Barnegeddon - The End of Civilisiation in the London Borough of Barnet

 Armageddon photo compliments of www.inspirationroom.com

So just how bad are things in The London Borough of Barnet?

... And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

(One Murder and four stabbings in Burnt Oak -  ttp://www.times-series.co.uk/news/9153546.Police_warning_to_residents_after_violent_robberies_and_stabbings/)

What times we live in. Burnt Oak, that bit of Barnet which the Politicians ignore. Not only that but even one of our local papers, the Edgware and Mill Hill Press, doesn't even mention the murder - http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?referral=other&pnum=&refresh=y17GL4t00H6w&EID=6d18d970-d2b9-47ae-86c6-131f88270402&skip= - which is disgraceful. The journalists at this paper recently went on strike due to the falling quality of news. I can only conclude they were right.

Then we have the childrens service. In Burnt Oak, which has some of the worst deprivation and social problems in London, we see Barnet shutting the youth centre to save cash.

Environment

.... And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.

We have the Brent Cross Gassification plant as part of a development for thousands of people in rabbit hutch flats. We have the Pinkham Way nature reserve threatened  by plans for an incinerator and Council depot for waste trucks. We have wanton destruction of green belt sites and conservation areas, with Barnet Council taking no enforcement action.

Social Division.

... And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: 

In Barnet we have three nations -  the ruling elite. They get paid mega salaries (Nick Walkley CEO on > £200 K), insulated from all financial shocks. Then you have the ordinary working people trying to get by, paying ever higher taxes for ever less services. Lastly you have a burgeoning underclass.   This is the city of nations, where people get stabbed and no one cares or stories like this - http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jul/20/trafficked-girl-court-fight


Injustice.

... Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

We have the likes of Councillor Brian Coleman, who earns over £115,000 per year for a string of non jobs, yet lives in a home owned by the Methodist Church, designed for people on limited incomes.

Brian Coleman. One of the four horsemen of the Crapocalypse that has hit Barnet.  The man who ripped out the road humps, so mototorists could get from Barnet to Burnt Oak 30 seconds quicker and seeing Barnet topping the road accident tables in London. The End of Civilisation part 1.

Councillor Robert Ramsbottom, the second horseman. The man responsible for transforming Barnet into a cultural wilderness. We judge great civilisations by their arts, by their crafts, by their legacy. Sheepsjacksie wants to shut libraries, cut funding for the arts depot and get rid of reference sections in the remaining libraries because some of the richer members of society have google on their  Iphone.

Nick Walkley, CEO of Barnet Council (AKA Non Stick Nick) - the Third Horseman. The patron Saint of the cult of One Barnet. Mr Walkley IS THE STORY in Barnet. He's bigger than all the councillors, he's bigger than all the officers, in fact he is a towering presence, ushering in a brave new era. HE's the guy who signs off on all the One Barnet projects and he's the man who stays as Council Leaders pass through. With a click of his fingers, he could have called time on OneBarnet, but despite all the RED ink on all of the reports us bloggers continually report, Saint Nick believes.

Mike Freer MP - The Fourth Horseman. St Michael was converted to the  beauty of Privatisation on a plane to Boston as part of the BT Vital Vision program. The Barnet Eye first exposed this in October 2008 and recently  a few other bloggers finally caught on as to whats been going on recently - http://barneteye.blogspot.com/search?q=BT+vital+Vision - this was where all the trouble started.

Barneggedon -  private armies (Metpro), financial ineptitude, social injustice, plutocratic elites, unfairness.

The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

I suspect that if this lot have their way, the First angel won't bother with Barnet. There won't be any trees or any green grass left.

(Note : For those of you who don't have a background in scriptures, the bits in italics are from the Book of Revelations, which Christians believe describes the Apocalypse).

Guest Blog - Domestic Waste in North West London

By John Cox,

What happens to the domestic waste we all throw away? This week, Barnet and the other boroughs in north London have published their waste plan (www.nlwp.net/) for the Government, which will apply "for the next 25 to 35 years."

Barnet does not say the plan will last that long, but the separate 'North London Waste Authority' (NLWA - www.nlwa.gov.uk) has admitted this, at its exhibition on the incinerator-fuel plant on the edge of Friern Barnet (at Pinkham Way). The NLWA says it "must" sign very long-term contracts with the incinerator companies.

Barnet's representatives on the NLWA are Councillors Melvin Cohen and Brian Coleman AM.

The NLWA wants all the black bag waste from the seven London boroughs to go to Pinkham Way, and to a rebuilt plant at Edmonton. Both those sites would heat the waste, to create incinerator fuel, and this would then be shipped in large lorries around the North Circular, to the Brent Cross Incinerator and rail-head.

The Mill Hill East depot

Our Council also demands that Pinkham Wood in Haringey is destroyed for a second reason – so it can sell the current dustcart site in Mill Hill East for housing, and build a new one in a different borough! But the idea of new incinerators for domestic waste, until maybe the year 2046, is a complete disaster in any case.

The NLWA will only consider deals that burn our waste, even though it's hazardous, inefficient as a source of energy, and a huge waste of resources. We can't continue to extract material from the ground, use it, but then dispose of it by landfill or incineration, for evermore.

Unlike the global-warming battle (between ‘Climate Change Deniers’ and ‘Warmists’, in the Daily Telegraph for instance) no-one really argues against conserving materials. Our planet needs a largely closed circle of repair, reuse, recycling, and a vast reduction in domestic waste quantities, if it is to have a future. Only quarrying, oil-extraction (for plastics), and incinerator companies disagree.

