Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Cllr. Mike Hakata “… to step down from elected office”. Full statement:
The announcement will not trigger a by-election and residents in Hermitage and Gardens will be represented by Cllr Anna Lawton.
- Back-peddling on Net Zero
- Shelving of progress on climate
- On the side of motorists (New Labour's election pledge)
Tags for Forum Posts: mike hakata, traffic
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter
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As Rory wrote, stopping through traffic, AKA, Filtering.
Despite the chronic general lack of competence among the council's Highwaymen, nonetheless some years ago this department came up with a sensible and workable plan at the time of the closure to through-traffic when the rail bridge was re-built.
Their plan continued to enable access to every car parking space on every road in the Ladder.
None of this is rocket science: it progress is the absence of political will.
Assuming that in May, the expiring New-Labour Administration lose a few Ward seats but are returned again, then there is Net-Zero prospect of improvement. The Borough would benefit from the Early Retirement of most of the Highwaymen, but there is no appetite to grasp the nettle.
As Cabinet Member with a wide brief (Environment, Transport & Climate Action), Cllr Hakata had a full understanding of the issues but was able to make little to no progress.
My impression is that Mike's public promises were met with the private refusals to deliver by a small clan of old-school girl friends. i.e. the council Leader and the Cabinet Member of Highways. Supported by another Councillor, not in the Cabinet, but another old school-chum. Therefore from May, Mike's successor will fare no better.
This is how New-Labour governs our Borough.
Many politicians would claim they put potential voters first. Trump & the MAGAs put America First.
Although the Cabinet Member for culture recently claimed that the council puts residents "first", there is no evidence of this in Transport policy. In this area, the Leader Cllr. Ahmet and her cronies put car-owners first, most of whom park, drive and burn fossil-fuel.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson
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I think we can look a bit closer to home on this issue - the influence of the Green Lanes Traders Association. They have been calling the shots in the area for decades. A meeting I recall from the late eighties for radical changes to Green Lanes had a lot of residents in attendance and a huge amount of resident support. The handful of traders who were there were completely opposed to any changes. Guess who won?
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Permalink Reply by James H.
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Asking in all innocence and naivety, why is it that the wishes of a "handful of traders" override those of residents? And how can this state of affairs be changed?
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One option is surely looking again at the traffic situation for Green Lanes as a whole – i.e. both sides of it – instead of doing it piecemeal. Because isn't that how the Gardens LTN got pushed through at the expense of the Ladder roads in the first place?
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GREEN Lanes is not fully controlled by Transport for London (TfL), but parts of it are designated as a TfL corridor for strategic improvement.
However, the current council is constitutionally unable to do or offer anything in transport action, other than piecemeal tinkering
The inability to consider Borough transport as a whole has continued for at least two decades. Despite the public-relations-action-plan documents, there is no strategy that is worth the paper its printed on. This is set to continue.
The clearest sign of this, is the recent departure and resignation of the Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport & Climate Action.
The inaction is due to an accumulation of factors:
- Leaders feeling helpless
- A culture of chronic inertia
- Conservative (New Labour) politics
- Entrenched Highwaymen Jobsworths
- Absence of support from Public Health
- Lack of interest, knowledge and expertise
- Lack of a unified, meaningful transport policy
- New Labour's fear of losing the (minority) car-owner vote
- (Misguided) input from the shopkeepers along Green Lanes
- Contentment with the status quo from the balance of the Cabinet (especially the group of old-school friends)
There are options, choices and possibilities aplenty, but nothing can change as long as the local council sails on with the current crew.
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Yet despite all of this, every residential road around Green Lanes other than the Ladder has been closed to traffic. Green Lanes is Green Lanes and will forever be Green Lanes. What I object to is the inequality of all the residential roads being closed to traffic but not the Ladder residential roads. As a resident of the Ladder, I would like the same offer of less traffic, cleaner air and less noise and rubbish than my neighbours across the road, who won that particular postcode lottery currently enjoy.
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I would like the same offer of less traffic, cleaner air and less noise and rubbish …
Many of us would like this offer—and not only in the Ladder!
It's not just about Green Lanes and the Ladder, although GL is one of the handful of most-polluted roads in Haringey and as a whole, Haringey is among the Boroughs with the most congested roads in London.
Haringey Council's transport policy failure is broader. The inequality is Borough-wide:
Due to the fear of losing the votes of the minority of car-owners, the council Ruling Group will not extend the few improved environments.
In transport, the ruling Group in Haringey are not for the many, but for the few. i.e. the New-Labour Group favour the smaller population of car-owners—the minority of the population. It is as crude as that.
Yet even the young children of car-owners can suffer from pollution.
The better environment you describe is not on offer. The offer will not be renewed or extended due to the factors listed. It will stay in the "too hard" basket.
Air-quality thread on HoL from 2008 –17 years ago.
The council cares about pollution. Just not enough to do anything about it. In transport policy, all the current crew have to offer is maintaining the conditions for continuing noise, congestion and pollution.
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