Shoddy journalism at the Barnet Times is a complete disgrace

I was disgusted to read the following article in the Barnet/Hendon Times by Chris Hewitt

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/10240686.Legal_challenge__will_cost_taxpayers____2_2million_/

Mr Hewitt's article is perhaps the most biased and one sided piece of journalism I have seen from any of our local papers. A casual reader of the article would conclude that Maria Nash is simply a serial protestor and trouble maker. Mr Hewitt writes

Maria Nash, a protestor and member of the Barnet Alliance for Public Services, instructed lawyers to request a judicial review into the decision on the grounds the public were not properly consulted.

What Mr Hewitt fails to mention about Maria Nash is the fact that she is severely disabled, is confined to wheelchair and is completely reliant on Barnet Council for all of the services which allow her to live independently. Mr Hewitt has not bothered to speak to Maria or to even properly read the details of the legal challenge she is bringing against Barnet Council.

As Mr Hewitt can't be bothered to properly report what Maria is challenging, the Barnet Eye will. This is what Maria is challenging the council on.

1.         Breach of the Council's duty to consult Barnet residents, businesses and community organisations about its plans, the result of which is that it has spent millions of pounds – the Agilisys contract alone has cost over £4m and is likely to rise to £6m – on professional consultants helping it to run the procurement process, but has not once asked local people for their views.

2.         Breach of councillors' duty to the residents in their area, to make sure that their decisions represent the best available value for public money. In order to be sure that they are getting best value out of this or any other contract the Council must compare the costs, benefits and risks of outsourcing with the costs, benefits and risks of retaining services in house but reforming the way they are provided to optimise value. Despite having been urged to do this, and despite the fact that it has been done by other local authorities, like Edinburgh, Barnet has refused to do it.

3.         Breach of the public sector equality duty: the Council must take issues of equality into account when making important decisions which affect people’s lives, like making radical changes in the way Council services are run.  The “equalities impact assessment” done in the One Barnet case was a pure paper exercise, which took no account of the views of people who would be affected by the changes.

4.         Breach of public procurement law, which requires that this contract be awarded to the company submitting the “most economically advantageous tender from the point of view of the public body”, i.e. the provider that gives the “best value for money” , taking into account the council’s responsibilities. Lack of consultation with local people, lack of consideration of equalities and lack of an in-house services comparator means the council cannot state that Capita gives the best value for money.  Such a breach of the public procurement rules leads to cases like West Coast Main Line.

5.         Breach of councillors’ duty to make up their own minds: Individual councillors must by law make up their own minds how to vote after informing themselves on the issues.  They are not allowed blindly to follow the party line.  Councillors have been starved of information and have not had the opportunity to understand the highly complex proposals for the contract, so they cannot legally vote to do anything other than defer a decision so that they can inform themselves and come to a proper view. 

Mr Hewitt also accepts verbatim the Councils figures regarding savings. There is no mention of the fact that the Council claim they have not even completed the contract, so none of these savings can be tested or verified. There is no mention of the fact that Public Sector outsourcing contracts have a history of going bad and costing the taxpayer millions of pounds. There is no mention of the fact that Barnet Council have a history of mismanagement of procurement, wasting millions.

Mr Hewitt also does not mention that to receive legal aid, Maria Nash had to prove that their was a legal justification for the case she was bringing. Legal aid is not granted in such cases for frivalous challenges.

All we get is a one sided and extremely biased report, which does no justice to a very brave decision by a frail, disabled old lady to stand up for her rights. Mr Hewitt should issue an apology to Maria immedately for his biased and unfair reporting of her challenge and not carrying a response from the Barnet Alliance for Public Services or Maria. This article cannot be defended as being fair and unbiased. No doubt Mr Hewitt will claim he simply reported "facts" but as these have solely been provided by the council and there is no balance the article cannot be defended as being anything other than unfair. At the very least he should have accurately reported Marias status and why she is bringing the challenge, along with all of the grounds for the case, not just the Consultation issue.

Barnet Council spends huge amounts of money on advertising with local papers. One hopes that this plays no part in the editorial decisions of the newspaper. Surely we should expect higher standards from our local papers? In general the local press have been very fair and decent in reporting of stories concerning One Barnet. We sincerely hope this article was an abberation and an off day. We expect to see the problems rectified ASAP with Maria and BAPS being given the opportunity to respond.

Well done to the Hendon Times (only 14 months too late)

I was intrigued to see a whole load of hits on a story this blog ran 14 months ago - http://barneteye.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/time-to-sell-up-and-move-if-you-live-in.html - as a result of google searches on Radlett Rail Freight terminal. It seems that sneaky old Eric Pickles decided to bury some bad news and give the go ahead for a massive increase in the number of overnight freight trains travelling on the Midland main Line through Mill Hill and Hendon in the middle of the night. These trains will carry up to 2,000 tons of freight, causing considerable disruption to local residents and adversely affecting property values.

Fourteen months after my original blog, the hendon Times actually decided to mention the story, in it's paper edition this week. Sadly the Hendon Times article this week doesn't mention the details or the effect on local people. It appears that no one at the paper bothered to read the impact assessment (or even my old blog on the subject). I believe that this is the sort of story local press should cover in detail.

I asked in September 2011 what our local MP Matthew Offord has done to mitigate the effects on his constituents. It seems that the answer is "not very much". If like me, your house backs onto the Midland main line, you will already know what effect rail freight has. A near doubling of the amount travelling through during the night is a big issue for hundreds of people in Barnet. Sadly I suspect the first many people will know about it is when they start getting woken up ten times a night by these monster trains rumbling through.

Courses for Bloggers - Frustration and heartache is what you've got

What is a blog? What sort of person writes it? Do they have anything interesting to say for themselves or do they just spout the brown stuff?

