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Permalink Reply by Anita charleswoth 22 hours ago

Nothing at all on cycling and active travel - desperately hoping this isn’t a case of Deja vue - great promises and then no tangible progress. 

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter 13 hours ago

great promises and then no tangible progress. 

Anita, I agree. I hope this isn't the case, but this is the current impression.

Déjà vu … all over again?

I liked what the new leader wrote about climate action, but action in actual practice means doing things. 'Act' is a verb and a doing word.

Cllr Blake was a Cabinet Member for three years in his brother-in-law's Haringey Council Cabinet. As council leader, Joseph Ejiofor wrote of climate and transport in his post-Covid article in the same paper, the Ham & High:

Covid - A Year On: Haringey Council leader Ejiofor on 'managing chaos'

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Five years ago, Joe Ejiofor wrote:

• Haringey recently approved a climate change action plan, and set out consultation plans for low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN) schemes as part of a ten-year walking and cycling strategy.
• "The scheme is designed to reduce pollution and encourage cycling and walking.
• “I might be a little bit of an oddity ... but I love driving and I’m 100% up for LTNs,” Cllr Ejiofor said.
• “Quite frankly, as a car driver there are places I shouldn't have the opportunity to take a shortcut through.
• “LTNs are about creating better air quality for residents and reducing the negative particulates in the atmosphere.
• “They’re about reducing the impact of climate change and keeping us fitter, making it more difficult for people to drive short journeys.
• “Really and truly, get out of your car and walk. Get out of your car and get on your bike.
• “That’s got to be the message because ultimately all of this is about creating a better and safer planet for all of us going forwards, and that may mean a little bit of inconvenience here and now.
• “Car drivers, just get over it. That's what's got to happen to the benefit of the planet.”

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Is the Green Council Group not now discovering that it is council employees who have called the shots? And without root and branch reform, the Highwaymen are likely to remain a chronic obstacle to transport progress?

Plus ça change …

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Permalink Reply by Neil Ford 12 hours ago

A very tight budget with little wiggle room after all the private equity run companies are paid to provide mandatory services (used AI to generate this list).  

• Social Care: Safeguarding and providing support for vulnerable adults, children, and elderly residents.
• Education: Administering primary and secondary school admissions, school transport, and special educational needs.
• Waste and Recycling: Supplying regular household refuse collection and managing local recycling facilities.
• Highways and Transport: Maintaining roads, fixing potholes, and providing concessionary travel passes.
• Planning and Housing: Managing local planning applications, enforcing building standards, and preventing homelessness.
• Public Health: Delivering drug and alcohol support, sexual health services, and infectious disease control.
• Libraries and Registrars: Maintaining statutory library services and recording births, deaths, and marriages. 

There's not much left in the pot after all these are accounted for.  

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter 10 hours ago

THERE would be more in the pot if there had been less waste and fewer mistakes.

The pot would be greater by eight figures, if massive losses had not been generated in council property dealings, some of which appears to have involved corruption. This has been little accounted-for.

There will be less left in the pot after London Borough of Culture 2027 is accounted for.  And—not through AI-generation but rather through the Grape Vine, I hear—less, after the year-of-culture Legacy budget is accounted for.

The Green Group may like to look into the "wiggle room" in the Legacy fund of the ex-leader's vanity project.

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Finances underpin all else.

I was pleased to see the new leader write:

By the end of this year, our residents will have clear and accessible information on the council's finances and key areas where performance must improve.

It is essential that the new Cabinet know what the true position is. Momentum, followed by New-Labour, lost control of spending. After all but giving up on keeping proper accounts, the last Administration went to the Government for help in the form of a kind of costly overdraft facility:

GOVT Exceptional Financial Support ~

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Haringey

£84.0m (support agreed in-principle) Note: For support agreed in-principle for 2025-26, this has been revised to £54.0m (from £37.0m)

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