Should Peray Ahmet resign as Leader of Haringey Council and take her pro-LTN bullies with her?

Haringey's survey results about Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) showed people who were opposed to them tended to be were disabled, elderly and women.

In a tweet on 4th November 2022, 3 days after the introduction of a second LTN on Tottenham that was causing considerable chaos and upset the Leader of the Council demonstrated the type of leader she is and tweeted the above tweet about WHO the people are who are opposed to LTNs: homophobic, Islamophobic, sexist, racist and xenophobic

Peray had clearly not read the results of her consultation surveys. Which is surprising for a person who came into power and stated "My own background has shown me that the way we engage and talk to our residents is a crucial component moving forward. I will be using all my insight and experience of living in Haringey to help make a difference.” 

Peray is certainly right about that.

Peray's slanderous comments go further, cancelling  the 5th December Full Council meeting a month after the introduction of the LTNs. Haringey claim this was done on police advice and that a member of staff was assaulted. These claims were strongly refuted by the protesters and there has been no signs of any further action taken against the protesters, for example police incident reports or arrests.

For our part, leading two of the marches from the front with our son's wheelchair, we saw nothing of it at all. What we did encounter was some very unpleasant security people and police employed by Haringey.

We were part of the deputation for the Scrutiny meeting. Upon arriving at George Meehan House, ahead of the rest of the marchers, we had no idea that there would be hundreds of protesters and crowd control barriers had just been laid (we waited for the truck to leave).  We signed a deputation along with 16 other people. Not hundreds. When we asked to cross the barrier, with our paraplegic son, one officer refused to let us move saying 'well you put yourself there'. I said I had no idea this crowd and these barriers were going to be here.  Eventually another officer who wasn't so completely horrible and who'd escorted us on the walk us got us through so we could go into the meeting as part of the deputation. The officer who tried to refuse us access got a bit aggressive with me - waving his hands about and  shouting, but I just refused to speak to him.

At the Decorium I got split up from my son as I was sent off in a different direction following police instruction. I asked the Haringey security person if I could go to my son as I had his oxygen and rescue medication. She refused. And laughed in my face. Clearly enjoying herself and her tiny little bit of power. I found my son again and we left about 7pm and were home to watch online the meeting the never happened.

To find out that at both meetings protesters became frustrated and noisy is no surprise given the slandering and provocations of Haringey Council.

We have often stated it, but the behaviour of officers in a meeting with the joint partnership board was no better, I found the interrupting of Officers when the co- Chairs were speaking particularly disrespectful. Given Peray's assertion that people who are anti-LTN whould never vote Labour, it's worth noting one of the people who officers talked over is co-chair Sharon Grant, local Labour grandee and widow of the UK's first black MP Bernie Grant; another was a disabled women with a speech impediment.

The elderly and disabled vulnerable people who are badly impacted by LTNs deserve better than slanderous name calling, cabinet papers shared for comment at the last minute, and the paucity of the engagement. I have to challenge local 'democracy' reporters to work harder to be more balanced in the version of events they present. 

Haringey's Joint Partnership Board co-Chairs Sharon Grant and Helena Kania, who represent users of Haringey's Adult Social Care have written to Mike Hakata  "We are writing once again to raise the concerns of Joint Partnership Board members about the way in which the LTN’s are affecting them. In particular, we wish to express our profound concern about the flawed decision making process by which the policy was developed and the failure to observe legally accepted standards for public consultation".