Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Letter to council leader expressing concerns about members not responding to HoL posts
Dear Cllr Kober
I am a resident in St Anne's ward and am writing to you about two separate concerns that might be connected.
1 Have local councillors been told not to liaise with the local community on Harringay on line? If not, why have local councillors stopped responding to questions?
2 Is the pocket park (in the attached map) still being planted? If so when? If not why not and what has happened to the funds? Has there been any formal communication updating residents on this (eg via the council's website or in any press release?)
To place this email into context, I was very impressed with Cllr Ryan's interest to liaise on with residents through Harringay on line about the Green Lanes regeneration developments, just after the election. However, he has stopped responding. For this reason, I sent him the email below asking about the pocket park. I have still had no reply.
Please note that I am writing to you as an individual and do not represent any group or organisation. However, I am posting this email on Harringay online and sending it to the St Anne's and Harringay ward councillors for information. This is because other residents are raising similar concerns about the lack of information, communication, accountability and the lack of debate with our elected representatives. Local councillors seem to have stopped responding to other people's questions on the site as well. Failure to answer my questions about the pocket park appear to be a microcosm of a broader issue.
Additionally, I am sending it to the chair of regeneration in case he can answer the questions about the pocket park. I am assuming that the council needs to take responsibility in seeing this through in a community leadership role, as well as the fact that it provided some project management resources (despite the fact that regeneration of Green Lanes was mainly funded by the GLA through a GLSG application). With no information being given after the demise of the GLSG, it feels that nobody is accountable for taking responsibility for the project.
Could you please acknowledge this email in the next couple of days indicating when I will get a full response from you on both issues. Many thanks in advance.
Regards
EMAIL TO CLLR RYAN ABOUT POCKET PK SENT 2 OCT 14 (ATTACHED BELOW)
Dear Cllr Ryan
On 2 June I was pleased to read on HoL that you were "keen to give us updates on the green lanes regeneration works" and I took great interest in your responses at the time.
I am now wondering what is happening with the tree planting. You informed us that:
"The trees will be installed during the planting season which runs from October to May."
I've recently tried to get an update from a new post on HoL but people are saying that the tree planting/pocket park (as in attached map) is no longer going to happen. However, I have not seen anything official stating this.
It would be helpful if you could check this and give an official update on on the status of the project on HoL and other appropriate communication channels.
Many thanks in advance.
Regards"
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Pav, the "Leader" of the Council and "cabinet" councillors have staff who process requests. Some of these will require input from the service staff who're dealing with the particular issue raised. I assume that's what has happened with your Question 2: asking for information about the pocket park.
Your Question 1 is more complicated. I'm not saying you've done this, but one thing people sometimes get wrong is to assume that the Leader of the Council is like a Chief Executive of an organisation. That they can issue instructions, etc. But what controls the behaviour of Labour councillors is a range of carrots and sticks.
Some of these operate informally - like the "goodies" which a Leader and the Party whips can grant or withhold from individual councillors. (Such as a well-paid Special Responsibility Allowance SRA).
Some of the constraints are formal. So all Labour Party political Groups (i.e. Labour councillors elected to each council) are bound by the National Party Rulebook. This specifies ethical behaviour for Labour councillors. Back in a 2009 when former Cllr Harry Lister tried to get me chucked out of the Labour Group - "withdrawing the Whip" - he referred to the National Rulebook and a local "Agreed Communications protocol". The latter was basically a gagging document to prevent anyone raising murky dealings outside the Labour Group. The public are not supposed to see what goes on behind the curtain.
The Labour Party Rules currently online are for 2013. (They may need updating following this year's Party Conference.) They are presented as upbeat and positive - all working together and being "comradely". And maybe that's how it works in Labour Councils elsewhere. But in Haringey Labour Group it's all about silencing dissent. Over the years that control-freak culture has steadily worsened.
The first time I was threatened with loss of the Labour whip was when I campaigned for residents to be repaid fines (PCNs) on two yellow box junctions outside the Arriva Bus Garage in Philip Lane. These were confirmed by the Department for Transport as unlawful. But Haringey refused to give the money back.
The second time was when I posted what were, to the best of my knowledge, factually accurate accounts of Cllr Charles Adje's dealings with first the former Welbourne Centre in my Tottenham Hale ward, and second his actions as former Chair of the Alexandra Palace Board. Both critiques were confirmed - the former by the Standards Board for England and the second by Haringey Standards Committee. The latter thanks to the relentless work of LibDem Cllr Clive Carter.
With me, the particular "charge" Harry Lister tried - and failed - to use in 2009 was based on material from my Flickr pages. They finally realised that although I didn't have a blog or a website as such, I did have a photoblog. (Or maybe they were pissed-off because my Flickr pages reach many more people than a conventional website!)
Just to assure you, Pav, that this is not just ancient history. The politicians running Haringey Labour are still using the same methods to stifle debate and squeeze out anyone who tries to speak truth to power. So you may want to ask for the relevant paragraphs of the Rulebook and the locally agree Labour Party Group Communications Protocol.
As you may have seen this urge to stamp out dissent, with the attempt to discipline Julie Davies, the Haringey National Union of Teachers branch secretary. In the High Court last week, for the first time the actual charges against Julie were made public They include an email she wrote as a resident to her three ward councillors about uncollected bins in the hottest days of the summer. With a second email to one of them with a perfectly legitimate political comment comparing the bins with St Ann's ward selection meeting. There were also a couple of political tweets about Cllr Sheila Peacock - one about Sheila's latest appearance at the Standards' Committee.
I wonder whether any of the people spending their time monitoring and filing emails, websites and tweets for the Labour Party saw the film The Lives of Others - or others like it. And whether the slightest whisper of a hint of the thought crossed their minds: "Hang on a minute. This is starting to look a little familiar".
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