Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Hawes+Curtis plan breaches Mayor's need for affordable housing
Just had a look at their plans, for the Planning Meeting this Thursday.
I would have thought that the plan is disqualified as their provision of anything but private sale is inadequate. The mayor's manifesto says 'I’ll work with boroughs to deliver on my target of half of all new homes being genuinely affordable'. I don't know how much of his manifesto has been confirmed as policy but that is his target.
"The viability assessment submitted with the application sets out that no affordable housing can viably be provided [the usual starting position]. The independent viability assessment that was commissioned by the Council did not agree with this position and subsequently the provision of 12%, equating to 16 shared ownership units with the NHS facility or 17.3% equating to 26 shared ownership units if a commercial unit is proposed has been proposed. This is confirmed to be the maximum reasonable amount of affordable housing."
So where is the genuinely affordable housing in this scheme?
Tags for Forum Posts: 590-598 Green Lanes, hawes & curtis
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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We're going to develop a Harringay Space Program. Top idea though so we'll do that too.
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Not at all. The space program is well in hand. We were unfortunately foiled recently by air traffic control though and won't be able to launch again until March.
If we can get into the stratosphere to take photographs of our houses then surely we can get an independent onto the council...
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Permalink Reply by DTW on
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Well you can mock John but getting an independent on the council might take a few years work but could be done. Happens elsewhere
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DTW, we've tried this. I've always advocated (on here) Labour Party entryism like the kind practiced by the traders (Ali Gul Ozbek), although sticking within the rules of the Labour Party.
We'll see how next year's selections go with all these thousands of Corbynistas in the selection meetings but I think that's a better bet seeing how much easier it is. For the 2009 Harringay Ward selections there were famously nine people present at the meeting, almost all of them wanting to be one of the three candidates. Lots of information about how they've been doing it around here, here.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on
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I don't see a future for a single-issue independent Cllr. On planning matters they'll simply be outvoted, won't they? We had an independent Cllr here (Crouch End) for years and she wasn't noticeably any different from the others.
A few years back I told the planning cttee over one application that what they were doing was wrong and they (as expected) ignored me and did it anyway - she was not able to help. The only way would have been to convince the majority of the Cttee, all members of the ruling party.
So an independent will always be in this position, won't they? Anything important and the majority will gang up, so only small, minor 'victories' and the louder they're trumped (sorry) the more oppressive the majority become next time.
Was cheered up by the market town of Frome in Somerset where a bunch of independents stood for every seat and eventually won, taking over the entire caboodle but that could never happen here.
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Have you actually tried properly though? Knocking on doors, building voter databases etc?
Trying to enter the Labour Party will create no political traction of the kind Hugh is talking about. Your are far far better creating a political problem for them to have to address rather than being a backbench councillor that is ignored in a massive group.
Use Hawes and Curtice / Hampden to collect emails and set up a association. Then use that association as an electoral platform. You do that and councillors pay attention.
I garuntee that will make them question everything they do and its potential impact more than a single councillor on the back benches. And after all that is all Hugh and others seem to want, a council that thinks a bit more. -
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Chris - one councillor on their own will of course be outvoted. I would though suggest someone like Hugh would do a better job of holding people to account but that's not the main point.
Councillors respond to politics and in particular organised groups. You build up the network they will listen. Suddenly just signing off an officers proposal without looking seems a less smart thing to do.
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In 2010 an independent stood. He went door-to-door. He worked incredibly hard. He was beaten by the election machines of the two main parties in Harringay. Results here. Harringay's vote was counted three times and was the last ward to finish the first count by several hours on the night because of all the unsportsmanlike split voting. Trust me, most people just tick for a set of the main party candidates without too much thought as to the person they are voting for, so powerful is the branding.
So will you join our space program? It is much more fun for much more pleasing results.
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John - you are using a general Election Day, local election result as evidence?
Surely you can see the turnout issue? -
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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The question raised here links very closely, in my mind, to the one I raised recently about a directly elected mayor. Right now our council leader is raised by a party whose majority in the borough has been unassailable for half a century. Could anyone be less accountable than that? A directly elected mayor could well end up being majority party too, but at least they'd be directly accountable and create a new platform to hold them to account. The optimist in me also wonders whether the open door this system would provide might be used by a non-majority party candidate. Aren't we in the era when anti-establishment candidates exceed all expectations?
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Restarting a thread hitting the 8-level nesting limit:
DTW, you wrote:
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Chris - one councillor on their own will of course be outvoted. I would though suggest someone like Hugh would do a better job of holding people to account but that's not the main point.
Councillors respond to politics and in particular organised groups. You build up the network they will listen. Suddenly just signing off an officers proposal without looking seems a less smart thing to do.-----------------------
Thanks DTW - you'll remember the 2006 situation where the Lib Dems were four Cllrs short of a majority. Presuambly the Labour majority are very keen to see that never happens again, so they will take every opportunity to disempower the Lib Dems, won't they?
I can't see any thing that the Lib Dems have acheived here since:
They're now down to 8 Cllrs out of 57. The majority 49 Labour exclude them from any of the theoretical power-sharing they could grant them (Deputy Mayor for instance) presumably for the sound reason that any power the Lib Dems are seen to weild directly threatens the Labour majoirty for the reasons you gave. So they'll never give them as much as an inch, will they? They'd give a small group of independents less, wouldn't they?
So even a small organised group of opponents will make no difference.
As you probably know, JC became an MP in 1983 after 5 years as a Harringay Cllr, so more power to the Corbyinistas - they surely represent the voice of the activist and it's only the activists who even bother to turn up to stuff so they ought to get power - nobody else gives a stuff.
However, if they do come to dominate Haringey it won't make much difference to the Planning Cttee will it? Planning officers will still run the show and 'recomend' Cllrs take their advice, won't they? The Chair of Planning will still get 'whipped' to force through any plans the leadership want, won't he?
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