Richard Wilson

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.

Yesterday I had to take a late night trip Hornsey Police Station after narrowly avoiding my bank account being emptied by cashpoint criminals.  On the way home from a night out at the theatre, I decided to get some money out from the cashpoint at the Post Office in Crouch End (on Topsfield Parade), at about 11pm.  The cashpoint made lots of whirring sounds but didn’t give me my card back.

This made me suspicious and I suddenly realised there was a device attached to the card slot.  A little look around and I also spotted a concealed camera positioned to video the key pad.  With my card and a recording of me typing in my PIN, they would have had everything they needed to empty my bank account.

The hidden camera was only attached to the cashpoint with a magnet so I took it off and stuck it in my pocket and scarpered – slightly worried whether the people who were trying to steal my money were nearby watching me.  Fortunately, I knew Hornsey Police Station was up the road and has a 24 hour front counter so I went in and gave the criminals’ camera to the police.

The officers at Hornsey Station who helped me were great, and it was very reassuring to speak to the police face to face.   Sadly though, I’ve just had a call from CID to say they think its unlikely they will be able to identify the culprits – as there is no CCTV camera facing the cashpoint.

So I’m posting this story to remind people of the need to be vigilant when using cash machines in the area and to look out for devices attached to the card slot.  They are very cleverly concealed and I only noticed at the very last minute just as I was about to walk off thinking it was just a faulty machine.

And I’m also posting this to highlight the importance of police stations remaining open 24 hours.  This has been a big issue in Haringey recently with Lynne Featherstone battling to keep the front counter at Wood Green Police Station open 24 hours (story here).  I think I slept sounder last night because I’d been able to speak to the police and hand over the criminals’ hidden camera.  I’m not sure what I would have done if the police station had been closed.

For many Stroud Greeners today will be the first back at work after the Christmas break, and time to dust off the oster card and get commuting.  The good news is that the oyster machines at Harringay have been switched on at last and oyster pre-pay can now be used.  This is long overdue -Transport for London (TfL) and First Capital Connect (FCC) have been wrangling over its implementation for years.  Lynne Featherstone helped push things along with a campaign launched in 2008 to get them to commit to a date (see picture and Lynne’s website posts).

However, the bad news is that if like me you have a travelcard on your oyster and want to use pre-pay to go beyond your travelcard zones, then TfL and FCC have designed a fiendishly complicated system to make it almost impossible.  Apparently you’ll have to load something called an ‘oyster extension permit’ on to your card just before you travel (details of TfL website here).   So, if you have a zone 1-3 travelcard and want to travel from Harringay Station out to say New Southgate in zone 4 you’d need to get a permit.  However, it doesn’t look like you can actually get the permit at Harringay  Station.  Instead you would have to go to a shop with Oyster facilities, which defeats the object of oyster by making it less convenient than buying a paper ticket!

To me it looks like oyster fares are still being designed around the needs of the train companies and TfL rather than the needs passengers.

Lynne Featherstone has launched an urgent campaign to save the 24 hour Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department at our local hospital – the Whittington.  Under new plans being brought forward by NHS managers the Whittington could be downgraded to ‘local hospital status’ – putting the A&E service in jeopardy.  The story is covered in the Hornsey Journal – article here.

If the Whittington A&E closed Stroud Green residents would have to travel twice the distance in a medical emergency – to get to the Royal Free at Hampstead instead.  There is no A&E service in Haringey Borough at all – already making us comparatively poorly served.

Stroud Green councillor Ed Butcher joined Lynne in a recent visit to the Whittington to try to stop the proposals (see picture).   Health officials have refused to give Lynne written assurances on the fate of the A&E and so Lynne has launched a campaign to show the strength of local feeling against any closure.

Please do sign Lynne’s online petition here in order to protect our local health services.

Its taken 11 months, but Haringey Labour have eventually caved in to our Lib Dem campaign to give local residents a break and freeze Haringey’s Council Tax.  The campaign was launched in November 2008 by Lynne Featherstone MP and our Council Group leader Robert Gorrie (see campaign photo left), and has attracted huge support from residents who are feeling the pinch during the recession.

Over the last decade Council tax has increased by around 60% – with millions wasted on bungled IT projects and failed attempts to flog Ally Pally.   Meanwhile the Council is now rated one of the worst in the country by Government inspectors.

I’d love to think that Haringey Labour have turned over a new financially-responsible leaf – but the timing is obviously related to next year’s Council elections, and Labour’s growing panic about losing control of Haringey for the first time in 40 years.  But its great news for local residents that the Labour-run Council are being forced to listen and be accountable.

A few days ago I got an email from public transport watchdog London TravelWatch to say that they had managed to persuade First Capital Connect to reduce their proposals to cut ticket office hours at local stations.  Our MP Lynne Featherstone helped organise a big campaign against the cuts, which I mentioned in a previous post.  I also proposed a motion condemning the cuts to a full meeting of Haringey Council, which was passed with cross-party support (post here).

First Capital Connect had proposed to cut the ticket office weekday opening hours by almost 4 hours so it would close at 10.30am – but now it will only bve reduced by 1 hour 30 mins to close at 12.45pm.  Unfortunately, the long term plan remains to stop the ticket office opening at all on a Saturday – but TravelWatch have insisted on an 8 week trial period to see if the ticket machines cope with the demand.

Similar changes have been made to the proposed office hour cuts at Hornsey Station.  Full details of the revised proposals are here.

Rather than cuts, I’d like to see our stations more visibly staffed to make passengers feel more secure.  But I’m really pleased that local residents concerns have been listened to – and the office hour cuts have been reduced.

Haringey Council have pulled funding from a cross-Borough initiative to stop dumping, littering and graffiti in the Finsbury Park area.  Through local regeneration agency FinFuture, Haringey, Islington and Hackney had all contributed to employing ‘Street Enforcement Officers’ to tackle the rubbish that often blights the area, which includes much of Stroud Green.

Haringey have unilaterally withdrawn this funding despite the fact that dumping and littering remain huge issues – particularly on the roads leading off Stroud Green Road.   A few weeks ago Lynne Featherstone, Ed Butcher and I were doing a walk about and found this huge pile of dumped furniture on Woodstock Road.   We need more Council efforts – not less.

Fortunately, Islington and Hackney will continue to pay towards one enforcement officer for the area and have not insisted that this officer boycotts the Haringey side of Stroud Green Road.  But in the long term it is completely unsustainable for this Labour Council to keep washing its hands of Stroud Green Road issues.