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 Neil Ford on
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Hi Barry, you've heard me moan about cycling too in the pub and LCSP.
Cyclists amongst us would cherish a bus/cycle lane perhaps 7 to 7 on Green Lanes each side. Dodging parked cars that can't read the NO PARKING signs 16.00 - 19.00 weekdays as we are trying to get home is not fun, it's dangerous.
The Endymion and Arena road junctions are horrible for cyclists, we getting these made less dangerous would be another priority.
Maintaining parking for the sake of people who work in Green Lanes seems wrong. Every other high-end german car / SUV seems to have a blue badge in the window.
Labour's track record on delivery cycling, well they've not managed to do a thing. It's frustrating.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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The Haringey Cycling Action Plan was published in 2004.
Not a typo. Not 2014.
Two thousand and four.
The council's ultra-conservative, hidebound HighwayMen have no interest in active travel and have never taken cycling seriously.
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Permalink Reply by Barrie Birch on
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So do you mean cyclists would share the bus lane? TfL would never agree that.
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Most in London bus lanes permit bikes and motorbikes. Some don't permit motorbikes. You can see from the signs.
or https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/red-routes/rules-of-red-routes/bus...
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It's proven to be too hard a nut to crack.
TFL are have the ultimate say on this on trunk roads of which Green Lanes is one.
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At LSCP we've pleaded with the police to try to do traffic operations and try to get some of these illegal electric bikes and their drivers off the roads. There are no resources we keep being told. I think this issue needs to be dealt with at London Assembly and Westminster level.
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I can personally attest to the hard work and dedication of Coucillors Abena and Brabazon. They have worked hard on our behalf.
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Thanks Zena and Anna for all the work you have done over the last four years.
You almost always manage to come to LSCP, and those of us who attend regularly get an idea of all things you have done for Harringay be in objections to egregious planning applications, working to solve the pollution to opposing extensions of gambling licenses on Green Lanes. Plus so much more.
In Harringay Gardens we're grateful for bringing the council ASB team, SNT and locals together to deal with the anti-social behaviour of patrons associating with the Corner Cafe, and asking the council housing team to persuade a run-down HMO to fix a broken wall and get the properly painted.
I'm sorry I've sent so many emails about annoying things like piles of , crack-dealing neighbours (!), rubbish, demolished walls and so on. You've always responded with patience and good humour, and I really appreciate that.
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Permalink Reply by Zena Brabazon on
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Hi Neil
Please don't apologise for all the emails. Representing local people means working with them, so being aware of what's happening and liaising with us is vital. The partnership between councillors and residents is crucial, and I have found residents' insights and readiness to report situations hugely helpful in working with the police, the private sector renting team, the ASB team, waste and all the other council services, and holding external agencies and authorities to account.
Zena
Zena Brabazon
Labour and Co-Operative Party CandidateHarringay Ward
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Thanks Zena. I agree, we collectively can work wonders with teamwork.
I really hope the LCSP remains a strong voice in the ward, it's such a great forum.
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Permalink Reply by Nicky on
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As a local resident it's very important for me to have local, active and engaged councillors and much thanks to Anna and Zena for ticking that box big time. They've always been very responsive to concerns raised by us and our neighbours about some of the businesses in Green Lanes, and through regular attendance at the LCSP they've shown how committed they are to improving community safety, building links with council officers on issues from planning and rubbish collection to anti-social behaviour.
In terms of the bigger picture, there are always areas where a council can do better, but Anna's summary of achievements is a timely reminder of the range of responsiblities and some real wins - who would have thought we would get an outstanding ofsted report after the tragedies of Baby P and Victoria Climbié?
Thank you both for your dedication and hard work, and it's good to welcome new energy from Olly. The best of luck on 7 May.
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Good, hard working, councillors are more valuable than people realise. Our Labour councillors, spend long hours working for us. Much of what they do is invisible - doggedly pursuing council officials to get things done for residents facing difficulties; attending licensing meetings to object to extended hours for gambling outlets; making sure that fly tippers are caught & fined. They rarely get the thanks they deserve. So thank you Zena & Anna.
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