Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
"Local democracy needs changes"
The following letter to the editor of theH ornsey Journal is reproduced here at the request of its author (who doesn't himself has access to a computer):
The glam of the national elections diverted much of our attention from the local elections. Now they are over and in Haringey we have got much the same, we should debate what kind of local democracy we want.
Local democracy must not be solely entrusted to the political parties to improve.
Last November your paper kindly published my letter which gave details of some democratic measures that I wanted the political parties and the council to adopt. My letter also expressed my intent to make a deputation to the special full council when it met to agree the new executive arrangements and where I was to press for a limit on the number of terms the leader can serve.
The following are some additional measures I should like adopted:
The first set of measures still need to be implemented and include:
Mario Petrou
St Ann's Road N15
The glam of the national elections diverted much of our attention from the local elections. Now they are over and in Haringey we have got much the same, we should debate what kind of local democracy we want.
Local democracy must not be solely entrusted to the political parties to improve.
Last November your paper kindly published my letter which gave details of some democratic measures that I wanted the political parties and the council to adopt. My letter also expressed my intent to make a deputation to the special full council when it met to agree the new executive arrangements and where I was to press for a limit on the number of terms the leader can serve.
The following are some additional measures I should like adopted:
- The chief executive and the leader together to attend each area assembly at least once a year.
- Every councillor has land line number with a message facility, on which the public can contact them.
- The council, with the co-operation of other local authorities, to sponsor a bill under the London Local Authorities Act to bring in proportional representation to London's councils.
- The public are enabled to attend and participate in the council's constitution review working group.
The first set of measures still need to be implemented and include:
- The leader limited to one four-year term on two non-consecutive four-year terms.
- Committees, in particular overview and scrutiny to be chaired by councillors not from the majority party.
- The Mayor not to be appointed from the majority party unless in exceptional circumstances.
- The Haringey Strategic Partnership to include one resident representative from each of the area assemblies.
- The number of signatories required for deputations to revert from 10 to one.
Mario Petrou
St Ann's Road N15
Tags for Forum Posts: area assembly, area forum
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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There is one simple thing we need to do:
If your ward is west of the railway, join the Liberal Democrats and get involved in selecting your candidates.
If your ward is east of the railway line, join the Labour party and do the same (e.g. St Ann's deselecting Brian Haley).
If you're in Harringay... get organised on HoL about which one to join.
It's all about the people we elect.
john
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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The chief executive and the leader together to attend each area assembly at least once a year
As currently constituted that would require each of the seven Neighbourhoods to hold seven area assemblies at seven week intervals over the year.
If Mario can't attend the Harringay & St Ann's AA, would there be any point in increasing our current four?
Come to that, if the author doesn't have computer access how can he join in his own discussion here?
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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The chief executive and the leader together to attend each area assembly at least once a year
Surely Mario means merely that the chief executive and the leader together, would attend an Area Assembly meeting in each of the seven Neighbourhoods at least once a year. That makes a total of seven (minimum).
Not 28 or 49 or 7-cubed (343) meetings. What does "as currently constituted" mean?
Seven. Is this not unreasonable?
[I continue to encourage Mario to put away the ink pot, blotting paper and fountain pen]
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