I saw an advert for a course on how to be a blogger today, advertised in the Guardian for £400. I can't for the life of me think why anyone would ever want to become a blogger. I most certainly didn't. I still don't. I rather think that none of the famous five Barnet bloggers ever wanted to be bloggers. In fact when I started blogging, I didn't even know what a blogger or a blog was.

I am an accidental blogger. The whole blogging thing started because I felt the Hendon Times was not covering the local music scene. I emailed the then editor, Phil Crowther and suggested that if he gave me half a page of the paper, I could write a column on the local music scene. I also used to regularly leave comments on stories on the papers website (I still do). Phil Crowther said no, but suggested I might like to contribute a blog on the Hendon Times Website. If you search hard enough, you can still find these lurking in the outer reaches of their website (here's an early example - http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/picture_gallery/2008/08/14/Rog+T+Blog+%28Imported+from+blog+module%29/3567158.Education__Education__Education___I_don_t_think_so/ ).

I also used the blog to criticise Barnet Council. Barnet Council bit back and persuaded the editor of the Hendon Times to sack me as a blogger. One of my readers, David Miller, emailed me and suggested I start my own blog on this site as he felt it was a complete travesty that the Times had sacked me. I duly did this. For the first six months of the blog, I sort of assumed about five people were reading it. I didn't install a stats monitoring package or even really care. I felt that if I started trying to chase blog hits, it would sully the purity of my writing and thought process. People kept asking me "how many people read your blog?" I would proudly tell them I hadn't got a clue. I then decided to make my blog look more like a real blog. I added Google Adsense advertising. Not because I wanted the cash, but because I felt it would make my blog look like a proper blog. This had rudimentary stats and I was shocked to find that a couple of hundred people looked at the blog every day. At this point, I installed a stats package.

The next thing that happened was a reader who designed websites emailed me. I didn't know them, but they felt I was not making full use of the blog and some things I was doing were preventing people from reading the blog. They explained how to embed videos, link to other blogs and why the colour scheme was important. If the screen is "too loud", people can't slyly read it at work, because it is obvious they are skiving. After two years, I finally met my trusty advisor and bought him a beer. I also acquired a free legal team. Again someone I didn't know, emailed me and said they really admired me and if ever I had any legal issues, get in touch and they would give me some advice. I have thoroughly abused this generous offer. Again after a year or so, I thought I should buy them a beer. When I tried to offer they said "no, I should buy you one, you are the one who takes all the risks, we need people like you". I got a free slap up meal for my efforts.

Then there are the people who have tried to intimidate me, trolls as we call them. In the early days of the blog, they would leave anonymous comments. I couldn't really be bothered with all that, so I changed the blog settings so they had to be a registered user of Blogspot. For some reason the trolling virtually stopped.

The next big innovation was the concept of "guest blogs". I guess millions of other bloggers probably do this, but I'd not seen it. I got an email from someone who wanted  me to write a blog for them. I said "nope, just write it and I'll post it as a guest blog". This concept has taken off in a big way. Some of the most popular blogs on this site have been guest blogs. We've had hundreds of them now.

The next thing to happen was the explosion of Barnet bloggers. When I started at the Hendon Times, my blog was the only thing of it's kind in the London Borough of Barnet. It would be hugely arrogant to say that without my blog the others would not have come into existance, but I think that it certainly gave a few people a few pointers. I also think that maybe my style of blogging has in a small way inspired some of the other local bloggers (although I too have learned from them over the course of time). As the other blogs developed, we started to communicate and work together. We exchange all manner of info. We also compete in a friendly way. It is a Barnet bloggers tradition that when we cover council meetings, we adjourn to the pub after for a pint and a chat. This has allowed us to hugely magnify the power of our blogs.

Another big development was thanks to Dave Hill at the Guardian, who has been a champion of the London blogging scene. He soon picked up that Barnet was a blogging hotspot and five of his "Guardian London Blogs" are based in Barnet.  This gave us Barnet bloggers credibility - http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehillblog/blogosphere -  the fact that a National newspaper website linked to us.

As the Barnet bloggers developed, we became more effective. This blog gets over 1,000 hits on average every day. We have had just under 600,000 hits to date. I've written articles for the Guardian, done podcasts for the Londonist and been interviewed on the One Show on BBC as a direct result of the blog.

You may ask what my "secret of success" is? I don't really know. I originally thought that it was simply because no one else was doing anything like it. Now there is a team of bloggers, it can't just be that. I believe it is because it is patently clear that the Barnet bloggers are trying to do the right thing, that people respect us.

Strangers regularly say "I read your blog" these days. After big demonstrations such as the recent march through Finchley, dozens of people came up to me and said "I really appreciate what you are trying to do".

For me personally though, most of the time blogging is sheer frustration and heartache. All of the things I blog about are to me quite basic and simple cases of right and wrong. I don't need to be clever to write my blogs, most of it is just stating the bleeding obvious. Most of the scandals we've uncovered are not tiny little things on the margins, but huge cases of incompetence. Many of the things us bloggers report on are just unfathomable, such as why councillors are letting such a hugely risky project as One Barnet proceed without proper scrutiny.

I hope the day will come when the Barnet Eye becomes obsolete, the issues we raise cease to exist and no one reads it. I don't hunt for stories to cover, the leap out. I hope that any vaguely decent, sane and intelligent person who reads the blog realises that it is motivated only by the desire to improve the place I live.

What is interesting is how often I've written really harsh and nasty things about certain people in Barnet. Many times, months down the line, people have come up to me and said "when I read that I thought you were completely out of order, but now I know the facts, I have realised you were actually too nice".

