feature: Highlights of 2007

12 December 2007

That was the year that was:

The council takes a green lead with reduced residents’ parking charges for owners of energy efficient vehicles.
All under-16s are offered a special ‘Active Juniors’ leisure centre discount card.
Eight out of 10 respondents in the annual residents’ survey say Haringey is a place where people of different backgrounds get on well together, and two-thirds say the council has helped make Haringey a better place to live.

Haringey is a three star council improving well, says independent watchdog the Audit Commission.
Satisfaction with Haringey parks goes up for the third year running, ahead of the national average.
The council and the police celebrate closing a hundred ‘crack houses’ in a year.

Bruce Castle museum is voted one of Britain’s top twenty ‘hidden tourist gems’ in a BBC poll.
Recycling rates hit record levels, with almost a quarter of domestic waste being composted or recycled.
Tottenham’s MPower scheme run by disabled youngsters for disabled youngsters, wins a national award and £45,000 prize money for its garden project.

The popular ‘Making the Difference’ budget for small improvements suggested by residents attracts a record 487 bids.
Haringey is named “most improved transport borough in London”. Achievements include halving the number of people killed or seriously injured on borough roads, and travel plans for more schools than any other borough.
Park Road pool attracts the UK’s second highest number of entrants for a national cancer charity event.
The council celebrates planting 500 new trees, and urges residents to help with watering over the summer.
The council unveils its pioneering aerial survey of heat loss from every property in the borough.

In the first competition under new government rules, the council is chosen to run the borough’s new secondary school in Wood Green.
The council’s executive committee becomes the cabinet. Council leader Cllr George Meehan celebrates 33 years serving the borough as an elected member.
Plans for hundreds of new jobs, new homes, a primary school, health centre and hotel for Tottenham Hale are given the green light as the council approves the biggest single planning application in its history.
Thousands snap up compost bins at a special discount for residents.

Haringey Strategic Partnership launches the Sustainable Community Strategy, with plans to improve public services, the environment and the quality of life in the borough over the coming decade.
Children’s Minister Parmjit Dhanda opens the Triangle children’s centre in Seven Sisters, the latest in a network of 18 across the borough.
Hundreds of residents brave the rain at Haringey’s first-ever Green Fair.
Haringey young musicians fill Ally Pally for their biggest-ever performance, and primary children across the borough join a national attempt to break the world record for a simultaneous walking bus.
Luis Camara from Wood Green is named Haringey’s carer of the year, in a scheme celebrating the 16,000 local people who voluntarily care for others.

The borough wins a record eight Green Flags for Haringey parks, the joint highest in London.
A team of cyclists from Moselle special school takes centre stage at the opening ceremony for the Tour de France London leg.
The borough’s first-ever Summer University programme begins, with activities of all kinds for thousands of youngsters through the holidays.
The ‘On the Road to Improvement’ consultation gives residents the chance to prioritise transport improvements – with the most popular three choices to be top of the list for future investment.
Development partners are shortlisted to restore Hornsey Town Hall as a civic centre for arts and community use.

School students celebrate Haringey’s best-ever exam results. GCSE scores are up more than five per cent, one of the biggest improvements in the country.
Haringey youngsters sweep the board at the Londonwide Summer University festival of sport, bringing back more than 50 medals and the cup for best team.
The community clear-up scheme bringing free bulky waste collections to every street in the borough by March 2008 is launched, and installation of new energy efficient streetlights begins.

The borough’s brand new sixth form centre welcomes its first students, and the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham opens for business.
Haringey’s Black History Month programme is the biggest ever, with a special focus on the 200th anniversary of anti-slavery legislation.
The council takes a top prize at the National Customer Service awards, for the WOW! awards scheme where customers nominate staff for excellent customer service.
The cabinet agrees that parkers overstaying on a meter will have five minutes’ grace before getting a ticket.

The Oliver Tambo memorial is unveiled in Muswell Hill.
Broadwater Farm youth worker Clasford Stirling collects an MBE for services to young people.
Victorian crystallographer William Barlow of Muswell Hill is commemorated with the first of Haringey’s new green plaques for eminent local figures.
Plans to make Haringey London’s greenest borough by cutting greenhouse gas emissions, boosting recycling and protecting the environment go out for consultation.

A record 3,500 responses to the ‘On the Road to Improvement’ highways consultation put pothole repairs, pavement replacement and easing bus congestion top of residents’ priority list.
Coombes Croft library celebrates a £1 million Big Lottery win, and Hornsey Library’s new art gallery opens.

Christmas lights were going up and parties getting underway as Haringey People went to press. In the meantime – season’s greetings to all Haringey residents!

Return to the Features Page.