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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Haringey%20transport%20planner_20150626_0001.pdf

Has anyone else read this piece of patronising rubbish that Haringey have paid to implement, and to print and to send out people onto our doorsteps to help us to choose modes of transport for getting around London???? I'm soooo annoyed with them!

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I'd rather they sent round dustbin planners.

I forgot about that Melvyn. Well highlighted. They posted one on Seymour Road to explain they would be around soon to tell us how that travelling around London mullarkey works, and then another one to explain that they had been around. Surely the money could have gone on something more productive.

This "letter" dropped through the door today.  It is undated and of course we are almost halfway through 2015 and have been planning our travel without local authority advice for quite some time.  Also (for the older purists like me) the salutation "Dear Resident" should be matched by the complimentary close "Yours sincerely".  The middle text is indeed patronising.

This is another example of a service provider moving away from directly providing services to providing information, most of which is already accessible from other sources (and our own common sense).

 

Oh gosh, I really want one to come round now - just so I can humour him/her.

Seriously though, does anyone have any insight into the thinking behind this or why it's been deemed worthy of investment? I'm struggling here.

I WAS alerted by a Harringay resident about this some days ago. I have two fixes on its distribution and it does seem to target the Ladder roads

(it would surprise me if Ladder residents have problems knowing about public transport alternatives)

Four days ago, I put in a Council Members Enquiry about it, but it hasn't been acknowledged yet. I asked a series of questions about the scheme and if and when I receive an answer, I'll post it here.

Meanwhile, one could always ask the local Councillors to see if they know anything about it.

CDC
Councillor
Liberal Democrat Party 

The link in the letter [ http://www.haringey.gov.uk/smartertravel ] leads to a page largely duplicating the letter but including two context-givers unhelpfully omitted:

"Starting in mid June a team of Travel Advisers will be out and about in the Harringay and St. Ann’s neighbourhoods"    

and  "The project will run until September during which time 5000 households will be contacted by the Travel Advisers"

The letter gives a contact email [ smarter.travel@haringey.gov.uk ] for "if you would like to contact us before a Travel Adviser visits your home". Well, I wonder if it will also work to turn them away. We'll see.....

Abster, as to why, 'sustainability' is rife on the smarter travel pages, but it probably also feeds into the Council's recently acquired responsibility for Public Health - increased exercise - (hence also the very recent obesity conference dissected in this forum). Still feels clumsy though!

Maybe some exercise scheme for the Haringey team?

Can I suggest emailing Cllr Stuart McNamara who's the "cabinet" councillor for Environmental stuff. Stuart.McNamara@haringey.gov.uk

I think lots of people may be interested in what this is about; the aims and thinking behind it; how much it costs and who is funding it etc.

I notice that the advisers will be recognisable by Haringey logo T-shirts. Which is odd because I also hear that the Dear Leader plans to waste more of our money in "freshening-up" and rebranding her failed business including commissioning designs for a brand new logo.

Go on Alan, do suggest a replacement.      Oh - I meant a replacement logo.

It's not just the logo, Gordon.

Rebranding the image of the Kober Regime is one of those really tough PR jobs. It's not simply a tarnished brand, but one which requires deep moral compromise by its publicists and apologists.

To give a comparison, if you follow the Doonesbury strip cartoon you may remember the dismay of Mike Doonesbury the central character, when working in an ad agency. They ask him to "sell" Ronald Reagan to black voters. And later to promote the tobacco industry.

Koberville needs - beyond a logo - a complete marketing makeover. Perhaps with new street signs; notepaper and other major "refreshments". As with any such rebranding they need to consider a new Mission Statement.  In the past they tried out "Achieving Excellence". (Please don't laugh.)

A new logo and Mission Statement should represent who the Council is for and what it's all about.  Maybe a triple handshake design and a slogan: "In Business with Property Developers & Slumlords?

As services to the public in Koberville are slashed or vanish completely, perhaps the "iconic" "signature" hand could be taking money. With the motto: "Pay Your Tax then DIY"?  For total honesty: "Backward With Inanity" was once suggested by a former staff member.

As the management writer C.Northcote Parkinson observed in the last century, pouring money into a corporate HQ is a often a sign of organisational atrophy. I'm told that some £2 million has already been spent on part of River Park House in Wood Green. I've not been there but apparently it's called something like "The Palladium".

Hmm, although the wording could have been better l look out at the cars parked nose to tail on my road (early on a Sunday morning so probably mostly belonging to residents) while within a easy walk there are four bus routes, one bus station, two tube stations and two overground stations I do wonder. And the guy who called at our place gave some really good advice on walking groups to my husband who has mobility difficulties.
By the way, I imagine the funding for the project is from TfL or the Mayor of London rather than Haringey.

Sounds interesting. Please tell us more, Michael, about what the adviser had to say.

Though isn't this similar to other public health and well-being issues like diet and exercise?  Where the main public intervention often seems to be advice quickly shifting into exhortation?

"Professor Steve Field says it is up to individuals to take responsibility for their own health. I agree. Except that insight does not provide much of a guide to knowing what to do. The evidence suggests that simply telling people to behave more responsibly is no more likely to be effective than telling someone who is depressed to pull his socks up." - Prof Michael Marmot

On many Sundays the view from our window in Tottenham Hale is also two lanes of carpark. And I might well agree with many of the reasons you may have on your personal list of why people should give up or at least cut down on their use of private cars.

But then let me ask you to jot down another list and post it here. Why you think people prefer to drive or be driven and to avoid public transport?

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