Alan Stanton's photostream  

(To view my photos, please click on Photostream above.)

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Who am I?
Why am I taking photos and writing this stuff?

I'm a Londoner who's lived in Tottenham over 27 years. I am one of the three Labour councillors for Tottenham Hale Ward in the London Borough of Haringey.

I began using my camera to report dumped rubbish, broken pavements etc. So my gallery of photos is sometimes a Rogues Gallery. It shows, for example, the work of fly-tippers; bad landlords; incompetent council departments; and the minority of local residents who take little or no responsibility for their surroundings.

Haringey also has many attractive and curious corners. And many residents who care deeply about our neighbourhoods. There are dedicated and imaginative staff doing excellent work. You'll find some of this in my photos as well.

My Flickr pages are mainly a photoblog. With my own and other people's comments raising issues which fascinate me.

► How do we build civic pride and community engagement? Especially in areas of enormous diversity and transience, with thousands of newcomers from across the world.

► How do we want our neighbourhoods to change?

Take homes. Haringey is has over 4000 homeless households with thousands more overcrowded. Do we want new homes to meet the needs of local families? Or new flats for out-of-town commuters? More tower-blocks? Or human-scale architecture? Can we stop buy-to-let slumlords converting homes to hutches and cramming people in?

► Do we just preserve old buildings and build pastiche copies? Or welcome modern design as well? How do we get the best architects to design for a poorer area of town?

► How do we safeguard and improve our parks and green spaces - always under attack?

► Where are the public and private spaces which welcome children and young people? For where two or three are gathered together, that's now often labelled: anti-social behaviour.

► How do we Go Green and make sustainability a reality?

► Can we influence stores and businesses which locate here? Do we really need more betting shops? More billboards?

Such "photo-conversations" are starting to happen on Flickr. For example, the Haringey Pool and other London 'Pools' of photos are like collective photo essays - pieces from a fascinating jigsaw, which creates a larger picture of a living breathing city.
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Update 2010

I was asked about the expenses and allowance I get as an elected local councillor.

Like every Haringey councillor I receive a basic annual allowance (From May 2010 it's £10,500 p.a.) I'm one of the few Labour councillors who does not receive an additional Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA).

Please click here to read or download my Registration of Members' Interests and the list of all Gifts and Hospitality received since I was first elected to the Council in May 1998. (Up-to-date September 2010.) I have not claimed for any expenses.