Who Stole the 186 Bus? Deputy Leader of Barnet Council Andrew Harper !

A chance conversation with an old friend of my mums alerted me to the hardship caused to many elderly Mill Hill residents living on  the Watford Way, south of Mill Hill Circus. Quite rightly, our pensioners get a Freedom pass, which enables them to use free travel on buses. Many elderly people will downsize their properties and move to locations with convenient bus services. One of the most popular destinations for a shopping trip for many Mill Hill residents is Brent Cross Shopping Centre. Many elderly people moved to homes close to the Watford Way to take advantage of the 186 bus service, which would deliver them to the doors of the shopping centre.

Sadly for these people, Barnet Council has paid London Buses Services Limited a huge sum, over £600,000 to divert this bus away from this road. Originally the plan was that a dedicated bus service would serve Graham Park, but the council has decided that diverting the 186 would be a better idea, ignoring all of the elderly people who this change would massively inconvenience. You can read the full details of the decision by CLICKING HERE. You will see that no thought was given to the Elderly residents of Watford Way. What shocked me even more was that this diversion was partially paid for by the developers of the RAF section St Georges London Ltd. Why should this shock me? Well the bus service diversion significantly enhances the properties, yet Barnet Council didn't get the full amount required from the developers. The Council had to find over £60,000 from its own coffers (see extract from the report).

Yes, the council is sponsoring property developers, inconveniencing local elderly residents and not even considering them in the decision. Who was the person responsible for signing off this deal? Why none other than Barnet Council's deputy Leader and Conservative party "rising star"  Andrew Harper.

So there you go. A bad deal for the Council tax payer and a bad deal for the elderly. I just don't get why our local Conservatives seem to have no understanding of local transport, no empathy with the elderly of Barnet and a strange predeliction for doing deals rather favourable to property developers.
I wonder if Mr Harper has a nice new pair of boots like his leader Lynne Hillan?

Gather your Gorms - It's time to bash Boris

Dave Hill at the Guardian criticises Labour for it's gormless Boris Bashing. Quite rightly Dave says that Labours ridiculous policy of trying to turn people off Boris by calling him a toff or a racist is completely counter productive. Here at the Barnet Eye, we like to think we've got a cupboard full of gorms. We are quite happy to bash Boris, but we limit our Boris bashing to bashing him for breaking his promises and not living up to his expectations.

Boris promised to be a "mayor for the suburbs". He said Ken had neglected areas such as Barnet and he didn't understand the needs of the people who live here. So how has our Barnet friendly Mayor worked out? For a Mayor who claims to be in touch with the suburbs, he clearly doesn't understand that his core constituency are commuters. What has Boris done for the commuters of Barnet? What has he had to say about the First Capital Connect Thameslink fiasco? Given how Boris ejected Sir Ian Blair from the Met Police Commisioners job even though it wasn't within his remit, I wonder why he has done nothing. Had Boris thundered " I will do everything in my power to sack this useless company" when the "emergency timetable" was implemented, I'm sure that the minds of FCC would have focussed rather sharply.

As to the tube service. How many Barnet Commuters were affected by TFL's lacklustre attitude to running a service in the snow. We always get the mantra that it's not economically viable to prepare for bad weather, but according to figures bandied about on the radio and TV, yesterdays disruption to London cost billions. How hard can it be to keep tube lines running when bad weather has long been forecast?

I predicted that the downfall of Boris would be due to his lack of attention to detail and his lack of management experience. It seems to me that this is proving to be the case. Time after time his poor judgement on senior appointments has shown him to be unsuitable for the top job. The Veronica Wadley affair is only the latest in a series of awful judgements by the Mayor.

Another example is some of the bizarre decisions by TFL, of which Boris is the Boss. Abolishing the River Thames from the Tube Map was one. Closer to home in Mill Hill, the decision to reroute the 186 bus away from the Watford Way between Mill Hill Circus and Aerodrome Road is another prime example of lack of attention to detail. This has inconvenienced many local pensioners who used to use the bus to go shopping at Brent Cross. It has also significantly increased the journey time for people North of Mill Hill Circus. Originally a new bus was promised to serve Grahame Park, but a bit of Boris penny pinching put paid to this.

