Mayor of London Outer London Fund Round 2 bid

The future of community-led infrastructure projects for Green Lanes, Harringay and Muswell Hill were thrown into jeopardy this week after Labour councillors made the controversial last-minute decision to withdraw their support for bids made by local groups for funding from London’s Mayor.

At a meeting of the Council’s cabinet on Tuesday (20th Dec 2011) the Labour member in charge of regeneration confirmed that the Council would no longer support bids by traders in Green Lanes, Harringay and Muswell Hill to the second round of the London Mayor’s Outer London Fund. Instead, the Council said they would solely back their own bid for Tottenham High Road.  

This decision all but ends plans for major infrastructure projects in Muswell Hill which includes creating a new piazza, and for a scheme in Green Lanes, Harringay to light up the Railway Bridge, plant trees, widen pavements and improve shop frontages. 

Liberal Democrats have criticised the Labour Council for abandoning local groups at the last minute after many months of hard work.

Richard Wilson, leader of the libdem council group together with Lynne Featherstone MP have written to the London Mayor to raise concerns about the way in which the bids have been decided and asking for clarification on how the final decision will be made.

Local councillors in Muswell Hill and Harringay wards are very disappointed that residents and traders groups have not been notified of a change to how the decision on their bids would be made. These are excellent bids which demonstrate our community’s commitment to improving our high streets and fighting the economic slowdown. Discarding these bids is a disgrace. They deserve to be properly considered and Cllr Wilson has asked that these bids, from the Muswell Hill traders’ group and the Harringay community groups, are given a proper and fair opportunity to access the Outer London Fund.

I am hugely disappointed by this decision - the local community has worked incredibly hard to bring this bid together - it would be such a shame if all that hard work was not rewarded!