Do you want to see Haringey Council's Cannes diary?

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Permalink Reply by pamish on April 16, 2014 at 0:42

I want photos.

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Permalink Reply by Martin Ball on April 16, 2014 at 1:17

No work-related or partying snaps on Cllr Strickland's twitter account I'm afraid.

But he might be in this photograph of people vigorously networking.

Attachments:

• spot anybody at Cannes?.jpg, 59 KB

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on April 16, 2014 at 1:49

The diaries!  What a clever idea from Martin Ball.

From the pages it doesn't look as though there was much Austerity in Cannes. Certainly no food poverty for Cllr Alan Strickland "Cabinet member" for social cleansing and selling off Tottenham to Developers. Who attended with Lyn Garner Haringey's Director of Regeneration, Planning and Development. (As it's euphemistically called.)  And Nick Walkley the Chief Executive. We are told that, living up to his Barnet nickname of nonstick Nick,  he took the completely sensible course of paying for all his own expenses including travel and hotel.

As I've said before, when I was first elected on the Council, former councillor Ray Dodds warned me never to let planning applicants and property developers buy me lunch. Even if you are not, residents will assume you are bought and paid for.

Team Haringey - as they like to be called - were not alone in Cannes. It's nice to see mention of Chris Shellard. Chris is still remembered as a former Assistant Chief Executive in Haringey - in the days when we could afford three of these. His remit included Tottenham's "Regeneration". He now works for Lee Valley Estates (who developed and own Hale Village). 

It seems that hundreds of councillors and council staff from across the country were also there. Working long hours in these few MIPIM days on the Riviera. Toiling on residents' behalf as they struggled to get through many arduous and anxious dinners, lunches, brunches, and breakfasts. Sipping and munching, sluicing and troughing, at this Grande Bouffe event to gobble up and gulp down chunks of public land.

(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)

I'm reminded of the Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht song from the Threepenny Opera. I especially like the Tom Waits version.

"What Keeps Mankind Alive?"

You gentlemen who think you have a mission
To purge us of the seven deadly sins
Should first sort out the basic food position
Then start your preaching, that's where it begins

You lot, who preach restraint and watch your waist as well
Should learn for all time how the world is run
However much you twist, whatever lies you tell
Food is the first thing, morals follow on

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on April 16, 2014 at 8:14

Alan, for some reason this episode reminds me of Gene Pitney's 24 Hours from Tulsa.

Unfortunately this business wasn't confined to our Council. I have no wish to minimise the slap in the face to ordinary residents, but other councils were also seduced.

It's a sign of a wide malaise.

Disclosure:
am a prospective councillor candidate
Highgate Ward | Liberal Democrat Party

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on April 16, 2014 at 10:45

Perfect. I can see it in my mind's eye.

It was only twenty-four hours from Haringey their former love. But Alan Strickland, Lyn Garner and Nick Walkley found themselves losing control and their hearts as they were whisked onto the trading floor by the glistening waters of the Med.  Making shapes with Arup, Lee Valley Estates, and a host of rich eager, property developers from across the world.

Lunch turned to dinner. Dinner to evening reception. To breakfast, to brunch and back to dinner.  But unlike Gene Pitney they didn't write a "Dear Jane" letter to their old flame. Explaining that they'd run off with their exciting new "partners".

Haringey we hate to do this to you
but we love somebody new
what can we do
and we can never never never go home again to River Park House.

Now, wouldn't that have been a happy ending which brought tears to all our eyes?
Clive, I'd never pegged you as a romantic. 

(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on April 16, 2014 at 13:07

Thanks for the link, Alan: what a great song.

This morning in Highgate I saw an HfH truck bearing the legend, It's You We're Working For.

I think this isn't always remembered ...

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Permalink Reply by Zena Brabazon on April 16, 2014 at 14:32

I've had a quick look at the diaries. The entries speak for themselves. If this was such a vital event to make links and network then the council should have funded it itself and defended the expenditure. Taking sponsorship for it from big developers erodes public trust in both elected councillors and officers.  It's hard to see how they can be independent and neutral having been funded by these companies, and why would anyone believe it now? 

