ES Views: HDV plan is all about profit not the people of Haringey

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Claire Kober, who has led Haringey council since 2008, is facing criticism for her HDV plan.
10 November 2017
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Your editorial [Comment, November 8] correctly states that many in the campaign against the Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV) are “Corbynistas”, ideologically opposed to any private-sector involvement in the public sector.

But they are not alone in opposing the HDV. All eight Lib-Dem councillors in Haringey oppose the plan for sound business reasons and because there is no democratic mandate for such a change. The borough’s few remaining Tory activists also oppose it.

As council leader, Claire Kober’s record does not inspire confidence that her HDV plan is right. And even those who approve of such public/private partnerships have strong grounds to doubt her choice of LendLease as the right partner. Devising multi-billion-pound property developments is beyond Kober, and the people of Haringey will have to live with the consequences for decades if it goes ahead.
Justin Hinchcliffe


Having read your coverage of the dispute about the HDV in your editorial and article [“Labour council chief faces coup”, November 8], the issue at stake is not as you describe. I have taken Haringey council to the High Court for a judicial review of its cabinet’s decision to go ahead with a partnership with LendLease.

The case is about the very practical realities of maintaining the rights of residents to a home and community, of guaranteeing social housing and demanding the council considers other alternatives to this wholesale destruction and regeneration. The utopians here are the Haringey cabinet and LendLease, who promise a land of milk and honey while the HDV is driven primarily by profit.

There are better ways of employing private capital, as other London boroughs have discovered. I am not a Labour Party member but I value the efforts and courage of so many people who are, and those of different hues across the borough who see the irresponsibility of Kober’s stance on the HDV.
Gordon Peters

The HDV scheme gives £2 billion of council assets to a public-private partnership, which is barely different from the private finance initiative used to build hospitals and which is now bleeding the NHS to death.

As your adjacent report [“Earl’s Court estates could be saved in rethink of £12 billion plans,” November 8] confirms, the HDV will see the focus shift from supporting the community to making as much money as possible.

It will lead to the poorest being squeezed out of decent homes. Ms Kober and other Labour councillors in Haringey are pushing this deal through because the years of Tory cuts are forcing them to cut their budgets. So I welcome the intervention of Corbynistas: it is time Labour took back control.
David Reed


MPs must rescue us from shambles

Currently, we have a government making policy on the hoof, a gaffe-prone Foreign Secretary on the loose, sexual misconduct allegations across the board, so-called negotiators mired in contradiction, a Parliament kept in the dark and an opposition hardly worthy of the name. What a shambles.

Meanwhile, businesses are crying out for direction, homelessness is rising, food bank use is increasing and there are dire warnings over health care, education and food supplies. It is time that all MPs stood up and put the country before their party. Keeping their heads below the parapet was not what they were elected for — and neither was it to run the country into the ground.
P Whitaker


One-man-operation trains are not safe

In an article in the Evening Standard, David Leam of the business group London First described the strikes by the RMT union over one-man operation of trains as wholly unnecessary [November 6].

He said: “Modern trains no more need a guard to open the doors than they need a fireman to shovel coal.” Perhaps Mr Leam could tell us what happens if a one-man-operation train is involved in a head-on collision or the driver collapses or dies? Yes, the train will stop, possibly automatically, but what happens then to the passengers with no staff on the train to help them?
John Gashion


The NHS shouldn't need no more money

Simon Stevens, head of NHS England, calls on Chancellor Philip Hammond to “honour” Boris Johnson’s Brexit vow to give more money to the NHS [“NHS chief says: Honour Boris’s vow of an extra £350m a week”, November 8].

Can I remind Mr Stevens that we have yet to finalise Brexit and are therefore continuing to pay billions to the EU? Perhaps if the NHS were run by someone with a better grip of reality, it would not need extra cash.
Dr Peter Outen


Stop traffic deaths on Oxford Street

It is irresponsible for people who are opposed to the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street to continue to ignore the frightening numbers of those killed and seriously injured year after year on the UK’s most dangerous shopping street.

Add to this the continuing life-threatening air pollution that pervades the West End and we have a problem that can only be dealt with by the complete removal of traffic. There is not a pedestrianised scheme anywhere that has not been opposed on the grounds of displacement of traffic to adjoining areas. The fact is that, apart from the initial few weeks, most motorists find alternative routes or will give up their journeys.

Capital cities around the world are adopting pedestrianisation and the deaths and injuries in Oxford Street, which will surely increase with the arrival of 150,000 more shoppers each day when the Elizabeth line opens, demand that the Mayor acts.
Peter Hartley, chair, Westminster Living Streets

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