Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Budget Consultation 2013 - Public meeting - Wednesday 9th January 2013
Haringey's Cabinet member for Finance, Cllr Joe Goldberg will be hosting a public meeting on Wednesday 9th January 2013 at South Harringay Junior School, Mattison Road, London N4 1BD between 6.30pm and 9pm.
Come along and have your say about the council's budget for 2013/14. Find out more about the challenges the borough faces, what your spending priorities and what you think the councils should be.
If you can't be there you can also have your say in the following ways:
online questionaire: www.haringey.gov.uk/budget2013
email: haveyoursay@haringey.gov.uk
in writing to: Budget 2013, London Borough of Haringey, FREEPOST NAT 20890, PO Box 264, London N22 8BR
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Well I agree with you Neil that this is not the council's job. I'd go further and say that this is the thing they're most crap at and most like doing.
BTW, employment is "up" because of all those young people doing 27 hours per week at minimum wage.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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I'm sure, Neil, that Cllr Joe Goldberg will be more than delighted to supply citations for his stats if you ask him. You could email. Or tweet @joedgoldberg. (You'll need sharp eyes as one of the fonts he uses is a very faint lime green.)
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Neil, you want some information from an organisation? I advise people to ask. I describe it as: "try going through the front door". What's to lose? A bit of time.
You want some information from a person? Again, ask them. I find that people are often very generous. Especially if you clearly, politely and briefly explain what you want and the reasons for asking. Understandably if you're asking for something that's going to take a lot of time or work, a reply is less likely.
So, last year I wrote to the journalist Simon Hoggart asking about his "Law of the nonsensical reverse." He replied with a short helpful email with a link to one of his articles. Later in the year I wrote to the sociologist Les Back after reading his wise book The Art of Listening. He emailed a friendly reply and gave me some links to his YouTube videos. He also offered to help in Tottenham after the riot. (Sadly, lack of a listening/learning culture is one of the major problems we face. People are more willing to talk, or shout, at one another instead.)
But if you ask Cllr Joe Goldberg, he'll either have the source of the stats he quoted or he won't. (Or he won't answer, which comes to the same thing.) Either way you've learned something.
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Permalink Reply by Seema Chandwani on
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The online questionaire is an insult to my dead goldfish's intelligence....!!
When will the council stop with the X-Factor style popularity contests via online surveys, public services are needs based, not wants.
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Permalink Reply by Karen Alexander on
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I couldn't agree with you more - I almost didn't put this post up because the questionnaire shows a shocking lack of imagination and is quite frankly p****** poor!
The council is just going through the motions - as usual consultation of sorts but without having to take anything at all on board.
The Cllr Joe Goldberg Show will be interesting!
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The nice thing about Cllr Joe Goldberg, is he is a bit of a gent... so on the 9th, he won't be making you stand up and give a presentation on why your party supported these cuts to council budgets to the tune of £84m and rising....
When Cllr Wilson mans up and starts to speak publically at how these cuts and "reforms" are destroying the lives of many local people, will be more interesting.... dontcha fink?
You are still my fave Lib Dem though Cllr A, just .... there is a bigger picture and we cant keep avoiding it.
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Cllr Goldberg "a bit of a gent" -mmmmmmmm!
I never dreamt in a million years that we would end up in coalition with the tories - I was horrified and its not what I joined up for. I could have walked away in disgust but that doesn't achieve anything - yes, you bet its hard being a libdem here (and probably everywhere else) but I don't walk away from difficult situations! I have struggled like everyone else with the level of cuts bestowed on this council and I have respectfully read and digested a lot of your posts and I agree with a lot of what you say. You think I can't see the bigger picture - you couldn't be more wrong.
Being an opposition councillor on this council has many challenges - at budget time it is about getting the best deal for residents with the money allocated by the govt and helping to steer things in the right direction - the council does have some discretion as to where cuts are made and where money is spent (I know it is a bore to keep bringing up Haringey People but its an example of where the council is going wrong).
Budget scrutiny performed by the Overview & Scrutiny panel each year before the budget is finalised is just another example of going through the motions as far as the Labour Cabinet are concerned. Hours of time are spent by councillors on both sides going through the budget papers and trying to negate some of the worst effects - did the Labour Cabinet take up any of the recommendations last year - did they heck. There were plenty of well thought out and sensible suggestions put forward but as usual the Labour Cabinet knew best. Don't suppose it will be any different this year!
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No one is denying that the council does not make some awful decisions, even the incentive that I would leave them alone if they made more good decisions hasn't worked
It is difficult for the resident, most in Haringey are left leaning but we have a very right wing Labour Council, some who kiss the Blair picture on their bedside table before they go sleep. Likewise the 'opposition' is in bed with the Tories, so the national and local picture is not giving the people of Haringey much defence democratically.
Facts remain that Cllr Wilson is reluctant to challenge some deverstating national policy that is impacting badly on the residents of Haringey, but is quick to get his face in the paper to nit-pick about £45k awarded to a project that would help residents save money on their energy bills. (If there are reasons why he chose this as an important issue for Haringey, he ignored me asking him politely 3 times!)
Whilst I appreciate there is a challenge on the locally set budget, fighting to save £2m on an IT contract pales in comparison to the £84m the Lib Dems have done very little to save from Pickles.
Even if Cllr Goldberg was a tree-hugging croc wearing lefty, who fought to save every frontline service for residents, there still would not be enough money. Sadly, that is thanks to the Lib Dems who in Parliament have voted alongside their Tory friends on many financial decisions that have created the situation we have now.
The survey is a joke, it is about time that this council started treating people with a bit of respect and provided us with facts, namely how much of the budget is committed to statutory provision, how much (or little) is disposible and of that how much is ringfenced for delivering certain contracts on behalf of the gov.
This notion that we live on an island and have £200m (or whatever it is) for us all to decide how it is spent is disengenious and patronising.
It is also pretty damn insulting when £5,000 is spent on a stupid timeshare style brochure for something called a plan for Tottenham that no one in Tottenham has been a part of developing. It is insulting when we have 12 in 12 objectives in response to the riots but many of the 12 items were happening before the riots and would have happened regardless.
I do not doubt your sincerity Karen, I like the fact you live local, I appreciate that you can not be held personally responsible for the actions of your national (and local) leaders, its one of the reasons I stopped even saying the word Labour when that warmongering, tuition fees introducing, PFI loving, private sector sell off of NHS colluding pityful excuse of a Labour Prime Minister called Tony Thatcher Blair was in power.
But right now, I feel as a resident that choosing between both of your local actions is a choice between losing my right foot or my right hand.... If this is democracy, I await for us to be rescued and liberated by North Korea!
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