My Highgate: Local councillor Liz Morris on why the Highgate Society should be copied all over the UK

Marketeer Liz Morris is a member of the Highgate Society and was elected as a councillor representing Highgate ward on Haringey Council at the local elections in May. She has lived in Highgate for the last decade.

What brought you to the area?

We moved from Camden 10 years ago with our young family as we wanted a garden for our two girls - and the Heath, Highgate Woods and Waterlow Park were a bonus. I was brought up in the country so could not imagine a childhood for my two girls without lots of green space.

You’ve had a bad day, what makes you smile on your way home?

Just walking around Highgate makes me happy. I either bump into someone I know and have a chat – or I bump into someone I don’t know and chat to them too.

Tell us a secret about where you live?

The best value, most delicious meal you can buy on Highgate High Street is one of the butcher’s spit roast chickens. They taste like the chickens you buy in a French market and more importantly it provides an inexpensive family meal that I don’t have to cook myself – hooray!

What is the area’s best guilty pleasure?

That has to be Highgate’s many pubs. Highgate has fantastic pubs and there is a pub to suit any occasion.

If you had £100 to spend in the area, where would you spend it?

I would have to split it equally between the Archway Road and Highgate High Street and I want to ask residents to PLEASE SPEND MORE LOCALLY to support our local businesses or we will lose them. Don’t expect them to compete with online businesses or shops at Brent Cross because they offer something far more special and personal – and they have a great selection of products and merchandise.

You’re the editor of the Ham&High for the day. What issue would you highlight?

Firstly weekly refuse collections in the Milton’s so that residents don’t have to live with overflowing and foul smelling bins and secondly safe crossings outside all schools, particularly on North Hill near Highgate Primary School.

Who or what is the greatest export from the area?

I would love to see the Highgate Society, a group of dedicated local volunteers who work tirelessly to keep Highgate special and who understand the needs of the their community, replicated all over the UK

If you could twin the area with anywhere else in the world, where would it be?

Highgate has no equal to twin with – sorry!

If you had to write your own epitaph what would it say?

“She would probably have lived longer if she had slowed down”. However I would not have enjoyed life at a slower pace.

Liz Morris was in conversation with Flora Drury