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.

Haringey have unilaterally withdrawn this funding despite the fact that dumping and littering remain huge issues – particularly on the roads leading off Stroud Green Road.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.