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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Dear fellow residents of Harringay,

Local elections are around the corner. Harringay is a marginal ward extremely important to Labour, as are others such as Bounds Green. The fight is literally going to be within the 'heart' of our borough.

What does this mean for us all? Basically a very strange thing is going to start to happen; money is going to be prioritised for our ward and our concerns will start to be taken more seriously.

It has started with this announcement of a large chunk of monies being invested in the re-development of one of our local parks. See here.

It will end with a festival for Green Lanes Harringay in September. These things are happening.

It is no accident that Lammy has just held a public meeting within our ward this week. See here for feedback on this meeting from residents here. Your MP wants to know what you want/need and will be in regular contact with via HOL and other groups/forums such as LCSP & GRA over the coming months.

This is our opportunity to make things happen with the powers that be. It was clear from the meeting with Lammy that residents want action, real progress on;

1. HMOs & affordable housing
2. Traffic: area survey and calming measures for Wightman Rd
3. Gambling establishments: a halt to any new openings & strict control of current operations
4. Supporting the local businesses, schools and leisure facilities to enhance the place with which we live.

So, Fairland Park at long last is getting the investment it needs. We will have 'our' festival in September too. But we need to decide the other priorities.

I for one would like to see serious investment go into traffic calming Wightman Rd. Lammy says he needs to see a significant campaign from local residents for this so he can start knocking on the doors of those who can make this happen (ie. dosh). Someone needs to kick off this campaign and it needs a Working Group to back it. A working group was instrumental in getting investment into our local park. That group has been going for 2 years, quietly plodding away.

It's up to the residents of Harringay to take advantage of this re-newed focus on our ward. We may not see this again for some time!

Shall we start by setting up a 'Harringay Resident's Working Group'? With say, members from HOL, LCSP, GRA and the Traders Association? Maybe that's too complex or unnecessary. But we do need to be working together and being efficient with time (save on meetings). Any other ideas?

I'm just kicking ideas around here!

Lets get organised. Over to you!

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Well (going into nimby mode ) I do NOT want a speed bump outside MY window :)

If we want something done, we have to say WHAT we want done. What is the problem ? Excessive speed ? Lack of respect for traffic lights? Not enough pedestrian crossings ?. As you say, these things take years, particularly if we are vague about what the present problems are and what we want done. Your daughter drew attention to a specific problem. We need more input from her :-)
We just need it reclassified as residential don't we?
John, if we could get the "B Road classification taken off Wightman, I think that would be a huge step. There must be recognised routes to doing it and it would definitely be worth taking the time to find out.

I agree with John D about the need to think about any petition carefully. And, as we've learned to our cost before, we can't just take one road an deal with it. We must treat the Ladder as a single piece. Because of that and because the best available evidence we have is that people's concern is about Ladder-wide traffic, I'd be very reluctant to support any petition that did otherwise.

So, let's build on this little peak of enthusiasm and just take a little time to think through the best tactics and get it right.
If we could get the "B Road classification taken off Wightman, I think that would be a huge step. There must be recognised routes to doing it and it would definitely be worth taking the time to find out.

Positive stuff Hugh & John. The enthusiasm is catching.

John D, speed tables are all the rage these days rather than humps, sometimes incorporated with a pelican crossing. See Hornsey Park (rd). This deals with the speed & pesdestrian issues.
I agree about a ladder wide initiative although rut roads have had far more traffic calming measures implemented over the past few years, Wightman Has been pretty neglected. If you solve some of the issues there you help matters on ladder roads too.

Other than making minor changes on ladder roads, I fail to see what else can be done. On the whole the ladder is a far safer place than it was 10 years ago. A few no right turns and a look at the weight limit of vehicles being used.
We may be the largest informal group of residents but the three RG in our area have been brought together by HOL. If you want to become active in RA then go, they would be more than welcome to see anyone, they also have commitement and clout.
Amongst the issues where residents desire progress, the top priority for me (from a selfish perspective) but I hope for many others would be affordable housing.

I love this area and the Harringay community but, though employed in what I would consider a reasonable job, I haven't a hope of getting on the property ladder at the moment even with prices dropping.

The traffic calming on Wightman Rd is clearly an issue that the more local residents are vocal about and care about great deal.

But there are some of us that may be unable to remain a part of the community (including this lovely website) in the longer term unless Mr. Lammy can prioritise projects to enable us to do so with the provision of affordable housing.

Would anyone else agree?
Agree.

Without affordable housing we have no real community.

Reading something today that was talking about how 3 million homes got built during the 1930s depression. It came largely down to funding from the building societies of the time. Not the bankrupt banks or the government. Metroland, as it's loosely called was built this way.

Today we have fewer building societies because they've been swallowed up by the greedy (and now incompetent) banks. The question therefore is where the money can come from to finance much needed affordable housing for new build or to set reasonable rents on more properties and make more housing stock available for home ownership schemes.

Maybe we need a Harringay Building Society for our own community.
I don't see much spare building land in Harringay, unless we use Fairlands :-) Perhaps we should be encouraging HMOs ?

Wasn't Metroland built on land acquired by the railway companies ?
Not much land in Harringay proper but they are making use of land nearby, which is good to see. Regards Metroland, yes rail companies became property developers and buyers (often first time buyers) bought them using building society loans.

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