Lynne Featherstone

To help fight for older people’s services, threatened with closure by Haringey Council, local Liberal Democrats have today (Monday 24th) launched a campaign against the cuts.

The campaign follows visits last week to luncheon clubs and care homes in Haringey by leading Liberal Democrats.  Lynne Featherstone MP and Stroud Green Councillor Katherine Reece on Friday 21st January listened to concerned luncheon club users at Abyssinia Court, one of the services threatened with closure. The Weston Park club-users are fighting to save their treasured service, which puts on activities like exercise classes, bingo and outings in the local area.

Cllr David Schmitz (Harringay ward) also visited users of Willoughby Road day centre in January 2011.

The Labour Council announced in December 2010 that the Haven and Grange Day Centres, Abyssinia Court, Willoughby Road, Woodside House and Irish Centre Drop-in centres as well as Jackson’s Lane Luncheon club would be cut to save £425,000, representing just 0.2% of the £182 million in central government funding the Council will receive next year.

To help to put pressure on the Labour Council to halt the closures, Liberal Democrats have today launched a petition. Local residents can back the campaign by going to the following site:

http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/saveolderpeoplesservices

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“I understand that the Council need to make tough decisions following reductions in government funding, which takes Haringey’s share back to the 2007 grant level.

“But that does not mean it needs to make such drastic cuts to frontline services like luncheon clubs. Having spoken to many older people this weekend, I know how precious and treasured these services are.

“The Council needs to take a good hard look at its own backroom spending before cutting life lines like the Abyssinia luncheon club.”

Stroud Green Councillor Katherine Reece adds:

“For many elderly Stroud Green residents, the Abyssinia court luncheon club is a true lifesaver. It’s a place where they can meet other local residents, keep fit and have fun. For many of the club-users I spoke to on my visit, it’s the one time of the day when they get out of the house.

“Surely taking away this life-line, which gives amazing value for money, is madness, and risks having big knock-on effects to the local NHS. This is just not joined-up thinking.

“Please sign our petition and help support our campaign to halt these plans now!”

While local Liberal Democrats were celebrating the big increase in Lynne Featherstone’s majority in the General Election, there was disappointment that the party did not manage to take control of Haringey Council, which remains under Labour rule.

Lib Dem local candidates in the Hornsey and Wood Green constituency polled even higher than Ms Featherstone overall, but it wasn’t enough to make the crucial handful of gains that would have put an end to 40 years of Labour control of Haringey Council, dubbed the worst council in London.

Ms Featherstone’s majority over Labour almost trebled, as voters endorsed her five years as MP. Lib Dem council candidates in 21 seats romped to victory, and there was delight as the party held its two seats in Harringay ward, that were recounted on Friday afternoon.

Lib Dems also expressed satisfaction that hard working candidate David Schmitz easily retained second place in the Tottenham constituency – and secured a seat on Haringey Council. However, the results were not enough to secure the extra seats needed in the Wood Green area, where the party narrowly lost out to Labour.

There was also delight among local Lib Dems that two of their former friends and colleagues, Stephen Gilbert (former Fortis Green councillor) and Duncan Hames (former Tottenham candidate) were both elected to Parliament in the West Country.

Lib Dem Leader Robert Gorrie comments:

“While there is disappointment in not winning control of Haringey Council, I’d like to thank local people for the largest ever Lib Dem vote in the borough. And I’m delighted that Lynne Featherstone has won such a ringing endorsement from local voters.

“With no other parties coming close to wining any seats on the Council it again falls to the Lib Dems to provide the opposition that is the real force pushing this council to improve. With Labour winning with just 39 per cent of the votes, they will certainly have to listen.”

“It’s a privilege and a joy to serve this community”. Those were the words of thanks from sitting MP Lynne Featherstone, who was formally adopted this week as the Liberal Democrats’ candidate for the Hornsey & Wood Green constituency.

