Lynne Featherstone

The Liberal Democrats are calling on Haringey Council to make changes to the Board that has been set up to advise Haringey Council on the future of Hornsey Town Hall.

They want to ensure that all local groups can have confidence in the process and can feel that adequate attention is being paid to their views. The Board, which is looking into future options for the Town Hall, has come in for criticism for not being sufficiently representative of local people's concerns and ideas.

In order to create confidence in the process, the Lib Dems are asking the Council to:

• Ensure that the board is more independent of the Council and not just seen as a 'talking shop'.
• Appoint an independent co-chair, with relevant experience, to the Board, who is not a member of the Council.
• Appoint an additional representative from Crouch End for People to reflect their contribution to the debate.
• Ensure there is a councillor represented from each of the three wards that cover the immediate area.

The party is also asking that adequate resources are made available to the Board to enable it to do its work properly. Following their public meeting last week, Lib Dems believe that Crouch End for People have put forward several stimulating ideas which are in tune with Lib Dem wishes for a centre for the performing arts.

Lib Dem councillor David Winskill (Crouch End) comments:

"We need to implement these changes rapidly, in order to ensure that there is confidence in this process. There is a huge amount of expertise locally, and we need it on the Board.

"The more we work together, the more confidence we can build to ensure that we maximise the amount of public funding for Town Hall - and this will reduce the need for commercial partners, acting as a bulwark against any moves towards a quick sale of the site."