We can create thousands of new jobs in design and recycling, so that products last longer, and can be dismantled at end of use. We need political consensus, because of the long-term changes. This is new, and welcome, private-sector economic activity, of course.

These changes go beyond ridiculous stories in the Daily Mail on waste collection. For this new vision, we should look to a far-away country of which we know little – Scotland.

North of the Border has the only Government-based 'Zero Waste' policy in the world (www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/). ('Zero Waste' is a policy - we will never fully get there.) Scotland may fudge on some incineration, but it is demanding major industrial changes, with much lower waste quantities and 70% recycling by 2025, much better than unambitious north London targets.

Councillor Clyde Loakes, Chair of the NLWA, should stop pretending how wonderful the Pinkham Wood depot would be (neglecting the open-air Barnet dustcart ‘necklace’ around it). He should tell us why we NEED to burn London’s waste for a whole generation, even with his appealing names like ‘gasifier’, 'recovery', and ‘Energy from Waste’.

He will know that plastics and paper must be left in incinerator fuel for it to burn. Supplies for furnaces must be guaranteed, or council tax payers will be 'fined'. The NLWA will sign very long-term contracts of £4-BILLION-pounds, even riskier than Gordon Brown’s London Underground maintenance disasters.

Pinkham Wood, next to the North Circular

Who wants this lead story in the local papers in the 2020’s (read it on your iPad 9):

"Ten years ago, the authority signed a 25-year deal to provide waste to burn. But what was seen as a cash-saver has quickly turned into a money-pit, as the authority is forced to send increasingly valuable recyclable material to the incinerator, in order to meet its annual quota. The incinerator has been dogged by controversy, due to high levels of flies and foul odours."

That exact quote applies ALREADY to Kent County Council. There are further examples around the UK.

We don't need the current Pinkham Way plan. So, Councillors Loakes, Cohen, and Coleman:

• Why not try to halve black-bag waste by 2020?
• Why not aim for 70% recycling by 2025?
• Why not extend existing contracts meanwhile, with an independent audit?
• Why are your new incinerators (a distortion of the intention of the landfill tax) your ONLY option?
• Why not show better leadership, and go for 'Zero Waste' in north London instead?

Visit Scotland, Councillors, while you still can without a passport – after all, the NLWA Chairman's first name is 'Clyde'.
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John Cox is an environmental campaigner who lives in North West London. Guest blogs are always welcome at the Barnet Eye

Barnet Council - More meeting footage from 13/04/2011 - Pinkham Way

Leigh Warner shot this footage at the Council meeting on Tuesday. Great quality and sound. Focusses on the Pinkham Way issue

Barnet Tories - Mean and Spiteful

Perhaps the meanest and most spiteful action I've ever seen at a Council meeting happened on Wednesday night. Over 200 protestors had gathered outside to protest about the proposed Pinkham Way incinerator. Now surely it doesn't matter what side of the Political divide you are or whether you agree with their case, surely anyone could understand that they have a valid point. I'm not a scientist so I can't say too much other than that I wouldn't want to raise children next to a potentially risky incinerator.

Many of these protesters (infamously described as a rabble by Councillor Brian Gordon - what is it with Barnet Brians?) had children. Some were in the public gallery and had come for the debate. Labour Councillor Barry Rawlings tabled a motion to debate this first, so the kids could see the debate and get home at a reasonable time (it was the last item scheduled for 10pm). The Tories (apart from Kate Salinger) to a man voted to keep it last. Why? It didn't matter to them? So they could inflict Andrew Harper droning on about his mate Col Gaddafy for ever as punishment. Tories talk of big society, but they deliberately stick their fingers up at the voters at every opportunity.

A woman was sitting next to me with two young children. She announced that she couldn't keep them up that late. She was really upset and left. She was replaced by Linda Edwards, Residents Party Candidate for Edgware. Linda is a campaigner for disabled rights. She said to me "It's a shame we didn't get a few candidates elected to sort this lot out". I couldn't agree more. They are a bunch of self serving creeps.

Pinkham Way Sepcial - Barnet Council Cabinet Meeting - Why they don't want it filmed

I thought you may enjoy this video I shot at the Town Hall today, of a resident called Mr Scott asking a few questions about the Pinkham way incenerator. There were a 100 or so residents outside. The Leader of the Council, Lynne Hillan was not present for the Cabinet Meeting (she gets £35,000 a year to attend these), neither was her Deputy, Andrew Harper (He only gets £27,000 as deputy) so Councillor John Dan Thomas chaired the meeting.

I asked a question about the Library project. Because I didn't foam at the mouth or call Councillor Ramsbottom a twat, he congratulated me on my conversion to the One Barnet religion (it is without doubt a religion as you have to believe all of the figures. There are no actual facts to back up any of the theories they postulate or the schemes they propose).  I suggest young Ramsbum visit the ENT centre (if he can find a hospital the Tories aren't shutting) as he clearly didn't hear the bit where I congratulated the Council Officers and pointed out that the report was far better than any produced by Future Shape Consultants. I asked if he planned to keep the Save Barnets Libraries campaign informed of any changes to the strategy. It was a fairly easy question, but beyond Ramsbum's pay grade to actually answer it, so he said "We will consult with residents" Whatever that means.

As you can see and hear from the video, it was a fairly lively event. I was asked to stop filming. As I was off at 7.45 anyway (had a recording session) I couldn't be bothered to argue with Councillor Thomas. One day I will. That will be fun. What was interesting was the blind faith that Barnet Cabinet have in the rather dodgy scientific data about the incinerator.  I wonder if any of them live in the fallout zone?