I once read a blog on how to write blogs. I realised I broke most of the rules. Being a dyslexic punk rock guitarist, this comes naturally. Here's one of the sites - http://weblogs.about.com/od/bloggingtips/tp/TipsWriteBlogPosts.htm - I am pretty sure I completely screw up on rules 1 & 5. I hope I pass on rule 2 and 3. Rule 4, I try to, but I'm pretty lazy so don't always. Then again I do far more than the local papers  regularly nick my stories without so much as a by your leave.

So there you go. Everything you need to know about how to be a famous Barnet blogger. It hasn't cost you £400. It hasn't cost you a penny. If however you value this blog and want to help us there is one thing you can do. CLICK THIS LINK and email me with your details. I am trying to raise the funds to make a follow up film to A Tale of Two Barnets - To do the job properly, we need £3,000 and we've got £750. Every little bit will help. I hope you can in some small way assist us and keep the Barnet spring alive. The money is being used to purchase some specialist microphones for interviews, to pay for our travel costs and to cover the cost of other technical issues we have to address. In making A Tale of Two Barnets, we intwerviewed 43 people. Each interview used up approx half a day of Charles Hondericks time. The editing took Charles 119 hours. We got no financial benefit from the film at all, in fact we were out of pocket by the end of it. We're not complaining, because we are proud of the film we made. We are only making the follow up because people have asked us to, having seen the first film. There are many things we couldn't cover and people we couldn't interview. These stories need to be told.

Exclusive : Barnet Eye announces plans to take over the Times Group Newspapers in Barnet

Press Release : Monday 2nd April - 9am

Irish Racehorse owner and social entrepreneur Aibreán Amadán today announced that he has formed a partnership with Roger Tichborne, to launch a new news media corporation, Barneteye Universal Media Ltd. The new company will be based at the new development at Frogmore House, Mill Hill and will comprise of all Barnet Eye website media, Mill Hill Music Complex studios and The Mill Hill Space Company Ltd - a recently formed office services company. 


Barneteye Universal Meidia Ltd also announced it's intention to procure the rights to the Times Series Group of Papers operating in the Barnet Area. Mr Amadán said "I have been highly impressed with the way that the Barnet Eye blog has grown from nothing to develop a committed readership and following. Whilst local press and media have been in a state of terminal decline, it is clear that the online market is experiencing explosive growth. We believe that electronic publishing is the way forward and we believe that this should be managed with a phased migration away from paper based news products".  Mr Amadán also announced an intention to invest heavily in the local Library service. He added "We believe that local libraries should be developed as technology hubs for local councils. We believe that the current plans to run down libaries is a criminal waste of resources. We intend to refresh and revitalise the libraries of Barnet, with new technology to enhance and rebuild the service".


Mr Amadán stated that every person over the age of 85 should receive a free Kindle or other similar technology with free downloads. This would cut millions of pounds worth of overheads from the councils library service, freeing up space and resources for more fit for purpose developments in keeping with the 21 century. Mr Amadán explained that as many elderly people see the library as a meeting place and social hub, it is important to develop this aspect of the service. 


Mr Amadán was also named as the secret backer behind the film "A Tale of Two Barnets". He explained "Roger Ticborne explained the project to me at Kempton Park last year over a pint of Guinness. I was truly excited by the concept of  a community film and have invested heavily in the project to ensure the success of the film. I also became interested in Mr Tichborne's ideas of developing a truly community based news media outlet, written for the people and by the people. An online newspaper where everyone in the community is a journalist and the most popular stories are the ones which make the front page. We are developing a truly revolutionary news portal, which will be democratic and inclusive. Unlike the existing paper news, every community, Irish, Jewish, Greek, Hindu, Moslem can have it's own local news section and will be able to generate revenue for their own communities by placed advertising. A traditional newspaper can't have street level news, but we can and it will be 100% up to date. We will utilise local twitter feeds and subscriptions to ensure that you see news in your neighbourhood as it happens." 


As to the role of the existing paper based Times product, Mr Amadán explained "The role of the traditional newspaper in this, is to use it's distribution network to ensure that everyone is made aware of the Barnet Eye website and associated services. We envisage doing many joint promotions with local High Streets and using vouchers and coupons to reinvigorate Barnets High Streets. We are also planning to work with the council to pioneer "parking charge suspensions on key days and times of the week, in association with the promotions. We believe that this will show a true commitment to the High Street in Barnet."


Mr Roger Tichborne, editor of the Barnet Eye stated "I have known Mr Amadán for many years. We are lucky that he has chosen to work with us in Barnet to rebuild our community. These are truly exciting times to live in the London Borough of Barnet". Mr Tichborne added "I have been working to build a successful blog for the last four years. With the vision and backing of Mr Amadán, we can build a truly world class news outlet here in Barnet. One which we can all be proud of. It is interesting because Mr Amadáns name, Aibreán Amadán, in Gaelic means Maker of Change and that is what we are going to see in Barnet as our plans develop.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes to News Editors.


1. This publication is embargoed until 9am on Monday 2nd April.


2. Mr Aibreán Amadán is a resident of County Kildare and his role in the organisation is purely one of backer and mentor. 


3. Barnet Unoversal Media Ltd is in the process of being incorporated. 


4. Mr Aibreán Amadán will be staging a press conference at 3pm on Tuesday 3rd April at Frogmore House, Bunns Lane Works, Mill Hill, London, NW7 2AJ.


5. Mr Aibreán Amadánis keen to stress that there will be no redundancies within Times Group newspapers for a minimum of 3 years following successful completion of the takeover. Mr Aibreán Amadán hopes that all staff can be transitioned to the new online delivery channel.


6. Mr Aibreán Amadánwill be contacting Barnet Council on Wednesday 4th April to discuss his plans for a large investment in the Barnet Library network, subject to suspension of plans to close Friern Barnet Library.

