Stroud Green Ward

At the launch of the new Draft Bill on energy, Liberal Democrat Secretary of State of Energy and Climate Change Ed Davey, writes:

Over the next decade, around a fifth of existing power plants are due to close, against a background of increased energy demand and increasing prices. We need new investment simply to keep the lights on.

But more than that, we need a clean energy revolution to meet our ambitious climate change goals and make this the greenest government ever.

That’s why I am bringing forward a new Energy Bill today.

You can read more about our clean energy revolution here.

We also need to transform our energy market to reduce the risk and cost of low carbon technologies.

That’s what our Bill does.

The UK is fast becoming a world leader in renewable energy, especially in off shore wind. I want us to lead the world in Carbon Capture and Storage too.

And we are also tackling rising energy bills. Without reforming the energy market bills will rise by around £200 in the coming years. Our reforms will mean bills are around 4% lower than they otherwise would have been.

Going green is good for the economy, good for Britain and good for you.

Yours,

Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change

(Image licensed under Creative Commons from DECC)

(Click picture to play video)

It is shameful that, despite all the promise on a four or five year old’s first day at school, or the passion of their teachers, you can all too often plot that child’s path just by asking how much their parents earn.

The £2.5billion Pupil Premium was one of the four pledges on the front page of our manifesto.  And now, with Liberal Democrats in government, schools are using the money for things like breakfast clubs; homework clubs; or to provide one-to-one-tuition. These are the sort of experiences many middle class children take for granted but a poorer child might rarely enjoy.

Yesterday I visited a fantastic primary school to see how they are spending their Pupil Premium, highlight our new Summer Schools to ease the transition from primary to secondary, and to set out our plans to reward teachers and hold schools to account.

The Pupil Premium shows that, in tough times, we are implementing Liberal Democrat values and prioritising help for those pupils who need it most.

Best wishes,

Nick Clegg MP

Leader of the Liberal Democrats and Deputy Prime Minister

PS Click here to find out how much money your local school will receive from the Liberal Democrats’ Pupil Premium.

Despite huge opposition and complaints from residents the Council plans to push ahead with plans to implement fortnightly collections of non-recyclable rubbish in Stroud Green in June.  They have written to residents in the last week telling them about the new arrangements, which also means new recycling wheelie bins will replace the current green recycling boxes and all properties will therefore have to have at least two wheelie bins.

Fortnightly collections have already been introduced into Highgate, Muswell Hill and parts of Wood Green, so this week Stroud Green councillor Richard Wilson went out with Muswell Hill councillor Gail Engert to see the results first-hand.  Even in leafy roads where the houses have large front gardens there were some overflowing bins, but where houses had been broken up into lots of flats the situation was terrible (see picture).  And in terraced streets where there are tiny gardens, residents are complaining their pavements have become a permanent sea of wheelie bins with nowhere else to go.  Clearly the Council’s experiment is not working.

This all bodes very badly for Stroud Green where there are lots of densely-populated terraced roads, and lots of houses that have been broken up into flats.  My colleagues and I have begged the council to halt the planned expansion and to review all the problems in the phase 1 areas like Muswell Hill.  However, the Labour Cabinet member  in charge is refusing to listen and anyone who complains about overflowing bins has been attacked for ‘scaremongering‘.  We will continue to argue in favour of more recycling and against fortnightly collections, but if they insist on pressing ahead we will do everything we can to try and mitigate the impact and sort out the problems that arise.

Over the last few weeks a number of people have contacted the local Liberal Democrat team, concerned that someone is living on the Parkland Walk in Stroud Green. Local residents were concerned the person has mental health problems and is damaging the nature area by pulling up bushes and plants.

Obviously, its completely unacceptable for someone to being living on the Walk – particularly if their behaviour is distressing residents and park users and causing damage. Even more worrying is that someone in a vulnerable state could be living in this way on our doorstep.

Cllr Richard Wilson says, “Since being alerted to this I’ve been in contact with the local police, the Council’s Parks Department, the Council’s Adult Social Care Department and Haringey’s mental health team to try to get some co-ordinated action from them. I’ve now been assured that steps will be taken very soon by all these agencies to get this person off the Parkland Walk.”

Fingers crossed that this intervention is a success and the person gets the help they need.

This week, Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat minister at the Department of Health) has launched a national £4 million lung cancer awareness campaign. The campaign, the first of its kind, will use TV, radio and press adverts, and advertising on pharmacist bags and inside GP surgeries, to raise awareness of the disease.

One of its aims is to persuade anyone who has had a cough for more than three weeks to see their doctor.

