Richard Wilson

Earlier this month I attended a meeting with the parking officers in charge of the review of the Finsbury Park Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ), and the new cabinet member in charge of parking Cllr Nilgun Canver.  The officers came armed with maps of the proposed consultation areas, which they’d drawn up following a previous meeting (see picture).

The full consultation with residents will happen in the Autumn, with residents inside the CPZ being asked if they still support the CPZ and whether they want the rules changed (different hours and different sub-zones within the CPZ). Residents outside will be asked if they want the CPZ extended, and what the hours of the extension should be.

It is proposed that the consultation will extend up to and including Ridge Road.  Roads to the north of Ridge Road would be notified about the consultation, but as there is no strong campaign for a CPZ in those roads the Council do not plan to include them in the formal consultation area.  There will be a simultaneous consultation on extending the Crouch End CPZ which will cover Ferme Park Road and and roads to the west.

Over the next few months the Council will be drawing up the consultation questions and finalising the consultation zones, and will be running focus groups of local residents from different roads to help them with this.  If you want to take part in the focus groups then please get in contact.

The process is very ponderous, and any changes or extensions to the CPZ will not be implemented till 2011.  However, these focus groups should hopefully mean that the consultation works better and that there is less criticism of the consultation process than last time.

One of our local newspapers has written an article saying that Chettle Court in Ridge Road will be the furthest point in Haringey from an A&E, if the Whittington closes.   According to the Hornsey Journal the journey to an A&E from Ridge Road will double from 2 miles to 4 miles, and they have interviewed a range of Chettle Court residents to get their views.

This news should strengthen Stroud Green residents resolve to fight these A&E cuts.  At Monday’s Full Council meeting we made the Whittington A&E the topic of our opposition business.  We argued for decision-making in the NHS to be more open, democratic and accountable, as it is completely unclear to local residents who is making these proposals to close our A&E.

Later on in the meeting I managed to speak on the Whittington and challenged the Labour councillors who say they are against the cut to put that message to the Labour Health Ministers who are ultimately responsible.  Our local Labour politicians are in a difficult situation on this – they try to take the credit for any good news stories about the NHS (such as the new health centre on the Hornsey Hospital site), but say its nothing to do with them when cuts are proposed.  They can’t have it both ways.  Residents in places like Chettle Court deserve better.

After the chaos caused by the snow before Christmas, local activist Katherine Reece and I thought we would check to make sure the grit bins in Stroud Green are full. The bins allow local residents to grit the pavements clear near their home if they wish, and are usually provided in hilly areas.  Our steep streets can be treacherous when icy, and I know many local older people feel trapped in their homes when the pavements aren’t gritted.

Therefore, we were surprised to find the bins at the top of Inderwick Road and Mayfield Road (both at the Ridge Road end) were empty apart from some litter.  We immediately contacted the Council yesterday to ask them to urgently refill it.   I know that the bins at Chettle Court on Ridge Road were empty a few days ago too, and residents were having to keep asking for them to be refilled.

The Council is supposed to check and refill the bins regularly over winter – but it appears this hasn’t been happening.  Obviously main roads have to be a first priority, but the Council can’t ignore entirely the need to keep pavements in residential areas clear and safe.   And it makes sense to give residents the opportunity to do their bit.

I’ve received notice from the Council that Streetcar are planning to put 3 new cars into Stroud Green.   This is excellent news as I know lots of residents are making very active use of the car club and are keen for new sites.

The proposed locations are:

• The Oakfield Road Bridge (when the current engineering works have finished)
• Nelson Road, near the junction with Ridge Road (see photo)
• Osbourne Road, near the junction with Victoria Road

The formal consultation is planned for February, but if you have any views on these locations then please get in touch and I’ll pass them on ahead of then.  I’m pleased that they have responded to resident’s suggestions of putting car club bays in the roads inside the Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ), such as the Oakfield Road bridge, rather than on the clogged roads just outside the CPZ (see previous post).

The new cars should be in place by June.

Yesterday, we presented Haringey Council will the final results of the Stroud Green Parking Survey.  We got a huge response with over 300 surveys completed either on the doorstep or online.

We started the survey because so many residents in the roads outside the existing Finsbury Park and Crouch End CPZs were contacting us to complain about parking (see post on launching the survey).  The key results were:

• 79% of residents believe that parking has got worse this year
• 61% of residents say they are now in favour of a CPZ , 32% are against a CPZ, and 7% stated no preference.
• 38% of residents say they used to be against having a CPZ but are now in favour.
• 58% of residents believe any CPZ should only operate for 2 hours .

These results demonstrate the urgent need for a proper Council consultation looking at the options for tackling parking problems.  We’ve written to the Haringey cabinet member in charge of parking demanding that he now holds this consultation - and a full review of the existing Finsbury Park CPZ.

As well as setting out residents’ views on CPZs, our letter also sets out other suggestions residents have made to reduce parking pressures, such as:

• Allowing residents who live just outside the CPZ boundary to buy permits to park inside.
• Allowing free parking on stretches of road where there are no houses, such as the Oakfield Road bridge or the covered reservoir.
• Providing dedicated van and truck parking (in appropriate places) for local residents who run vital ‘man and a van’ businesses.

The Council must listen to local residents on parking.

Its not very often that residents contact you asking for the Council not to repair something, but that is what happened this week with the smashed wall at the end of Ridge Road.  The wall is outside Chettle Court, at the entrance to the little row of houses called Highbank Way.

The wall is regularly knocked down by cars reversing and turning, and residents are fed up with seeing money wasted endlessly repairing it.  This picture is of me by the wall in August  last time it was damaged.  Since then it has been repaired and now knocked down again.

Residents are also annoyed, because it attracts groups of young people who sit on it – and sometimes it is used as a bench by people drinking alcohol in the street.  In my picture you can see there is a beer bottle sitting on the broken wall.

Therefore, I’ve backed residents calls that the Council’s housing organisation Homes for Haringey (which owns the wall) just removes it completely. Hopefully this will improve the local area and save some public money to be spent on more useful things.

This week I’ve been helping to deliver our local Stroud Green FOCUS leaflet, which is a great opportunity to spot problems that need sorting on local roads.  For instance, I’ve reported this graffiti at the top of Inderwick Road near the junction with Ridge Road (see picture).

Of course, you also see all the problems you’ve raised with the Council but which they’ve failed to take proper action on.  Sticking with Inderwick Road -I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve raised the appalling condition of the roads and pavements.  Bizarrely, the Council have taken half-action by replacing the pavement on one side of the street (but not the other), and re-tarmacing the northern half of the road (but leaving the southern half).  The result is to make the unrepaired sections look more obvious – its like cleaning one pane of a window but leaving the other pane dirty.

I’ll keep up the battle for the Council to finish what they’ve started on Inderwick Road.  I hope they remove more than half the graffiti.