Agenda and draft minutes

 Councillor Toni Mallet opened the meeting as the Chair, Councillor Eddie Griffith, had been delayed.

Councillor Griffith’s apologies for lateness were given. 

Councillor Mallet introduced the officers and Councillors in attendance gave an overview of the items on the agenda.

The Neighbourhood Manager for West Green and Bruce Grove, Bernadette Riganti, gave an overview of the work that had been undertaken since the last meeting:

Making the Difference Programme

This programme provides small grants to locally based projects across the Borough and was administered by the Neighbourhoods Teams.

It was noted that nineteen projects had been awarded funding in West Green and Bruce Grove since the previous meeting.

Local Areas for Improvement

Neighbourhood Management work closely with local services and residents to resolve persistent problems in the area.  An example of the work underway in West Green and Bruce Grove are the following projects:

Ø      Lordship Road/Walpole Road –following work with local businesses and residents to discuss their concerns about anti social behaviour, security and dumping, a gate is being installed to prevent access access to the alleyway at the rear of the buildings.

Ø      Moorefield Road – Anti Social Behaviour (ASB) including street drinking and environmental problems had been identified as issues of concern. To address this work had been undertaken with the Police and the Council’s Enforcement Service and the feedback received from residents suggested that this work was having positive impact. Work had also been undertaken to clear alley ways in the area.

Ø      Pembury Road – Targeted work is underway to reduce fly tipping here.

Ø      Milton Road Estate –work was being undertaken with Partners to tackle ASB in the area. Haringey’s Youth Response team were working on the estate and a ‘home work’ club for younger students was starting in the new year. 

Ø      West Green Road –a ‘Clean Sweep’ of part of West Green Road was being organised at present. Similar events, which brought together local residents and partner agencies, had been held in the Borough and had proved successful in tidying up areas.

Business Support

A ‘walkabout’ had been undertaken by the Leader of the Council of the Philip Lane/West Green Road area on 8 July 2009. This provided an opportunity   to discuss issues raised by local residents and businesses. As a result of discussion a number of initiatives were being undertaken to encourage people to shop locally and support local businesses and to resolve parking issues.

Closer Working with Young People

At the previous meeting the Chair had stated that he intended to forge closer working relationships with young people and increase their involvement in local decision making.

As a result the Chief Executive of Homes for Haringey (HfH) had given two young people to the opportunity to shadow him for two weeks. The initiative had been successful and a further four young people were being offered chance to shadow senior officers next summer. Anybody who was interested in taking up these places should contact Bernadette Riganti.

In addition Haringey Young People Empowerment (HYPE) was developing a project to help build relationships between young people and older people. This formed part of a Leadership Programme that was currently being developed, which would consist of modules, including one that paired young  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The meeting was advised the Area Priorities for each Neighbourhood Plan were set on an annual basis following consultation with local communities via the Area Assembly meetings.

This year a new electronic voting system was being piloted whereby residents could vote directly for the priorities that they considered were most important to their community.

The residents present were issued with key pads and asked to identify the three priorities most important to them under the six following headings:

• An environmentally sustainable future
• People at the heart of change
• People and customer focus
• Healthier people with a better quality of life
• Economic vitality and prosperity shared by all
• Be safer for all

A voting exercise was then undertaken the results of which are appended to these minutes.

The Chair thanked everyone for participating and the Neighbourhood Manager advised that an update on how the results of the exercise were being implemented would be received at the next meeting.

The meeting was advised that three workshop sessions would be held to discuss the issues set out below:

• Health and Well Being
• Young People
• Crime and Grime

The sessions were intended to focus in more detail on ‘Healthy Living’ and the experience of local residents with respect to the issues set out above.

Following the workshops a brief overview was given of the three key issues identified by each group (full notes were taken of each of the workshop sessions and the actions arising from these would be taken forward by the Neighbourhood Management Team):

Health and Well Being

Ø      Mental Health – it was noted that there were many non clinical services run by NHS Haringey, the Voluntary and Community Sector and Council, which people were unaware of. There was agreement that a directory and other literature to sign post people to these services would be useful.

Ø      Transport across the Borough to hospitals and clinics –concern was expressed with respect the difficulty many people experienced in travelling across the Borough for appointments.

Ø      Information sharing/dissemination –there was a general consensus that a piece of work to identify how information on services could be better disseminated was required.

Concern was expressed that there was insufficient communication with young people on mental health issues and the services available to young people. There was agreement that the Neighbourhoods Team should look at how this issue was addressed locally.

Young People

Ø      Life long learning –it was agreed the opportunities for learning beyond school age needed to be better promoted.

Ø      Expectations and information awareness –there had been agreement that ensuring young people were aware of the range of opportunities available and the provision of appropriate careers advice was essential.    

Ø      Building relationships and bridging the gap between the generations –this was recognised as being of key importance in creating better community cohesion and improving understanding between the generations.

Crime and Grime

Ø      Better use of community based Intelligence by the Local Authority –there was agreement that once the Council received a complaint it was important that it was seen to be acting upon it. This ‘visibility’ fostered trust between the community and the Council. 

Ø      Bruce Castle Park: Anti Social Behaviour –this area and incidents of ASB were identified as being particular concern to residents. However, as yet there had been no visible action from the Police and Council. 

Ø      Greater visibility of public services –echoing the points above, there was agreement that this was a key issue. Engaging with local residents and feeding back to them on the issues they had raised was a key area for local residents.

The meeting was advised that the Council was able to give the Police powers to enforce a ban on street drinking in certain areas. However, this was often problematic as rather than solving the issue it often moved it onto an adjacent area.

Local residents were thanked for their participation in the workshops and it was noted that feedback on how the issues arising from the meeting was being dealt with would be received at the next meeting.

 Councillor Lorna Reith, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children and Young People and Councillor Dilek Dogus, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, were in attendance to take questions from members of the public.

Freedom Pass –Funding Issues

In response to a question as to what the position was with respect to funding for the Freedom Pass; Councillor Reith confirmed that central Government had indicated that it intended to cut the funding it made available for the Freedom Pass. At present London Council’s was formulating a response on behalf of all of the Local Authorities in London objecting to this.

Councillor Reith advised that the Council recognised the importance of the Freedom Pass to local residents and noted that the Leader of the Council had made a statement to this affect. Residents were advised that the Council supported the continuation of the scheme and would keep local people advised of the situation. 

Improving Information Sharing

Councillor Reith noted that a key theme emerging from the Workshops had been improving the way information was shared and disseminated by the Council and other key agencies in the Borough.

The Council’s key communication tools were Haringey People and the Council’s website. Councillor Reith asked residents how they considered these tools could be developed and built upon to improve the way information was shared.

In terms of improving communication with young people and engaging young people it was suggested that the Council should use social networking sites such as Facebook. It was also suggested that workshop sessions could be held at local Colleges to focus on specific issues with young people.

Concern was expressed that the Council’s website was difficult to navigate and provided only general contact numbers rather than the details of individual officers.

Residents were advised that the Council switch board would be able to direct calls to the appropriate officer. Alternatively local Neighbourhood Teams were also able to assist people resolve issues and act as a liaison point between Council officers and local residents.

 It was suggested that an online directory, providing links to Voluntary and Community groups in the Borough, should be established and published on the Council’s website.

In conclusion the Neighbourhood Manager thanked residents for their participation and advised that their views and comments would be reviewed and addressed by the Neighbours Team.

It was noted that the next meeting was scheduled for 1 March 2009.

The location of the meeting was yet to be confirmed, but this would be publicised well in advance of the meeting.