Barnet Homes - Failing the tenants and nominated for awards

Today the Hendon Times reports that Barnet Homes, the quango which is responsible for the provision of Council housing in the London Borough of Barnet, has been nominated for an award for best customer engagement initiative category. When people ask me why I bother writing a blog, this is yet another classic example of the reason. It is because the local press fail to cover important local issues properly. You see there was another big story about Barnet Homes yesterday, but sadly you'd only have read it on this blog, because the local press are more interested in press releases where all the work is done for them by the PR departments of these large organisations.

If you read this - http://barneteye.blogspot.com/2012/02/scandal-exposed-abject-failure-of.html - you will read how a council report reveals that many disabled tenants of Barnet Homes are forced to live in crumbling tower blocks, where lifts are beyond repair and the emergency alarms don't work. What is more of a story? The award or the failure to maintain estates in a safe manner for a period of many years. The excuse? "Legacy systems" whatever this means? Given that they took over in 2004, they've had plenty of time to sort this legacy out. The other excuse is that the blocks are earmarked for demolition and this programme is "running late". As the blocks are likely to be around for the foreseeable future (a figure of ten years is mentioned, and who knows what will happen in that time), it is clear that Barnet Homes had no proper plan for regeneration and have failed thousands of their most deprived tenants in Barnet.

Once again, I urge the local press to start doing their jobs and report the real issues that affect the people of the London Borough of Barnet. For any local journalists who are interested, check out this site - www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk - who have been campaigning for an end to the scandal for many years.

Another day, another Burnt Oak Stabbing, still no comment from Matthew Offord MP

I arrive home this afternoon to find the news in the Hendon Times that there has been another stabbing in Burnt Oak :-

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/9145145.Burnt_Oak_stabbing_witness_describes_victim_s_screams/

Coming only two days after a murder near Burnt Oak station, I cannot tell you how alarming I find the news. This story sounds awful, a mother attacked, daughter threatened, man stabbed. Our local MP, Matthew Offord has still not even mentioned it on his twitter feed, this is his second message since the first stabbing :-

@HendonMP Matthew Offord

Constituent and I meeting with FCO minister

 What on earth does Offord think he is paid to do? He should have visited the site at the first possible opportunity, spoken to local residents and the police and tried to reassure the people of Burnt Oak that he is doing everything in his power to ensure that their safety is his top concern. He has unique access to senior police and should be updating us on their progress and urging witnesses to come forward. 

Does it not occur to Mr Offord that local people are actually rather worried. Whilst no one expects him to personally investigate, he can reassure people that the Police are on top of the situation. I am sure the police are doing a fine job, but they need the support of the community to solve these crimes and protect us. An MP who shows that he's concerned by meeting people and letting us know that he's taking an interest is surely a central part of the picture. Yesterday Matthew Offord posted a tweet (reported here) that he'd been out canvassing.  I cannot imagine a situation where the former MP, Andrew Dismore would have totally ignored a murder in this way in the constituency. 

On another related matter, the Hendon Times has reported the identity of the man killed on Sunday morning as Carlos Roberto Oliveria, a 27 year old Brazilian man, living in Clapham.

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/9145718.Burnt_Oak_murder_victim_identified/

The report states that it is not thought that Mr Oliveria was a cleint of the brothel, where the stabbing took place. Yesterday I took strong issue with the Hendon Times and it's assistant editor, Tim Jones, regarding the tone of the story and how the victims family may feel at what had been printed. Mr Jones responded on his twitter feed in forthright terms, stating that I should stick to facts (even though his own article only mentioned a police "theory"). I feel vindicated in my comments that they should have waited until the "facts" were established, before they printed  a story which could have caused grave upset to the family. I must say that I think the todays story by Jack Royston is a far better and more balanced piece, with which I have no issue. They have also removed the comments I left criticising them for comments in the story - apparently to prevent "racist" comments being left by other people.

Of course it is their website and they can do what they like with it. I personally believe the Times should be a responsible community newspaper and exercise a degree of discretion when printing stories about local people. I think that waiting until facts have been established, if someone has died in a way which may cause his family hurt, is not too much to ask. I have had a few emails about the harsh tone and extreme language I used. Yes, I agree that this went way beyond what I would normally ever write in this blog, but I wished to make sure TIm Jomes at the Times read them and gave them some thought. As he clearly did, I feel vindicated in my approach. I don't seek to pick fights or abuse people, but sometimes we all need a wake up call. I know I do and I think TIm Jones did. 

What troubles me about this whole issue. Would our MP have said nothing to the Press or to Twitter if it was in the richest part of Hendon, rather than the poorest. It may surprise (then again it might not) readers to know that it isn't only part of Hendon to house brothels. I had an amusing experience knocking on the door of one when I was canvassing for the Lib Dems, above a shop in Mill Hill Broadway during the last Council elections. What concerns me is the issue of brothels acting as a magnet and focus for organised criminals. If this is the case, then we need police action. If gangs are moving in, then we may see more such disturbing scenes. That is why it is essential that Offord gets in and gets a grip. There is a well known and well documented link between the sex industry, the drugs industry and organised crime.  I happen to believe that it is the duty of the council and our MP's to ensure that these issue are not allowed to take a hold in our neighbourhood, be it Burnt Oak, Brunswick Park, Brent Cross or anywhere in between. As it stands, we just have a disinterested silence.

