Antiques Vintage & Collectables Fair
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This week’s newsletter: The Cycle Enfield saga continues; photography exhibition; vintage and collectables fair; poetry event; Sunday afternoon concert; book club; the snowdrop sale; and a reminder about the Big Birdwatch Weekend.
Dear Resident
Years ago in a Wizard of Id cartoon two serfs were shown discussing their prospects. “What will we do when we can no longer perform meaningful work?” asked one. “There’s always management” replied the other. At times I find myself asking “What will we talk about (or put into the newsletter) when we no longer have Cycle Enfield to discuss?” Well, the good news is, if today’s issue is anything to go by, there will always be a wide range of local events to report on.
Let’s start with an attempt to update you on the current situation regarding Cycle Enfield.
Cycle Enfield – the story up until last Thursday
You will recall that Mayor Boris Johnson had a meeting with David Burrowes following the outcome of David’s referendum. In that meeting Boris gave David an undertaking that he would ask the Council to halt the Cycle Enfield proposals. He also said in a subsequent letter that he had noted the "substantial concerns in Enfield with the scheme as currently proposed" and that "more discussion is crucial" and claimed that “Leon Daniels has spoken with Rob Leak and I understand that they have agreed this approach”.
All fairly conclusive then? Well, no. It emerged that Leon Daniels had NOT spoken to Rob Leak. Cllr Daniel Anderson was then quoted as saying “We are aware of the contents of the letter – but have received no communication from the Mayor of London about halting any part of the approval process for Cycle Enfield, and have made no agreement that we will do so…We are about to make a decision on a revised proposal for the A105 Cycle Enfield scheme”.
Following this Boris did write to Enfield, but not until 6pm on the evening of the West Enfield Partnership Board last Thursday.
The A105 scheme (West Enfield) Partnership Board Thursday 21st January
At the beginning of the West Enfield Cycle Enfield Partnership Board meeting David Burrowes called on the Council to not progress the A105 scheme to Cabinet for approval in view of the significant opposition from most of his constituents revealed in his referendum. However, Bambos Charalambos (the Chair) read out the letter that Enfield had received from Boris, which, contrary to all expectations, said: “I am not proposing a halt or stop to the scheme, merely some time to engage further in order to bring about the widest possible agreement. However, given that Enfield, with the support of all political parties, made a proper, legal and successful bid for its mini-Holland scheme in 2013, it is my view and that of Transport for London’s that the A105 scheme has now progressed to a point where any further engagement must be for the council and the council alone.”
This is a quite shocking bit of back-pedalling. Some of you may indeed be so angry about this that you might want to write to the Mayor to express your views. If so, these are his email addresses: boris.johnson@.uk and boris.johnson.mp@parliament.uk
During the meeting reports were presented about the Council's consultation, traffic modelling, economic impact and air quality impact. The reports had not been tabled in advance, were only executive summaries and did not include the attendance of an expert in air quality. It left little time for detailed consideration and scrutiny. The meeting revealed a lack of clear evidence of public and business support, lack of reliable evidence of a likely shift from car usage to cycle usage, lack of evidence for any significant improvement in air quality, lack of reliable evidence of impact on individual businesses and no demonstrable case that the scheme will provide value for money. Bus journeys along the A105 are expected to lengthen by around 8% with car journeys being delayed far more than this, approximately doubling because of the difficulty of overtaking buses held stationary on the main carriageway meaning they will now take roughly the same time as a bus journey. Given the impact the scheme will have on buses (likely to particularly affect women, the elderly and infirm and people with disabilities), the lack of a comprehensive equalities impact assessment (EIA) is particularly shocking. Asked about the EIA that had been promised all that the Project Manager could manage was to state the proportion of people with disabilities who had completed the consultation! The Council has undertaken to publish all the relevant documents to enable responses by February 8th for inclusion in the next Cabinet Meeting. When the final versions are published we will make these available via the ETRA website.
At the end of the meeting David Burrowes challenged the Council again to pause the approval process given the lack of community support and the lack of partnership support for the plans. He said that the purpose of the Partnership Board meeting was to provide final comments for consideration by the Cabinet and this was not possible or reasonable in such a short timescale. Nonetheless Cllr Bambos Charalambous refused this request and maintained that the Council should press on to statutory consultation.
