Tottenham Green - how much longer do we have to put up with this?
- By Brian Leveson
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- 11 Jul, 2022
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In an area of appalling health outcomes, it is near impossible to get the daily recommended 30 minutes of exercise if the leisure centre doesn't open on time, sessions are cancelled at short notice and there is a lack of cleanliness and poor customer service - and what's going on with the local park, Elizabeth Place?
Despite promise of improvement made in the local press after protests and social media complaints, residents were locked out of Tottenham Green pool at 6:30am this morning,
6:30am this morning, if you'd had been near Tottenham Green Pool, our Haringey Council owned and Fusion run leisure centre, you'd have seen 20 or so keen Tottenham residents awake early who had been hoping to to get their work out in before they go work, some of whom have multiple jobs and caring roles. But we were not exercising.
We were complaining about the poor service at the pool and how were are let down time after time by a council owned service that does not seem to care about the health and well being of Tottenham residents.
After recent protests about the running of the Tottenham Green Centre and the complaints on social media and on this blog about the shitty customer service, the centre failed to open on time because none of the staff are allowed the key! Seemingly there was no one on stand-by in case of an emergency like a burglary or an alarm going off.
We were complaining about the poor service at the pool and how were are let down time after time by a council owned service that does not seem to care about the health and well being of Tottenham residents.
After recent protests about the running of the Tottenham Green Centre and the complaints on social media and on this blog about the shitty customer service, the centre failed to open on time because none of the staff are allowed the key! Seemingly there was no one on stand-by in case of an emergency like a burglary or an alarm going off.
Fusion said in Haringey Community Press last week
Fusion Lifestyle has said it will be launching new pricing and cleaning procedures in Tottenham Green over the coming months. The company also said it is driving recruitment for swimming teachers to prevent cancellations. In line with feedback, Fusion said it will be reintroducing a monthly members forum and meet the manager meetings to give customers the opportunity to voice their thoughts.
https://haringeycommunitypress.co.uk/tottenham-green-pool-should-be-run-for-the-people
Since those promises in the last week
In the last week I have been charged for all my swimming sessions, despite having a subscription membership, because there was a query on my account.
I phoned up to get the query removed, but customer services cannot do this, only a manager can. They took my name and looked at my account. A note was made.
I went in 2 days later, they query still had not been removed. I was told only a manger can do this.
I was told I should go to the centre if I have an issue with my online account, because issues cannot be addressed over the phone nor online!
I phoned up to get the query removed, but customer services cannot do this, only a manager can. They took my name and looked at my account. A note was made.
I went in 2 days later, they query still had not been removed. I was told only a manger can do this.
I was told I should go to the centre if I have an issue with my online account, because issues cannot be addressed over the phone nor online!
Health Inequalities
What drives health inequalities? THIS drives health inequalities. Not have facilities reliably available to use to exercise and do those 30 minutes daily minimum of activity.
There are stark health inequalities between the east and the west of the borough, with Tottenham residents experiencing at least a decade of ill health when compared to our wealthier neighbours, according to Haringey’s Annual Public Health Report 2019
Link: https://www.haringey.gov.uk/sites/haringeygovuk/files/health_inequalities_public_health_report_2019_...
There are stark health inequalities between the east and the west of the borough, with Tottenham residents experiencing at least a decade of ill health when compared to our wealthier neighbours, according to Haringey’s Annual Public Health Report 2019
Link: https://www.haringey.gov.uk/sites/haringeygovuk/files/health_inequalities_public_health_report_2019_...
And then what's going on with Elizabeth Place park?
On top of which its been a year since the Elizabeth Place park protests when half a park was appropriated by a local developer to building works.
We met with councillors at the time and there were promises of coproduction, inclusion and accessibility, but it's all gone quite and progress has not gone any further than those promises to do better.
On top of which, since then, the Haringey Parks Summit was held at the highly inaccessible Ally Pally and we've had Finsbury Park taken off all of us this weekend for the council to make some money off a badly organised music festival with scenes of young people climbing fences to escape being crushed that made this footie fan think 'Jesus Christ have we learnt nothing in the 3 decades?'.
We met with councillors at the time and there were promises of coproduction, inclusion and accessibility, but it's all gone quite and progress has not gone any further than those promises to do better.
On top of which, since then, the Haringey Parks Summit was held at the highly inaccessible Ally Pally and we've had Finsbury Park taken off all of us this weekend for the council to make some money off a badly organised music festival with scenes of young people climbing fences to escape being crushed that made this footie fan think 'Jesus Christ have we learnt nothing in the 3 decades?'.
