Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Our track record in Harringay
Hi everyone,
With the local election soon upon us, I have been reflecting on the past four years of service as your local councillor.
Zena and I have made a dynamic team, working relentlessly together to deliver for Harringay ward – and becoming good friends in the process! We were delighted to be joined by Olly as a new candidate: he has brought new energy, commitment and local government experience to our team.
Looking back on the past four years, this is what we are proudest of delivering:
Making Harringay a great place to raise a family:
- We’ve secured £5 million for the upkeep of South Harringay Junior School and North Harringay Primary School, creating a positive learning environment that contributed to their respective ‘Outstanding’ and ‘Good’ Ofsted ratings.
- We’re securing funding for new playgrounds for our little ones: we've just won a £150,000 Government grant for a new playground in Ducketts Common and convinced the Parks team to apply for a grant to improve the playground in Fairland Park. We’ve also secured self-closing gates at Fairland Park to ensure children are protected from running out onto the roads.
- We’ve delivered new outdoor amenities for adolescents, including the new basketball courts in Ducketts Common, the new Skate Plaza in Finsbury Park, and chess tables in both parks.
- Both Zena and Anna served on the core team that delivered the Mayor of London’s Free School Meals policy across the Borough – ensuring no child went without a nutritious meal during the school day.
Fighting crime and antisocial behaviour:
- We’ve co-designed a Harringay Action Plan with residents that contains Key Performance Indicators to measure the Police and the Council’s progress on tackling antisocial behaviour.
- We collaborated with the Police to secure a dispersal order to stop intimidating behaviour on Falkland Road, arrest an individual who broke into multiple cars, and obtain closure orders on premises used by criminals for the cuckooing of vulnerable people.
- We’ve routinely opposed gambling shops’ applications to operate until the early hours of the morning on Green Lanes, by making representations before the Council’s Licensing Committee and appearing as witnesses before the Magistrates Court.
- We’ve successfully opposed planning applications by entertainment establishments with a track record of causing public nuisance.
Keeping Harringay clean:
- We’ve taken a tough stance against flytipping: we installed a horizontal black bin at a dumping hotspot on Cavendish Road, secured flytipping signage on Mattison Road, and took enforcement action against serial flytippers on Beresford Road and Raleigh Road.
- We asked for a late-night enforcement operation this year which resulted in 21 individuals each receiving a £1000 fine for flytipping on Green Lanes, Turnpike Lane and neighbouring areas.
- We’ve taken action on dog fouling in the Harringay Passage, by securing warning signage, requesting jet washes of the Passage, and have escalated a request for a CCTV camera on the Passage to the Council’s Partnership & Problem Solving Group.
- We’ve established a working group with Haringey Council's Director of Public Health to deliver a plan to address emissions from Green Lanes restaurants’ wood and charcoal-based ovens.
- We successfully advocated for a stronger street cleansing contract from 2027 that is expected to lead to more frequent sweeping of the Harringay Ladder's residential roads.
Delivering safer, healthier streets:
- We’ve resurfaced 10 pavements and 7 roads in Harringay and delivered a sustainable drainage system on Hampden Road to minimise flooding during heavy rainfall.
- We’ve installed 20 new bike hangars in Harringay to increase bike storage spaces.
- We’ve made our roads safer, including by introducing slow road marking and anti-skid surfacing on Endymion Road, improving car visibility at the junction of Allison Road and Wightman Road, and securing funding for a scheme to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety on Green Lanes.
- We successfully opposed the proposed abolition of daily parking permits.
Serving Harringay ward has been a responsibility we have never taken lightly – and we hope residents feel we have earned the trust you placed in us in May 2022. We have taken pride in being accessible and visible councillors, by attending community meetings and swiftly resolving (often complex) resident case work.
There is still a lot more we want to achieve – not least, our plans to deliver segregated cycle lanes on our busiest roads, install living walls to purify the air in the two Harringay schools, and clamp down on rogue landlords.
We would be honoured to be elected to represent you as Harringay's Labour & Co-operative ward councillors on Thursday 7th May.
Best regards,
Cllr Anna Abela – Anna.Abela@haringey.gov.uk
On behalf of:
Olly Bennathan – OllyBennathan@haringeylabour.org.uk
Cllr Zena Brabazon – Zena.Brabazon@haringey.gov.uk
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Anna Abela on
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Hi D Smith,
I agree that a network of segregated cycle lanes across Haringey cannot come soon enough! There is still a lot of work Haringey needs to do to catch up with some of our neighbouring boroughs' cycling infrastructure.
However, it is worth bearing in mind that, from the start, Labour's Walking and Cycling Plan was presented as a ten year plan, running from 2022-2032. This is because the interventions in the Plan need attention to detail, community engagement and significant financial investment. In the first four years of the Plan, we've delivered:
- 37 School Streets (two in Harringay) guaranteeing clean air at school pick up and drop off for over 17,000 schoolchildren.
- Three LTNs covering 55,000 residents.
- 240 new bike hangars across the Borough.
In the past four years, we've also done the groundwork of designing a network of segregated cycle lanes across the Borough. At a recent hustings at North Harringay Primary School, the Cabinet Member for Climate Action and Environment Ibrahim Ali was very clear that rolling out this network of cycle lanes is his top priority for the next four years if Labour wins a majority on 7th May.
I know Ibrahim will not mind me saying that I plan to hold him accountable to that commitment!