*** Note : Edited 07:40 - The story I objected to has not been removed from site. The DE of the Times stated the comments had been deleted to prevent other people leaving "racist comments". Tim Jones also wished for me to correct his name, which I had listed as Tom Jones. Apologies to Tom Jones for any embarrassment caused, as well as to Tim Jones

Burnt Oak Murder : Tim Jones of The Hendon Times responds to the Barnet Eye

The assistant editor of the Hendon Times & associated papers took exception to my previous blog (job done then). He posted the following points on Twitter re the previous blog here. This is what he said :-
  

tpsjones Tim Jones

@barneteye and why does your blog yesterday say nothing from Hendon Times? We had story first. Do you know a fact when you see one?

2 hours ago 

»

tpsjones Tim Jones

@barneteye which is all far more than you seem to have done. How about putting the police number on your own blog? That might help.

2 hours ago 

»

tpsjones Tim Jones

@barneteye we have also widely publicised the police's appeal for information in a bid to solve this and catch whoever is responsible.

2 hours ago 

»

tpsjones Tim Jones

@barneteye what an ill-considered and appalling rant. We are reporting the facts as given to us by the police. The fact are the facts.

2 hours ago 

 

--------------------------------

He makes one valid point, yes it would be good to publicise the police number. Anyone with information is asked to call the incident room on 0208 358 0100, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. 

 

So on to his other points. He sulkily claims I should have acknowledged the Times yesterday (not that they ever acknowledge us when they nick our stories). Well I found out about the story via the radio and my own trip to the fishmonger in Burnt Oak. I mentioned the Times coverage in passing. Nothing featured in his story which I used for what I wrote, having been aware of the facts via BBC London 94.9. I thought the coverage yesterday was Ok. Mr Jones accuses me of not knowing a fact when I see one, re the allegation that the address was a brothel. This is rather interesting and shows a poor grasp of English on his part, as his own story states that the police considered the issue of the property being a brothel to be a theory (according to his own story). I may be thick and dyslexic, but in my book a Theory and a Fact are two completely different things.

For the absence of doubt, I object to the story posted  today, which I placed a link to the Times website on, specifying my reasons why.  Mr Jones is free to say what he likes about this blog, but for the second time today, I find myself wishing that he was rather more circumspect in his comments. I am rather pleased that he has at last admitted that people should acknowledge their sources though.  I typed Barneteye into the Times search engine and didn't find a single credit, just two stories about me which came up as well as a readers letter.

Anyway, his tweets are here. Make up your own mind

Barnet Eye round up - Burnt Oak Murder - What the hell is going on ?

Sorry if I upset anyone with what I am going to say here. I am just absolutely sick and disgusted by the fact that somebody was stabbed to death in Burnt Oak, a mile from my front door and no one seems to give a fuck.

First up lets see what our MP, Matthew Offord has to say on his Twitter feed. Over 24 hours later? Absolutely fuck all. What about the news on his website?
http://www.matthewofford.co.uk/news.aspx?id=4 - Nope the troglodytes of Burnt Oak are not worth mentioning to our esteemed MP, although the fact he met a famous sports person is.

What does the local paper have to say?
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/9144135.Burnt_Oak_murder__premises_may_have_been_brothel/

Yeah lovely stuff, do they forget the bloke presumably had a family? A mum? A dad? Most sickening of all is the story at the bottom of the story -

Do you know the premises where the stabbing happened? Contact the newsdesk with any information by emailing tjones@london.newsquest.co.uk

Well I have a message for TJones at London.newsquest.co.uk - Fuck off and show some respect. The poor sod isn't even cold on the slab yet and you are looking for salacious stories of rumpy pumpy on the back of his death. You make me sick, trying to spice up the story to boost your circulation. Why don't you bug his families phones and see if you can dig up even more shit? Haven't you learned anything? Why don't you fuck off to News International where you seem to belong.

Does anyone care? I find the reaction truly horrible and disgusting. I'll be saying a prayer for the victim and his family and hoping that the papers see the error of their ways and lay off putting the boot in. Some hope

Press Complaints Committee (PCC) reject Matthew Offord MP's complaint against the Hendon Times

Following the resignation of Adrian Murray-Leonard from the Conservative Party, local Tory MP, Matthew Offord launched a complaint with the PCC,  stating that the Hendon Times had printed an inaccurate and misleading article. The PCC have rejected the complaint. I will return to this matter later this week, but for now, here is the judgement, without comment from me.
-------------------------------------------------------

HENDON MP Matthew Offord reported the Hendon & Finchley Times to the Press Complaints Commission over an article headed Hendon MP Matthew Offord Criticised By UKIP defector, published on January 20, 2011, which he claimed was inaccurate. The PCC has now confirmed that his complaint has not been upheld, and that the Hendon & Finchley Times did not breach the Editors’ Code of Practice. The text of the Commission’s decision is given in full below:

Commission’s decision in the case of

Offord  v Hendon & Finchley Times

The complainant said that the article contained inaccuracies in breach of Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code.

The article reported Adrian Murray-Leonard’s defection from the Conservative Party to UKIP, and contained his view that the complainant – a Conservative MP – had been “uncontactable” since being elected. The complainant said that this was inaccurate: he was available to those who needed to contact him, and had two numbers in the public domain. Moreover, Mr Murray-Leonard could not have resigned as he had not been a member of the Conservative Party for some time. As such, he could not represent the local Conservative Association. The newspaper had been advised of this, and that there had been some incidents involving Mr Murray-Leonard which called into question his status as a credible source, but had nonetheless published the inaccurate and misleading article.            

The newspaper did not accept that the article was inaccurate. While it conceded that the use of the word “resignation” was technically wrong, it said that the crux of the story – that a prominent Conservative had defected to UKIP – was not in dispute. Further, the newspaper was, it said, entitled to report Mr Murray-Leonard’s honestly-held views about the complainant. The journalist had gone to considerable lengths to obtain the complainant’s comments prior to publication. The newspaper subsequently offered to publish a clarification detailing the complainant’s response to the allegation: that he did not accept the claim that he was “uncontactable”; and that he had two numbers in the public domain.

