Agenda item

Motion A

Proposer: Cllr Ejiofor
Seconder: Cllr Amin

The government’s response to the Covid-19 crisis has been characterised by incompetence and a lack of leadership.

The government’s response to the Covid-19 crisis has been characterised by incompetence and a lack of leadership.

Boris Johnson’s government has overseen a catalogue of errors. From going against the advice of their own scientific advisors and refusing to implement an urgent circuit breaker lockdown, to their failure to deliver effective testing and tracing and refusing to extend Free School Meals, the government endangered the lives and livelihoods of every Haringey resident.

People in Haringey and across the country have played their part in helping to control the spread of Covid-19 and gone to extraordinary lengths to help those in need their communities. It’s unacceptable that residents have made such tremendous sacrifices while the government has been willing to do so little – not even ensuring that the lockdown restrictions apply to its own advisers.

National government’s inaction, their failure to learn from the first wave, and their failure to listen to the needs of citizens has forced less well equipped and less well funded organisations, institutions, and individuals to step up. We’ve all been let down badly, and the time for the government to step up and take responsibility is well overdue. 

In order to mitigate the effects of a second wave, this council endorses the Leader of the Council writing a letter to the Prime Minister and Secretary of State to demand that they take the following actions:  

1. Extra support for the most vulnerable.

·         A winter support package to address immediate need including food poverty, mental health services, and extra support for communities disproportionately impacted in the first wave.

·         A shielding support package to allow local authorities to support those most in need.

·         A £20 increase to Universal Credit and other legacy benefits to combat fuel poverty, and an extension of Free School Meals to cover the Christmas, February half term and Easter holidays.

·         An immediate suspension of benefit sanctions to prevent the punitive removal of benefits which are essential to keeping families and children out of poverty.

2. Financial certainty for local authoritiesin 2020/21 and 2021/22. Many Councils  are going into this second wave with large budget deficits from first wave. Johnson, Sunak and Jenrick must keep to their word, and the government must deliver full funding for Haringey and, indeed, all local authorities, including reimbursement of lost income, so we can fully fund all of these essential requests, continue to support our residents and confidently deliver the key and vital services that our residents rely on. Furthermore, the government should ensure full and fair funding of Transport for London, so that the implications of lower fair income due to this pandemic are not passed on to Haringey’s Council Tax payers.

3. Safe and secure housing.

·         Extension of the ban on evictions, and a return to ‘Everyone In’ rough sleeping policy to at least the end of March 2021.

·         Suspend No Recourse to Public Funds so all those facing hardship have the support they need.

4. Protect incomes and employment.

·         Ensure that, with the recent extension of the furlough scheme until March 20201, no-one’s income will fall below the national minimum wage. 

·         Introduce a new duty on employers to ensure they can’t prevent employees from following the advice to self-isolate: no worker should have to choose between their job and their health.

·         Provide clear and unambiguous guidance for those at risk of contracting Coronavirus about their employment rights.

5. Take urgent and immediate action to improve and localise Test and Trace. There should be a staged transfer of Test and Trace funding and responsibility to local government, with local councils able to direct testing in their area including rapid expansion of testing for key workers.

6. Fully fund an emergency support package for hardest hit sectors including culture, leisure, arts, sport and hospitality, with a particular consideration of the Small business sector. Furthermore, the government must provide the funds to fully reimburse employers for the full pay of any worker who must self-isolate due to covid-19.

7. A commitment to work with all Councils as leaders in our communities.

·         Regular and open communication with all Council leaders and local Council Associations like London Councils.

·         Transparency on the criteria by which future decisions on restrictions will be made, including how we de-escalate from these restrictions and determine the Tiers into which Local Authorities are placed at the end of this lockdown period, and who will make that decision.

8. Greater support for local authorities’ enforcement role, with stronger and easier to use powers to tackle premises that do not operate safely. Fund more police capacity to support local authorities with enforcement action.

Motion B

Proposer: Cllr Hare

Seconder: Cllr Ross

Widening participation in cycling

Council notes:

1. That the Walking and Cycling Commissioner for London has stated that “More people cycling frees up space on overcrowded buses and trains. It makes our air cleaner. It gives everyone the chance to get around London quickly and affordably. It improves our mental and physical health. It makes our high streets and public places more vibrant. Making it easier to cycle means our city will be a better place to live, to work, to invest in, to raise children in.”
2. That data from TfL shows that, prior to the spring lockdown, there were an average 4.6 million daily car trips in London, and of these, 35% (1.6 million) were journeys of under 2km (1.2 miles)
3. That a survey of 16,923 residents across 12 UK cities by NatCen found that 28% “do not cycle but would like to”. This number rose to 55% amongst people from ethnic minority groups, 38% for people at risk of deprivation, 36% for women, and 31% for people with disabilities and that safety concerns were particularly acute amongst these groups.
4. That between February and June of this year, the distance travelled by Lime electric bikes increased by 129% across London, and by 253% on roads where new bike lines were constructed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
5. That TfL records show that in 2019 there were 126 cyclist casualties on roads in Haringey, a 17% increase on the previous year, and the second highest number across all Outer London boroughs.
6. That the Council’s LIP concedes that “the borough lacks a coherent cycle network, reducing the ability for people to partake in active travel.”
7. That DfT guidance on Cycle Infrastructure design says that “light segregation adds some protection to a mandatory cycle lane. It can be installed relatively cheaply, for example when routine maintenance and general highway improvements are being carried out.”
8. That since April 2020, the Council has utilised funding from the Department for Transport to install a number of supposedly segregated cycle lanes, which are in fact only divided from motor traffic by “mini orcas” which can be easily driven over, and DfT guidance states “can present a tripping hazard to pedestrians and should not therefore be used on pedestrian desire lines.”
9. That the vehicle miles travelled on Haringey’s roads has increased by a third since 2010.

Council believes:

1. That a modal shift towards cycling, along with other forms of active travel, has enormous potential to improve the wellbeing of Haringey residents, improve the borough’s air quality, and reduce the number of vehicles on the borough’s roads.
2. That these benefits not only accrue to cyclists but to the community as a whole.
3. That as a local authority Haringey should do all it can to promote walking and cycling for the following reasons:
   1. There is “clear evidence” that segregated routes lead to significant reductions in deaths and serious injuries.
   2. The impact of obesity and inactivity leads to its own epidemic of disease.
   3. The fact that road pollution is the “principle source” in the capital of toxic air that causes the early deaths of thousands of Londoners every year.
   4. The impact on reducing climate change.
   5. The negative impact of people being unwilling to spend time outside in heavily trafficked neighbourhoods
4. That Haringey has failed to deliver adequate safe, segregated cycling infrastructure to date.
5. That this failure has likely prevented many of the Borough’s residents from cycling despite their wish to do so. It seems likely that this will be especially so for people from the groups mentioned in Council notes #3.
6.  That there must be a fresh focus on ensuring that any Haringey resident who want to cycle feel, and are, safe doing so.

Council resolves:

1. To immediately roll out temporary cycle lanes on main roads in accordance with the priority routes as set out in Haringey’s draft walking and cycling action plan, so as to ensure the safe movement of people during the current Covid-19 pandemic
2. To increase the provision of segregated cycle lane in the borough by 30% year on year for the next three years, measured in kilometres across the borough, at which point a new target will be set by Council.
3. That all future cycle routes in the Borough should abide by the key design principals set out in the DfT’s “Gear Change: A Bold Vision for Cycling and Walking” that:
   1. Cyclists must be separated from volume traffic, both at junctions and on the stretches of road between them.
   2. Cyclists must be separated from pedestrians.
   3. Cyclists must be treated as vehicles, not pedestrians.
   4. Routes must join together; isolated stretches of good provision are of little value
   5. Routes must feel direct, logical and be intuitively understandable by all road users;
   6. Routes and schemes must take account of how users actually behave;
   7. Purely cosmetic alterations should be avoided.
   8. Routes should be designed only by those who have experienced the road on a cycle.
4. That all future cycle routes in the Borough must be properly segregated from motor traffic and that neither visual markings nor ‘orcas/mini-orcas’ provide this. Henceforth, a form of segregation at least as robust as flexible “wands” should be considered a baseline requirement.
5. To create a new all-party working group of councillors and officers to push forward the delivery of cycling infrastructure across the borough, and ensure that any future schemes abide by the key principles as set out above.
6. To create a Quality Review Panel for Cycling involving cycling professionals and organisations that would be consulted in an official capacity on all future cycling infrastructure, with any recommendations of the panel incorporated into infrastructure designs.
7. To create a new outreach group to engage groups that have traditionally cycled less to ensure the Council is making effective efforts to increase their access to cycling through training, access to equipment/facilities, sign posting to safe routes etc, so that behavioural change is encouraged with all residents, not just those predisposed to cycling.
8. To work with bike hire providers, other boroughs and/or the Mayor of London, to bring a publicly accessible trial electric-bike hire provision to Haringey by November 2021.
9. That by May 2021, reports should be brought to Cabinet:

a)    Assessing existing cycle routes to see if they fulfil the standards set out in the resolutions #1 and #2 and detailing an action plan for resolving these deficiencies.

b)    Detailing an action plan to reallocate enough road space, currently used for motor vehicle parking, so that it is repurposed for ‘cycle corrals’ or bike hangars to ensure that it is as easy to securely a park as a car.

c)    Set out how Haringey can move towards a ’15-minute city’ model where everyone can reach the bulk of the facilities they use on a regular basis within a quarter of an hour’s safe travel by active transport.