So has Boris been a better Mayor for Barnet than Ken? Not if you use Thameslink. Not if you use the Northern Line, not if you use the 186 Bus in Mill Hill, not if you have to buy a ticket to travel on buses and tubes. The abolition of the Western congestion charge zone will have miniscule positive effects for the voters of Barnet as few people here enter the area regularly. They will however have to pick up the cost of it's removal, in fare and tax increases.

Like many Londoners, I don't care what school Boris went to. All I want from my Mayor is attention to detail and a good job done. Boris has done neither.

We had the bendy bus, we wanted the Boris bus, we've got no bus at all now!

One of the key features of the campaign Boris ran for mayor was to bring in the Boris bus. This was going to be a shiny bright new bus, specially designed for Londons winding roads and slow traffic. Boris argued that bendy buses were too cumbersome for the capitals streets. It's fair to say that the promise of a decent bus service was one of the things which got Boris elected.

Sadly, it hasn't worked out like that at all. The Boris budget didn't add up. Too many promises to too many special interests. Now the chickens have come home to roost. Services have been cut, routes have been diverted. Who suffers? Mainly the elderly who use the freedom pass to get out and about. Mill Hill has seen two of it's iconic routes tampered with. The 186 has been diverted through Graham Park, leaving hundreds of pensioners in the Watford Way area with no direct service to the doors of Brent Cross. The 113 has also been diverted. Wheras it used to go all the way to Oxford Circus, now it goes to Marble Arch. For many pensioners who like a day out shopping in town, this has been a nightmare. Often elderly people will specifically move to an address with a convenient bus service. Boris Johnson's TFL do not take this into account. Not only are the elderly stuck in their flats, but the value is diminished by the withdrawal of bus services.

In central London, we have a nightmare scenario. Crossrail and Thameslink are resulting in huge works, station closures etc. We need an efficient bus service, but Boris has replaced the bendy buses. Has congestion eased? No of course it hasn't. There are more buses to replace the big bendies. These stop and slow the traffic even more.

All over London this picture has been repeated. My story about the 186 bus earlier this week has attracted much attention. Val Shawcross twittered it, resulting in a huge spike in hits on the blog. I got several emails from pensioners all over London saying "please say something about my route". There are just too many cuts for a blogger such as me to cover. The situation is nicely summed up by one old boy who emailed "We had the bendy bus, we wanted the Boris bus, we've got no bus at all now".

Boris Johnson stole our bus !!!!

Many of Barnets OAP's enjoy free travel using a freedom pass. There are quite a few who live between Mill Hill Broadway and Aerodrome Road on the A41. Now if you are one of these senior citizens and you fancy a nice shopping trip to get a few prezzies for your grandchildren, where do you go?

My guess is that you'd go to Brent Cross shopping Centre on the 186 bus. This bus goes right to the doors of the complex and is highly popular with pensioners on shopping trips. Well at least it used to be. You see Boris Johnsons TFL and Barnets Tory Council have conspired to divert it through Graham Park. It never occurs to people who hurtle around the Borough in shiny limo's on expenses, that many OAP's actually rely on buses.

Wheras before the 186 would drop them to the doors of Brent Cross, now they have a 10 minute walk through a poorly lit underpass and exposed to rain, wind and the elements to the 113 bus stop (which stops on a layby off the A41 on the flyover). Can you imagine trying to do that walk whilst laden with presents?

I spoke to one of these OAP's tonight. He told me that many pensioners had voted for Boris because he promised a better bus service. He told me that they all feel they've been conned. I said I'd write a blog. I asked if he wanted me to say anything in particular. He said "Tell Boris to give us our 186 bus back".  Sadly this isn't the only route and these aren't the only pensioners affected by swinging cuts to Boris Johnson's TFL bus service. Why is it with Tory budget cuts it's always the frail and weak who suffer. Don't they ever think what a massive impact even seemingly small changes can have on individuals.