Zena Brabazon

Councillor

St. Ann's Ward

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Permalink Reply by Martin Ball on April 17, 2014 at 0:06

I am still researching the names in the diary. But the facilitation work of Neale Coleman, the Mayor of London's Tottenham Advisor, in making introductions for the Cannes Three is prominent. On the evening of Tuesday 11th March he arranged for Haringey Council's chief executive Nick Walkley to meet with Greg Clarke MP, Tory Minister for Cities. I wonder what was discussed. And whether Labour councillor Alan Strickland was shuffling uneasy in his Arup dinner seat on Clara One while the 'grown-ups' were carving up the future of Tottenham?

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on April 17, 2014 at 7:29

Morning Martin,

I wonder what was discussed.

Me too. I suspect we won't know. Some of it could be deemed "commercially confidential", which is a phrase we often hear these days, especially relating to FoI requests. It'd be easy to suppose it's not always us, they're working for.

After the council tried to sell our charity's main asset (Alexandra Palace) to Firoka, it took one year for my complaint to the Information Commissioner, to extract the Lease from the council, and even then, redacted for financial information. I was told that releasing that data might prejudice subsequent attempts to sell it (?!) Lessons the council sometimes doesn't learn and the poor judgement returns.

Repeated attempts to regenerate Tottenham have failed and there is little reason to suppose the current council will do better. If one were impressionable, hearing the siren calls by Clara, One's head may have easily turned – 24 hours from Tott'nm.

Disclosure:
am a prospective councillor candidate
Highgate Ward | Liberal Democrat Party

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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on April 17, 2014 at 7:49

If the council do nothing, the market will "regenerate" Tottenham this time. What they're trying to do is manage it. Possibly they think that what they're doing is in the residents interests. Certainly the diary entry "possible meeting with Tony Pidgley" is promising looking at what they've done at Woodberry Down, although that could also be down to Hackney Council...

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on April 17, 2014 at 9:20

"Repeated attempts to regenerate Tottenham have failed."

"If the council do nothing, the market will "regenerate" Tottenham this time."

I recognise that, on the whole, the only people allowed to have a view about Tottenham are people who don't live here. Quite obviously, residence in Tottenham completely disqualifies most of us.

The main reason is that we are the problem. Our ignorance, stupidity, fecklessness, bad attitudes, lack of any real education, inability to speak proper; poor dress sense, lack of bathing, and overall uselessness mean that we have nothing helpful to say about the future of our area.

We do though, have one important role.

Which is to fill in expertly designed professional questionnaires commissioned by the wholly beneficent powers-that-be currently running the Council. These establish precise metrics about the wide range of choices offered us.

Would we like one third, two thirds or the whole of our area demolished to provide walkways for a football club;  and new homes in guarded tower blocks for middle class professionals priced out of Stoke Newington and Crouch End?

Would we like excellent new schools run by E-Act and the Harris Federation? Superb new parks run with no budgets? Should the Council knock down a bad old library, and build a new idea store?  How about  cleaner streets?  A better retail offer along Tottenham High Road, just like the thriving High Streets across Britain? How about cuddlier and friendlier traffic wardens? Bluer skies and puffier clouds?

And every time, apart from a few ill-informed grumpy malcontents, we clap our hands and say: "Yes!  We believe in Clairies!"

Martin Ball tells me that Professor Tony Travers was down at the V&A explaining what must and will happen in Tottenham. And how the Holy Stuart Lipton Plan is preordained. So who am I to dispute the views of a seer and LSE professor who volunteered his wise views?  Tony at least is a single parent who lives in a flat on Northumberland Park and sent his kids to local schools. So I assume he knows a bit about the neighbourhood.

(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on April 17, 2014 at 10:25

P.S. Martin Ball also mentioned that there were 10 - yes ten! - regeneration staff down at Victoria & Albert Museum with Cllr Alan Strickland. So I wondered how many of these little elves we employed before the cuts. Sensibly Martin will be asking what their tasks were at the V&A.

Ten regen staff down the V&A

Ten regen staff down the V&A

And if two regen staff had nothing much to say

That left eight regen staff

Down the V&A

 

Eight regen staff down the V&A

Eight regen staff down the V&A

And if three regen staff whiled the time away

That left five regen staff

Down the V&A

 

Five regen staff down the V&A

Costing Council money

dribbling it away.

But if three regen staff

We sent off on their way

There'd be still two regen staff  

Down the V&A

 

Two last regen staff

Down the V&A

Keeping Strickland Company

They didn't get in the way

But had one slipped off home

The other could stay and play

Just one regen staff down the V&A

 

No more regen staff

Down the V&A

Strickland on his own

He's useless anyway

And what's the point of Regen staff

Can anybody say?

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