Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Resident-led Neighbourhood Forums Take Hold in Haringey - What does it mean for Harringay?
A neighbourhood forum for Crouch End, the first in Haringey, was approved by the Council last December. Plans for forums in Highgate and Stroud Green are also in the offing. To the south Stamford Hill have been trying to get Hackney Council to approve one and following the Finsbury Park regeneration conference last year, a steering group has been formed to discuss founding a Finsbury Park Neighbourhood Forum.
So what might all this mean for Harringay? Does it mean we should be looking at this too?
First a quick brush-up on what a neighbourhood forum is.
Created by the 2011 Localism Act, designated neighbourhood forums are organisations or groups empowered to lead the neighbourhood planning process in a neighbourhood area where there is no town or parish council (ie. including parts all of London).
Neighbourhood planning enables communities to shape development in their areas through the production of Neighbourhood Development Plans, Neighbourhood Development Orders and Community Right to Build Orders.
Neighbourhood Development Plans become part of the Local Plan and the policies contained within them are then used in the determination of planning applications. Neighbourhood Development Orders and Community Right to Build Orders allow communities to grant planning permission either in full or in outline for the types of development they want to see in their areas.
The policies produced cannot block development that is already part of the Local Plan. What they can do is shape where that development will go and what it will look like.
The process starts with defining boundaries. Everything then has to be approved by the Council. I've heard that to our south those behind the nascent Stroud Green forum are likely to include Finsbury Park within their borders. What might this and any other influence these groups wield mean for Harringay if we don't have a champion?
Is it time for Harringay to think about a Harringay Neighbourhood Forum? (This question was also raised on the site four years back)
Here's a map drawn up current and possible forum boundaries drawn up by by Stroud Green resident and HoL member Arkady.
Tags for Forum Posts: neighbourhood forum, neighbourhood planning
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Antoinette on
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Chris...that is a superbly eloquent appraisal - you've summed it up in a way I couldn't have... my ham-fisted attempt would probably have been that "Neighbourhood Forums" have been cynically misdescribed in their title and just give a platform for a narrow section of society who have always had their say on planning matters to have a greater platform from which to get busy
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Permalink Reply by Omotn on
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Chris's broadside is certainly eloquent. Not well founded in fact, but eloquent. I think Hugh's original question deserves more attention. Is a Neighbourhood Forum (or Parish) a good idea in principle. As far as Crouch End goes I firmly believe it is a good initiative, not only does it hold out hope of some scintilla of local power but has hugely improved relations between Crouch Enders and the Borough Planning Department. I wish we'd done it 2 years ago before the Town Hall sell off. My advice would be 'don't delay'.
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Well well only time will tell if Chris' views are well founded or not... jury is very much still out
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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on
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Thanks for understanding Antoinette.
My experience isn't drawn from Crouch End - I only ever went to one or two meetings I think and have nothing to do with their NF. I've attended quite a few others and am active in one. Have been keeping track since before the Tories awarded Locality their grant, beating applicants such as Citizens UK to the cash. Have spoken to a range of 'consultants' who serve to draw together impressions from the many who have gone down this route. I'm interested in how people relate to each other as a group of which I am but a part.
It seems really difficult to get anyone's views fairly represented so I don't want to poison any wells - we are where we are. It's only brilliant people like those who cluster around this website that are likely to make the breakthroughs needed to really let us, in the immortal words of John Lennon:
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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I completely agree that Neighbourhood Forums have the potential to become dominated by a small group. But really, is that any worse than what we have at the moment. Some groups and individuals punch way above their weight in their dealings with local authorities, and not just Haringey, all local authorities. At least a NF gives the chance for people to actually have access to decision making rather than just a few closed shop cliques.
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Permalink Reply by Abi on
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Hi Arkady. Our area (around Vartry Road) and also the bit up to Chestnuts Park including Tiverton are not included in your map, yet we are significantly closer to Harringay than - say - bits of Crouch End or any of 'North Highbury', yet we're not marked out on your map. Why?
I'd be quite keen to see where your Stamford Hill boundary ends, because it's possible we've been included in that as sometimes happens, but this is unlikely because most people see SH as being in Hackney and we're part of Haringey.
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Hugh, I fully appreciate the importance of where the boundary lines lie I just don't think what they are called really matters.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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I didn't take this conversation in that direction Antoinette, but since that's where we are, let me go very briefly through why it does matter.
The reason that the name of a neighbourhood is important is related to notions of personal identity. Where people live is part of who they feel they are. It's all part of that tribal instinct. To be part of a thing, that thing has to have an identity. It can only have an identity if it is identified. Part of the identification process is inevitably labelling; it's human nature.
But the importance also has a very practical outcome. The more people feel identified with an identified area, the more likely they are to care about it. If they care they'll spend more time in it, stay longer, look after it better and more businesses will open up here. This isn't some cooky notion of mine; it's a well-documented phenomena. As I've explained before, it was so important that, using the logic I've just quickly run through, a New York mayor passed a law to prevent the renaming of neighbourhoods without resident consent.
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How about we call them the Duchy of Crouch End and the People's Republic of Tottenham
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It's not what we call 'them' that matters so much as what we call 'us'!
Personally I reverse the sentiments underpinning your names and day-to-day I go with Kraaachie and Totters.
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Oh the possibilities are endless. ..Tote & Ham maybe...
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All places are constructs and fluid over time. It would be ludicrous for someone who wanted to appear 'gritty' to say they lived in Camden Town (NW1) when they actually live in Primrose Hill (NW1) and vice versa. I lived in Tottenham and that felt the right thing to call it as most of my activity was based around the High Road. I now live a 341 bus ride from there and if I said to someone that's where I lived they would think my sense of geography had gone awol.
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