The whole problem started nearly two years ago, when London Concrete tried to obtain planning permission to establish a concrete batching plant in the Ferme Park stockyard.  An organisation called GreenN8 started fighting it and was soon joined by the St. Ann's Residents Association, GreenN15 & N4, the Stroud Green Resident's association and in steadily increasing numbers, ad hoc associations of single streets or groups of parents at various schools as well as such highly respected bodies as the Green Lanes Traders' Association.  Both in Stroud Green and in Harringay there has been mounting horror at the prospect of the disruption and pollution caused by such a heavy industrial concern in the middle of a crowded population centre serviced by narrow roads, some of them crossing weak bridges.  There has rarely been this sort of universal agreement on an issue in Tottenham and certainly the level of resident involvement is unusually high.  The Council threw out the proposal but London Concrete -- as is their legal right -- challenged the decision with an appeal.  The first set of hearings have now concluded with another set scheduled for January and also possibly February.

With her keen interest in Harringay, Lydia Rivlin, Deputy Chairman of Tottenham Conservatives became naturally involved.  She has been active not only in support and research for GreenN8 and as a witness during the Inquiry, but she has also been working on involving residents of other areas in Haringey.  "No-one will escape the effects of 4-axle, 30-ton cement mixers trundling about the streets," she says.  "People in Muswell Hill might not get the cement particulates in their air, but they will certainly get the carbon monoxide from the trucks jamming up Muswell Hill Broadway on their way to the North Circular or East End roads.  It has to be stopped and it is scandalous that the residents' associations are having to do all the work because the Council's response has been so inadequate."