Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone and pointed out the importance of the theme: health and growing your own food. The theme was focused around workshops from Living Under One Sun, NHS Haringey, and Transforming Social Care among others. Application forms for 2010/11 Making the Difference were now available.

Transforming Social Care representative outlined proposed changes in the sector which would see users taking more control over their care thus tailoring the services to fit their individual needs. Users would be involved in budgeting and playing a bigger role in the assessment process. A 3-year roll out programme in now in place which includes wide consultation with service users and carers. The service is also involved in cross-departmental and partnership with NHS Haringey, Housing and others.

Participants moved around every 10 minutes to workshops on teenage pregnancy, personalisation, mental health, growing your own food, setting up Wood Green area gardening club, Haringey’s food strategy, walk jog and cycle and a cook and eat demonstration by Noel’s Kitchen.

Feedback from sessions

·      Personalisation: help was offered for house bound older people;

·      Grow your own food: need to widen engagement,  running a gardening competition, offering a box scheme for those with a lack of outdoor space;

·      Mental health: creating a directory of local services; and

·      Walk, jog and cycle: a walk leader volunteered.

The Neighbourhood Manager, Sonia Edwards provided feedback on the draft Area Priority Plan 2010/11 developed from the consultation exercise carried out at 1 December 2009 Area Assembly.

Applications were invited for 2010/11 Making the Difference fund. A   fast track process; projects with May-July implementation to commence planning and be able to spend was outlined.

The 2^nd more conventional process would see short listed projects being presented at the next Area Assembly where residents will show their preferences.

Ollie Jones from Capital Standards (London branch of Keep Britain Tidy) outlined the nature of partnership work that his organisation has been involved in which included local environmental quality surveys, organising national campaigns Clean up Day, local Big Tidy Up events to improve neglected areas. Recent campaigns had also focused on encouraging fast food outlets as well as customers to take more responsibility for litter and a successful eco schools programme had also been rolled out to educate children.

Requests were made for more posters display in the borough to discourage people from dropping litter. Posters could be ordered free from the Keep Britain Tidy website.   

Concerns were expressed regarding the apparent lack of information provided by the Council on what and where materials could be recycled e.g. batteries. It was confirmed that an A-Z list of materials that could be recycled was on the Council website.

No representatives from the Safer Neighbourhood Teams were in attendance at the meeting. Concerns were raised by residents and Councillors regarding the non-attendance at previous Area Assembly meetings thereby limiting the ability to discuss important concerns. The Chair confirmed that he would formally write to the area Safer Neighbourhood Teams to ensure attendance at future meetings. 

Crime- The Neighbourhood Manager would be attending the Noel Park Safer Neighbourhood Team Ward Panel later in the month and would pass on any issues raised by local residents.

Concerns were raised regarding how funding for local projects were allocated by the council. 

Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) in Noel Park were also highlighted. The latter issue would be on the agenda when the relevant Council departments meet to address conservation and planning issues.

LC1.            Question Time

LC2.             

Cllr Dogus, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Wellbeing and Cllr Reith, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People provided responses to questions.

Conservation: there is an urgent need to address these issues in Noel Park. Query on how conservation issues could be prioritised by the Council. The Chair outlined that a process and model similar to Myddleton Road in Bounds Green would be adopted to address and manage Noel Park issues. 

Primary school place funding: confirmation was provided that an ongoing campaign was in place in relation to potentially changing the formula used to calculate inner and outer London school place funding. Haringey was classified as an outer London borough when using the formula and therefore received a lower amount of per pupil funding compared to boroughs classified as inner London although Haringey teachers were paid inner London salary scales. The campaign was supported by Schools Forum, Trade Unions, all political parties and local MPs and consultants had been hired to write a formal report to justify a change to the formula. A public meeting was scheduled to be held at the Professional Development Centre on Downhills Park Road on 25 February to provide an update on the campaign. Although positive feedback for the campaign had been received it was noted that the result of the general election could impact on its success.

Monitoring of Enterprise: concerns were raised by a Noel Park resident about the cleanliness of some areas of the ward which raised questions about the level of monitoring was in place to check that Enterprise were meeting their targets. It was confirmed that strict monitoring arrangements were in place including a Street Enforcement Officer identified for each ward where local residents can report concerns to the Council. 

Haringey LINk:  a query on how LINk, the independently run group of individuals and community group representatives working together to improve the way Health and Social Care Serviceswere delivered could be promoted, especially to address health inequality issues in the east of the borough. It was advised that LINk had recently been reviewed following concerns about the level of outcomes being achieved and arrangements improved such as having representation on the Council’s Scrutiny Committee and Haringey Strategic Partnership boards. The Council’s strong commitment to improving engagement of local representatives at all levels of the decision making process e.g. through voluntary sector organisations was emphasised. Confirmation was provided that although health inequalities remained a nationwide issue, work was being undertaken in the borough to collect information on a ward by ward basis to lead discussions with local people about how these could be addressed through joint working. 

The Neighbourhood Manager drew attention to a series of Health Days and Growing your own food events with the first to be held on 25 February, 12.30-6pm at the Sandbunker Community Centre on the Sandlings estate.