Richard Wilson

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.

I wasn’t going to post about the trifle incident – but its not often that the Telegraph cover Stroud Green news so I’ve decided I have to (Telegraph article here).   At last week’s Full Council meeting a Labour councillor was forced to apologise to Stroud Green Councillor Laura Edge for calling her a trifle.

Laura was asking a perfectly sensible question about whether the Council would support a campaign for 1 hour bus tickets, to stop people who change buses paying twice (details of the campaign here).  Instead of an answer what she got was a bizarre tirade from Labour councillor Brian Haley which ended with him calling her “sweet” like a “trifle”.

I can understand why Laura was annoyed – the remarks were obviously designed to be patronising and when delivered to a young woman sound incredibly sexist.   But the really serious issue is why Labour councillors would rather resort to silly name calling than answer the questions that are put to them.  Cllr Haley should be eating humble pie not throwing around trifling insults.

Over the summer Ed, Laura and I launched a survey of parking issues in the roads just outside the new Crouch End Controlled Parking Zone – as we were being inundated with complaints from residents.  We felt we had to do our own survey as the Council had broken their pledge to hold a consultation after the new CPZ was implemented.

We’ve now had several hundred responses from the roads bordering the Crouch End and Finsbury Park CPZs.  The results so far show:

• Three quarters of respondents say parking has got worse in the last 6 months
• 62% say they are now in favour of a CPZ – with many residents saying they have been forced to change their anti-CPZ views
• The vast majority of residents would want a CPZ to be operational for only 2 hours

These figures show that local people in roads such as Mount View, Ferme Park, Stapleton Hall, Granville and Quernmore, think the parking problem is getting even worse and want the Council to take action.  We are using the results to demand that the Council conduct a proper consultation with residents as soon as possible.  But we are also pledging to scrutinise any Council proposals for new parking restrictions, to ensure they are focused on solving the problem – not boosting Council coffers.

We will be closing the survey very soon to present the full results to the Council, so if you haven’t yet had your say please fill it out online as soon as possible (link here).  This parking mess is largely of the Council’s own making – and they need to listen to residents views on how to sort it out.

After years of lobbying, the Council have finally written to confirm that Denton Road will be resurfaced next month.  This is long overdue as the road surface has been disintegrating for years, making it increasingly dangerous – particularly for cyclists.  I’ve written to the Council several times since I was elected asking for action on Denton and other substandard roads.

According to the Council letter the works will last from the 6th till the 8th July and will involve the full closure of the road.  Residents will be asked to move their vehicles away – or face having them towed to nearby roads (given the short notice the Council gives residents this is bound to cause problems for residents who are on holiday).  I’ve contacted the Council to ask them to confirm they have told London Buses about the plans so that W5 passengers can be warned about diversions.

Its great news that the Council are at last taking action.  However, the Council’s continued underinvestment in roads means that they are actually deteriorating faster than they are being repaired.  Last year the percentage of minor roads in Haringey that were officially substandard increased to 10%.  I challenged the Labour councillor in charge of roads about this at the last council cabinet meeting (16th June) - but just got a waffley response about road repairs being ‘cyclical’.

Ed, Laura and I have  launched our new Stroud Green parking and travel survey after testing it in a number of the roads in the area.   We’ve launched the door-to-door survey in response to the Council’s refusal to hold a consultation on parking issues – despite promising they would do so after the Crouch End CPZ was introduced.

The picture of me chatting to residents of Granville Road was taken by Ed on the first day we went out surveying together.  Several residents on Granville told us how a previous parking petition they had organised had been completely ignored by the Council.   But it seems people are still determined to have their voice heard and we’ve had a fantastic response to the survey on the roads we’ve done so far (though there are still many more places to do). 

Once we’ve surveyed all the roads we can, we will present the results to the Council to put pressure on them to take action.  However, we have also put in questions on issues such as streetcar, local buses and pedestrian issues – so it isn’t just parking problems that we want to hear about. 

Please do return the survey when we come to your road!

On 30th April I posted a photo of the cleared-up grot spot on the corner of Upper Tollington Park and Oakfield Road.  Well Laura and I checked out the progress a few days ago, and its looking even better now its finished.

The money for this clean-up came from left-over money in the local neighbourhood fund for 2008/09.  Bids are now in from residents for projects from the 2009/10 fund, and on Tuesday I attended a meeting to look at the proposals.  There are some great ideas to plant trees, install bike racks, hold community events and improve local parks.

Residents can have their say on which projects should get funded at the next Area Assembly, which is at 7.30pm on Thursday 21st May at Rokesly Junior School, Rokesley Avenue N8 8NH.  Come along if you want to find out more.

A few weeks ago I wrote to the Haringey Council Director in charge of parking, demanding that the Council do not renege on their promise to deal quickly with parking problems caused by the new Crouch End CPZ.  As I said in my previous post the Council had emailed me to say they were dropping plans to allow roads where there was strong support amongst residents to be fast-tracked into a CPZ.

Last week I got my response.  Apparently, ‘the Council has not broken any promises’ – its just that our roads aren’t a priority yet:  The letter says a review of the Finsbury Park CPZ (including consultation with streets outside the CPZ such as Granville Road and Mountview Road) is on a ‘provisional list’ for 2010/11.

The Council have promised to review the Finsbury Park CPZ countless times over the last 4 years – but we never seem to rise to the top of the pile!  The Council’s refusal to listen on this issue has spurred Ed, Laura and I into action – and we are now testing out our own parking survey with local residents.  More on this soon…