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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Residents, park visitors and businesses are being invited to have their say on recent major events in Finsbury Park during a scrutiny review this summer.

The Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee hopes to meet with a range of interested parties, including event organisers, police, Transport for London and members of the Finsbury Park Events Stakeholder Group, and is also inviting comments from members of the public, as part of the review.

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee is supposed to carry out reviews independently of the Council to ensure that its services and activities are being delivered effectively.

The Committee's membership of five councilors reflects the make-up of the Council. Currently forur members are Labour and one is Lib Dem. The members are:

The formal aim of the review is:

to make recommendations to the Council and its partners for improvements in the arrangements for future events that are consistent with the aims and objectives of the Outdoor Events Policy and seek to minimise any potential adverse effect on parks. 

To this end, it will look at recent events held at Finsbury Park, such as Wireless Festival, and talk to people about:

  • Planning and organisation
  • Facilities
  • Policing, security and crowd control
  • Noise and complaints
  • Transport, ingress and egress
  • Damage and arrangements for remediation
  • Community engagement

As well as interviews and asking for written submissions, the committee will visit Finsbury Park and observe events taking place there.

A full copy of the review's "scoping document" is attached.

Early recommendations will be made before the next major event in Finsbury Park in September, and a full report will be presented to cabinet in November.

Whether or not this review will have any real effect remains to be seen.

To respond to a survey that will form part of the review, visit the scrutiny consultation page on the Council's website. A quick look at the survey suggests that it is very open and will allow any respondee to freely express their views in an unguided format. 

The survey will close on August 28. Members of the Committee will then consider all the evidence received and its initial findings before the next major event in Finsbury Park in September.  A final report with recommendations will be discussed by the Overview & Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on 19 October 2015.

Tags for Forum Posts: finsbury park, finsbury park events

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I see the Finsbury Park scrutiny project membership also includes another 4 co-opted members; two from school governors, two from churches.  Does anyone know how people are selected for this, why there are no local resident or park user reps on the project membership and why churches should have two people when the majority of Haringey residents are not church goers?

It's difficult Alex to find any group that is truly representative of a community or even sections of a community. I, for example, have no children but I accept that school governers have a view that is a useful perspective from those who do. Similarly a lot of communities identify with their church rather then pressure or interest groups and they can often be the communities whose views and ideas are hardest to reach. I do think though that representation from church groups is too narrow no they should be looking at representation from wider faith groups. For instance, I would have thought that the input of the users of Finsbury Park mosque, which is very close to the Finsbury Park gate would have been actively sought.

Interesting post Michael - just wanted to make sure you had seen my post below ref the membership of the "project group" being the membership of the full Scrutiny Committee - i.e. the co-opted members are statutory i.e. the council must include these co-optees in its membership due to its scrutiny of education matters. They only have voting rights on education matters though. Hope this is useful and provides some clarity. 

Why do you think that the school governors and church members are not local residents and are not park users ?

It's all meaningless window dressing anyway. The recommendations of a previous scrutiny committee were rejected by the Council. Even  members if the scrutiny committee voted against their own recommendations,.

I didn't say they aren't, however I presume they have been appointed on the basis that they are church reps since that is how they are labelled, not on the basis that they are residents.  I am curious to know why a church or a school would be viewed as having a more important perspective than nearby resident or park user groups.

If you look at the attached doc and the information on scrutiny on the council website you will see these co-optees are statutory i.e. the council must have these people on the Scrutiny Committee - something to do with scrutiny of education I believe. In short, it looks like the membership for this project is in fact the membership of the Scrutiny Committee.

I don't think this is anything to worry about and it looks like they want to talk to a number of key players (as listed on the attached project plan). It will be interesting to read their final report later in the year.   

I've actually had a look at the Local Government Act 2000 (I know, I need to get a life) which established Overview and Scrutiny committees and it says
(10)An overview and scrutiny committee of a local authority, or any sub-committee of such a committee, may include persons who are not members of the authority, but (subject to any provision made by or under paragraphs 7 to 9 of Schedule 1) any such persons are not entitled to vote at any meeting of such a committee or sub-committee on any question which falls to be decided at that meeting.
No mention at all about who those people must be.
Whilst this is correct you also need to look at Schedule A1 6 - 11 onwards ref statutory co-optees - church reps and parent governor reps. The bit you quote gives them (Councils) a choice while the bit I quote is required by law.

Lets not forget this is a specific project being carried out by scrutiny so would it be appropriate for a co-optee for this project to sit on the Committee for all other items across the year? The church reps and parent gov reps are required to sit on any scrutiny committee that has responsibility (in full or as part of its remit) for scrutiny of education.

Some of the regulations are a bit confusing and I think relate to other bits of legations as well e.g. The Local Govt and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007.

This may help - http://cfps.org.uk/includes/scripts/force_download.php?file=../../d...
Cheers Matty
The attached document says that amongst the evidence the scrutiny panel will be using will be

"Consideration of information posted on neighbourhood websites e.g. Haringey Online"

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