Sarah Ludford MEP and Brian Paddick, former Lib Dem candidate for London Mayor, were guest speakers at the packed event in Hornsey Bowling Club, which also adopted local campaigner David Schmitz as the party’s candidate for Tottenham.

The elections in Haringey are predicted to be a very close contest between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, with local Tories out of the race. Ms Featherstone is defending a 2,395 vote majority over Labour, and elections for Haringey Council are on a knife edge between the two parties. The Conservatives have no elected councillors and finished a poor third in both the Parliamentary seats last time.

Ms Ludford described Lynne as, “a local treasure for Haringey and a national treasure for the party,” reminding the audience that she had been labelled a ‘Saint’ by the Daily Telegraph for her exemplary record over election expenses.

Brian Paddick, a former senior Met Police officer, welcomed the party’s policies to boost policing in Haringey, with plans for more out-of-hours police cover. Welcoming the adoption of David Schmitz as candidate for Tottenham, Mr Paddick stressed the need for a second Lib Dem MP in the borough.

Commenting after the meeting, Lynne Featherstone said:

“I want to thank everyone who has supported me over the last five years, and I am looking forward to the campaign. I will continue to fight for local people and for services in Hornsey and Wood Green, working for local residents, fighting for fair funding for our schools and putting a stop to threats to our local health services. And in David Schmitz, Tottenham can also have a Parliamentary champion who will fight hard for residents.”

We had our formal process of ‘adoption’ this week – when LibDems gather to nominate and second the proposals for Parliamentary Candidates for both Hornsey & Wood Green and Tottenham.

Sarah Ludford, MEP and Brian Paddick (ex Deputy Commissioner in the Met and our London Mayoral candidate last time out) came and said wonderful things about me (modesty prevents me repeating them here) and about David Schmitz – our candidate in Tottenham.

It was good fun – and David made the wittiest and funniest speech I heard in a long time. Sarah and Brian were obviously very complementary – and I rounded off the evening with a rallying type exhortation to action.

The ‘buzz’ in the room was really good – and everyone is excited at the prospect of the election ahead.

I ran a campaign a couple of years ago – called ‘make mine a double’ with a picture postcard on which I am pointing at two green boxes for recycling. Before my campaign – Labour Haringey would only ‘allow’ one per household. Obviously we succeeded – and now we can all have two or more!

But the point of mentioning this now is that with both a General Election and Council elections on May 6 – we’re all aiming to make the elections a double too – by winning both! Make mine a double!

Local Liberal Democrats have expressed concern at the refusal by the Labour leadership of the Haringey Council to support a petition to improve a dangerous crossing in Green Lanes, Tottenham, near Ducketts Common.

A question put by Cllr Karen Alexander (Harringay Ward) to the leader of the Council last week asked whether the Council would support the petition. In answer, Cllr Claire Kober replied at the Full Council meeting, “I find the request the most perplexing question I’ve been asked all night, you know, no, this is not about petitions, this is grown-up.”

Cllr Alexander (Harringay ward) comments:

“There is nothing childish about local residents working to get Haringey Council to remove a death-trap to which hundreds of children are exposed every day when they go to school. It would have been helpful if Haringey Council had supported our campaign. We would stand a better chance of receiving funding, that Haringey Council says it has applied for, if we can show the level of local support for the necessary works.”

Tottenham Liberal Democrat chairman, David Schmitz, who lives near to the junction and who has spearheaded the campaign, adds:

“This petition has gained enormous support from people of all political parties. We now have about 250 signatures, and the number is constantly rising. It is disappointing that Cllr Kober is mocking a campaign that people in her own party have supported in the past.”

Cllr Carolyn Baker (Harringay Ward) adds:

“Petitions are the traditional way of showing just how strongly local people feel about an issue. For the Labour leadership to be so dismissive of the campaign shows just how hopelessly out of touch they are.”

