Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Greens in St. Anns Ward - should we back them again?
A nice young man from the Greens knocked on my door (near Black Boy Lane) recently and asked me what issues concerned me as a resident heading up to the Council elections in May.
I was pleasantly surprised as I've never been door-knocked other than in the fortnight before a local election/by-election. I thought 'at least they're asking', noone from Labour has ever asked. Then it occurred to me that, by now, they should know. Their candidate won a seat in the last by-election in April 2025. That was a while ago and I haven't seen or heard anything from him since.
Am I in the minority? What has young Ruairidh done since being elected?
Has he helped resolve any issues for you with the Council or made any tangible improvements in St.Anns?
I'm not suggesting that he hasn't. I just haven't heard of any. Therefore, it would be good to know what experience others have had to help me decide whether to vote for him again.
Rest assured, if he's picked up a crisp packet and put it in a bin or planted a tree somewhere, he will have done more than Labour have ever done in the Ward.
So, how have the Greens performed locally in St. Anns this past year and should we vote for them again?
There are three seats. One now held by the Greens and two still held by Labour.
UPDATED 02 Feb: apologies there are only two seats in St. Anns. One held by Labour and one by the Greens.
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Brian Mahoney
-
Incidentally I saw this recently which is an indication of the mood at the national level.
-
-
Well it is cleaner than Crouch End!
That is however more to do with the residents than the local councillors. I've never seen or heard from any of them.
Compared to the Ladder and other parts of Haringey, we have little to complain about on the Harringay Levels. There are a couple of persistent fly-tipping spots (alongside the bookies on the corner of Salisbury Rd and Green Lanes and around the Harringay Rd bus shelter) but they're usually cleaned up quickly.
I'll vote for 'anyone except Labour' again.
-
Permalink Reply by Clive Carter
-
Brian you may have some slightly unrealistic expectations of contact by a single Councillor after a by-election, from a Party previously unrepresented on Haringey Council.
In mid-2024, St Ann’s Ward had an estimated population of about 10,281 residents based on ONS small-area data. The average population of Haringey's 21 Wards is approximately 12,500. Most of them are three-Member Wards.
St Ann's is currently a two-Member Ward, so that's over 5,000 residents per St Ann's Member.
Given the Ward's population, I can understand you may not have seen him yet. But you can still see him (below).
One Member of the Ruling Group remains in the Ward.
Any Ward that doesn't have all Members from the one Party is referred to as a split ward.
Such Wards are less than ideal for residents, as there tends to be a lack of co-operation and sharing of information, as the Members of one Party are reluctant to risk advantaging Members of another Party (I see this as inevitable with our distorting First-Past-the-Post electoral system).
I have not spoken with Cllr. Paton, but I would not be surprised if he has been frozen out as far as possible by the Council Ruling Group machine.
The loss of one of the two St Ann's seats came as a blow to the current leadership: the St Ann's result could be interpreted as dissatisfaction with the New Labour Party, if not necessarily with the leader herself.
I understand that—at the time—the Leader rejected the rejection of the Ruling Party candidate and may have vowed to get the Labour candidate into the council at the next opportunity. If this happened, then it reflects the leader's lack of humility, lack of reflection and lack of respect for democracy.
In any event, most Councillors of all stripes hold no-appointment-needed surgeries, where residents can raise particular problems. Can I invite you to consider going along to a surgery and putting the questions you raise above, directly, in person to the new Councillor ?
If the mountain won't come to Mohammed, then Mohammed must go to the mountain!
.
-
-
Haringey Council probably shares your 'unrealistic expectations', Brian. He's essentially invisible there too, bothering to attend just 3 of his expected 10 meetings.
Perhaps he believes his appointment to the Children and Young People's Scrutiny Committee was honorary in nature. He hasn't turned up once.
The fanfare surrounding his election win always seemed to overlook what appeared to be yet another 'community organiser' looking for a way to subsidise their lifestyle of protest in London. I guess taking the system's money and withdrawing labour is a form of protest. Fight the power.
-
Permalink Reply by Mark Williams
-
What money? It's a voluntary position with a small basic allowance. I don’t understand how anyone who isn’t retired or independently wealthy finds the time (and motivation).
-
-
A NUMBER of candidates for the Green Party have been selected and they appear in this list dated mid-January 2026 (the current Green Councillor for St Ann's Ward is not on the list).
———
Bethany Anderson is a former co-chair of the Friends of Finsbury Park. Bethany is no longer one of the Trustees, but I note that she is among those selected on the Green list.
I know Bethany as a fellow FoPF Trustee. Without hesitation or qualification, I endorse her. She is a team player, a great communicator, credible, articulate and effective with TV and broadcast media.
Bethany is standing in Stroud Green Ward and she can bank one of my three votes in May.
.
-
-
Even Cllr Patton gets £12,000pa. That's enough to cover his shared accommodation for the year. Not insignificant for someone who has quite a limited track record of employment. Perhaps he is independently wealthy, as you suggest. But is that any reason to not bother turning up for the job he was elected to do?
-
Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton
-
Jamie Harper, do you have any factual evidence that elected Councillor Paton is as you described: "yet another 'community organiser' looking for a way to subsidise their lifestyle of protest in London".
Do you actually have any facts at all about Cllr Ruairidh Paton? If not, have you tried to speak to him and ask him about his situation? Did he answer you?
Does anybody know some facts about this man?
-
-
Alan, presenting yourself as some kind of arbiter of truth or 'facts' is a little rich.
You've started another thread to cast aspersions rather than simply correct Brian's error in this thread (two rather than three cllrs in St Ann's), In it you present another of your 'facts', that "The Greens rightly judge Climate Change...", but cant resist centring yourself with a disjunct. This renders it an opinion, not a fact.
You go on to suggest that Cllr Paton is not standing in St Ann's because he's not listed among the candidates on the Greens' website. But none listed are St Ann's candidates. Are they not standing anyone in that ward? He might not be standing, but your assumption is not fact.As for your deliberate contraction of what I wrote, "..appeared to be..", matters. I wont be responding to any more sealioning, Alan. It suggests bad faith.
© 2026 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