Best,
Anna
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Permalink Reply by Summer on
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Thanks for this Anna. I would also like to thank both you and Zena for the fantastic work you have done for myself and my neighbours; you have been relentless in chasing and putting pressure on the council to address the issues affecting our immediate area.
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Both are always available and on the case and accessible. They care and it shows
I hope we can see them and other de
cently minded Councillors elected. Harringay not perfect. Many Frontline issues still around but...and I believe this...the above and both aware and on the case. So let's give them another year to prove their weight!
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Permalink Reply by Zena Brabazon on
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Thank you Summer and Gbee for your comments and votes of confidence in our team.
Anna's contribution sets out much of the work we have done in the ward and as she says we have worked together to get the best outcomes we can. Alongside this, Anna has chaired the Licensing Committee for two years with a boroughwide responsibility in relation to all licensed premises. I have been Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and families which includes children's social care, early years, education, youth provision and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) which is also a borough wide role.
In February Ofsted gave our Children's Services an outstanding judgement. It was amazing and we are very proud of this external validation. SEND was given the highest grade in 2024's inspection and our schools and early years are also 98% good and outstanding . With our four family hubs, three youth centres and outstanding alternative provision for young people our Labour council has worked to give families and children a sound and supportive service and for our youngest children, the best start in life.
Supporting families extends beyond Children's Services. Over the last four years, our Labour administration has built 1300 new council homes and families who have been living for years in temporary accommodation finally have secure homes at council rents. We plan to get this to 5000 in the next few years. For every family and every child that is life changing. Housing is so vital – and is the biggest determinant of ill health so housing people has to be a central activity for the Council. And every time a family or individual is housed in a council property we save council taxpayers money on the huge rents charged in the private rented sector. We are aiming to build homes too for key workers
We are planning a renters' enforcement team to ensure renters are supported too as the new Renters' Reform Act is implemented from May 1. In Harringay - with over 800 HMOs this is vital.
Zena
Zena Brabazon
Labour and Co-operative Candidate
Harringay ward
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Hello Labour team,
I know it's in a neighbouring ward but can you share the Labour plans for the future of Hornsey School for Girls please?
There are long-term staff gaps in several key areas (eg. Science and Geography teachers for GCSE lessons and no PE teacher at all for the second year running). Maintenance is behind (students haven't had locks on toilet cubicle doors for several terms) and administration of extra curricular activities is poor.
Students are leaving and enrolments are apparently reducing considerably year on year.
It would appear that the school is being left to wither. Is it deliberate? Perhaps, the land is more valuable as housing?
Will Labour keep the school open (at least for the next four years)?
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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The school is being prepared for a complete rebuild due to the discovery of RAAC
https://www.hsg.haringey.sch.uk/2881/dfe-confirm-full-school-rebuild
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I am aware of that too.
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Thanks for this
Finsbury park. I won't be voting Labour for the 1st time ever due to the recent stich up that guarantees continuing noise nusience and loss of amenity for years to come caused by the concerts
Leaving that aside. The ever present drug dealing and stolen mobile phone exchanges that dominate the area by the gates NR Finsbury park station. The only action taken so far is to remove the benches. Given the large amount of money generated by the concerts surely some effective action to stop this could be taken?
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Anna Abela - can you give more details, please
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Making Harringay a great place to raise a family:
- We’ve secured £5 million for the upkeep of South Harringay Junior School and North Harringay Primary School, creating a positive learning environment that contributed to their respective ‘Outstanding’ and ‘Good’ Ofsted ratings.
- We’re securing funding for new playgrounds for our little ones: we've just won a £150,000 Government grant for a new playground in Ducketts Common and convinced the Parks team to apply for a grant to improve the playground in Fairland Park. We’ve also secured self-closing gates at Fairland Park to ensure children are protected from running out onto the roads.
- We’ve delivered new outdoor amenities for adolescents, including the new basketball courts in Ducketts Common, the new Skate Plaza in Finsbury Park, and chess tables in both parks.
- Both Zena and Anna served on the core team that delivered the Mayor of London’s Free School Meals policy across the Borough – ensuring no child went without a nutritious meal during the school day. "
In particular wrt to your first point
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Thanks Zena and Anna for all your hard work in improving our ward and services throughout the borough.
It's not easy seeing projects through in response to resident's needs and it takes time and dedication to establish good solutions to full implementation. To be fair regarding cyclists and dedicated bike lanes…TFL policy dominates all of the London boroughs to keep Londoners moving of course ! There are other bike routes available with lesser traffic (ie unofficial LTN in the Gardens). TFL determines London’s bus services for everybody – young and old, fit and disabled to keep London moving.
Luckily here we have councillors who are highly principled and dedicated to solving the numerous issues within a complex London area - prone like all of London to the difficulties of resolving drug taking and organised criminal behaviour. Theirs is an impressive list of achievement that has taken guts despite naysayers to make Harringay a better place for everyone. Thank you and also good luck to their new prospective candidate - Olly Bennathan - in your quest to serve too.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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I can't agree! "they" have had longer than just "four years to improve the borough for cyclists …'. Do you know of the Haringey Cycling Action Plan and its date of publication?
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Permalink Reply by Barrie Birch on
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I am curious to know what pragmatic improvements for cycling you would want in Harringay Ward. As you acknowledged TfL have a duty to keep traffic moving, especially along such a major artery as Green Lanes. A separate cycle lane would either take space from cars or from pedestrians.
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