There were several issues to consider here. First, the newspaper was entitled to report that a staunch Conservative had transferred his allegiances to another party, and to quote him on his reasons for doing so. Mr Murray-Leonard’s views on the complainant had been clearly distinguished as such, and the newspaper had not commented on the veracity of his claims.

That said, given that Mr Murray-Leonard had criticised the complainant, it was of course necessary for the newspaper to allow him the opportunity to rebut those claims. The newspaper had contacted the complainant with the allegations prior to publication and had sought his comments on them. It had therefore taken steps to fulfil the terms of Clause 1 (Accuracy), which state that the press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information. The Commission welcomed the newspaper’s subsequent offer to clarify that the complainant did not accept Mr Murray-Leonard’s allegations, and trusted that this offer would remain open should he subsequently wish to take it up.

In regard to the question of the precise date of Mr Murray-Leonard’s “resignation” – and therefore the validity or otherwise of his criticism of the complainant – the newspaper had been able to point to the minutes of the local Conservatives’ Ward Annual General Meeting (which had taken place in late December 2010) where his departure from the position of Ward Chairman had been announced. Further, it was not in dispute that Mr Murray-Leonard had been involved in the election campaign, and had continued to participate in local politics, notwithstanding the issue of when his party membership had formally lapsed. In these circumstances, the Commission did not consider that the use of the term “resignation” was significantly misleading as to require separate correction or clarification. Moreover, Mr Murray-Leonard’s comments had clearly been made in the capacity of someone involved with the Conservative Party, and would not imply to readers that constituents generally should have access to the complainant’s personal details.

Finally, the Commission noted the complainant’s view that – in light of allegations about Mr Murray-Leonard’s character – the newspaper should have declined to publish his claims about the complainant. The Commission could not comment on these allegations (which did not relate to the content of the article) nor could it come to a view that the newspaper should not have published the article.

Reference No. 110331

Barnet Council Scandals - A grim day for Barnet Council in the Press

There are three major traditional papers in Barnet. They all come out today and they are all full of scandals, cock ups and incompetence this week. There is a theme. In each of these stories, the residents of Barnet have been adversely affected by services provided by Private contractors engaged by Barnet Council.

You may think that this would cause Barnet Council to think about how it runs it's services. Sadly they are doing the opposite and going hell for leather towards even more outsourcing and even more private contracts. They have put together a business case which an independent expert slammed as a work of fiction.

Anyway for your light reading here is what the traditional end of the press have to say (click on the pictures for the online edition of the paper)

Hampstead and Highgate Express

Details how Council Contractors (Metpro Rapid Response)covertly video residents. Local Tory MP Matthew Offord, quite rightly slams this behaviour (did he know when he was deputy leader and the contract was signed). This is on page 1.

Then we have the Edgware press. This details how shoddy work by contractors left the most vulnerable residents of care homes in Barnet at risk of legionella. Again on Page 1.

Then we have the Hendon Times. Barnet are only on page 3 here, but the story details how blunders mean residents haven't got their Council Tax bills and information to pay them. This will have a disasterous effect on Council finances and may lead to huge overdraft fees and temporary borrowing facilities.

So you may wonder who is running the show. The answer appears to be no-one. At the Council Cabinet meeting this week, neither Leader Lynne Hillan or Deputy Leader Andrew Harper was present. Are they both on holiday? This is not the first time that the Council has been engulfed in a crises and they've both been off enjoying themselves.

It's high time the local Tories sacked them and got some proper leadership. They get huge allowances (£35,000 and £27,000 respectively) for the jobs and they can't even be bothered to arrange for one of them to turn up. The press shows a catastrophic failure. Any of these stories on it's own would be highly embarrassing. All three together in one week are a disaster.

NB. The 160 page report which recommended more private contractors was signed off in a Council Cabinet meeting, which Andrew Harper didn't bother to attend. It lasted five minutes. I was going to video it and turned up 10 minutes late, to find it had finished. This is why these contracts are all going wrong.

The failure of the Press in Barnet and why I bother doing this

I used to write a blog on the Hendon Times much like this. Following pressure from the ruling Tories on Barnet Council, this was stopped in October 2008. I was told that Brian Coleman crowed "We've seen the last of him". I started the Barnet Eye blog. Today I was reminded why I didn't "F*** off and die" as a certain councillor hoped. There is a massive scandal concerning the finances of the future shape program. This has been compounded by pressure from the executive to ignore a report by Grant Thornton auditors. I copied the local press, who have websites into the correspondence, so that they could broadcast what is clearly a matter of public importance. To date they haven't bothered to say a dickybird. If they do now, it is too late for the meeting of the audit committee which is going on as I write this. I could despair. I would despair but for two things. The magnificent support of the readers of this blog, growing all the time, here's the stats for the last three months. As you can see, with 10 days of the month to go, the stats just keep on rising month on month.

The other thing which makes it worthwhile is the fact that there are other blogs in Barnet who also care. I draw great support from this. They are on both the left and right of the argument, but most of all they care. Please take five minutes to have a look at the sidebar in the right hand column and check them all out.

Generally there is a decline in circulation and readership of the traditional local papers. As they are free, most of the people in Barnet still see them on a weekly basis, wheras you have to choose to look at this blog. I'm not having a go at the journalists on these papers. They do their best and I am not having a go at them, but it is time for the editors to get out of their comfort zones, start campaigning, start taking risks and start serving the people of Barnet. Three years ago, this blog didn't exist. Now look how many people read it. This isn't because I'm a genius or even a good writer. It's because their is a fierce interest in these issues.