Since then David Burrowes has said: "The Council is showing breathtaking arrogance and disdain for the views of my constituents - both residents and businesses. It is clear from my referendum and the latest consultation results for Enfield Town that there is widespread opposition to the Council's plans for Cycle Enfield. The Council has shown a complete lack of respect for the Partnership Board with complex reports tabled at the meeting and too little time made available for scrutiny and comments. The evidence of environmental and economic improvement is weak and unreliable….It is reckless for the Council to plough on without due regard to the concerns of my constituents. The Council can press the pause button now, at the next full Council meeting or Cabinet meeting. We should have the 2 month review which Boris agreed in my meeting with him, so that we can make the most of the opportunity to improve our high streets and increase cycling, and at the same time get schemes which have the broad support of the local community. Community and cross party support was an important reason for winning the bid and it should remain necessary in progressing the schemes. If the Council continue to press on with approval of the scheme without sufficient support then I will be calling on Boris to not give the next tranche of £5 million."
The latest news on the Enfield Town and Southbury Road consultations
You may have seen the various bombastic claims by Cllr Anderson in the newspapers stating how pleased he is with the ‘enthusiastic’ response to these two consultations. You may also have noticed that – contrary to announcement of the A105 scheme – Enfield did not report the actual voting figures – at least not at first.
A rapidly-issued Freedom of Information request from Councillor Terry Neville revealed the truth: a total of 4,150 responses were received to the Enfield Town consultation, of which a total of 1,677 responses (40.4%) supported the proposals and 2,443 responses (58.9%) were against. The remaining 30 responses (0.7%) were not sure. For the Southbury Road consultation, a total of 701 responses were received and here 407 responses (58.0%) were in support of the proposals and 283 responses (40.4%) were against the proposals. The remaining 11 responses (1.6%) were either not sure or had no opinion.
Given the very strong response rate for the Enfield Town consultation I would like to take this opportunity to thank our many members who made the effort to go out leafleting along Church Street and Cecil Road and who spent many hours talking to people at bus stops and in the market to raise awareness of the proposed changes. One particularly keen helper single-handedly leafleted Chase Side, Parsonage Lane, Old Park Road and Old Park Ridings. Our particular thanks go to those of you who made your computers and tablets available to residents who are not internet-savvy and helped them to register their vote and views about this scheme. I spoke to many elderly people who phoned the Save Our Enfield Town hotline during the consultation period and know that they were extremely grateful for the help that ETRA and SOET members gave them. I am sure that your efforts helped us obtain this impressive response to the consultation.
Will Boris listen? Boris Johnson is quoted in the Advertiser this week as saying that “My anxiety is that there are a great many people in Enfield at the moment who don’t seem to be persuaded about the merits of the scheme. I think this is a matter for local democracy but my impression is, and something I have to take into account as mayor, there is still quite a lot of resistance”. Perhaps someone should point out to him that the reason that people are not persuaded about the merits of the scheme is that there are none! Most worrying is the fact that once again he appears to be backing a strong-arm approach by the Council, as he goes on to say “I hope the council will be able to overcome that resistance to get more support behind the scheme.”
Has it occurred to Boris that a better ploy might be to overcome the resistance of Andrew Gilligan to Option 4 – the scheme that had the backing of residents and shopkeepers but which Andrew Gilligan dismissed as being insufficiently transformational? Residents, you have Boris’s email addresses – over to you! Let Boris know how you think this issue should be resolved.
The Council Debate on Cycle Enfield
There was a debate of the full council last night on Cycle Enfield prompted by an Opposition Priority Business paper on Cycle Enfield presented by Cllr Terry. There was a strong turn-out of residents and the public gallery was full with another 40 people in the overspill room. Terry spoke passionately and clearly in putting forward the case, emphasising in particular that the Conservative group would support a cycle scheme which had full public support (but this hasn't), and pointing to the problems with the Council’s consultation process. When he said: "They have failed to engage with local people and this is unacceptable in a democratic society" there was loud applause and much cheering from the gallery, rapidly followed by a telling-off from the Mayor (of Enfield, not Boris).
