Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Help Build a Vision for Harringay
Summary
If you haven't got the heart to read this rather long post, just read this:
1. You now have a chance to help build a vision for the future of Harringay to make it the place you want.
2. The Council has said they'll run the project as a genuine partnership with residents. How would you like to be involved?
3. What are the things you'd like to partner with the Council to work on getting changed?
Following the Harringay Online Residents' Priorities Survey and my request to Haringey Council to work with us to build a charter for Harringay, I've had a few meetings with Councillor Nilgun Canver. The latest of these was to prepare a recommendation to the Green Lanes Strategy Group to start working on a charter. That's great news. The objective of this post is to share how I hope to see this going forward and to begin to get other residents and traders of Harringay involved in shaping the place they live and/or work in. So, what's all this about? If you follow the link for Harringay Charter above, you'll see that the idea is based on an initiative by Hazel Blears - which is all part of a Government policy to shift more control to people at a local level.
Many charters may focus on crime and grime, but there is nothing stopping us making a charter which is broader in scope and more ambitious and visionary in intent.
For me the charter can be a catalyst where the people of Harringay agree what should be done to shape our area and form the foundation of making those things we agree happen.
In my view it should be a genuine partnership between the people (residents & traders) and the Council. It should be something we feel a real ownership of and are prepared to take joint responsibility for, rather than having it happen to us.
Where do things stand now?
Nilgun Canver, the chair of the Green Lanes Strategy Group, has agreed to the idea in principle and wants to submit a recommendation to the Green Lanes Strategy Group in September.
I have her commitment that building the charter and executing on it will be a genuine partnership between the Council and the people. For me this means residents and traders being treated as equals throughout the process. Of course we have to recognise that the Council has certain responsibilities and will likely be funding any expenditure. So in the real world, they will be first among equals. But that's the real world.
At this stage those of us who have been discussing the concept would really welcome your ideas about first steps/where we go from here.
How to contribute at this stage
The key issues which I think we should be contributing on now are:
1. Involvement
2. Objectives
3. Opportunities/Hurdles
Other Perspectives
My sense is that we should aim for a visionary piece. We will need to be realistic about what's achievable and timescales. Funding will always be an issue, but if we at least agree a broad sweep of where we want Harringay to be in 5 or 10 years, it will be a canvas against which future execution can be achieved.
We don't need to feel nor be passive partners. It seems that every week the Government is introducing new legislation to enable people to have real influence and take real control at a local level. I'm amazed at how far they're going. We could also consider options like a development trust for the third place that's been discussed on the site.
My point is that there are many structures and processes that are in place for us to achieve all sorts. We will only be limited by our imaginations, our willingness to get involved and take ownership for our own area..........and of course the effectiveness of the way the initiative is run.
The next Green Lanes Strategy Group Meeting is on 23rd September. Any input we have will need to be collated prior to the meeting. So if we have the discussion and express our ideas over the next three weeks (i.e. by 14th September), I will contract to collate any views expressed here and get them passed on in good time.
If you'd rather talk to the Council directly, you can contact Dasos Maliotis, Neighbourhood Manager at Dasos.Maliotis@haringey.gov.uk.
If you haven't got the heart to read this rather long post, just read this:
1. You now have a chance to help build a vision for the future of Harringay to make it the place you want.
2. The Council has said they'll run the project as a genuine partnership with residents. How would you like to be involved?
3. What are the things you'd like to partner with the Council to work on getting changed?
Following the Harringay Online Residents' Priorities Survey and my request to Haringey Council to work with us to build a charter for Harringay, I've had a few meetings with Councillor Nilgun Canver. The latest of these was to prepare a recommendation to the Green Lanes Strategy Group to start working on a charter. That's great news. The objective of this post is to share how I hope to see this going forward and to begin to get other residents and traders of Harringay involved in shaping the place they live and/or work in. So, what's all this about? If you follow the link for Harringay Charter above, you'll see that the idea is based on an initiative by Hazel Blears - which is all part of a Government policy to shift more control to people at a local level.
Many charters may focus on crime and grime, but there is nothing stopping us making a charter which is broader in scope and more ambitious and visionary in intent.
For me the charter can be a catalyst where the people of Harringay agree what should be done to shape our area and form the foundation of making those things we agree happen.
In my view it should be a genuine partnership between the people (residents & traders) and the Council. It should be something we feel a real ownership of and are prepared to take joint responsibility for, rather than having it happen to us.
Where do things stand now?
Nilgun Canver, the chair of the Green Lanes Strategy Group, has agreed to the idea in principle and wants to submit a recommendation to the Green Lanes Strategy Group in September.
I have her commitment that building the charter and executing on it will be a genuine partnership between the Council and the people. For me this means residents and traders being treated as equals throughout the process. Of course we have to recognise that the Council has certain responsibilities and will likely be funding any expenditure. So in the real world, they will be first among equals. But that's the real world.
