The Muswell Hill & Highgate Pensioners Action Group strongly objects to Haringey Council s proposals for a new civic centre in Woodside Park. We note that the costs for remodelling and extending Woodside House do not seem to have been made public, but w

The Muswell Hill & Highgate Pensioners' Action Group strongly objects to Haringey Council's proposals for a new civic centre in Woodside Park.

We note that the costs for remodelling and extending Woodside House do not seem to have been made public, but we do not find it acceptable to undertake such a project in the present economic climate, when people are finding it difficult to meet their household expenses and many are in danger of losing their homes while others are unable to sell houses or flats.

In our view it would be most inappropriate to spend taxpayers' money at this time on a new and unnecessary civic centre.

We would also point out that the new location will, for those of us in the west of the borough, be even more difficult to reach by public transport than the present one.

We also understand that the current users of Woodside House, including the drop-in centre for the elderly, are not at all happy with the proposed alternative accommodation.

We are astonished that the plans for the proposed new centre were displayed only in Wood Green Library. The project affects the whole borough and they should have been in every library.

Finally, we would point out that those of us in Muswell Hill have been waiting 10 years or more for our library to be repaired and we are sure that these repairs would cost only a fraction of the costs of the proposed new civic centre.

Pamela Jefferys

Muswell Hill & Highgate

Pensioners' Action Group