Issue - meetings

The Chair welcomed Councillor Claire Kober, Leader of Haringey Council and Councillor John Bevan, Cabinet Member for Housing, to the meeting.

Q1 What was being done to address potholes in the Muswell Hill area?

Councillor Kober advised that the Council would be investing £500K in improving the roads in the Borough during the next year. The £1M announced would be broken into two tranches with a further £500K of funding coming from capital budget, which had been re-profiled to make provision for this.

It was also noted that the Local Government Association was making representations to the Government for additional funding to support the road improvements throughout London.

Q2 Why is there no grit bins on the Campsbourne Estate and why is there no gritting undertaken on the Estate?

Councillor Bevan advised that the pavement surrounding the areas of the estate that included sheltered housing had been gritted. He agreed to discuss with officers the arrangements for gritting the estate and that there should be a review of the service provided in this area. 

Q3 Were residents allowed to use the grit stored in yellow grit bins?

Mr McNicholas advised that supplies of grit were held locally and distributed by operatives. He was aware that from time to time people used the grit from these bins and noted that there were no rules in place to prevent this.

There was discussion around the how the Council had reacted to the recent severe weather conditions and how effective gritting had been. A member of the public contended that they had obtained information that showed that twenty-one priority roads had not been gritted.

Councillor Kober noted that the last winter had been the worst on record for thirty years. During December and January there had been instances when the snow fall had been so heavy that roads, which had been gritted early in the evening, had been covered in snow rendering the grit ineffective. In these exceptional circumstances the services provided were limited in their ability to combat these weather conditions.

Q4 Can the footpath running under Hornsey Bridge be widened?

In response to concern raised by the questioner that Transport for London (TfL) had indicated that the footpath could be widened, despite the Council stating that this was not possible, Councillor Bevan advised that he would take this issue up with TfL and provide a written response.

The Chair thanked Councillor Kober and Councillor Bevan for their attendance.