Wednesday 5 August 2009

Mike Freer : "What Barnet really needs is more rabbit hutch flats"

The Leader of Barnet Council Mike Freer is at it again. Some people like knitting, some like drinking beer, some like golf, some like trainspotting. Mike's hobby is blaming everyone else when the wheels fall of his bonkers schemes. If you read Mike's latest leader listens posting, you'd think that the reason for the problems with Mike's scheme to concrete over the borough and cover it with flats the size of rabbit hutches is down to the government. He neglects to mention that the bloke in charge of the schemes at Barnet got the boot recently.

All that aside though, I'm rather pleased that this particular hobby horse is in trouble. Unlike Mike, I don't think that Barnet is lacking in ugly, rabbit hutch sized flats. Unlike Mike, I don't think that building these for 80,000 new people is a good idea. Schools in Barnet are creaking. Portacabins are being frantically installed, newly IT suites ripped out, extra classes added. Now, surprise surprise - SAT results have got worse. Who's fault is this? Fiona Bulmer, Mike's lackey at education has the answer "Not me guv". Well she didn't actually say that, she said :-
Our feedback from teachers was that marking was stricter this year
Now our Fifi, as we like to call her, isn't despondent though, she adds helpfully :-

However, we are pleased with the results overall, though we are never complacent
Well it's good to hear that results got worse, the head of education is pleased and she's not complacent! Could it be because her allowance for the job got bigger. Maybe I'd be pleased if I got a payrise for doing a bad job. What happens when school standards go down the pan? Property prices decline and people move out. I detailed all of this last month. Barnet's infrastructure is at breaking point, but bonkers old Mike wants to build more flats, import more social problems, cause more parents heartache as their children fail to find schools.

How many times do we have to tell him - More flats = more people = more traffic = more kids wanting a place at school = less green space = less for kids to do = a worse environment for everyone.

Mike's leader listens posting disturbs me. It doesn't surprise me though. I was told last night that someone is running for a senior post in the Hendon Conservative party who has a history of wanting to concrete over the green belt. Someone who is universally loathed and despised in Mill Hill for his attempts to ruin the nicest areas with unwanted development. Someone who has fought tooth and nail for years to bend green belt regulations. Someone who as a matter of course uses the law to harrass and intimidate those who get in his way. A man who has deliberately ruined a beautiful scenic view purely to spite the residents of Mill Hill.

Matthew Offord is the Conservative candidate for Hendon. If this person gets the job they are after, there will be a huge backlash in Mill Hill. I doubt that many of the stalwart supporters of John Hart who belong to the preservation society will forgive him. I'm not a Conservative so I'd like to see them lose, but they really should mind their company.

More on this later, but until now I've been unable to understand Mike Freer's addiction to overdevelopment. When I heard about the moves afoot in the Hendon Conservative party it all became rather clear.

- Oh, by the way in answer to your emails re my last post. No I haven't really hacked the US military computer and no I don't have evidence of alien life. It was a JOKE !

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Couldn't have put it better myself. Furthermore what is inexplicable is that those involved in the Coup, hounded Brian Salinger for years for having a 'socialist housing policy'. However Brian Salinger had committed the Council to the Three Strands Approach, which has all but been abandoned by Freer, who puts himself forward for photo ops quaffing champers with property developers bent on building flats SO SMALL that Housing Associations wouldn't consider renting them for social tenants.

So having called Brian Salinger a 'socialist' he boots him out and accelerates the rabbit hutch flats against direct opposition from, not only, Boris Johnson and Brian Coleman (who still somehow manages to support Barnet's plans in Cabinet whilst criticising them at City Hall) but also former Labour Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron who have both called for an end to this.

Mike Freer also omits to mention, when he casually mentions there is pressure for boroughs to build more homes in London, that so called 'Conservative' Barnet has put forward a target for itself about 10 (that's right TEN) times higher than any other Conservative borough in London. The only boroughs that are higher or close are ones where the govt have sprayed millions of pounds of cash at them to practically pay for the development itself. You are right to point out that what Barnet is doing is Barnet's own work, not the Mayor's and not the Govt. If they wanted to they could pull the plug tomorrow.

As regards goings on in Hendon Association, it is rare for me to criticise Matthew Offord but he has been in control of matters in Hendon for 5+ years and the Conservative Association is almost moribund and at risk of being taken over by Central Office. People (including myself - despite having raised £1000s for the party and won many votes) have been told bluntly that their help is not wanted either politically or financially ie to p*ss *ff. Yet the Association raised an embarrassingly low amount of money and gives most of it to Mike Freer's Finchley Association for 'administration' leaving them with two pennies to rub together.

To think they are about to go down another civil war period is unthinkable.