Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Who are "Healthy Streets St Ann's"?
Shortly before the consultation on the St Ann's LTN closed, I - and presumably others in my street - received a leaflet through the door from a group called "Healthy Streets St Ann's", urging residents to vote for Option A (the more draconian road closures) in the Council's LTN proposals. The leaflet is well-designed, typeset and properly printed; it doesn't appear to have been knocked-up hastily on somebody's PC and printer. There's also a professional-looking website, so presumably there's some finance behind this pressure group, which says it's "a community group set up by residents in 2019".
The one thing neither the leaflet nor the website do is to identify anyone involved as initiating, leading or steering the group, and the only contact information is a gmail address. Obviously, campaigning for something is fine, but without any indication as to who's actually behind it, it lays the campaign open to suspicion that it may not be what it says it is - in fact, unlikely though it seems, it could even be a Council initiative disguising itself as a grassroots movement, rather than the independent entity it says it is. I've no memory of being consulted about the group's creation or membership in 2019, or being asked to join (albeit that I might have missed something), so I wonder which community it represents? Is it two people and a web-designer? Is it a mere handful of the 15,895 residents of St Ann's ward or is it a substantial number?
I'd be very surprised if those involved aren't also members of HoL, so perhaps they'd like to identify themselves now? I realise personal safety is important - nobody wants to be trolled or harassed, and I'm not suggesting anyone gives details that would open them up to this. But in assessing the merits or demerits of a campaign group's arguments, it adds credence to the pitch if the recipient knows a) who's making it and b) that they're not something other than what they purport to be.
So - if you're there, Healthy Streets St Ann's, who are you?
Tags for Forum Posts: low traffic neighbourhoods, st anns ltn, traffic
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Catherine Kenyon on
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Hi Don,
I'm a member of the group. It formed out of a Haringey Living Streets borough wide meeting in the summer of 2019 that encouraged local groups to form (there are quite a few similar groups across Haringey now). We had a first meeting with about 8 residents and agreed to establish a group. https://twitter.com/cmdkenyon/status/1141444535211515904?s=20.
As Living Streets is largely focused on pedestrian infrastructure, we decided on the name Healthy Streets St Ann's to better reflect our ambitions on cycling, public transport, air pollution, and greening.
Since then we've shared posts on local groups, created posters/leaflets, and held a number of stalls locally to engage with neighbours on our work and to build the group. We held a public workshop in Chestnuts Community Centre in January 2020 with about 60 residents, our local cllrs and David Lammy also attended - https://twitter.com/mikehakata/status/1216057717590315010?s=20. The ideas shared by residents at that meeting were used to create this map - https://www.healthystanns.co.uk/post/ideas-shared-by-st-anns-residents, and were used as a basis for our asks in the recent leaflet you received.
We now have around 250 residents signed up to the newsletter I believe, and 350 people signed an online and paper petition calling for the housing development in St Ann’s to be used as an opportunity to create healthier streets in the community. The group hold meetings about every two months that are advertised publicly. There are a core group of around 30 people I'd say who are pretty actively engaged.
We've not received any external funding, and rely on our members to give their time, and sometimes resource to help campaign. We sometimes receive resources/info from Living Streets that we share with members.
I hope this clarifies, you're very welcome to join any of our discussions if interested!
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Thank you, Catherine, Deka and Michael, for clarification and filling in the background, which is what I felt was lacking.
If you look at the other thread I mentioned you’ll see that I support the broad aims of traffic management in Harringay but disagree about the specific St Ann’s plan, because I think it’s a piecemeal approach trying to obviate the need to deal with bigger issues, will actually worsen the major problem of Green Lanes and will have a very negative effect on public transport (which, as a non-driver I rely on). However, that’s all for a different thread; and I’ve no doubt the Council will close roads in this ward in any case, so we’ll see what happens.
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