You can find more information about coughing and lung cancer at the Department of Health website, here: http://www.dh.gov.uk/health/2012/05/coughing-could-be-a-sign-of-lung-cancer-2/

With 33,000 new cases diagnosed each year, lung cancer is a blight on the lives of far too many of our families and an early diagnosis can make all the difference. Please take the opportunity of the Be Clear on Cancer campaign to find out more about prevention and diagnosis, and to visit your local doctor if you’ve had a persistent cough – it is always better to be safe than sorry!

http://www.dh.gov.uk/health/tag/be-clear-on-cancer/

With the W3 being the most complained about bus service in the whole of London it was easy to persuade our London Assembly candidates to help out with a survey of W3 bus users last week. Lynne Featherstone and the Stroud Green Liberal Democrat team have been pressing Transport for London to sort out the problems on the bus route – which all started when a new operator took over.

They’ve promised us that the long waits and irregular service have been sorted – but we wanted to check if this was really the case by surveying the unlucky users of the service at Finsbury Park Station. Councillor Richard Wilson was joined by two excellent Lib Dem Assembly candidates Caroline Pigeon and Dawn Barnes.  Caroline has been a London-wide Assembly member for four years and has helped the team with a number of  transport and bus issues.  Dawn is our new candidate for the Haringey constituency seat on the Assembly, and has run a really energetic campaign mucking in with local councillors like me.

Richard says, “In my 6 years as a councillor I’ve never met the current Labour Assembly member who represents Haringey and have never seen or heard of her doing anything to help residents in Stroud Green – so I’m glad Dawn is showing her up by working so hard.”

Please remember to vote on Thursday and hopefully we can get more hard-working London Assembly members working on issues that matter in Stroud Green.

Cllr Ed Butcher has recently persuaded the Council to install road signs on a dangerous road bend, where there has been a number of accidents in recent years.  Hazard signs have been put up on the bend of Upper Tollington Park, by the junction with Oakfield Road after requests from Ed.

There have been a good few accidents here over the past few years with the walled flower bed often being smashed into by vehicles that are presumably going too fast to turn. Hopefully these new signs will encourage drivers to slow down.

However, the root cause is that people are driving too fast along the whole length of Upper Tollington Park. So Ed, Katherine, Lynne and Richard will keep up their long-running campaign for more anti-speeding measures on this road.

The next Crouch End, Hornsey & Stroud Green Area Forum will be held at Hornsey Girls School, Inderwick Road on Tuesday (24th) starting  at 6.30pm. The Forums are an opportunity to find out what is happening in the area, have your say and meet local councillors.

The agenda includes issues such as parking, Hornsey Town Hall and the ‘Jamaica Village’ event.  One interesting item is that bosses from both First Capital Connect and London Overground are coming to talk about Finsbury Park, Harringay, Hornsey and Crouch Hill stations to alert us to any future plans and answer questions. So if you have any concerns about local rail services or railway stations then please come along.  The full agenda is here.

We hope to see you there.

Official reports have confirmed that no Liberal Democrat-run council in England has increased council tax for their residents. This is unlike both other major parties, many of which are increasing council tax by up to 3.5% this year.

Commenting on Labour and Conservative councils’ record on Council Tax, Liberal Democrat Party President, Tim Farron said:

“While Labour and the Tories fight over how many of their councils raised Council Tax, it’s clear that with the Liberal Democrats your money is safest: no Liberal Democrat-run council in England has raised Council Tax.

“Ordinary working families are struggling already with paying bills, without their councils increasing the burden.

“The choice in next month’s elections is clear: vote Liberal Democrat for financially responsible councils that create jobs. Vote Labour and the Tories for waste, mismanagement and tax rises.”

As well as freezing council tax across the country, Liberal Democrat councils are protecting front-line services, fighting to keep libraries and Sure Start centres open. This is in addition to the achievements of the Liberal Democrats in government, which after the Budget include a £130 income tax cut for all working families, the largest-ever rise in the basic state pension, an increase in child tax credits for the poorest families, and an increase in the Lib Dem Pupil Premium to £600 for every pupil receiving Free School Meals.

At every level of government, the Liberal Democrats are cutting taxes for low- and middle-earners and better targeting help to those that need it the most. It is a record of financial responsibility of which we can be proud.

Regular readers of my website know I’m always happy to help sort out a problem the Council hasn’t resolved for weeks (and engage in a bit of of pointing if necessary – see picture).   But this Easter I encountered one of the worst examples of Haringey incompetence yet – a blocked drain on Stroud Green Road that a resident has been complaining about for three and a half months.  He first contacted the Council on New Years Eve – but its still not properly cleared now.

Twice the Council has declared the drain fixed - but on each occasion seems to have gone to the wrong place or not done the job properly.  A month ago the resident got the Chief Executive of Haringey Council involved – but despite his intervention the drain remains full of mud and litter!

I’ve now asked for the Council to get its act together and sort this out once and for all.  One senior council officer has said the budget cuts make it harder to sort out issues like this.  But surely its cheaper to fix a drain the first time, rather than send officers on multiple visits, have to respond to further complaints, and use up the Chief Executive’s valuable time?  No wonder Haringey Council is in such a mess, if it can’t even sort out small things like this.