Thanks for your support. I do this in my spare time, which is why I can't cover all of the things I'd like to. This is why I can't attend things like the audit committee tonight (had to attend a meeting for my sons school transfer). I apologise for the fact I can't. It is time that the people of Barnet started getting the service they'd like from the people who's job it is to provide it, rather than from people like me. I hope these stats might get the editors thinking about the fact that they are actually missing a huge opportunity to grow their readerships. What is undeniable is that in three years, this blog has grown from nothing to a very respectable figure, for something which mostly just covers the shenanigan of our local masters. Just imagine what the figures would be like if I could cover sport, arts, local news, restaurants. Anyway, must go, got a studio to run.

Time for the Hendon Times to come clean about Lynne Hillan and the story Mike Freer killed

In less than a week, the Conservative Councillors will vote to chose whether they wish to retain Lynne Hillan as Leader or select Mark Shooter to replace her. It appears to be an extremely tight race, so tight that Councillor Richard Cornelius has been forced by Brian Coleman to cancel his holiday and attend the vote, losing thousands of pounds. Those of us who follow Barnet politics closely are not surprised that the Hillan leadership has been such an unmitigated disaster. For many of us, the only surprise is that she's lasted this long. Why you may ask?

Well the reason is quite simply that the Hendon Times has been sitting on a scandal involving Lynne Hillan for over a year. In the early summer of 2009, they were passed paperwork on a scandal surrounding Lynne Hillan. They contacted the then Leader of Barnet Council, Mike Freer for confirmation. Freer asked for a little time to consider the matter, to which the Times agreed. Mike Freer then called the Times back and dropped a bombshell. He told them that Lynne Hillan was under treatment for a life threatening illness and that if the scandal came to light, the stress would most likely kill her. He then asked the editior, as a personal favour, to bury the story. This blog was also contacted by a friendly Tory and asked to "go easy on Lynne" for these reasons. At the time, I was given the impression that Hillan was not long of this world.

Happily, Lynne Hillan made a remarkable recovery. She took over as leader in December 2009 and has been bravely soldiering on ever since. At the time of the December 2009 leadership election, I asked the Times to publish the story. They refused on the grounds that it was "old news" despite the story never reaching the light of day. I rather suspect that there is a different reason for their reluctance.

It is clear that Lynne Hillan is a hugely damaging leader for the people of Barnet. She's managed to dodge the bullet twice now, but is it fair on the Conservative Councillors who make the decision to not give them the full details? I believe that it is negligent journalism. If Lynne Hillan is too ill to stand the pressure of the story coming to light, she can resign and I'd never breath another word on the issue. If she can stand for the Leadership, if she's up to receiving the allowances, then the story must be published.

You may wonder why I haven't published the details of all of this. Quite simply because I don't have the paperwork which the Times has, I've only been told the details verbally. Given the nature of the story, it would be unfair and stupid to detail it in such a fashion. As to the call to the editor from Mike Freer. I have heard this from three different people at the Times all of whom I trust implicitly. There has never been a suggestion that the story was buried because it was wrong.

If it has subsequently emerged that the story was found to be factually incorrect in any way, shape or form, I urge the Times to contact me as a matter of urgency to set the record straight. This blog will happily allow anyone who can refute the allegations a guest blog to do so, without comment or editing by myself. It may be that all of Lynne Hillans supporters know of the matter and have decided that they don't care. If it was so unimportant, why did Mike Freer go to such lengths to kill the story?

This election is a watershed in Barnet Politics. If the Times withholds the information, then it has in effect colluded with the Hillan campaign. If the Hillan campaign can withstand the truth then fine. If it can't then she should bow out gracefully.

Desperate Tory Update : How sad is this !

Former Tory A-List Candidate Rachel Joyce (Harrow West - Lab Hold) is pimping her blog.

http://racheljoyce.blogspot.com/2010/07/vote-for-my-blog-deadline-is-midnight.html

James Cleverly - Tory GLA member is also pimping his blog


http://jamescleverly.blogspot.com/2010/07/vote-for-me.html

My message to you. Don't bother voting for me, just sign the petition in the sidebar against troughing. For some of us it's not about having anyone give us an award. It's just about doing the right thing. Sometimes I look at the stats and see how many people visit the blog and it astounds me. Sadly I don't think it's because I'm a great literary talent or even a great blogger. I just think it's because we've an extrordinarily bad local Council in Barnet and the press coverage of this generally leaves something to be desired. When I started blogging on the Hendon Times, I asked the editor what he thought would be considered a "successful blog". He said 30-50 hits per week. On a good day this blog gets that every half hour. That's enough for me.

Barnet Eye war on Spongers and parasites : Huge public interest in Barnets sponging Tory councillors

Welcome to Monday Morning at the Barnet Eye. Here in sunny Mill Hill I had a wonderful weekend. Friday night, my band the False Dots did a really good gig at The Water Rats in Kings Cross. Saturday I watched a bit of my boy playing Gaelic Football at Copthall, for St Keirnans, had a great Chinese meal at Hees, Dropped a faulty mixing desk off in Surbiton. Sunday, had a lie in till 9.45 am, took the dog for a walk, cooked a barbeque lunch, went to 6pm mass, then played football at Powereleague.

Did I forget something? Oh yes, I dealt with a deluge of emails about our sponging parasitic councillors. I've never known anything like it. I've been swamped with info about what went on (from the most unlikely of sources as well). I've had the most disturbing reports from the most diverse of sources corroborating all sorts of funny business. In short I've got enough material for a years worth of blogs on the subject. The past week has been by far the busiest on the blog. I had a huge spike of hits during the election week, but this week has far surpassed that. I am saddened that there hasn't been more coverage by our local papers, but what they have said has been dynamite. One major omission from the Hendon Times is that they've said nothing about what our Third Barnet MP, Theresa Villiers ahas to say on the matter. She's posted nothing on her blog - http://www.theresavilliers.com/ -  I urge the Times and the Press to contact her and get her views. She is not a trappist Monk, she owes it to the people who voted her in to tell us what she thinks. If she refuses to comment, then we deserve to know. Come on guys, do the job properly, this is a huge story.

