By Helen Michael,
I did not get to ask my question, despite having my hand up for an hour and standing up for another half hour with my hand up. I was asked to sit down by security and I refused. I thought I was going to be manhandled when I refused again but fortunately the security guard had the sense to back off (maybe not, it would have made a good story)
The were 10 of us wearing t shirts in a row, so we were very conspicuous. Coleman's face visibly dropped when he walked into the venue. Brian Coleman made a big mistake ignoring us/me, it was almost embarrassing for him. He bypassed me throughout and even when all 10 of us had our hands up he pretended not see us. In the end the Mayor indicated to us and said that the white t shirts had something important to say, and even despite the mayor drawing attention to us on two occasions after that Coleman still ignored us, thereby drawing even more attention to us all. Boris said that he thought our issue was parking and that he would look at it. We didn't even need to make the point.
Fortunately another lady made most of the relevant comments, and Boris made ours for us. It was brilliant! Gail Laser also came across strong and made several relevant points re parking.
There was shouting from all angles for Coleman to let me speak, he ignored them all.
I gave Boris a t shirt which he was happy to accept.
In all 14 t shirts around the room. 10 in a row! Effective.
Councillor Cornelius made the same speech as last Tuesday at the Barnet business breakfast meeting. Gail Lazer did as well, except she didn't use notes, so much better. And in closing she made the relevant comments regarding parking. She was great.
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Helen Michael is a local resident, has run Cafe Buzz in Finchley High St for the last 5 years and is actively campaigning for fair parking charges in Barnets High Streets. Guest blogs are always welcome, see the information in the top right hand corner of the blog
Now that we know that the outrageous Westminster proposals have been abandoned, following an earlier U-turn in Redbridge, it is clear that public backlash must be recognised elsewhere - Barnet included. In the case of Westminster their leader has fallen on his sword (however much he might try to dresss it up). In Barnet......?
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