Green Conservation Area, and I agree that hiding it behind a high wall would not be right.  So I put in an objection to the Council’s Planning Department – supporting the concerns that have been raised about the wall.

UPDATE:  I’ve now been told that the application has been completely withdrawn and the wall will not be built.   The owners have told me they understand and sympathise with the concerns about the wall and it won’t be included in any new application which they submit.

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.

A number of residents have expressed their concern to me about the recent late night stabbing by the junction of Stapleton Hall Road and Lancaster Road.  The victim was attacked at around 4am on Friday 13th according to reports in local papers, and was seriously injured.  No wonder people are concerned when you see the stark headlines outside the Ferme Park Road newsagent - which is facing the scene of the attack (pictured).

I’ve asked the police and the Council’s community safety department to provide an urgent briefing.  Residents want to know whether this incident was gang, drugs or robbery related, so they can get some understanding of why this happened and what the risks are of it re-occuring.  For instance, a resident of Stapleton Hall Road told me she was worried about whether her teenage sons might be at risk – if the stabbing was related to young gangs.

I’ll try to reassure people on nearby streets when I get further information.

Last week I attended a Council meeting that Haringey Lib Dems had called to try to halt the Council’s plans to waste vast sums of money on ridiculously overpriced TV aerials (you can see a webcast of the meeting here).  The Labour-run Council have decided to install very high-specification digital TV systems in all their Council housing – at a cost often exceeding £1,000 per flat.  According to leaked reports, this is 7 times more expensive than systems being installed in some other London boroughs.

The cost to the taxpayer of installing these aerials in tenants homes will come to £8.6 million – but local Council leaseholders will have to pay these £1,000 bills themselves.  I’ve been contacted by angry leaseholders in Stroud Green, who are outraged at the levels of the charges for a system they didn’t ask for, and didn’t need - as they already had access to cable!

I was really pleased to put the taxpayers’ and leaseholders’ case to the committee, and that a local Stroud Green leaseholder – Anne Crellin from Carlton Lodge - was able to speak to the committee herself (see the picture of the leaseholder protest before the meeting).   Thanks to these efforts the committee decided to recommend that the Council explore ways of allowing leaseholders to opt out of this fiasco in future.

However, I was very disappointed that the Labour councillors on the committee blocked our attempts to review the whole misconceived programme.  Have they not noticed there is a recession on and that there are much more pressing priorities on Council resources?  What’s bad value for leaseholders is bad value for tenants and the taxpayer – they should have halted the whole thing!

Over 8 weeks since it was installed on the Parkland Walk, the dog waste bin I mentioned in last weekend’s post still hasn’t been emptied.  And its now 4 weeks since I first started contacting the Council to alert them of the problem.  Its outrageous that Haringey Council is so slow to act.

The bin is at the entrance to the Walk by the junction of Lancaster Road and Stapleton Hall Road – so hold your nose if your strolling by in this lovely weather.

I’ll keep hassling the Council to do their job properly.  Lets hope they aren’t going for some kind of record for how long they can ignore a full bin.