Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Meeting Mr Lammy February 12th
February 12th sees a meeting of local residents with Daivid Lammy. Event details here.
The agenda is being kept to three topics; traffic, houses of multi occupancy & gambling venues.
Is there any common ground from residents on these three topics to take to this meeting? In other words, what end result do people want from this meeting with Mr Lammy for each topic area discussed?
Giving clear and united requests for action and implementation to Mr Lammy would help him to go away from the meeting with a point by point action plan, one that we as residents could then monitor and possibly have regular updates on from his office.
The agenda is being kept to three topics; traffic, houses of multi occupancy & gambling venues.
Is there any common ground from residents on these three topics to take to this meeting? In other words, what end result do people want from this meeting with Mr Lammy for each topic area discussed?
Giving clear and united requests for action and implementation to Mr Lammy would help him to go away from the meeting with a point by point action plan, one that we as residents could then monitor and possibly have regular updates on from his office.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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HMOs... we want the area declared a conservation area just like they have in Stroud Green. Do we not?
Traffic... I think the best we can hope for is a study. Everywhere in London suffers from traffic and yet we can't complain because most of us drive too.
Gambling... no comment.
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Permalink Reply by Sandi on
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With John on this. End to HMOs, and that the Enforcement Office gets off its arse and enforce the orders it issues to landlords. I'm incandescent with rage that after a four year dialogue with the Enforcement Office which resulted in an order being issued, 3 years on, it still has yet to be enforced. In the meantime the property in question has changed ownership - allegedly- and now dons SIX doorbells. Why is it that when a landlord is on the EO radar, and are kept on the radar by vigilent residents who quite frankly have better things to do with their time, they are allowed to get away with providing sub-standard housing?
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Permalink Reply by Stuart on
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I'm with you on this but to be fair, the planning laws themselves don't help and nor does the way the criminal justice system works either (without going into details - see my many previous posts - but in my case, the enforcement team did everything they could, landlord never turned up for his court hearing, warrant for his arrest was never executed (they tried once then gave up) and so he's 'got away with it' - no punishment, no likelihood he'll ever comply with the enforcement order).
I believe that David's office (and Nora, an HOL poster in particular) are looking into all aspects of this. Personally, I don't see what difference declaring it a conservation area will make - if these developers aren't at all bothered about planning laws now, why would having a conservation area change their minds?
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Stroud Green is a conservation area and.... they don't have the problem we do.
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Gambling - Pilot a scheme where health warnings or adverts for Gamblers Anonymous have to cover 75% of the windows just like cigarettes.
Interesting idea Ben, although it may serve simply to advertise their presence.
Some info on HMOs from the LCSP (Ladder Community Safety Partnership) October meeting, taken from their minutes;
Meeting at Lammy's surgery: Two residents had been to see local MP David Lammy at his regular surgery, to raise the issue of HMOs, and reported back to the Meeting. Mr Lammy had been aware for some time of the problems caused by HMOs but welcomed this as an opportunity to raise the matter at the highest level with LBH. He also took on board all of the points made by our members, and in particular the 10 Point HMOs - A Way Forward, produced by the LCSP for the recent Area Assembly Meeting.
However, in the course of the discussion, when the two residents had referred to the work of the LCSP regarding HMOs, Mr Lammy stated that he had been informed that the LCSP is a front for the Lib Dems. He was of course immediately told that this was a very serious mistake, and didn't reflect the strictly apolitical nature of the LCSP since its inception.
HMO Working Party
The Chair was pleased to report that the first meeting of the newly-established HMO Working Party, chaired by Cllr. Adamou, had taken place earlier in the evening. Membership comprised Ian himself as Chair of the LCSP, the six Ward Cllrs for Harringay and St Ann=s, Cabinet members for planning, enforcement, housing and regeneration, plus key officers (eg Robin Payne & Shifa Mustafa). Detailed terms of reference had been agreed and the officers would be undertaking some fundamental work ready for the next meeting. It was hoped that this would prove to be a very worthwhile response to all our concerns about the growth of HMOs in the area and, in particular, the problems associated with unscrupulous landlords. - Attachments:
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LCSP October minutes.doc, 39 KB
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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This info is rather out of date and the HMO working party have moved on a lot since then. Robin Payne has come to a LCSP meeting (advertised on the site) to discuss the problems and highlight steps being taken.