At this stage those of us who have been discussing the concept would really welcome your ideas about first steps/where we go from here.
How to contribute at this stage
The key issues which I think we should be contributing on now are:
1. Involvement
- What does an equal partnership mean to you in this context?
- How would you like to be involved?
- Would you like to just leave it to existing residents' groups to work with the Council on your behalf or would you like the opportunity for more direct involvement?
- If you'd like more direct involvement, how might that be organised so that things work effectively but your voice is heard and given due weight?
- What has/hasn't worked for you in the past in influencing what happens locally?
- Any ideas about how we structure the management of the process - both building the charter and executing on it?
2. Objectives
- What should the objectives of the charter be?
- What should its scope be? Should it be more focussed on crime & grime issues or should it be broader, more visionary?
3. Opportunities/Hurdles
- What opportunities do you see for this project?
- What are the potential barriers? How can we overcome them?
Other Perspectives
My sense is that we should aim for a visionary piece. We will need to be realistic about what's achievable and timescales. Funding will always be an issue, but if we at least agree a broad sweep of where we want Harringay to be in 5 or 10 years, it will be a canvas against which future execution can be achieved.
We don't need to feel nor be passive partners. It seems that every week the Government is introducing new legislation to enable people to have real influence and take real control at a local level. I'm amazed at how far they're going. We could also consider options like a development trust for the third place that's been discussed on the site.
My point is that there are many structures and processes that are in place for us to achieve all sorts. We will only be limited by our imaginations, our willingness to get involved and take ownership for our own area..........and of course the effectiveness of the way the initiative is run.
The next Green Lanes Strategy Group Meeting is on 23rd September. Any input we have will need to be collated prior to the meeting. So if we have the discussion and express our ideas over the next three weeks (i.e. by 14th September), I will contract to collate any views expressed here and get them passed on in good time.
If you'd rather talk to the Council directly, you can contact Dasos Maliotis, Neighbourhood Manager at Dasos.Maliotis@haringey.gov.uk.
Tags for Forum Posts: area assembly, area forum, consultation, harringay charter
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Phew! That is a massive amount to take in I think and it is hard to know where to start! My first instinct on this, is that I would like to see a public meeting, hosted jointly by local residents groups (LCSP, WRN4, GRA etc) and at which the local councillors who will benefit greatly from this initiative in terms of power to get things done and local traders will be present. (Where that differs from Area Assembly is that the residents will be in control of the agenda). There would be no heirarchy as such just interested people who want to talk about these things maybe after a short presentation about what is possible.
The conversations from that can be shared here and discussed further. I am very keen to see the regeneration and maintenance of Green Lanes as our high street as a central tenet to this charter, including shop diversity, agreements with traders about litter, shop fronts, waste management and the actual planning of how we can make the high street central to our area with community venues available to all. At present the idea of Green Lanes is as a demarcation line between two communities, it really should be the heart of one.
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Permalink Reply by finsburypark on
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My 2p on the topic...
When you create a vision the best is to use brainstorming.
Collect all the brainstormed ideas in one session and groups ideas in big areas (i.e. environment, business, transports and etc.), you may even discover that ideas are not relevant or out of focus.
Look at the results in a different session and ask the people to prioritise the groups (you can use a simple technique called pair comparison).
Distribute the groups by time such you build a road map, but here you start moving from vision to strategy. From challenges to plans.
OK, sounds too technical or theoretical? Just giving some ideas....
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Permalink Reply by TTTH on
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I am doing my dissertation for my MA Urban Design this year and need a topic in the next couple of weeks so this is very timely. Keep me in mind if there are any projects that you would like researched, in particular "Designing out crime" projects. Dasos is a good contact at Haringey for me, so thanks for this Hugh.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Thanks guys - great to get interest. I think getting a group together and having an effective process to elicit people's views will, as you say, be a critical first step. I've heard of a few ways of doing this, but I think it would be ideal, cost permitting to get some people with some experience involved in this. Any ideas.
(Colin, would be great to have your researcg capability or anything else that works on a win-win basis for you).
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Permalink Reply by Rachel Fisher on
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Hi guys - I'd really like to be involved in this project. I'm wondering if it's linked to the Communities in Control agenda that the CLG is launching - they have these nifty Community Power Packs that you can download.
The key here is get a shared sense of the vision for Harrigay. My only lingering concern is that we're not really engaging with the other communities here. The residents groups and the people on these sites tend to be cut from the same or similar cloth - whereas if we want to maintain, or even improve, the vibrancy of the high street, and not just desperately try to become another Crouch End - then we need to engage pretty widely.
Hugh - along with the Community Empowerment Packs etc the CLG is going to be launcing the Community Empowerment Fund. My organisation (the RSA) is currently looking in to applying for this money.
This money could help HOL and others to develop a Community Charter, amongst other things. The thing about the Empowerment Fund is that only national registered charities are able to apply for the money, which means that HOL would have to team up with someone.
