Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Council Invites Residents to Choose Where to Make the Cuts
In a consultation launched yesterday under the title "Haringey: where next?"Haringey Coucil is both readying the residents of the borough and inviting them to choose where future cuts should fall.
The web page starts of quite upbeat with an apparently pre- election oriented set of questions:
- What do you love about living in Haringey?
- What issues concern you?
- What would make life even better where you live?
However the text soon makes the message clear:
Since 2010 we’ve changed. In response to Government cuts to our budget, we’ve had to stop offering some services and find cheaper providers for others. With more budget cuts to come, further change is needed if we’re to continue to serve our residents well with less money year after year.
..or clearish, at any rate
But we believe we can continue to make Haringey better by listening to you. We want to do more, but we need to know what improvements you would like to see in your borough. What are the changes that matter most to you?
..or am I just a tad too cynical?
You can respond to the consultation online or attend one of two public meetings:
- Monday 17 March at The Original Gallery, Hornsey Library, Haringey Park, N8 9JA, and
- Wednesday 19 March at Heartlands High School, Station Road, Wood Green N22 7ST
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Chris, I'm certainly not saying "No videos on these issues".
If members of political parties or campaigners want to make videos on public issues in their own time with their own money, that's great. As I'm sure you know better than me, the available tools are cheaper and simpler than ever.
I'm saying no publicly funded videos by local councils supporting party political views. And especially just before an election. Or when a consultation is supposedly running. The Law suggests the same.
In any case, I'd rather young Tories bought a guitar to punish their ma and pa. Instead of joining the Labour Party & inflicting punishment on Tottenham.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Cuts shouldn't be surprising if the Council has no money, but we as residents shouldn't fail to link this announcement with the recent one trumpeting yet another year of no Council Tax rise. There is a clear choice to be made here. It's interesting that the administration appears to have opted to hold off any tax rise again and to prefer service cuts instead. I'm not sure how much it is possible to link these two issues, but an interesting stance from a Labour run borough.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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As far as I'm aware income from rent is ring fenced to the housing revenue account. So it's used to benefit tenants which is fair enough as they also pay council tax which benefits all of us.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on
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I don't think any Council can win in this situation - the Greens want a referendum on their planned 4.75% rise in the CTax in Brighton & Hove - that wouldn't play well here, would it, with so many in poverty?
Who would be a Cllr in a time of savage cuts - it must be particularly galling if you see the depth of the cuts as ideologically driven, unnecessarily and damagingly harsh, and dumped on Haringey because the ConDems try and demean the Labour-lead boroughs at every turn.
It is interesting and such a difficult nut to crack, isn't it? When you look at what you would do if you had power, Hugh, I guess you might also sense the impact of bucket-loads of opprobrium thrown in your face, whatever your motives. It'd surely wear you down and you'd long to return to bathe in HoLiness.
Would it deepen your cynicism or help you retain your trademark cheeriness because you believe that most people are fair-minded and proffer complicit goodwill - as we are not going to revolt, someone has to govern, don't they?
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It's certainly a tough call. No doubting that. It's a tough call for anybody. My aim is not to knock any particular party, Chris. I'm simply pointing out that a choice was made. Perhaps it's the right choice, perhaps not. I'm glad I don't have to make it.
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It's very clear to me Hugh that you are admirably neutral - didn't intend to give a different impression, soz.
It might help some HoLlers fulminate less if they were to say what they would do, rather than damn those stuck between a rock and a hard place. No, you don't have to come up with a better solution to criticise decisions, but there is a huge difference in accountability here.
I can seethe with the apparently obvious idiocy of our masters, but if I am not in possession of key facts, am plain wrong etc is there any comeback on me? No. I can keep blaming 'them' for what they do to me, to my ward, to my life but if I am wrong, what's the point?
I am still struggling with a survey I read that showed that most people had fixed ideas on many major issues that defied the facts. Asked questions like, 'how many immigrants are there' or 'how much of our income goes on welfare' or whatever the major issue du jour was, they got the well-publicised and easy-to-obtain facts wrong by a huge margin.
So if people are ignorant of the facts, what hope is there for informed consent?
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If people are ignorant of the facts, Chris, the last thing they need is their own money being spent by their own Council in producing biased and clever propaganda on a highly contentious political issue. Especially while a "consultation" is supposed be in progress.
If anything this is about deliberately achieving misinformed consent.
It would be helpful if you and others can remind Labour councillors of your acquaintance who they're supposed be working for: Haringey residents.
That being a councillor is not about who gets the approval of the Dear Leader and a place and salary in her "Cabinet". Nor even about a chance to wear a gold Mayoral Chain now and then.
Then, if it looks like they've grasped this basic fact, you can go on to explain gently but firmly, that their job description doesn't include dancing the Cannes-Cannes for developers.
Nor should they be using the Council's publicity machine to put out adverts or press releases subtly extolling Arup, local landowners or "The Developer Community".
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Alan, is this an occasion where there some objectivity is available?
You kindly posted a copy of your email to the Chief Exec, asking him to 'rule' as to whether the Videos are partisan and thus a wrongful use of Council funds.
If the Exec decides that the videos are fair enough, will you change your position or still claim that it is too political to be funded by a local authority?
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Chris, the Greens in Brighton and Hove have no choice but to hold a referendum. If the proposed rise in council tax is above a certain percentage they have to by law. Most other councils raising CT are making sure it's just below the legal trigger level.
Also, I think there are some real misconceptions about Brighton and Hove. It has massive problems with homelessness and unemployment.
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Thanks Michael. I think it is a valuable lesson to look at the Greens and realise that all politicians of whatever party are faced with awful choices in a time of cuts. I think it is too easy for posters (like me) to pontificate, to object, to castigate and get away with it.
Faced with the reality, I don't think most people would be able to do any better than most politicians at the local level - we're all human, after all and susceptible to
'The insolence of office and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes'
The only real opportunity for us all in this situation is to come up worth ideas and suggestions, surely? To grab the opportunity to get involved with the locale and actually make a distinct contribution, not simply to cavil.
After all, people do say that getting involved locally is one of the most rewarding things you can do - what's not to like?
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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They did this in 2010 (see Karen Alexander's post here). I do not want to be involved in this process. I want to vote for left leaning politicians who will protect services and public assets and when it comes to cuts versus tax increases they will more than 50% of the time increase taxes. This is a fig leaf to cover what must be the most right wing Labour administration in the country and their "decision" to freeze council taxes.
Where is the "option" to increase taxes? There isn't one.
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