Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Gardens Rising Bollard Consultation
The Gardens rising bollard has been at the centre of another local traffic tussle being played out between the Harringay traders and Haringey Council recently.
In a bid to save on the cost of maintaining the rising bollard at the end of Warwick Gardens, the Council offered Gardens residents a choice between paying for it or permanently closing off the road.
A consultation went against paying for the bollard and plans were put in place to gate the road. However, when the Harringay traders heard about the move, they made it clear in no uncertain terms that they felt they ought to have been included as part of the consultation.
They fear that the change will add even more traffic to Green Lanes since the once open, then partially open thoroughfare was due to be closed off completely. Concerns were also expressed about issues this would present in managing the biennial Harringay Festival.
Stung by the level of anger amongst the traders, Haringey Council agreed to rerun the consultation and invited traders in Grand Parade to take part.
The new consultation finishes this week.
If you live in the Gardens and you haven't seen the consultation, I'm attaching a scanned copy.
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Warwick.pdf, 780 KB
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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And in case anyone missed it when I have said it elsewhere. The rising bollard was originally put in by Brian Haley who was a St Ann's Labour councillor and cabinet member. Four Labour councillors lived on Warwick Gardens at the time, I think only Charles Adje is left now.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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John (T), I'm afraid that you've got the wrong end of the stick on this. I've just called Tony Kennedy and he explained that the Gardens's Residents' Association told the Council that they don't WANT to reregister their views. They say that their views were submitted last time and they stand. However, they and any other Gardens resident ay indeed submit their views irrespective of wether they were submitted last time or have changed.
Moreover - and this is news to me - Tony explained that since this is a statutory consultation, ANYONE from ANYWHERE can submit a response.
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I think the project engineer's email may be less than lucidly written, and I now understand how you reached your conclusion. However, given what Tony told me, its intended meaning can now be discerned. Banning the GRA from participating just doesn't make sense, does it. I think Tony's explanation is completely plausible. If you doubt it, I suggest that you check it out with Andy or Francois at the GRA.
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I'm afraid that I'm struggling to understand where you feel Tony's account differs with your understanding of matters.
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I see. I would have expected the GRA to make a submission on this issue. It was after all the traffic issue that led to their formation. Are you certain that they made no submission? My understanding from what Tony K said was that they had done so..
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Just to be clear to anyone who starts at the bottom (or middle of this thread), it is John T with whom Therese agrees about who 'runs the show round here', not me.
As far as the traders' influence is concerned, yes they are influential. Whether it's an influence that stretches beyond its proper limits is another matter entirely however.
In my opinion, it's likely that any influence they do have comes in part from the nature of the borough's political environment, but to a greater degree it comes from the extent to which they are organised and work tirelessly to achieve their goals. Overall, their role has made a real contribution to Harringay and we all have a lot more to be grateful for than we have cause for concern.
None of this is to say that the way local decisions are taken and influence wielded couldn't be improved on, however. To move matters to the next level, I'd welcome three things.
Firstly, it is probably time to review the constitution of the Green Lanes Strategy Group (GLSG). Harringay is now in a very different place to where is was in 2003 as we recovered from our flirtation with heroin trading and drug gangs. Initially, the GLSG was set up specifically to focus on our high street, Green Lanes, rather than the whole neighbourhood. It did a good job and quickly became the default decision-making body for the area. The decisions taken by it inevitably reflected its make-up. In any review, it would certainly be worth asking whether its founding remit has skewed the construct through which the area is viewed politically to focus too much on the retail trading strip of the neighbourhood.
Any such review may confirm that the body is as well suited to the function that is required of today it as it was in 2001. On the other hand the result may suggest that a few tweaks would deliver an even better set-up. Either way, let me reiterate, that I applaud the work it has done over the past ten years and continues to do.
Secondly I'd like to see the broader business community becoming an active part of the neighbourhood. Harringay probably has a higher than average number of businesses run from home and others that are based off Green Lanes. Neither of these groups is currently part of organised local life. Encouraging their involvement here, as is done in other areas, would certainly be a constructive step.
Finally, there may be a different way of enabling and orchestrating resident involvement. There's some hugely valuable work down by a whole range of groups locally including Friends-of groups, school groups and resident groups. Many of them show how effective organisation can leverage the will of the residents. It may be that brought together in a different way these existing groups could multiply their effectiveness. Or, it may be that, the involvement of currently untapped resident resource could be facilitated in a different way.
I don't pretend to have all the answers, and I'm certainly not knocking what exists already, but I'm quite convinced that the questions I pose are amongst the right ones. I'm also certain that the solution is not to be found in simply knocking the hard working traders' organisation.
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Gina Adamou was our only Labour councillor when her "colleague" Brian Haley had the rising bollard installed in Warwick Gardens. This was completely against the wishes of the traders although how much they knew about it in advance I am not sure.
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The composition of the high street is a different matter altogether to that which was raised previously. I'm all for a more diverse high street that is more integrated with its hinterland. What we do have on the other hand is a vibrant high street when too many others are half empty or bristling with a kind of shabbiness I'm glad we don't have. So certainly much better than it could be, but lots of room for improvement through diversification.
The real question is how do we get there. Would the more integrated approach I suggested in my last response start us on the road?
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Permalink Reply by ant on
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From what i've heard the GLSG is already planning some discussion on its governance and the future in the new year, so if the GLSG is part of the integrated approach then now is a good time to be thinking about what that could look like.
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....and an election year is a good year to be asking questions about our local governance.
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They are looking to get all councillors removed from the group, basically disbanding it. There are concerns with democracy in St Ann's apparently.
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