The most interesting thing is that the Barnet Tories seem happy to go to war with the national party (of which Villiers is a minister). I have had one email from a very trustworthy source which reported the most extraordinary comments by a certain Barnet Councillor, well known for his shenanigans, which are well documented in many a blog. Now it is not my job to tell the Leaders of the Conserrvative Party how to run their affairs, but I'd suggest that they call him in (they can email me if they can't guess who he is) and have a chat about what his priorities as a politician are. No one is bigger than the party they belong to. He says he is keen on Party discipline. Well he has publicly insulted a minister. Surely that in itself is grounds to have a quiet chat. If David Cameron and Grant Shapps allow such people to undermine them, they will fail. Sorting this out will be good for them, good for the people of Barnet and ultimately good for British Politics. We are just starting to recover from the MP's expenses scandal. Does David Cameron really want to send out the message that the pond life in Barnet can get away with tricks which he's doing his best to squash in Westminster? Over to you Dave.

Great things happening in Barnet - Sound Skool Launch

There are some great things happening in the Barnet music scene. Check out this video for the launch of Sound Skool. This is an innovative project for young people interested in music (aged 14-18) who are not in full time education, training or employment. There is more about Sound Skool on the Sound Skool facebook page. The launch party was a great day. YMCA are leading the project and it has been funded by Youth Music. Barnet Homes and Barnet College are also partners.  The Hendon Times also came down to record the event for posterity. Enjoy

Thameslink is back to normal !

The Hendon Times trumpets the story "Thameslink is back to normal" on its website. But what does back to normal mean? As anyone who has followed the sorry tale of the First Capital Connect franchise on this website will most certainly wonder. The only safe way to know is to have a look at their website.

This I did and yes, normal service has been resumed. At 09:44 there were a total of 9 trains stopping at Mill Hill Broadway listed as running late. Here's a couple of the excuses :-

08:06 St Albans City to Sevenoaks due 09:53

This train has been delayed and is now 8 minutes late from St Albans City.
This is due to an earlier broken down train. 

 

08:22 St Albans City to Sutton Surrey due 10:05

This train has been cancelled.
This is due to a train fault. 

 

 

 So there you go. Thameslink is back to normal. Delays, breakdowns, cancellations. The Hendon Times had the following message on it's story

Are you a First Capital Connect Thameslink commuter? Did you have an easy journey into work this morning? Contact reporter Sarah Cosgrove on 07795 505 961

 If you are a Thameslink commuter and you had a rotten journey and I know lots of you have been looking at this blog, please do call her. I'd also suggest you sign our petition for Gordon Brown to sack First Group (see the sidebar). Nearly 500 people have signed the petition since I mentioned it on the blog on Friday (it has gone up from 2,650 to 3,109 signatures). When you consider that it is only being publicised through a couple of blogs, that is pretty impressive. I believe about 50,000 people a day suffer from using the service. That means that well over 5% of them have signed the petition, which is a pretty large number. Let's just hope that Lord Adonis follows up his threat to strip them of their franchise.

 

 

Where is the big story at the Barnet Tory Bugle?

The bad weather has been a massive story in Barnet. The council is running out of grit and now only 60 roads are being gritted. Key roads such as Cricklewood Broadway are no longer on the list of those deemed "priority". I note that even roads such as Hartley Avenue, where the fire and ambulance stations are and where there is a large doctors surgery are being neglected.

How could the situation get to such an appalling state? The answer to this is simple. Because there is no firm management and no sensible planning to sort it out. You see the Leader of the Council, Lynne Hillan and her Deputy Andrew Harper have been on holiday all week. All major organisations have a degree of contingency planning and if the chief is on holiday, the Deputy steps up. In Barnet, it seems that they just don't care. As a result we've had a fiasco. Within hours of Mayor Brian Coleman telling BBC London that Barnet had plenty of grit, novice roads supermo, Daniel Thomas was telling the Ham & High that Barnet was running out of grit.

In most normal organisations, when things go wrong a "crisis management centre" is set up. Everything goes through this. All decisions are made and all information is collated. The Coleman/Thomas contradiction couldn't happen because all key players would know the situation. The fact that Coleman made such a fool of himself is proof that Barnet just is not managing the situation.

Which brings us to the key point. With such awful management, how come our local papers haven't been exposing the fiasco. Surely they should be pointing out that Lynne Hillan hasn't even been in the job a month and she's completely cocked up her first major crisis. Her Deputy, Andrew Harper is just as bad, why didn't he step up to the table? I actually feel a bit sorry for Mayor Brian Coleman. He knows that the new leadership has completely blown it. He knows that any claims of credibility Hillan might have had as a leader have gone, by swanning off and allowing her deputy to do the same. That is just plain bad management, as Coleman has told anyone who will listen.

Why have we seen nothing in the Barnet Times about the lack of leadership? Why have they not highlighted the management drift? What possible reason can there be for ignoring such a fundamental lack of crisis management in the Borough. Lets look at what the Council does. Schools have shut, bins haven't been collected, roads haven't been gritted, potholes have appeared, social services have operated a skeleton service. I could go on. Last year I called the Barnet Times the Barnet Tory Bugle for its tame coverage of the Tory cock ups in Barnet. It seems to me that this title is still more than justified.

Picture at top : Lynne Hillan and Andrew Harper enjoying their holiday (only joking - it seems that action is something these two are incapable of)