Guest Blog Part 3: Naqvi: “Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me!” by Concerned Resident

 Part 3: Naqvi: “Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me!”

What of this apparent business of the “ousting” of Naqvi?

Well!

Things seemingly kicked off during the last week of the 42-day formal planning consultation for WCP.  Up to that point there had only been less than 20 responses.  This is not a surprise, given that we are a Ward that lacks a decades old amenity society (with large a membership and a planning sub-committee packed with retired planners, architects &/or lawyers).

For context, the Edgware Community Hospital redevelopment consultation got 27 responses.  While it was consulted on during the pandemic, is it is clearly of interest to more people, so we might expect that to be the high watermark for a development in the Ward.  After that, the most objections to a ‘major’ development in the Ward is less than 10!  On that basis, 20 isn’t bad, but given the floodplain context, one would expect it to be higher.

So, what happened during that last week?

Our fortunes flipped:

- With the introduction, on Saturday, of a handy ‘click and send’ objection form, initiated by a neighbouring amenity society with significantly better resources, there was a massive uptick.
- In just two days, the objections had trebled.
- On Monday, Naqvi had been outed in the press.
- Objections continued, so by Tuesday there were almost 100 responses (only one of which was in Support and one Neutral).  
- That same day, Naqvi had been removed from his Cabinet post and no longer a member of the Labour Party.
- He was gone by Wednesday.
- A by-election was announced on Thursday.
- On Friday Cath Shaws CEO job was on Barnet Council’s jobs board.  (OK, I don’t know whether that is connected, but I’m throwing it in for good measure given that acting CEO roles don’t normally take two and a half years to get advertised...)

The front page of the February edition of the Barnet Post does a big splash on the Naqvi story. It reserves the permanent CEO role article for page 4. Still, the front page story reads, “The Post began to investigate in December after being told that Naqvi’s register of interests had been removed and updated in November after a query was raised with the council.” and “However, the Post was sent an image of the document before it was updated”.  The Post can take credit for the investigating, but what I want to know is, “Who exactly is doing all the telling and the sending?!”.

The smooth delivery of the redevelopment looked like it was heading for omnishambles territory in that last consultation week.  So, if you were in favour of the redevelopment, the last thing you need is ex-Cllr Naqvi as your Finance lead, relevant local Ward councillor and ex-SPC member, when serious questions need answering!   For those that don’t know, he was known for some spectacular gaffs!

I cannot prove it, but I am not alone in thinking that ex-cllr Naqvi was “thrown under the bus”.   My back of the envelope musings currently read like a game of Cluedo, that I just can’t solve:

- Miss Scarlett:  His own party (distracts the electorate, removes the man they blame for the mess).
- Prof. Plum: A non-resident who doesn’t much care for Burnt Oak, and who mistakenly believes that not redeveloping here would mean housing would go elsewhere (even though the units associated with WCP are no longer part of the Local Plan and the housing target for Barnet was reduced in 2024 anyway).
- Rev/Major Green: The Developers (financial motivation).
- Mrs White: Council Officers from any given department (relying on WCP to be the ‘Goose that Lays the Golden Egg’).
- Colonel Mustard: Reform Party (trigger an election and test the waters ahead of 2026 if things don’t go well in 2025).
- Mrs Peacock: Tories (amplifies the narrative about Labour’s finance management).

'Who Done It?' or 'Far Fetched Nonsense'? 

You tell me!

In conclusion
There isn’t time/space for me to go into what residents want, need and deserve from Councillors and Officers going forward. 

Nor is there time/space for what role the press has played (or failed to play) in the last two years.

And no, there is no time/space left to deal with what having a decent reputation actually means to any or all of these people (particularly with respect to avoiding bias and unreasonableness in planning decisions and not least trying to avoid insurance liabilities and worse, a drowning tragedy should redevelopment of the main site take place).

These are blogs for another day, if I am permitted.

As for the Leader of the Council, maybe now he has something he would like to share with us?

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Concerned Resident is a Barnet Resident residing in Burnt Oak ward. Guest blogs are always welcome at The Barnet Eye