Lynne Featherstone

To launch the ‘Where’s your Watch?’ Campaign, to encourage local streets to start Neighbourhood Watch groups, Lynne Featherstone MP and Cllr Martin Newton recently went to speak to a newly started Neighbourhood Watch in Highgate.
 
Residents on Southwood Lawn Road and Highgate Avenue started their ‘Watch’ after a recent spate of burglaries. With the help of Highgate Safer Neighbourhoods Team, the neighbours decided to do their bit to help keep homes on their street safe.
 
To encourage other streets to follow suit, Local Liberal Democrats are now writing to streets in Hornsey and Wood Green that do not already have a ‘Watch’.
 
Liberal Democrats on Haringey Council are also fighting to get the post of Neighbourhood Watch Coordinator, recently axed by Haringey Police, reinstated by the Council.
 
Lynne Featherstone MP comments:
 
“Neighbourhood Watch groups are great. They can help cut crime, reduce the fear of crime, and they can be a fantastic way for neighbours to get to know each other better.
 
“And that certainly seems to be the case with the Southwood Lawn and Highgate Avenue Watch. There was an impressive turnout for the meeting and a fantastic sense of community.
 
“I hope our ‘Where’s your Watch’ campaign will result in other local streets reaping the same benefits.”
 
Liberal Democrat Crime Spokesperson Cllr Martin Newton adds:
 
“Being a victim of crime is awful, and the recent burglaries on Southwood Lawn Road have really shocked the residents. But they are certainly doing what they can to stop this happening again.
 
“With better contact with the local police, I really got a sense of the neighbours feeling empowered and more in control. When people look out for each other we get better, warmer, friendlier communities – not a bad return for starting a Neighbourhood Watch!
 
“Liberal Democrats on the Council recognise the importance of Neighbourhood Watch groups and recently proposed to fund the axed Neighbourhood Watch Coordinator in Haringey. It was a shame however that Labour decided that this is not a priority and voted against our proposal.”

To help inspire students to engage in the local community and make a difference through campaigning and lobbying, Lynne Featherstone MP on Friday spoke to year ten at Highgate School.
 
The Hornsey and Wood Green MP was speaking to the students as part of their citizenship class about the workings of Parliament, lobbying MPs, and what can be achieved through local campaigning. The Liberal Democrat MP gave the students a range of examples of where the local community has come together to effect change, like the successful 603 bus campaign, and the campaign to save the Whittington A&E.
 
Lynne Featherstone MP comments:
 
“It’s pretty amazing the way things can be changed when local people come together to fight for a cause. I have seen it over and over again as a local MP.
 
“It was great to be able to show the young people here today that it can be done, and that as a citizen you have the opportunity to influence politics and the world around us. And they sure are an inquisitive lot, so I guess it’s just a matter of time before they start lobbying me on Government policy!”

To see the children at Highgate Primary in full creative Christmas spirit, drawing entries for her fifth annual card competition, Lynne Featherstone MP on Friday visited the Storey Road school.
 
This year the Hornsey and Wood Green MP has decided not to set a theme for the competition, instead the children are encouraged to draw what Christmas means to them. The Highgate children were drawing a range of colourful designs, from Christmas trees to stars and snowmen. The competition deadline is the 11th November, and the winner will be announced shortly after that.
 
Lynne Featherstone MP comments:
 
“It’s so wonderful to see the children having so much fun and getting in to the Christmas spirit as they create their festive designs for the competition.
 
“The decision this year to have an open theme has worked really well – the kids are really using their full imagination and creativity to make wonderful colourful, sparkling designs.
 
“I have certainly seen some real contenders here, and can’t wait to see the rest of this year’s entries!”

On a tour of the new Highgate Children’s Centre on Gaskell Road today, Lynne Featherstone MP got the chance to chat with fathers who attend the centre’s unique ‘dads club’, a special playgroup for local stay-at-home dads and their kids.

The club, one of only a handful in London, was started by a local dad and has been running twice a week since the centre opened in the spring. The Liberal Democrat MP, who has long been campaigning for special dads’ clubs to help involve dads in their children’s education – so called ‘dads and doughnuts clubs’ – was excited to see such an outstanding example on the site of her old primary school.

The Gaskell Road centre, which has proven highly popular since it opened in May, is also helping local parents with health care, information and general child care.

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“The club is brilliant! Being a stay-at-home parent can be hard – and the dads club offers a unique chance for Highgate dads to share experiences with people in the same situation. I would love to see similar groups start-up all over the borough.

“Highgate has long been in need of a children’s centre, and this place is a true gem! They run a fantastic range of playgroups and the dedicated staff offer invaluable support to new mums and dads. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.”

On her first local visit after being re-elected MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, Lynne Featherstone on Friday went to visit her old school, Highgate Primary, to help the children write a special school magazine with stories from old and new students.

The year six students from the North Hill school asked the Liberal Democrat MP about what was different when she was a student there. They also go the chance to ask the new Home Office Minister what it was like to be in Government, and what made her become an MP in the first place.

Lynne Featherstone ended the visit by attending a special assembly, where some of the younger students did their own take on the book ‘Where the Wild Things Are’.

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“What a wonderful way to kick-start a new term in office, by coming back to my old school, chatting with such incredibly bright and interested students, and reliving old memories.

“And topping off the visit by seeing the children do their own version of ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ was just fantastic. Especially when I got to join in the ‘monsters munch’ dance! Such fun!”

