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.

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.

Earlier this week I met with the Council’s nature conservation officers and with the Friends of the Parkland Walk to discuss how to better protect the much-loved nature area.   The problem is that thousands of private properties border the disused railway line and over the years a good number of of people have taken advantage and stolen bits of lands – pushing their garden into the publicly-owned nature reserve.

Despite having an official policy of zero tolerance to land grabs on the Parkland Walk, in actual fact the Council struggles to protect the Walk from encroachment, due to lack of resources and enforcement.  No up-to-date plans exist of what the Council owns – and legally the Council seems to have no powers to recover any land that has been occupied for over 12 years.  In a recent case I was involved with, comparing the original Victorian maps with current situation on the ground appeared to show lots of historic encroachment by the previous owners of a number of properties.

As a result of my experiences I’m asking the Council to do two things to better protect the Walk:

1. Whenever there is a planning application for a property that borders the Walk, the Council should work with the owner to agree the boundary on the ground before any building work starts.  Currently there is no proper system for doing this, which can result in long-running costly disputes after building has started.
2. The Council should conduct a proper survey of the Walk to properly map the current location of fences and structures along the boundary to help them better identify recent and future land-grabs.  I’m amazed the Council has never done this before.  With limit resources at the Council at present, I’ve suggested that they try to partner with college or university that trains surveyors to see if we can get some students involved.

The Parkland Walk is precious and deserves to be properly protected.  But how can the Council hope to properly protect the Walk if it doesn’t know what land it actually owns?

At Monday night’s Area Committee meeting in the Hornsey Library, I and the other local Lib Dem councillors agreed which community groups would benefit from small ‘Making the Difference’ grants to improve the local area.  This year we had some great bids in from Stroud Green residents – all of which got funded.

Projects that got the go-ahead in Stroud Green were:

• £3,500 for Mind to recruit and train volunteers to help out at their centre on Stappleton Hall Road (see cafe in picture).
• £500 for the Friends of the Parkland Walk to help clean up embankments and cuttings on the Walk.
• £2,500 for Farnefields Court Residents’ Association to create a community garden (with another £2,500 of match funding levered out of Homes for Haringey).
• £3,000 for Stroud Green Residents Association for new seats for people waiting for the W5, tree planting and other improvements.
• £3,000 for Friends of Stationers Park for new community picnic benches.
• £750 for the Friends of Stroud Green Library for a new noticeboard and signs.

Well done to all these organisations for putting in bids and working so hard to improve our area.

Parkland Walk safety will be discussed at a public meeting, with police invited, after a spate of attacks on and around the local park.  Ed, Katherine and I have made sure park safety is discussed at the next Area Forum – to give local residents an opportunity to ask questions about what is being done following the attacks, and what steps users can take to make sure they are safe on the park.

The overwhelming majority of people who use the Parkland Walk know how safe it is – but the recent spate of attacks has been a worry (see press reports here and here).  This is a chance for local residents and users to seek reassurance and to share their views

We have asked the Council and police to make sure it is doing all it can to protect the hundreds of people who use the park every day.  The Parkland Walk is a local treasure and we want to keep it that way.

The Area Forum will be held at 19:00 on Monday 26th September, at Hornsey Library, Haringey Park N8 9JA.  Other issues on the agenda include parking, Hornsey Town Hall and update on the Tottenham disturbances.  All residents are welcome to attend.  If you cannot make it, please contact us directly to get your get questions answered.

Yesterday, I helped out on the Parkland Walk clearing undergrowth before it blocks the path, and building a ‘loggery’ to attract the bugs and insects that are vital to any nature area.  Should you wish, you can see my ‘handy-work’ just inside the Upper Tollington Park entrance to the Walk.  It was great fun and really well supervised by volunteering charity BTCV, who made sure that even gardening novices like myself knew what they were doing.

Halfway through the morning we were joined by some teenagers doing ‘community payback’ who really threw themselves into the task and were really hard working and keen.  This was great to see, particularly as I’ve had complaints from magistrates that there aren’t enough community payback activities organised by Haringey.

I’ve had lots of residents say they would have loved to have joined in, but they weren’t free this weekend.  So I’ll see what can be done to encourage more of these sessions to be set up – and for them to be better publicised to local residents in advance.  There is such huge support for the Parkland Walk locally I’m sure volunteers can play a big role in making sure it is maintained.

My colleague Ed Butcher has been lobbying the Council to do a clean up blitz on Stroud Green Road and the surrounding area for a good while.  The pavements have got very grubby and there has been lots of complaints of fly-tipping on the side roads.  Thanks to this lobbying, and the work of our local Neighbourhood Manager, there will be a programme of activity to clean up the area – and to get volunteers helping out on the nearby Parkland Walk nature area.

This Saturday (13th) residents are being urged to help out with conservation work tidying up the Parkland Walk (the green walk along the disused railway line).  The meeting point is the Upper Tollington Park entrance to the Walk at 10am , and the work to trim back vegetation and create a ‘loggery’ for ‘mini beasts’ will be supervised by conservation officers.  The work runs to 1pm and volunteers may be rewarded with a spot of lunch!

On Saturday morning (10am – 12 noon) there will also be a skip on Albert Road to help encourage residents to properly dispose of any bulky refuse (though unfortunately they can’t accept white goods or electrical items – call 020 8885 7700 to get these items collected).   I particularly pressed for Albert Road to be targeted as flt-tipping at the bottom of the road near Stroud Green Road is a persistent problem that I have raised numerous times.

There will be further cleaning activities during the week, including a dog fouling patrol, and a deep clean of the grubby pavements on Stroud Green Road.  Ed, Katherine and I will be taking part in activities so please join us and help out.

I’m really pleased that, for once, Haringey and Islington Councils are working together to tackle the problems in teh Stroud Green Road area – with help from other local organisations like FinFuture and the Haringey Peace Alliance.  This attention is long overdue – and the challenge will be to keep up the cleaning once all the focus of the ‘Clean Sweep’ is over.