Issue - meetings

A five-minute each update to the BPP from Key Partners/Agencies on issues prevalent to their areas of work (UPDATES TO BE TABLED AT MEETING).

·                    Haringey Council

·                    The Community Engagement Forum

·                    Other agencies: including Fire, Police, Environment Agency, Mobility Forum.

i)        Haringey Council

The Better Haringey campaign programme for a cleaner and greener Haringey, from the last administration, had been delivered and was to be continued. The question now arose as to where does it go next. Issues discussed centred around funding streams.

With regard to improving homes, it was reported that the ALMO was now up and running, with improvements in progress for a successful inspection later this year.

Local transport – work continued with TFL implementing safety schemes, which were having an impact on statistics.

Environmental sustainability – recycling and its wider impact had been led by work of the partnership.

Sports & Leisure centres and parks – wider use was being made of the facilities.

Built environment – design and design standards would be the major theme over the next four years.    

ii)                  Community Engagement

       The latest copy of the Bulletin, ‘Haringey Community Action’ was circulated.

       Concern was raised as to housing densities and the tripling of housing developments. There was hope that high densities of housing would be dropped. There was still an open space deficiency in the borough. It was thought that the current definition was inadequate, having recalculated the open space deficiency, in order to protect the available open space in the borough.

       Resourcing parks was requested now, the view of the community being that they require dedicated staffing to be in the parks. Funding for parks was inadequate and a comparative review was requested with other boroughs. It was thought that more relevant funding was required and, although it was agreed that parks should receive more money, budgets were tight. The ‘Streetscope’ manual, which was to be published shortly, was welcomed.

iii)                Fire Service

It was emphasised that community fire safety was the priority, with the provision of free smoke alarms and fire safety checks for vulnerable people. The figure for dwellings without smoke alarms is 70%. With secondary fires some were down 80% but overall they are decreasing. The actual figures are on the attached spreadsheet that was requested at the meeting. The gap in the individual categories and the total is for fires such as grass fires which accounts for spikes in hot summers – this year will be very high. However we are concentrating on reducing the ‘anti-social’ areas where we can have some influence such as rubbish fires from fly tipping, bin rooms being left unlocked, abandoned vehicles, etc. these fires are declining but with local partnership working we can become more effective and assist in ‘cleaning up’ Haringey. The graph below reflects the patterns.

iv)                Mobility

       Mobility Forum had been in existence now for 2 years. It was mentioned that Hackney had a good community transport scheme and a link up was proposed with them, to provide a service with neighbouring boroughs. The service should be for all age groups, for people who were having difficulties with using conventional transport.

            It was suggested that HSP be requested to identify the level of resources that are aspired to for a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7