Fred Knight, Labour Councillor for decades died in November after a long and honourable service to this borough. The by-election polled yesterday. The ward, Seven Sisters, was in traditional Labour heartlands in Tottenham – but we still doubled our vote with a swing of around 10% from Labour to us.

That’s a swing that would see us very comfortably into control of Haringey Council when the local elections come in 2010. Good too to see turnout up a little on the last elections – unusual for a by-election, and higher turnouts are good for a healthy democracy.

1,032 – 37% Joe Goldberg, Labour (-9%)
968 – 35% Isaac Revah, Conservative (+7%)
588 – 21% David Schmitz, Liberal Democrat (+8%)
166 – 6% Anne Gray, Green (-7%)
36 – 1% Lydia Rivlin, Independent

Over the last year, the online presence of Haringey Liberal Democrats has steadily been growing and expanding. Five of my local colleagues now have their own sites / blogs:

Matt Davies – Fortis Green councillor
Fiyaz Mughal – Noel Park councillor
David Schimtz – Tottenham Parliamentary spokesman and Seven Sisters candidate
Neil Williams – Highgate councillor
Richard Wilson – Stroud Green councillor

Haringey Liberal Democrats are also on Facebook, including information about our forthcoming events, or – if you’re not a Facebooker – you can also instead out about our events via the main party website.

Oh, and don’t forget – I’m on Facebook, Twitter (mini-blog style updates) and Flickr (photos).

My Liberal Democrat colleague David Schmitz has been selected to fight the Seven Sisters ward by-election, caused by the sad death of long-serving councillor Fred Knight.

David is also the Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson for Tottenham and a seasoned campaigner. He’s a barrister – which can come in handy – like in the case of the Wards Corner development where he has been giving free legal advice to members of the Wards Corner Community Coalition who are fighting to save the Latin American Market and building.

David is also campaigning on holding Labour-run Haringey Council to account over the hideous mismanagement and dreadful behaviour over the tragic death of Baby P – in which I too have been holding Haringey Labour’s feet to the fire. And he has been vocal and effective in ensuring that not a single penny in pay off is made to anyone found to have been guilty of gross misconduct.

David’s story of how he became involved in local campaigning is one to warm my heart – seeing a problem, doing something about it. As he recounts:

A few years ago, the house next door to us became a drugs den. Haringey Council’s inability to deal with the problem turned me into a local campaigner.

When the drug den was destroyed by fire, my partner and I bought the wreck and spent a year doing it up as our home. I was so impressed by what Lynne and the Liberal Democrats were achieving in Haringey that when our building work was done, I decided that the time had come for me to join in their campaigns.

So – I am optimistic that Seven Sisters will take this opportunity to send a message to this arrogant Labour Council by electing a Liberal Democrat who will fight and stand up for local people!

Visited Spurs Foundation yesterday with Lib Dem colleagues: councillors Robert Gorrie, David Winskill and Rachel Alison, plus David Schmitz who is our prospective parliamentary candidate for Tottenham.

We were looking at the work the foundation is doing in terms of encouraging learning, sports opportunities for children with disabilities, and generally discussing how and what needed doing in terms of integration between the west and east of Haringey.

Spurs have moved a long, long way since the days when they were totally resistant to putting back anything into the local community and over the last several years have come on in leaps and bounds with 65 projects now running in Haringey and Enfield (and a couple in Waltham Forrest).

So – nice to establish closer relationship between Spurs and the Lib Dem council group so that we can work together to ensure that Spurs doesn’t only hear Labour voices in future.

Finally ended up at our Annual General Meeting for the local Lib Dem party. Loads of new faces – always welcome and old faces – equally so.

Martin Hay took us through the events at the High Court that saw the Labour Council damned over their failure to conduct the Alexandra Palace sale properly.

We had the Tottenham hustings for our prospective Parliamentary candidate – won by David Schmitz – who gave a brilliant speech (and lives in the same street as Tottenham MP David Lammy)!