Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Is this London's most delinquent Borough?
News this afternoon:
The communities secretary, Eric Pickles, has taken over the administration ... for two years after an inquiry commissioned by his department found wholesale mismanagement, questionable grant-giving and a failure to secure best value for local taxpayers.
Pickles plans to dispatch three commissioners to administrate grant-giving, property transactions and the administration of future elections in the borough.
...
Pickles said the report painted “a deeply concerning picture of obfuscation, denial, secrecy the breakdown of democratic scrutiny and a culture of cronyism risking the corrupt spending of public funds”.
London's most rotten Council?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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reading the comments, many from locals, this is a welcome intervention. Remember that election night /week in May of recounts, accusations, lines of tough-looking men at the town hall preventing access etc? No scuffles in Ally Pally - that I saw. Selling off assets to mates at knock-down prices? hmmmm maybe that resonates, but brown envelopes have not been suggested here.
The scary bit is that a Pickles-type takeover is what the LBH Labour group promised would be the result if they fail to deliver on the mayor's London Plan and somehow shoehorn in those 10000 new dwellings/ 30000+ extra people. They tell us that any change of govt next year is committed to the same plan and would also punish us for resiting. I despair.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Pam, has anyone actually asked Ed Miliband if a Labour Government would still force Haringey to follow the Stuart Lipton/Boris Johnson/Claire Kober/Alan Strickland Tory social cleansing plans?
This is where I don't understand the supine attitude of some of the "Labour" councillors. They need to locate their backbone and get off their knees. We are only six months from a General Election. Which gives every reason for at least caution - if not delay.
The Supreme Court judgement on Haringey's cocked-up consultation with Council Tax surely makes it legally advisable to review what were clearly and fundamentally flawed consultations. Unlike decisions already made and put into effect, where binding actions have not yet been taken remedying the errors can happen without this being "disproportionate".
The potential damage about to be inflicted on people's homes and businesses; the dislocation of their children's schooling; the partial dispersal of families and communities, this unnecessary and poisonous harm may be avoided.
I again watched Ed Miliband's Hugo Young lecture a few evenings ago. He doesn't seem like a Tory to me.
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At the Tottenham Hale and Seven Sisters Area Forum (and Committee) on 21st October, i cant remember if it was Councillor Jason Arthur, Cabinet Member for Resources and Culture, or the senior council officer - Head of Planning? - presenting the Tottenham Area Action Plan, who was asked this question, whether there can be any hope post May 2015. He said that he had met Hilary Benn, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (ie Pickles' shadow), who had said there will be no change, expect no quarter, London Plan rools. They have drunk the growth-is-the-only-alternative Kool-Aid.
So to be scrupulously fair to Cllrs Kober and Strickland, which you know I am always, they are powerless to resist and they will be forced to accept imposed commissioners if they don't come up with a plan that ticks this box. And this would be WORSE, and I agree.
[This is why it would be handy to have a published record of these meetings - they are not minuted, but essential info comes out that is needed for how we are meant to make our own plans including how to vote. Or not. ]
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Yes, Pam. Martin Ball reported something similar. But if you mean what Stephen Kelly said, then it sounded to me like he may have inadvertently strayed across the line which keeps senior council officers in their professional role, and lets elected councillors do the political stuff.
How do you feel about a few of us non-Kober Labour members asking to speak to Hilary Benn to ask if he accepts all this as inevitable and unchangeable? And if Catherine West - Labour candidate for Hornsey, Wood Green takes the same line?
With UKIP, the Scottish Referendum, and now a slight surge to the Greens, political tides are running in all sorts of strange ways. Both Hilary Benn and Ed Miliband will know this all too well. And also know that if Labour really is offering people a slightly paler shade of blue, that's not going to deliver us a majority.
Cllr Jason Arthur? I don't think I've met the bloke. And certainly not talked with him. But this year's cuts budget would be a poison chalice for anyone - let alone a newly elected councillor. So I felt sorry for him. assuming Jason was another patsy in the Dear Leader's manipulative poker games. And that he'd carry the can for the cuts she and Nick Walkley had planned. On the other hand, the budget faux-consultation is toe curlingly embarrassing. And since I'm told Jason is intelligent and articulate, he should have realised that "Investing in our tomorrow" is barrel-scraping adspeak.
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Permalink Reply by John Power on
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This story shocked me - is it our borough? But if you click on the link 'most rotten Council?' you will find that it is about Tower Hamlets. The story is in the Guardian and on the londonnews24.com website. Hopefully things in Haringey will never get so bad....
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Groups want scapegoats, John.
Many years ago I heard fellow Haringey Labour Party members comparing us to other boroughs. "We're pretty bad". they'd say. Then with relief, "But nothing like Hackney". And if they were a bit older, they might mention Shirley Porter in Westminster."
Now Tower Hamlets is presented as the naughty child in the class.
"Hopefully things in Haringey will never get so bad..." They don't need to, John. Remember Tolstoy's famous comparison between dogs and cats.
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This is about Tower Hamlets not Haringey . Lets hope Haringey doesn't have to sink any lower in order to get some proper action.
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what 'proper action' would Pickles do that woudnt be much much worse than our own admin? I may have my criticisms but a lumbering Tory rolling over planning across the borough is a nightmare worse than Halloween. Or maybe Clive thinks otherwise.
[Disclaimer - we asked Pickles to call in the Grainger plan and he refused. Evidence enough for me.]
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