Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Worrying Haringey Council priorities - investing £570,000 supporting fashion industry - where's the money from?
Haringey Council says it "will invest nearly £570,000 to overhaul an industrial unit" to help the fashion industry - does anyone know where the funding has come from ?
I find it very worrying that after vital services like elderly care homes, day care centres etc have been closed down through lack of funds, and when other services are still facing further cuts the Council is choosing to spend money assisting profit making enterprises rather than providing the vital services which vulnerable residents need.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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You can see a presentation to last night's 'cabinet' meeting by the owner of this business, with an effusive introduction by Cllr Goldberg. Go to 0.48.40. This may clarify why our money has been spent this way.
While you're at that video page, you may like to see the delegation from Our Tottenham with their response to the Tottenham Strategic Plan, at 0.5.28. Most exciting is to see Cllr Strickland's response, showing what a very skilled politician he is and how lucky we are to have him to represent us, eg in Cannes when negotiating with those generous developers who only want the best for the people of Tottenham.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Thanks for highlighting this Alex. I suggest it's best to reserve judgement until there's a lot more information in the public domain. But it is very curious that certain businesses seem to get highly favourable treatment at the same time as others are being destroyed.
The Kober Council is a good example of Heather Brooke's famous saying in The Silent State that: "other people's money is remarkably easy to spend ".
Haringey is also a classic case of a council doing the same thing over and again and expecting a different outcome. So one question I suggest you might like to have in mind is how this initiative is qualitatively different from previous public subsidies in this particular business area.
Assuming, of course that such information actually exists in a useful form. Because another prominent feature of Haringey Council has been its inability to properly record, evaluate and learn from past experiments.
Alex, if you don't already do so, please use the website WhatDoTheyKnow to make any Freedom of information Act requests.
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Permalink Reply by Abi on
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Wasn't the rag trade one of Haringey's original local industries? Seems to make sense to use the infrastructure that's still left over from those days. I have no idea how that sum compares with other spends/cuts being made and it may be completely wide of the mark but in principle this seems to be an idea that is (odd though it may seem) relatively sound.
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Not quite empty. The 'cabinet' has just nine people including the leader. Also present are the expensive end of LBH admin, and a dozen other admin people. The fixed camera position doesnt show them all.
Other councillors can attend even the secret bits; the press and public (seated upstairs) are chucked out for those. Non-cabinet councillors have so little influence, I dont know why they bother, it must do their blood pressures a lot of damage.
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Creating jobs locally in one of the few industries that's currently booming? Terrible waste of money.
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Dunno if you meant to reply to my comment, but I was bring sarcastic. I agree with you.
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Permalink Reply by alex on
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Profit making industries should be supporting themselves, not asking for handouts from the state / council.
And if you're worried about jobs, why not speak out about all the Council jobs that have been axed in the last few years. Those staff were at least providing services used by the community - in schools, youth clubs, parks, care homes, respite facilities for disabled people etc etc
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Thanks for posting the link. I personally think that in the Green Lanes money is not well spent in the current austerity climate either. Some of the improvements to the street are good, but ensuring vital services for vulnerable people is far more important. However, I gather that the Green Lanes money didn't come from the Council. It appears at all levels (Council & Govt / quangos) that tax and council tax is being used to boost profit making enterprises while starving the public services they should be providing.
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Permalink Reply by maggie on
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I don't want to hijack the original post but the OLF breakdown is interesting. I haven't noticed any new shopfronts, though many of the shops now have identical new double glazed windows above the shops. My windows need replacing perhaps someone would like to pay 90% of the costs please.
Is the Bridge Gateway still going to happen? And what about the new lighting? Perhaps this deserves a post of its own, maybe when the work is completed.
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I did notice earlier this week that a significant proportion of the shops have scaffolding up at the moment, all with the name of the same company. I would assume this is the works in question getting under way?
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Local industry shouldn't be subsidised by the Council. They should be paying to train their own employees. Don't disagree with your concerns about the warehouse district.
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