Message to Haringey Councillors?
- Do your jobs you were voted in to do and keep the promises you made.
- Address the health inequalities
that you've been banging on and on that you are going to champion by actually having places we can exercise in that are open and for the use of your residents.
- Co-produce genuinely accessible leisure facilities that we can use to be active and address those stark health inequalities
- Listening and nodding isn't enough, action is required and work for the £11k minimum allowance you get to represent us (plus the rest)
Allowances for councillors to make promises they never deliver on
The full table for allowances that councillors are paid can be found here:
https://www.minutes.haringey.gov.uk/documents/s114982/Part6MemberAllowances_Updated%20with%20recomme...
https://www.minutes.haringey.gov.uk/documents/s114982/Part6MemberAllowances_Updated%20with%20recomme...
I AM pissed off
I am royally pissed off.
I AM that demographic that is in their 50s and living in poor health and with multiple health conditions. I do live in an area of deprivation and I have caring responsibilities on top of my full time job.
I can't get a GP appointment for love nor money and since an American company took over the running of the surgery I have not had the same level of care from a practice nurse as they let the old one go and no longer have anyone in that role. In reality I have had no ongoing care.
I cannot take responsibility for my own health if facilities are not open during the few hours I am not working or they are inaccessible when I am caring.
And I am royally pissed off because the endless promises of tackling health inequalities and addressing issues of access to parks and leisure centres is not being addressed.
I get that progress is 'slow, but it is too late for me, I can only hope that Haringey Council can sort something out before its too late for my now young adult children.
Oh, and Haringey Councillors and SEND department now have a formally written to us and set out a policy of not listening to us, so no coproduction if you are not part of a group that have labelled us as racists, blamed us for all failures of coproduction and behaved 'inappropriately' towards.
I AM that demographic that is in their 50s and living in poor health and with multiple health conditions. I do live in an area of deprivation and I have caring responsibilities on top of my full time job.
I can't get a GP appointment for love nor money and since an American company took over the running of the surgery I have not had the same level of care from a practice nurse as they let the old one go and no longer have anyone in that role. In reality I have had no ongoing care.
I cannot take responsibility for my own health if facilities are not open during the few hours I am not working or they are inaccessible when I am caring.
And I am royally pissed off because the endless promises of tackling health inequalities and addressing issues of access to parks and leisure centres is not being addressed.
I get that progress is 'slow, but it is too late for me, I can only hope that Haringey Council can sort something out before its too late for my now young adult children.
Oh, and Haringey Councillors and SEND department now have a formally written to us and set out a policy of not listening to us, so no coproduction if you are not part of a group that have labelled us as racists, blamed us for all failures of coproduction and behaved 'inappropriately' towards.
If you thought SEND was bad - the NHS is seemingly prepared to throw away money to private companies
About 3 or 4 times a year we get the euphemistic message 'Parents please note we have put a letter in your child's bag' - its a world away from how a child's death was handled in my child's first school
More of a trial by ordeal than a well organised clearly set out administrative process for moving the care of vulnerable young adults from Haringey's Children's Services to Adult Services. We have been failed at every stage of the process.
Never EVER get on the bus without a camera running if you need the priority wheelchair space
The reality of using a London Bus in the teeming rain on a Sunday afternoon is no joke when the parents of a paraplegic person in a wheelchair clash with the self-entitled buggy-pushing parents of toddlers.
At 3pm today I received some barefaced lies from Haringey Council Adult Social Care in response to a photograph I published online yesterday and the media interest it generated
Haringey SEND Transport are insisting that a 17 year old minibus with no air conditioning is a suitable vehicle to transport my paraplegic son in this heatwave. The appalling conditions inside the minibus inside the bus is something they knew about last summer, yet they have to date done nothing whatsoever provide a suitable minibus this year nor appropriately mitigate the temperatures inside the minibus.The conditions inside the minibus are so bad that they triggered multiple seizures during the heatwave as my son has epilepsy, which they SEND transport department know about and they also know that they are triggered by heat.It is not just son who is impacted: last year we know of one child who died on Haringey SEND Transport in the summer heatwave and another who had seizures.
I am simply asking a question - are we all absolutely certain that the road closure / travel restrictions (commonly know as LTNs) placed on some of the most severely disabled people who are wholly reliant on cars are absolutely necessary
Haringey's road closures exemptions policy for disabled people is not fit for purpose, unduly burdensome and intrusive - it's time to stand up against the pro-LTN lycra-clad cycling bullies
Is the argument for and against exemptions for disabled people in Low Traffic Neighbourhoods really a case of GOOD versus EVIL?
