In recent years, Labour-run Haringey Council has tried to shift to a system of ‘co-design’ - attempting to involve the people who use services in their design, rather than the council telling residents what is best for them.
As a Liberal Democrat councillor, I welcome this, as empowering citizens and bottom up decision-making are core principles of our party.
The last few months, though, have seen this co-design approach take a big step back - for example on Labour’s decision to slash library hours, which barely involved residents or stakeholders like Library Friends groups.
And even more recently, Haringey sprang costly, unfair parking permit changes on residents without any prior engagement.
Haringey Labour’s plans to scrap the £5 daily visitor permits in Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs - where only residents are allowed to park on the street unless you are given a visitor permit by a resident, and which cover the vast majority of roads in Haringey), will force residents to instead buy hourly permits - which could cost £17 per day, depending on where you live in the borough and how long your CPZ operates.
And the reasoning? Well, Haringey Labour claims it’s making these changes as "circumstantial evidence suggests daily visitor permits are open to being used for purposes other than intended," though they failed to produce any actual evidence to date.
What’s more, in response to Lib Dem questioning, the cabinet member replied: “We need to get value out of our land.” In other words, a straightforward cash grab masquerading as fixing a problem they cannot evidence.
And were residents allowed to feed in to new proposals; flag issues they see with visitor permits (if any); help develop ideas; or even given fair warning on these changes? Nope.
The decision was made out of the blue at a cabinet meeting, before the proposals were subsequently presented in the form of a statutory consultation. So much for co-design.
This top-down decision making is not a fair way to treat residents. As the adage goes, a leopard never changes its spots.
Let’s hope Labour are not true to this, see the error of their ways, and reverse this unfair proposal.
You have until November 20 to make your voice heard on their statutory consultation here: haringey.gov.uk/parking/consultations-parking/have-your-say-our-proposed-parking-policy-changes
- Luke Cawley-Harrison is councillor for Crouch End ward, Haringey Council and leader of the Liberal Democrat Group.
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