London School admissions website crashes

***** Updated 08:57 *****
BBC London have just announced that the problem is on the pan London admissions systems, so it ain't just Barnet. Whilst we can't solely blame Barnet for the problem, is it too much to expect them to have a contingency plan or even an announcement on their website explaining what to do and who to contact?

Today many parents are anxiously awaiting the news as to where their children will be attending school in September. Sadly for those parents in London, they will have to wait a little longer to find out as BBC London Radio is telling us that the website has crashed. Needless to say that we'll soon have the announcement to say that no one could have predicted that there would be high traffic volumes as parents try to find out where their children are going to school.

As I write this, Barnet have not managed to get a press spokesman on air to explain the problem. Why is it that Barnet is so useless at dealing with everything and keeping parents informed. Only yesterday Lynne Hillan was on the same station with Vanessa Feltz telling us that Barnet Council was leading the way in running Councils with it's Easycouncil scheme. Sadly it seems to me that if they can't even get the basics right in the day to day jobs (gritting roads, telling parents where their kids go to school), they are unlikely to manage such a massive transformation right. Net result - more chaos. Recently the former leader of Barnet Council talked to the Guardian about his scheme for a "superdatabase" to solve all of Barnets ills. Sadly for Barnets parents, a basic functioning schools database would be nice this morning. Rather than making sure that everything was in place for the education services busiest day of the year, Councillor Lynne Hillan was on the radio making a fool of herself talking about how Barnet Council was the way of the future. Will she be on today, explaining why this years booze up in a brewery is cancelled due to poor organisation?

The biggest problem with Barnet Council and it's Conservative administration is that they are so wrapped up with crackpot pie in the sky schemes that they neglect the basics. There is nothing more obvious than the fact that parents will want to look at the council website in their droves on the day they find out which school their children will go to. how hard is it to figure that out?

At the end of next year my son will be going through the transfer process. I've already had two children endure the process. My sympathy is with the parents.