Richard Wilson

The next Crouch End, Hornsey & Stroud Green Area Forum will take place this coming week on Tuesday 17th January. It will be held at Stroud Green School (entrance of Perth Road), starting at 6.45pm.

There are a host of controversial issues on the agenda, including an update on the boundary review and on the parking controls, as well as discussion of the Council’s plans to change our waste collections. Haringey controversially plan to cut weekly collections of non-recyclable waste later this year, with black bin waste only collected once a fortnight.

If you want to find out more about whats going on in your local area please come along on Tuesday.

Just before Christmas, I was sent a spreadsheet setting out how much ‘Pupil Premium’ will be received by local schools next year.  The Pupil Premium is a Lib Dem initiative to target extra money at schools in the most disadvantaged areas. Next year each school will receive£600 for each pupil in receipt of free school meals.  The money can be spent however the headteacher thinks best – and will benefit the whole school.

According to the Government data, our three local primary schools are are due to receive significant sums:

• Weston Park Primary School on Denton Road will get £18,000
• St Aidan’s Primary School on Albany Road will get £23,400
• Stroud Green Primary School on Woodstock Road will get £107,400

Because of the way the Pupil Premium is targeted, Haringey is a massive beneficiary - with £8.8 million planned to go to our schools in 2012-13.   Nearby High Schools used by Stroud Green children will also get large sums – for instance Hornsey Girls School is getting £385,000, Highgate Wood £270,000 and the Grieg City Academy £378,600. Schools in the east of Haringey, where over two thirds of pupils can be on free school meals, will quite rightly receive very large amounts of Premium.

For five years I was a governor at Weston Park Primary School, and chair of the schools resources committee – so I know that this money will make a big difference and will be put to good use in our local schools.  It’s great to have some good news about school funding amongst all the gloom in these very difficult times.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Tonight is the local Area Assembly 7.30pm to 9.30pm in Stroud Green School (entrance on Perth Road).  The theme this time is green issues, and there will a number of presentations from local community groups working on green projects. These include a talk from ‘Urbivore’ on urban growing, healthy eating and sustainable living, and ‘Foodcycle’ on food recycling and a community cafe for Haringey.

The Assembly will also give people the chance to have their say on the bids that have been submitted by local residents to the ‘Making the Difference’ grants programme. There has been a wide range of applications, such as new benches for bus users and new kits for a youth football team.

As usual there will be the opportunity for residents to have their say in the ’soap box’ segment and to quiz a Haringey Council cabinet member, and Cllr Lyn Weber will be keeping order as Chair.  Please do come along and join in!

Lynne Featherstone has joined the Stroud Green Lib Dem team in launching a campaign to make the pedestrian crossing on Upper Tollington Park (by the junction with Florence Road) safer.  The campaign was launched after local residents raised concerns about the speed of traffic on the road and a recent accident near the zebra crossing.

This is a key route for children going to Stroud Green Primary School and many years ago the Council employed a ‘lollipop lady’ to patrol the crossing. However, I’m told that when she retired she was never replaced. So as a first step to make the crossing safer, we are calling for the Council to employ a new crossing patrol person.

Thanks to pressure from Lynne, Ed Butcher and myself, the Council have now agreed to put up more warning signs on the road, and the local police are doing extra speed patrols on the road.  However, the real long-term answer is to get the crossing upgraded with traffic lights and measures to slow down the traffic.

To get the Council to take action, we have launched an online petition to demonstrate how strongly local people feel about this issue. Please sign up here.

Everyone I’ve spoken to so far has been extremely supportive of the campaign. In fact, when we took this photo of us launching the campaign, several residents came out of their houses to offer us their backing and tell us their concerns about the traffic.  I hope with such strong support we are able to make a difference.

Since I started highlighting the lack of grit bins in Stroud Green, I’ve had a dozen requests from local residents to get a bin installed in their road.  In fact, residents of Woodstock Road and Denton Road pointed out that their roads used to have a grit bin but the Council took it away a few years ago.

As a result I’ve sent in a request to the new Cabinet Member for the Environment Cllr John Bevan, asking for grit bins to be installed in the following six roads:

• Albany Road
• Oakfield Road (between Stapleton Hall Road and Ridge Road)
• Denton Road
• Uplands Road
• Woodstock Road (near Stroud Green Primary School)
• Mount Pleasant Crescent

At this week’s Full Council meeting I had planned to raise the lack of grit bins and a number of other ways I thought Haringey could improve its preparedness for snow and ice.  Cllr Lyn Weber and I had put down a motion calling for the Council to hold a formal review to find out resident’s experiences and learn lessons.

However, in one of the most childish displays I have ever seen from a grown adult, Council Leader Claire Kober deliberately talked nonsense for half an hour to stop our motion being reached.   Its shocking that the Leader of a Council that is rated the worst in London thinks this is an acceptable way to behave, and presumably doesn’t think the Council has anything to learn from residents’ experiences of the recent snow and ice.