Liberal Democrats in Highgate have slammed Haringey Council for refusing to act over the future development of a key site at the gateway to Highgate. Liberal Democrats say Haringey Council’s ‘crackpot’ approach could see the busy gyratory system, at the top of the Archway Road, used for building flats. The fact that Haringey owns the land just adds insult to injury, say local Liberal Democrats.

Previous plans, although now on hold, for development at 505 Archway Road, propose to build one commercial property on the ground floor, six two-bed and one one-bed residential flats above. Highgate Liberal Democrat councillor Neil Williams has asked for a full planning brief for this sensitive site – but this has been turned down by Labour-run Haringey Council.

Cllr Williams says the refusal to act is also the height of hypocrisy – Haringey Council is rightly investing with Transport for London (TfL) in removing the gyratory system in Tottenham Hale, but is willing to contemplate building housing in the middle of a gyratory in Highgate.

Cllr Neil Williams (Highgate), comments:

“It’s clear Haringey aren’t bothered about putting a block of flats in the middle of this traffic roundabout – but it is a totally crackpot idea. You would wonder how on earth such a bizarre idea ever got this far. It adds insult to injury, that Haringey is the owner of this land.

“We need a full planning brief, for local residents to have a full say on the plans for this important entrance to Highgate.”

Lynne Featherstone MP adds:

“Haringey Council needs to fully consult on this key Highgate site, or it will show they are ignoring local residents.”

A disabled woman who has spent a year and a half in the same room without access to normal bathroom facilities has this week got extra support from local MP Lynne Featherstone to make sure Haringey Council delivers on their year-old promise to build her an accessible toilet and shower room.

Highgate resident Michelle, who is bed-ridden and in severe pain following an operation 18 months ago, cannot use the stairs and upstairs bathroom. In April 2009 she was assured by Haringey Council that a downstairs bathroom would be built. 11 months later, after full plans have been drawn up and the case given the highest priority, the work still hasn’t started.

Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone, who recently visited Michelle to see the dreadful situation for herself, has now intervened and demanded that Haringey Council gives a definite date for when work will start.

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“Michelle has been to hell and back, and frankly having to wait almost year for Haringey Council to deliver on their promise to get her an accessible bathroom adds insult to injury!

“It’s a question of decency and with full planning sorted and the space cleared for work to be carried out, I’m honestly at a loss as to why she keeps being fobbed off.

“This has been going on for too long. She needs that bathroom and Haringey Council needs to start work now – no more excuses!”

Highgate resident Michelle adds:

“Through the years I have had to deal with Haringey Council on many occasions. I have always tried to deal with issues myself first, but often have had to turn to Lynne for help – with her help I for instance got the Council to put in a disabled bay in front of my house.

“The situation I’m in now is so difficult, but hopefully with the help of Lynne, I will soon have my new bathroom.”

Local residents will not be able to use the Northern Line from local stations in Highgate, Archway and Finchley at weekends until December 2011 after tube operator, Tubelines, announced 82 weeks of weekend closures, starting on 27 March 2010.

The Liberal Democrats have launched a petition against the closures, saying that they will affect residents travelling into central London and will also have a detrimental effect on local traders in Highgate High Street and Archway, who rely on shoppers travelling in on the tube.

Liberal Democrats on the Greater London Authority (GLA), concerned that the issue has turned into a fight between a Tory Mayor and a Labour Government, rather than focusing on the needs of Londoners, have launched a five-point plan to ensure a better upgrade of the Northern Line, without the mass suspensions currently planned.

Cllr Martin Newton, Liberal Democrat Transport Spokesperson, comments:

“Local residents rely on the Northern line to get around at weekends. Twenty months of suspensions just increases the misery faced by travellers on the ‘Misery Line’.”

Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, adds:

“We all want a better Northern Line, but not when local residents have to put up with 82 weeks of weekend closures.

“Many local traders in Highgate and Archway rely on trade coming from tube users. It is unfair for these businesses, already feeling the pinch due to the economic situation, to bear the brunt of these closures.

“I hope that local residents and traders alike will support our fight against the closures and the Liberal Democrats’ five point plan to a smoother upgrade of the Northern Line.”

To help raise awareness of the proposed 82 weeks of evening and weekend closures on the Northern Line and to gain further support for their campaign Liberal Democrats have been out collecting petition signatures around Highgate Station.

Lynne Featherstone MP, Highgate councillor Rachel Allison and local Transport spokesperson Councillor Martin Newton spent Wednesday afternoon chatting with tube users at Highgate station and received strong support for their petition to get a better deal for commuters.

Local Liberal Democrats are concerned that local traders and residents will bare the brunt of the disruption caused by the 82 week plan, which is due to start on the 27th March.

The Hornsey and Wood Green MP has written to Transport for London (TfL) and Tubelines, urging them to consider an alternative five-point plan put forward by Liberal Democrats on the Greater London Authority which seeks to reduce the effect on local residents and traders.

Any Northern line user who wants to sign the petition should either go to http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/northernline or call Lynne Featherstone’s office for a hard copy of the petition.

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“We all want to see an upgraded Northern Line but the current plans will make residents suffer for almost a year and a half as the upgrade work is carried out on the Northern line – this is frankly absurd.

“It’s good to see that local residents share our concerns about how disruptive these works will be, and are keen to seen a less painful solution. By putting a strong case for a fairer upgrade deal to the people in charge I am hopeful we can get a better solution.”

Highgate Councillor Rachel Allison adds:

“I’m really worried that local traders in Highgate and Archway will suffer if their weekend trade is continually disrupted like this.

“From chatting to local Northern line users, it’s clear that a deal that doesn’t prolong the pain is preferable. Please take a minute to sign the petition and back our campaign.”