Mill Hill Council Election - At least the Mill Hill Conservatives have a sense of humour

Click on image  for a more readable version

 You have to have a sense of humour in local politics. It seems that the Mill Hill Conservatives have a fine one.  As I was canvassing earlier, I was given a copy of the Mill Hill Tories latest leaflet. The resident was quite irate. Their exact words were "They've been running the council for years and now they are trying to get elected with a promise to sort out the mess they've spent the last couple of decades creating". As you can see, they list all the problems they've made and said "What can we help you with?". There's a handy QR code to tell themon the leaflet as well. It is a novel approach. Bugger everything up, then campaign on a platform of listening to their complaints.

So lets see what they've featured. 

Planning issues. The Barnet Tories have outsourced planning to Capita and now it is a 'profit centre' generating huge amounts of cash from big developers. 

Fly Tipping. Before the Tories got in, we had regular street skips. These were left for residents to despose of items in. In what was one of the worst cases of false economies, they abolished the skips. Now dodgy waste disposal companies get paid to take household waste and then fly tip it in our local beauty spots, which the council has to remove anyway, at far greater expenses.

Housing Problems. This is a shameful claim. I know of many people who have had problems with housing. Sadly, this Conservative Council simply isn't interested.

Potholes. This has been an ongoing problem in Barnet. The sad truth is that our roads are simply not maintained properly. There are many false economies in the way repairs are conducted. Often roads have been resurfaced only for utility companies to dig them up a few weeks later and not restore them properly. No one seems to check such work and no effort is put into co-ordinating utility works and getting the utility companies to fix problems they have caused with the road surface. These lead to many of the potholes. 

Parking problems. The council make a healthy profit on parking tickets. They outsourced this to a private company, who are very zealous in enforcement. Has this resolved the issues with parking? No. The council are also making a healthy problem on parking charges. The cost of these have risen considerably in recent years and they have introduced charges at many car parks that were previously free.

Cracked Pavements. This is quite interesting. Many of the pavements have been ripped up and replaced by asphalt. Many of those that have not are in terrible shape. How have they got like this? The Conservative Council has not looked after them properly. But never mind, if you have a problem you can tell them.

Refuse Issues. Remember three years ago when the Tories mucked up bin collections with new rounds that didn't work? Remember your bins not being collected because they'd completely screwed up? Well never mind. After a few months they sorted it out. It seems the Tories think no one has a memory in Barnet.

Council Tax Issues. Got a problem with Council Tax? Need to speak to someone at the Council? Well, you need to ring up and speak to someone,  but sadly the Barnet Tories outsourced all such functions to Capita so good luck with that. There is an SLA between Capita and the Council for calls answered. This has never been met. But the Mill Hill Tories will be very sympathetic if you tell them about your problems.

(please note, I'd recommend you don't click the QR code on the image. If you do I take no responsibility).