Nora on the site has gathered information and case studies via the site and meetings and has been working on them with David Lammy. He is probably much more aware of the issues now thanks to her sterling work on this. Nora attended the last LCSP meeting.
Not sure why you posted the info about David Lammy's comment re Lib Dem front and I am sure it is a comment that Mr Lammy now realises was not correct. Indeed, we now have active members of the Harringay ward Lab party attending, if not our local councillor. Joanne McCartney has said she is happy to attend meetings if requested and of course at least one of the local Lib Dem councillors usually attends. The apolitical nature of the work that the LCSP has been stressed numerous times and having attended most of their meetings I would say that it is not dominated by one political voice.
For those interested, the latest minutes are posted here and all Ladder residents (this means Wightman Road and Green Lanes too) including Harringay Gardens are welcome to attend. Indeed if anyone from the Gardens wishes to come, they are welcome too...
The point about this meeting is that it is to discuss Harringay wide issues and people from the Gardens who also have the same problems will also be there. The LCSP were part of a wider process to get a full scale public meeting with our local MP going but this meeting is not confined to the LCSP membership nor are the problems confined to the Ladder
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Thanks Liz.
Do you have a copy of the LCSP's 10 Point HMOs - A Way Forward to post on here?
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Posted here in Action on Housing a while back. It's worth a read and has helped to drive the agenda of the HMO working party, I believe.
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To summarize the (3 page) HMO 10 point document for others;
1. Write to Estate/Letting Agents
Planning/Planning Enforcement should write jointly a brief letter to all estate agents and letting agents, reminding them that the Harringay Ladder, from Green Lanes to Wightman Rd, is a restricted conversion area and that ‘permission will not be granted for conversions’.
2. Check on owners of large numbers of HMOs
A special team should be set up to investigate landlords/companies who own large numbers of HMO properties on the Ladder (eg 6 or more) to check that all council taxes, building, health and safety & HMO regulations are being fulfilled.
3. Check specific landlords
4. Investigate applications for Certificates of Lawfulness
There must be tougher checks and research by planning officers for retrospective applications for a Certificate of Lawfulness, after 4 years.
5. Improve response time by council officers.
6. Enforce Planning Law and UDP Policies
There must be a much greater willingness to enforce planning law and UDP Policies re HMO’s.
7. Improve communications between Council Departments
8. Use of Publicity
The Council should make more use of publicity to advertise a ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards ‘rogue’ landlords and agents and unauthorised HMOs. Successful prosecutions should also be publicised.
9. Reduce short-term staffing
10. Cabinet Members to demonstrate their commitmentAll of the above policies and strategies need to be driven not only by senior officers in Planning and Planning Enforcement, but also by the elected Cabinet Members. In particular, councillors in the Cabinet need to show that they are committed to dealing with the problems caused by HMO’s and that they are prepared to put the necessary resources into dealing with them.
Points 9 and 10 seem crucial to all points; ie. resources
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No where in the HMO 10 point plan summarised above is there an acknowledgement of why people become tenants in such places. There is therefore no point made as to commitment needed for the provision of affordable housing within Harringay. There must be, otherwise the HMO 10 point plan is one sided.
As the Homes & Communities Agency website says;
There are 1.7 million households on council waiting lists for rented accommodation, and the national average house price is increasingly out of reach for many.
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Permalink Reply by Anthony on
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I don't have much to add on HMOs, there doesn't seem to be much on our end of the ladder that has changed.
With regards to traffic as a non-car owner (one of several I know of) this is one area where I would like to see some action against the use of residential streets as rat runs by a multitude of vehicles that are unsuitable for the roads (lorrys, private buses, Royal Mail vans, dust carts etc).
In addition there needs to be better enforcement of speeding, red light and zebra crossing ignorance. I've lost count of the number of people I've seen going through both and speeding. A few people with speed cameras instead of traffic wardens would make our lives safer, and still give the council the revenue they want.
I agree with Ben on gambling but how about following the recent move on tobacco sales where the goods have to be hidden out of sight. Maybe all the shop fronts could be blacked out (similar to adult shops)? This would both not advertise their presence but also prevent the adverts of special offers?
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One more quick comment, whilst we are all residents, not all residents are on HOL. We shouldn't presume that all residents share the views of this website. I just want to make sure we acknowledge the views of people at the meeting who aren't on this website. I don't mean to be negative but just want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to be heard if they want to be (and not saying that anyone was saying anything other than this).
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