Just one Labour councillor and twenty 'residents' bother to attend Bruce Grove/West Green area Assembly 31/03/04

Low Attendance at Neighbourhood Assembly

Fewer than 20 people attended Thursday night's Neighbourhood Assembly for Bruce Grove and West Green, arranged by Haringey Council. 

William MacDougall, Deputy Chairman of Tottenham Conservatives, said:

"Only one Labour Councillor thought it worth while turning up, so why should residents have any confidence in the process?  It is not surprising that the meetings are getting smaller and smaller."

Two of the subjects under discussion were policing and traffic calming. William pointed out that the Council was obsessed with making life difficult for all road users by installing bumps when they should be concentrating on making pavements and road surfaces safe and enforcing existing parking regulations to cut accident rates.

The subject of public conveniences also came up.  "I've been making a fuss about the abandoned conveniences in Bruce Grove," said Lydia Rivlin, Chairman of Tottenham Conservatives, ”A Labour Party stalwart accused me of somehow being socially irresponsible when I asked that the building be put to another use if not for its original purpose." 

At the meeting Cllr. Brown admitted that there was no way the Council could ever again afford to open the building as a public convenience because they cannot pay the staff to supervise it. "But the council are hanging on to it like a storybook old miser," said Lydia.  "If they leased out or sold the building, some pretty architecture would be saved, the street would be cleaner and look more attractive and we could use the money to provide ‘Superloos’ nearby.  This would benefit the people of Tottenham all round.  Instead we have a rubbish dump, an eyesore, and no toilets.  What is socially responsible about that?"

ENDS