Additional material from Wednesday evening’s Tottenham Traders Partnership meeting:
It was much less contentious than many of the community's recent gatherings, said TTP chair Moaz Nanjurwany. He opened the meeting by acknowledging the difficulty of “what we’ve been through in the last few weeks.”
Councilor Alan Strickland, Labour’s cabinet member for development in Harigney, laid out three priorities
- getting Tottenham back to business
-restoring confidence, in part by "attracting and assuaging developers"
-regeneration
He said Tottenham can expect “a deep clean of the high road next week,” as well as the installment of hanging baskets in the near future. The council is also looking for interim uses for burned down sites to enliven the area and encourage foot traffic before reconstruction projects begin.
“We can’t regenerate Tottenham alone. We shouldn’t do it alone. We need to work with everyone to drive this forward,” Strickland said. “We’ve been working incredibly hard as a council, working with you to pick up your ideas.”
Tottenham Member of Parliament David Lammy (Labour) had plenty to say during the meeting, starting with an anecdote about touring Tottenham High Road after the riots and how his father, “a bit of an opportunist, would scoop up manure off the street,” back in the day. There may be a story in that.
Other notable Lammy quotes:
“This [the riot recovery] has to be seen as an opportunity because the world is looking. The regeneration of Totenham will be indicative of how civilized the United Kingdom is as a country.”
To boost the local economy and show solidarity he suggested the national “cabinet should buy their Christmas presents on the [Tottenham] High Road."
He had strong words for the rioters, many of whom he said were not from the area. “The decision to burn and loot is a moral choice. I don’t care how damn poor you are. I grew up poor and I knew not to loot.”
The MP also said he will call a debate in Parliament in six to seven months called Insurance After the Riot. If insurers do not meet their obligations in the area, he said, he will “name and shame in Parliament.”
Haringey Police Superintendent Christopher Barclay looked like he might pass the evening without fielding a question, but was finally asked why authorties didn’t stop the looting and if anything similar could happen again.
The damage to property was far from ideal, he admitted, but he said local police departments did not have the numbers to restrain hundreds of rioters. “We had to make a decision about saving life and limb,” he said. “Fortunately nobody died and nobody was seriously injured.
It was much less contentious than many of the community's recent gatherings, said TTP chair Moaz Nanjurwany. He opened the meeting by acknowledging the difficulty of “what we’ve been through in the last few weeks.”
Councilor Alan Strickland, Labour’s cabinet member for development in Harigney, laid out three priorities
- getting Tottenham back to business
-restoring confidence, in part by "attracting and assuaging developers"
-regeneration
He said Tottenham can expect “a deep clean of the high road next week,” as well as the installment of hanging baskets in the near future. The council is also looking for interim uses for burned down sites to enliven the area and encourage foot traffic before reconstruction projects begin.
“We can’t regenerate Tottenham alone. We shouldn’t do it alone. We need to work with everyone to drive this forward,” Strickland said. “We’ve been working incredibly hard as a council, working with you to pick up your ideas.”
Tottenham Member of Parliament David Lammy (Labour) had plenty to say during the meeting, starting with an anecdote about touring Tottenham High Road after the riots and how his father, “a bit of an opportunist, would scoop up manure off the street,” back in the day. There may be a story in that.
Other notable Lammy quotes:
“This [the riot recovery] has to be seen as an opportunity because the world is looking. The regeneration of Totenham will be indicative of how civilized the United Kingdom is as a country.”
To boost the local economy and show solidarity he suggested the national “cabinet should buy their Christmas presents on the [Tottenham] High Road."
He had strong words for the rioters, many of whom he said were not from the area. “The decision to burn and loot is a moral choice. I don’t care how damn poor you are. I grew up poor and I knew not to loot.”
The MP also said he will call a debate in Parliament in six to seven months called Insurance After the Riot. If insurers do not meet their obligations in the area, he said, he will “name and shame in Parliament.”
Haringey Police Superintendent Christopher Barclay looked like he might pass the evening without fielding a question, but was finally asked why authorties didn’t stop the looting and if anything similar could happen again.
The damage to property was far from ideal, he admitted, but he said local police departments did not have the numbers to restrain hundreds of rioters. “We had to make a decision about saving life and limb,” he said. “Fortunately nobody died and nobody was seriously injured.
“We can’t make an absolute promise it won’t happen again, but will we work as hard as we can to make sure we’re totally aware and ready”
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