Leader's Address
Councillor George Meehan, Leader of the Council
Minutes:
The written answers to questions to the Leader are given in Appendix One.
The Committee received the Leader’s report on the Executive’s priorities for 2006/7. The Committee noted the key priorities for Haringey and further noted that a full four year plan was currently being drafted.
The Committee noted Council’s aim to achieve excellent services across the board for all residents. The Committee noted the desire to bring Community Leadership to all public services, and also the desire to increase people’s involvement in the shaping of their services through events such as the Residents’ Conference.
It was noted that the Executive believed that continued improvements revolved around the following elements:
- Delivering savings for Gershon and Value For Money, linked to the investment strategy
- Delivering community strategy and local area agreements through the Haringey Strategic Partnership and the Council’s partners
- Embedding – values and the service improvement agenda
Other top priorities for the new leadership were given stated, those being community safety, children and young people and financial stability.
Members raised concerns over the health inequalities between the East and West of the borough. The Leader of the Council stated that discussions with the Primary Care Trust were ongoing, and it would be inappropriate to comment until discussion had concluded taking place.
In response to Member queries about Pay and Display and CPZ consultation, the Leader of the Council assured Members that the CPZ was being delayed to allow ward Councillors to be involved, and gave the assurance that ward councillors would asked to comment on future CPZ proposals.
The Leader responded to Members’ concerns over the Tech Refresh project, stating that it was a collective failure on the part of the Council and that he was personally overseeing the current I.T. project.
Members requested that lobbying take place to gain Haringey an improved grant settlement for the next municipal year. The Leader assured Members that it would.
In light of the further duties being placed upon the Overview & Scrutiny committee, Members requested information on the resourcing of the committee. The Leader offered to talk to partners to discuss their potential making a contribution to funding.
RESOVLED: