Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
All 3 Haringey paddling pools out of action
To save anyone else the same faff we’ve just encountered - please be aware that ALL THREE of Haringey’s paddling pools are currently out of order! All of them were due to open today - but none of them have (and Priory Park is out of action for a longer period). What with Clissold Park also being out of action for potentially the next 6 weeks, it’s not looking good for children’s water play in our local area. (My additional particular irritation is that when I checked on the pools and opening dates literally 2 days ago, they were all still anticipated as opening - hence my fruitless search for cooling down options today…!)
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter
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JUSTIN you make a lot of good points.
Failure Demand that you (and Alan) mentioned is a concept I brought up almost in passing in my Court filing last December to a Tribunal. This is in connection with our Council's conduct and it has not yet been Decided. Here's part of what I wrote:
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Failure Demand—(AKA, avoidable contact). Haringey Council offers an instructive case in this concept created by occupational psychologist John Seddon.
After being adopted by the UK Cabinet Office as a national indicator of local authority performance, this has become widely applied in the UK public sector.
This is the demand on a service organisation, generated by that organisation’s failure to do something, …
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A wise Councillor who preceded me offered a note of advice when I started: there were three power centres at Haringey: the two Council Party Groups (then) and the Bureaucracy.
The enduring power of the latter organ is little appreciated by outsiders. Staff members see councillors come and go. They enjoy job security unlike anywhere else. Some of them become as contemptuous of elected persons as they are of residents.
And because one Party dominated for decades, things became cosy—too cosy—between the employer (the Council, i.e. Councillors) and their employees. Because of Labour's reluctance to fire anyone, we sometimes end up with councillors pleading with their employees to take action.
Councillors are paid a basic Allowance and this is actually treated as a payment to an employee (!?)
For many reasons, the new Council Green Group have an uphill task.
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D Jones: It does happen.
I sat on three-Member, Member Appeals, where council employees had the right to appeal against their dismissal.
Obviously I'm not going to identify anyone.
I had the impression this avenue was used by relatively junior or low-level staff. I cannot remember any senior employees going through this difficult if not humiliating process.
If a senior employee is removed from their position, then they are sometimes promoted sideways, or sent to another Local Authority with a glowing reference, risking the causing of terrible problems elsewhere. IMO, issuing such References in certain circumstances should be a criminal offence. Those with long memories may remember the few occasions when this reached the Press.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton
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D Jones you posted: "Nobody ever gets fired from Haringey Council"
I served on many Disciplinary panels during my 16 Years on the Council. I had once practiced as a solicitor so I was used to a legal framework. I'd also been a Trade Union rep in another borough. I tended to know when our union members had no case. And advised them as such.
I often chaired panels, so went to the tribunal as a witness if Haringey dismissed someone and they appealed.Maybe you worked in another borough which was not so careful in preparing cases as Haringey.
I hope you're not just assuming fantasy stuff. I never enjoyed sacking people. But if they weren't doing their jobs it had to happen. It took hours and was carried through with great care.Records are kept. You could have asked questions like: how many staff face disciplinary proceedings in a particular time frame. And how many are dismissed? Why the guesswork Aren't facts more satisfying?
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Permalink Reply by Liz
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Reply from Councillor Marc Jenner in Harringay Ward:
"Cllr Erin Wolson, the Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure, has just confirmed to me that the paddling pools will be reopened on Friday."
🤞
These are the Tottenham ones at Bruce Castle and Lordship Rec (Liz)
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Permalink Reply by John Grover
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Typical of Harringey Council not having pools open in a heatwave
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Permalink Reply by Jamie Harper
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It's sensible to get onto the new councillors quickly to try to set our expectations, but they are not idiots. A school child understands the differing power structures of governments (political and bureaucratic).
I voted for fresh, new energy in the Council, not to have them listen to the same tired old voices boomersplaining their contributions to the failed council of the past. Let the new people and their new approaches have a go. I'm going to hope that they don't include alienating their colleagues and council officers by constantly and publicly undermining them. That alone will likely make them more productive than those who are still burdened by personal and political grievance. They will make mistakes but hopefully they will plough their own more bountiful furrow than the generation before them.
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