I'm happy for HOL to be a recipient of some of the money that the RSA will receive from CLG (assuming we're successful in our grant application). What does everyone else think?
Given the tight timescale, would it be sensible to have a pub / cafe session to brainstorm some of this?
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That's really useful. Totally agree about other communities. I probably didn't make it clear above, but this will very much aim to be very inclusive. HoL is just one medium of communication; absolutely not the whole picture or even tha main part of it. The LCSP are already inolved as are the traders and the involvement of many other groups will be essential.
I'll take a look at the powerpack.
A brainstorm session sounds good to me.
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Absolutely Splinx. One of the critical issues for me - to make this thing truly inclusive, to give everyone the chance to be involved and not to just rely on "community representatives" should be a given. Thanks for voicing that.
Don't know if anyone's watching the Channel 4 series about regenerating Castleford. It's not 100% clear if it's just editing, but it appears that where mistakes are made, they tend to be made on issues where the locals are not included or are given insufficient influence in the decision process.
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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Really interesting, very happy to be involved.
In terms of process, if one had the time and money, you'd begin this as various folk here have suggested, with brainstorming sessions and then ideally some group discussions with local people (from a variety of sources, not just HOL).
If there was a concern about the representativeness of what this resulted in (as Sphlix raises), you could have some form of community survey, which outlined the key issues that had emerged during the earlier discussions and asked people to prioritise. A more ambitious version of the one that Hugh set up a few months back. Probably important not just to be online, could have an online and paper one asking people to return q/res to a particular address in their road (bit like the recent petition).
I'd be happy to help with the research side of this.
If we do some form of survey then important to be aware of the dilemma it could set up; between the desire to be democratic and the need for vision, as Hugh puts it earlier. Personally I think its important to get a sense of what people want and value, but given that this would probably (certainly?) not result in a unanimous view about what Harringay should look like, we'd then need to be very clear why certain issues are prioritised while other are not (eg say we find that a significant proportion of people want a complete relaxation of the controlled parking zones and no bus lanes - a silly example but you get my point...).
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Extra 2p
Start with a core group of motivated and focus people sharing common values first.
Enlarging groups too soon could put you in a swamp and take ages to get to a conclusion.
It's not to be antidemocratic, it's like being a think tank and then open the group activity to comments and additions. This second part is a good opportunity to collect more information and aspects you wouldn't normally think about (like going open source).
Those 2ps come from my personal technical experience when it comes to define objective, scope and strategy in projects.
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Hi,
This is also very timely for the kind of things on my mind also with regards specifically to the redevelopment of Alexandra Palace but also to the potential this may give to lifting and focusing the borough as a whole towards building the best future together we can possibly imagine. Haringey is already amazing, and this website and others stand as proof of this. We have some extremely dedicated and active citizens and groups we just need some joined up action to really get those ideas flying.
Positivity is always the key to my approach and so there will be some promotional fundraising projects going on in the new year aimed towards bringing people together and talking potential. The most important aspect of getting anything done centres mainly on our individual capacity to devote whatever time we all have to the cause. Turn off our televisions, stop filling our worlds with the most depressing news stories going and start making a difference by doing, talk first, quickly followed by action! Find out what we individually want to change be it locally or globally or both, find out if there are other people who feel the same. Network and brainstorm.
I currently work for Changemakers and am running the vinvolved program to develop volunteering for 16-25s in East London. It is quite incredible to see how many young adults just want to get actively involved in something local. I don't doubt that there are lots of grown adults wanting to do the same but not knowing where to start. I think that this is a great place :)
We just have to set our sights on the blue skies and set off in that direction. If we don't know where we want to get to there is not much point setting out in the first place.
My focus is always on interdependence, people providing for each other, sharing our resources etc. Once people start talking over garden fences and giving more to each other the crime will quickly drop off. Happiness is infectious and protective. Something I would really like to get going is a news paper called Good News. 50p a pop. I'd buy it. It will also give us something to shout with.
I also want to copy Sheffield's Abundance program and share the produce of the apple and pear and any other crops we don't use growing in gardens. I see bags of compost. . with perfectly good apples in. These could be sold or juiced cheaply at farmers markets to generate some revenue to develop other food recycling initiatives.
Anyway, that's all for now. Let me know if there is a meet up at some point. Very keen to get involved.
All the best
Sally :)
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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I think this sounds a great project. For me it's about a sense of place - what is it about Harringay that makes it different and how can we enhance it. I think it one of those very unusual places in London that hasn't become bland and lacking a soul.
I think the brainstorm idea is brilliant. No ideas out of scope and just try to get everything down and then worry about refining it later.
The range of stuff that will come up is likely to be huge and that's maybe where people can focus in on their own areas of concern and interest and do some of the more detailed work.
I did some facilitation with the public as part of the consultations on Camden Town tube station, Camden's community strategy and the new South Hampstead school so would be happy to get involved.
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