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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Despite consultation results that have rejected the proposal, the Council are proceeding with the road renaming. Today, they issued the following statement.

A legal order issued on 7 December will set the renaming process in motion after Haringey Council’s Corporate Committee voted to change the name of Black Boy Lane to La Rose Lane. The name change will happen officially on 23 January 2023.

It doesn't do much for one's faith in the due process of the council. If they were going to do it anyway, why tease the local population with a meaningless consultation?

The item came to committee on 15 Sept, but the above statement has only just been issued. The relevant part of the agenda reports pack is attached below. The previous reports pack from 2021 is available via this HoL post

Tags for Forum Posts: blackboy lane name change

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So what's YOUR estimate ?

I don't pretend to know how much this would cost, I'm just a guy posting on an internet forum, same as everyone else who is giving their opinions on the cost of this project. 

I only asked where the £500k figure came from because I was curious and it seemed to have been plucked out of thin air, yet everyone was quoting it as if it was true. 

Jon.  The figure seems to have popped up in this post earlier in the thread.  Perhaps that person could share how they arrived at it.

Sorry, you’ve lost me there Livi.  I was replying to Jon rather than John.

Jon — My memory is that, in the council’s online report of the original committee discussion (in 2021), officers gave an estimate of £300,000 for the renaming. I can’t now find the reference,  but if you look at the previous, very long, HoL thread on this subject, I think you may find a link to it. I don’t know why it might now be £500,000, but perhaps that could be an informed update?

All linked threads can be accessed via the tag underneath the original post above. 

Following the renaming of Black Boy Lane I would have thought any signage to same would have to indicate: "Formerly known as"- Black Boy Lane?

One would imagine that such a definition would have to remain in place for quite a considerable period of time; maybe several years to avoid confusion and misinterpretation of the location?
If this is the case then surely it seriously conflicts the original reason for the illogical & financially disastrous name change??

Can I please recommend that reading the report (link above) might be a good place to find some answers to FAQs. If they aren't there the free website What Do they Know is often an effective way to pose questions and - crucially - share the answers through Freedom of information (F.O.I.) requests.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/

N.B.  If you get an answer from Haringey, in the past the Council tried to scare people by automatically  including a paragraph which claims that the answers are confidential and may not be shared. This was untrue. It was verging on a lie presumably hoped to chill public discussion.

In my view, such a practice almost certainly negates the whole point of the Seven Nolan Principles of public life.

Officers and Members rarely reply to letters/emails, not even an acknowledgment.

 I wrote to Cllrs about the cost of the scheme and other matters related to the name change of Black Boy Lane, I am still waiting for a response to my email of 14th October and at least 7 other emails going back to 2020. 

I then met with one of St Ann’s Cllrs who told me they didn’t know what the cost the road name change would be.  

I said £186k had been mooted as the cost of the road name change and the Cllr suggested that £186k was a drop in the ocean of LBH’s overall budget and because it was coming from the Corporate budget all is fine.

Based on past engagement with the Council, I hope to limit my dealings with them but fear that their inability to plan properly or communicate effectively that will be the case. I have don’t have any confidence that the transition from Black Boy Lane to La Rose Lane will be a smooth one.

All sounds good to me. However, not so sure HBC would want to see such common sense applied like this and especially if it saves money!!

David Parnell and

Puddles
I'd suggest there's no such monolith called HBC. No battallion of staff marching in lockstep.
Not even Party Leaders and councillors have hive-minds. In fact neither local nor national politicians are Borg-like entities. Much as though they are encouraged to stick to the scripts which policy wonks and think tanks devise for them.

The more local people treat them as robots lacking common sense and independent thought, the more the current speak-your-script-system is perpetuated.

Possible alternatives?
Well, it depends on whether  critics are serious in hoping to change minds. Or are they just having fun posting? If they are trying genuinely to contribute to this debate then isn't it essential to have mutual respect for people who disagree? And to seek to understand their points of view?  In other words to seek to engage in dialogue?

I'd dispute the assertion that the name has any racial connotations at all. I looked around for a picture of the old pub sign and found this. It's hard to see but looks clearly to relate to chimney sweeps rather than African slaves or whatever the council is suggesting it used to be. 

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