Local Party Pledges

As I scan and load the party literature (see para 6 here), I get the impression that it's all rather light on pledges and more focussed on identifying issues and pointing up the other guy's failings. So I thought it might be worth keeping a tally.

At the moment, literature seems not to be too ward specific, so I'm just tallying by party across the three wards.

What are we to make of it?

I welcome any additions/corrections from residents and candidates:

• "We will continue the fight against bad landlords" (Nora Mulready)
• Freeze of Council Tax for 2010-2011 tax year
• "We will continue to improve services by maintaining frontline services" (Claire Kober)
  

Issues identified:

• Campaign to change UK Law on gaming licensing
• Uncontrolled conversion of houses to bedsits
• Reducing carbon emissions locally
• Saving casualty units at Whittington and North Middlesex hospitals
• Funding for Harringay's parks
• Local tax system
• Level of Council Tax
• Toughness on crime / cutting crime

• Health spending

Pointing the finger:

National

• "Liberal Democrats' refusal to rule out cuts in health spending & protect existing provision".
• "Liberal Democrats' replacement of Council Tax with local income tax which will cost the average family £1,234.96 p.a.".
• "Other outer London Liberal Democrat councils have made average annual increases of council tax of 4% over the past 4 years".
• "Liberal Democrats soft on crime".
  

Liberal Democrats

Pledges:

• Cut expenditure on "council propaganda such as Haringey People" (Alan Gorrie)
• "..a leadership that is committed to putting sustainability at the heart of everything it does, including recycling" (Robert Gorrie)
• "A Lib Dem run Haringey would be committed to working with our local police to put more officers on the streets and to extend opening times of our safer neighbourhood teams" (Robert Gorrie)
• "..spend more the (sic) prevent potholes occurring"

• We will carry out an appropriate holistic traffic survey of the Ward and its immediate surroundings within the first two years of a Lib Dem administration in order to tackle Harringay’s terrible traffic problems.
• We will make the council crack down on illegal conversions of family homes into flats and bedsits, ending Labour’s failure to use the council’s existing enforcement powers.
• We will be tough on fly tipping and push for better, more frequent, street cleaning.
• We will reinvigorate local democracy by reforming our Area Assembly meetings. Making them more inclusive and better publicised.
• We will campaign for Parliament to change Labour’s disastrous Gambling Act which has resulted in the clustering of betting shops on Green Lanes. We will work to secure greater powers for councils to stop
  new betting shops opening.
• We will mobilise the community and the council to press for safe crossings, as we are now doing at Green Lanes and Frobisher Road.
• We will step up our campaign to secure fair funding for Haringey’s schools.
• We will introduce 24-hour policing in crime hotspots.
• We will install grit bins in Harringay ward in anticipation of harsher winters in years to come.

• Raise income tax threshold to £10,000
• Nationally, an extra 10,000 police on the streets

Issues identified: 

Local

• Oyster pay-as-you-go on Great Northern Line
• Pedestrian safety from traffic in Harringay
• Preparedness for snowy road conditions
• Recycling
• Expenditure on Council Propaganda
  
• "Opposing betting shop increases"
• Numbers of police officers and accessibility of local police
  
• School funding
• Effect of recession on local people

• Income tax
• Transparency on Iraq documents
  

Pointing the finger:

Local

• "Lack of leadership in Haringey Labour party."
• "Labour expenditure of £1,500 on a Christmas tree."
• "Council lack of preparedness for snowy road conditions, including a failure to provide grit bins on the Ladder".
• "Labour wants to talk less about action to help residents in the current economic crisis"
• "Council's failure to hit recycling target for past 16 months"
• "Council vote against measures that would have put 24 more police on Haringey's streets".
  

• National increase in knife crime and fear of crime
• Labour health minister's refusal to act over cuts at the Whittington's A&E

Conservative

Pledges:

The following was sent to me by a local party representative as part of their list of "Six to Fix". I've put the remaining four as issues since I think they fall short of being pledges as currently presented.

Local

• Use efficiency savings to reduce annual council tax bills by £100 within 4 years.
• CPZs: A full review with genuine local consultation.

• Save local health services.
• Fair government funding for Haringey's school.
• Safeguard children at risk.
• Get Local: Let’s invest in communities people care about.

Pointing the finger:

Nothing yet issued

Green

Issues identified:

What would successful Green candidates do for Haringey in 2010-2014 ?

Regardless of who wins the Parliamentary election , central government will probably  impose 15% to 20% cuts in all local authority services other than education, just to keep public borrowing down.

Greens would seek to maintain key front-line services, especially those for children and the elderly. Our priorities would be:-

• preserving jobs and salaries of front line staff, rather than managers.
• reducing energy costs in Council buildings, saving the climate and saving money for more important things.
• prevention of social problems, especially crime and accidents – our approach to the cost of this should be ‘a stitch in time saves nine’,
  actively involving residents and voluntary groups
• measures to reduce waste of public money.
• opposing privatisation and outsourcing, because shareholders come between the taxpayers’ pound and the service they get.

To preserve services, some charges could go up – like parking for non-residents (unless providing a service, like carers or builders). Greens would raise charges for business refuse where businesses do not comply with a ‘good practice’ code on recycling and minimising
packaging. We would impose more and heavier fines for rubbish dumping, on a ‘ticket’ basis. Greens would take action against empty buildings – they are wasted and don’t pay rates.

Pledges:

Here are our key proposals for five key areas: health and care, housing, employment, education and crime:-

Health and care

• No privatisation of GP or other services. Greens together with Respect are the only parties that have stood up against privatization of GP
  surgeries and against polyclinics which are designed to assist
  privatization.
• Keep the A and E department at the Whittington Hospital
• Restore and expand health education and preventive services of all kinds; from foot care for the elderly to help with stopping smoking and
  avoiding alcohol and drug abuse
• Keep Sure Start, and health visitors to all newborn babies
• Cut social work bureaucracy, help social workers focus on families
• A social enterprise to provide social care on a non-profit basis

Housing

• Work to scrap the ALMO and bring Council housing back ‘in house’ with a real voice for tenants in how housing is run
• Warm, energy efficient homes; a mass insulation programme
• Build more Council housing and bring empty homes (Council and private) back into use

Employment

• Create jobs through a mass home insulation campaign, and through encouraging local renewable energy generation and local food production
• In Council services, we want to save energy to save money to save jobs
• All Council services and contractors to pay a London ‘living wage’ of £7.60 per hour. High management salaries should be capped to save money
  for the lower paid.
• Support 'Buy Local' campaigns and measures to preserve small local shops.

Education

• Get Haringey schools up to £1000 more per pupil per year by persuading central government to give them the ‘inner London’ funding level which
  they deserve
• Good state-run local schools for all, no to ‘academies’ controlled by private companies
• Oppose the Private Finance Initiative which lets private companies make money out of our children’s education – find better ways of
  financing new school buildings

Crime

Greens would tackle the causes of crime by:-

• improving youth services to prevent boredom
• more preventive work with youth at risk of offending
• attacking alcohol abuse and drug abuse, which fuel crime
• better staffing of stations
• bringing back park-keepers
• making streets more pedestrian – friendly – more people walking means more people to look out for each other

Nothing yet issued

Pointing the finger:

Nothing yet issued