Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Lib Dem and Greens position on Black Boy Lane renaming fiasco
Can the Lib Dems and Greens candidates and current councillors please outline thier position prior to the election.
The decision by Momentum to have the Labour administration rename the road is wrong for the following reasons:
- it will cost hundreds of thousands of pounds which will come from the budgets for other council services (eg.Education, aged care, environment)
- it is opposed by residents and businesses on Black Boy lane who will bear the brunt of years of adminstrative problems
- it is unnecessarily devisive as the name has no racial connotations and trivialises real efforts to improve harmony elsewhere
- the La Rose family and foundation oppose the change
A commitment to reverse the decision will influence the voting intentions of a large proportion of St St Ann's ward residents.
Tags for Forum Posts: blackboy lane name change
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Londoners can't spell and now look what's happened.
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Permalink Reply by Philip on
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Firstly I don't think you understand what Momentum is. It does not make decisions on road naming. Can you explain where you get the figure of 'hundreds of thousands' from. I don't support the renaming but I do wish you would start checking your facts before spreading malicious and patently untrue slurs.
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Agree, this was not Momentum. This was some Londoner who couldn't spell a few hundred years ago and another London with a chip on his shoulder more recently.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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John, - Visiting Seattle for a weekend in 2004 we learned Americans pronounce it like "Boo-ee".
With first syllable stressed to rhyme with Phooey
OED says it's from Middle Dutch boye, boeie,
In King Lear, Shakespeare had:
The sea, with such a storme as his bare head
In hell-blacke night indur'd, would have buoyed up
And quench'd the stellèd fires;
How would Shakespeare have pronounced it? We'd need to ask David or Ben Crystal
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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So... why not change it (if it must be changed, and judging by Brian's point that opens a can of worms) to Black Buoy/Booee Lane???
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Hmm. Let's see. Initiated by Uncle Joe Ejiofor, a Momentum member (now embroiled in an external investigation), and pushed through by Momentum members.
The stated cost is a promise of £300 for 180 or so households plus £50,000 for one council staff member to run the scheme. But how many people actually live within those 180 households? What about the businesses? What about all the communications material used by Chestnuts school? What about the costs of the signage change (materials and contractor installation fee)? What about the cost to TFL of renaming bus stops and route information (also from taxpayers money)? How many staff will actually spend time on this? It won't be just one. Will there be a renaming ceremony? What about the time of council staff already spent on committee papers, costing and the faux 'consultation' scheme already spent to date?
But what's most galling is what the money could be spent on. Fancy a couple of teachers? Fancy some learning support staff? Fancy a few English language classes for migrants? Fancy some social care? Fancy a playground on an estate? Fancy a couple of social workers? Fancy some youth clubs or pre school places?
How far would that money go to support local refugees, Philip? What could you do with that money?
Then there is the inconvenience to residents who'll spend years in bureaucratic chaos tying to change the address on their passports, bills, driving licenses, telling all their friends and relatives (multiple times - no Christmas cards next year!), insurance policies, holiday bookings, subscription services, club memberships, delivery services etc. All that will be a significant and prolonged effort for an administratively able English speaker. What about elderly people who don't go online, those who don't read or write in English, elderly, disabled or just plain confused or simply busy with work and children?
All for something no-one locally wants or needs except a now disgraced local ex politican.
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Its hard to argue against that. It's a lot of money and endless bother for the people and businesses based on BBL. The powers that be have backed themselves into a corner on this one.
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Ozbawn - Some of the "Powers-that-be" have explored a way through - out of the corner of your understandable but undue pessimism. A way through discussions with members of the John La Rose family and the George Padmore Institute which he chaired.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_La_Rose)
A way which seeks rightly, to honour the man and his achievements. And which also seeks to respect the views and feelings of everyone concerned - including of course, local residents who were twice consulted.
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Alan - I'm not sure what you mean.
What's the mysterious way ahead you refer to?
Has someone found a money tree? If so, can I have some seeds please.
The residents have opposed the change and whilst Mr La Rose should be honoured, that wasn't the reason for seeking to re-name the road.
A neat way out of this might be to retain Black Boy Lane signage and erect a plaque on the wall of the old pub explaining where the name came from. And then if the Council also want to honour Mr La Rose they could do so seeparately - maybe a statue or a poetry prize or scholarship for a local student. Much cheaper and much less disruption for people who live on Black Boy Lane.
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I fail to see the connection between La Rose and South Tottenham. Did he live here? If not, why was he chosen above others. If diversity must only mean Afro Carribean people then what about Walter Tull local war hero and local footballer? I suspect this was the crux of the objections from his family originally.
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Ozbawn, Sorry I missed your comment above.
Mystery ? I thought you might have been following Haringey's website. That's all I knew.
Though I now also see there a bit in the Newsletter of the George Padmore Institute website.
https://www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/news-and-events/gpi-newsletter
Yep others agree with your approach.
As Bob Dylan forgot to mention, We don't need Nonentums to know which way the wind blows. -
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