Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
"London council named as England's 'most rotten' borough"
Haringey has been named as England's 'most rotten' borough.
Yesterday, The Standard reported that, per 100,000 of population in Haringey, there were 20 upheld, formal Complaints.
This, on the basis of data from the Local Government Ombudsman.
This is the second year running that the London Borough of Culture 2027 has secured the top place for the number of Complaints upheld by the Ombudsman.
The previous leadership was a menace to public money. They (we) made multi-million pound losses on municipal property wheeling-and-dealing. The current leadership has since failed to get a robust grip on finances.
Are any residents surprised?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mavic Starfish on
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Not that surprised. Imagine if everyone found the time to complain - they wouldn't be knocked off their perch for quite some years
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Permalink Reply by KP on
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Yes I think that's the sad reality. Most people don't even bother complaining because they have given up. I thought all London boroughs were like this but apparently this one leads the pack
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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That’s terrible.
What is your view on three of the LibDems’ four London authorities having a higher proportion of complaints upheld by the Ombudsman than Haringey?
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Permalink Reply by Katie-Meg
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I think there’s a problem with this - it is based on the number of complaints. One person could make 262 (or whatever the figure is) complaints and it would be ‘the worst borough’. Even if it is 262 different people, maybe it’s just that we have more active complainers, which is fair enough but not much of a criteria for being the worst. This is flimsy and a tricky used of statistics. Haringey has its faults but is it really worse than everywhere else? I, for one, live living here
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter
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THE claim is based on neither "complaints" per se, nor on the raw number of complaints.
Can I invite you to read the linked article, which is about LGO-upheld complaints, adjusted for population?
It is based on the Complaints that are upheld by the Local Government Ombudsman.
Anyone who has complained to the LGO about their council's conduct knows that, due to the sheer number of Complaints they receive, the LGO sift out only a fraction for investigation. Typically they use the criterion of, has the Complainant been personally affected by a council decision (normally, monetarily).
This is not a fast or a rubber-stamp process. Complaints upheld after LGO-investigation is therefore a good measure of the pain that councils sometimes inflict on their residents.
The number of complaints that the LGO upheld, was then adjusted (pro rata) to the population of the Borough.
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And the proportion upheld is higher in 75% of LibDem London authorities than in Haringey. I am not saying that people do not have just cause to complain in Haringey, just that the same criticism should be levelled in other boroughs that are failing their residents otherwise it just stinks of party politics.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton
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Michael Anderson, my poor eyesight and endless distracting popups on the wretched Windows 11 means I'm unable to use the link you gave to check whether you or Clive Carter are right about the basic issue. It would appear that one of you has made an error. Mutual civility is the obvious way for the two of you to resolve it without rancour.
Dick Harris (below) is surely also right about the unnecessary "rotten borough" label. It was fun in Dickens Pickwick Papers. But it's now several years since Haringey Council suffered from rotten property dealings. And incidentally, Clive Carter was one of the good guys who tried to expose these. Including getting himself invited into and taking a video of an empty factory in Enfield which cost our borough substantial sums. The current councillors are those who had to clean up the mess.
Also to be fair to Clive Carter he actually won a tribunal appeal on his last Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request. I'm a fan of FOI. Hopefully the new Borough councillors who are elected next May will value that power. And also value the openness and accountability promised by Haringey's Constitution document.
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Should anyone every draw it to their attention.
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For the four London LibDems authorities the proportion of complaints to the Ombudsman that were upheld are
89% - Richmond on Thames
88% - Kingston on Thames
59%- Sutton
93% - Merton
The average for similar authorities is 84% and 87% for Haringey.
The data is derived from the Ombudsman's published records.
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Permalink Reply by Dick Harris
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I feel uncomfortable seeing that this thread is headed by a piece of facile journalistic abuse. "Rotten Borough" has a well established meaning in our blessed island and has nothing whatever to do with the possible failings of any London borough. The rotten boroughs were parliamentary constituencies and most, if not all, of them were abolished by the great Reform Act of 1832.
As a long time resident of Haringey, I can see plenty of good and poor things about its performance but I wouldn't say it is rotten in any sense of the word. Let us keep a sense of perspective and recognise cheap journalism when we see it.
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Permalink Reply by Iris Allan
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I'm curious to know what the good things are about Haringey Council's performance.
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