Cllr Charalambos response was to call those who criticised the online consultation Luddites and said that “most people have smartphones and can access it from there”. Well I don’t know about you, but I know a lot of elderly people who do not even have mobile phones, let alone smart phones (it’s called the digital divide, Cllr Charalambos) and we were contacted during the consultation by many elderly people who, while they had computers and email were unfamiliar and unconfident in doing anything other than that online.
Following the debate Terry summed up, saying that air quality will not improve according to consultants that LBE had hired; that there is no real majority for A105 and Enfield Town; and emphasised that the Conservative group is not against improving cycling provision, rather that they are (like us) against this specific plan for achieving it. He ended with a prediction for the future that it is likely to end up at the High Court. Cllr Doug Taylor then started to answer Terry's recommendations at the end of his paper but the Mayor guillotined his response half way through as the time allowed for the debate had run out. The final vote was 19 for Terry's proposals; 36 against, with all councillors voting with their own party.
The next stage in the progress of the Cycle Enfield proposals will be a discussion at Cabinet followed by a statutory consultation. Please send any comments for consideration by the Cabinet to Paul.Rogers@.uk.
For a further flavour of the meeting I thought you might like to hear the comments from some of our members who got in touch after the meeting to give their views. One said “I'm shocked how badly behaved the labour councillors are, especially at Cllr Anderson, is he a buffoon?” Another said “Just back from Silver St and quite upset to hear the very out of touch views and just sheer insistence to spend the £42M in anyway possible.
It seems that a Judicial review will be our only chance of stopping this or am I wrong at this stage?” Unfortunately I fear you are not wrong and we will be bringing you more information on this issue next week.
Want to see why we should be worried about the impact of the cycle lanes on people who have disabilities?
Then take a look at this video that LBC made of the experiences of a man who is a wheelchair user when trying to get a cab on one of the Cycle Superhighways:
Unfortunately there is a 30 second ad that comes first – wait for that to clear and then watch the video. As well as the problems caused for this poor man, the event resulted in a 600 metre tailback of traffic. Another triumph for TfL!
Finally – onto the non-Cycle Enfield part of this newsletter!
London Independent Photography
Local resident and ETRA member Liz Devonshire will have five pieces of her work on display at the London Independent Photography exhibition that will be running between 16th February and the 6th March in Crouch End. The Gallery is above Hornsey Library in Crouch End (address: Haringey Park, N8 9JA; opening hours Mondays 3-7 pm; Tuesday through to Fridays 1-7pm; weekends 1-4pm ).
Antiques Vintage & Collectables Fair
There will be an Antiques Vintage & Collectables Fair at St Paul's Centre, 102a Church Street, Enfield Town EN2 6AR this Saturday 30 January 2016
Community Poetry event
There will be a free community poetry event in the Community Room at Palmers Green Library between 2pm and 4pm on Saturday 13 February 2016 (Broomfield Lane N 13 4EY) to raise funds for the Winter Night Shelter. Do go along and support this worthy cause.
Concert
This Sunday the 31st January there will be a concert by David Hooke at St Luke’s Church at 4.00pm. Programme to include music for soprano, flute, trumpet and two organs. Free entry, collection in support of the Winter Night Shelter. You’ll find St Luke’s on Phipps Hatch Lane at the junction with Browning Road, Enfield, EN2 0HL.
Big Garden Birdwatch
Just a reminder it’s the Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend. Please set one hour aside to sit and watch the birds in your garden and report your findings to the RSPB at
Snowdrops
Apparently the snowdrop sale at Myddelton House was a big success last Saturday. I found out afterwards that it is allegedly “the best snowdrop sale in the world” although the pride of place – a single snowdrop priced at £1,500 (no that’s not one nought too many) – on this occasion did not sell!
ETRA bookclub
The book we are reading next is ‘Brideshead Revisited’ by Evelyn Waugh and we will be meeting to discuss it at 8.30pm on the 25th February. Get in touch if you’d like to join us.
Have a great weekend Enfieldians! And don’t forget to drop our friend Boris a note…
The ETRA committee
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