Issue - meetings

[Report of the Assistant Director for Planning. To be introduced by the Leader of the Council.]

This report seeks Cabinet's approval of officer recommendations on the decision to formally designate the proposed Finsbury Park and Stroud Green Neighbourhood Forum, for the purpose of preparing a neighbourhood development plan.

The Leader of the Council introduced the report, which considered the designation of a Finsbury Park and Stroud Green Neighbourhood Area and a Finsbury Park and Stroud Green Neighbourhood Forum.

The Leader expressed that the Council welcomed neighbourhood planning and local communities taking a leading role in shaping the future of their local area. The Finsbury Park and Stroud Green Neighbourhood Forum would be the third such forum designated in Haringey, following on from those for Highgate and Crouch End. Straddling the boundaries of three local authorities the Forum will have a key role in promoting cross borough working and addressing cross boundary issues. The Council was committed to working with the Forum and neighbouring Councils to facilitate the bringing forward of a neighbourhood plan and to ensure local people could achieve their ambitions for their neighbourhood.

The Leader recognised that the Finsbury Park Working Group was disappointed that the report was recommending adoption of a neighbourhood area, which excluded the area of the Park itself. The reasoning behind this was because the neighbourhood area proposed excluded neighbourhoods that adjoin some boundaries of the Park and it was the Council’s view that this would exclude some communities from making decisions about the Park.

The Leader further drew attention to paragraph 4.4 and 4.5, which set out the reasons for not including the Park in the neighbourhood area. This included the Park’s Regional Park significance and its future being considered important to many neighbourhoods within the three Boroughs and further afield. There was concern that other neighbourhoods within the vicinity of the Park would lose influence and sway over the future of the Park and not have the opportunity for consultation on issues that affect them. The Leader emphasised that Neighbourhood forums areas could not overlap. Potentially, if a similar forum was created in south Harringay, a decision to include the Park in this boundary, would exclude local residents from having any say on a local issue. The Leader further explained that it was for these governance reasons that the Council had the discretion to exclude the Park under the Localism Act 2011, within the guidance –section 61 {g} and section 61 {i}

The Leader drew attention to the recommendation on page 70 which referenced appendix 9, the proposed boundary. This was at page 235 of the pack and this had been incorrectly stamped as appendix 3.

There were questions put forward from Cllr Culverwell and Cllr Morris and the following information noted.

• It was true, that the surrounding Councils would not have made comments about the proposal to change the boundary in their Committee reports. However, the Council had a right, within the law, to make the change as the boundary line was in the borough so it was appropriate that this was only set out in the Haringey report.
• In response to the maintaining good working relationships with Hackney and Islington Councillors, there was a wider meeting about the Park events in the coming weeks. The designation of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 76