Even Tony Blackburn OBE is sick of the Potholes in the Borough of Barnet

Did I ever tell you my Tony Blackburn story? No? It's not really very exciting but about 25 years ago, I'd see Tony every Saturday morning and have a chat with him. My daughter was about three years old and he had a child of the same age. We'd both take them to the Wacky Warehouse soft play area (now the Harvester at the Green Man). Us old farts would wait outside whilst the kids played joyously for an hour. As parents do, we'd have a chat about various things. but as we both have a deep love of music, we'd often chat about obscure soul artists from the 1960's. Tony was spinning them on Radio Caroline when my sisters were playing them to me on the radio when I was the same age as our kids. I never dreamed I'd end up sitting with Tony whilst our kids did what kids do in soft play areas.

For Tony, the Wacky warehouse was a handy local resources, as he's a Barnet resident. I never discussed politics with him and he never expressed an interest in the issue. However, no matter how little you are interested in the subject, it can come and bite you on the bum. Last week, Tony posted this on Twitter

This is the pothole on the pavement in Barnet. So dangerous, why doesn’t the Barnet Council fill it in before someone gets badly https://t.co/LtqBzeI4Hx of many potholes !!!! pic.twitter.com/dAUQYy0umd

— Tony Blackburn OBE. (@tonyblackburn) March 17, 2024

This blog has spent over a decade berating both Tory and Labour regimes over their total mismanagement of our roads and the repairs of potholes. Not only are these unsightly, it is only a matter of time before someone, probably a cyclist or motorcyclist is killed by one of these. Then the false economy of not maintaining roads will hit home in both tragic personal ways and financial ones as well as the family will no doubt sue. It is perverse that the government instructs the Police to fine and ban motorists with dangerous cars, but they can allow the road network to be lethal, with no comeback at all. 

The pothole plague of Barnet is nothing new. In 2018, when I was running as a candidate for Barnet Council, I charted some of the Potholes in Mill Hill, as well as detailing some ideas for fixing it. What was shocking was that the situation had got worse, not better since I first blogged about the appalling potholes in the Borough in 2010. 

Hopefully this tweet from such an esteemed character as Tony Blackburn might spark some action at the council. The thing that really annoys me is that this whole sorry situation is the result of some rather stupid false economies. My drummer works for Camden Council and tells me that the roads in Camden, which borders Barnet, are nothing like ours. The reason? Camden Council manage repairs properly. 

Back in 2018, I spoke to a senior executive working for a civil engineering company and asked why Barnet's potholes are so bad. The reason? They stopped inspecting repairs and allowed contractors fixing the holes to 'self certify' repairs. This means that to get paid, they'd snap a picture of the repair and send it to the council, rather than have a civil engineer come out and check it. I asked how to fix the problems. He suggested that Barnet should appoint a borough engineer, responsible for getting such things back on track. Ideally an experienced engineer, who had worked for contractors previously, with experience of the fiddles and short cuts. They would set up a team to ensure value for money with repairs and other civil engineering programmes. Ideally I'd prefer to see an in house team responsible for repairs. I am not a believer that councils get value for money paying contractors, where they have to cover the costs of profits for private firms. Having a team in house and instructing them to do proper, robust repairs in a Borough the size of Barnet would be a far more sensible approach. The outsourcing of everything has simply seen the Brough's roads crumble.Barnet

Does the Pot Hole plague mean that Labour failed Barnet's taxpayers

 Last year, Labour promised to get to grips with Pot Holes in the Borough, as part of their manifesto. The Barnet Tories have picked on the fact that there seems to be more pot holes than ever after a year of Labour. They recently posted this tweet

Labour promised faster and better road repairs, but the reality is delayed pothole repairs and never-ending roadworks 🚧 pic.twitter.com/udvbBU0VwM

— Barnet Conservatives (@BarnetTories) May 22, 2023

But is this fair? Is this a new phenominum, or is it just "business as usual" in Barnet? Well back in April 2018, I posted the following tweets. I counted every pot hole on the 1/4 mile walk between my house on Millway and the polling station in Hartley Avenue. I called it Pothole bingo. How many do you reckon I counted?

1 - Let's play @BarnetCouncil pothole bingo! How many potholes, bad road surface and traffic hazards can I photo walking from the polling station to my house - here's the polling station pic.twitter.com/nUyDWxXJQB

— Roger Tichborne/Rog T (@Barneteye) April 7, 2018

Between 2002 and 2022, the Conservatives ran the council. I have lived in the Borough all of my life and before this time, pot holes were a rare occurrance. Roads were properly maintained and issues were dealt with. When the Tories got in, one of their flagship policies was to remove the road humps that Labour had installed between 1994 and 2002. A huge swathe of the roads maintenance budget was gobbled up removing road humps. It seems Ironic that their plan to increase road speeds has ended with even lower speeds as drivers weave through the dangers. My road, Millway, was resurfaced in 2011 when they took the humps out. 

According to the Precision Civils website, an asphalt surface should last 13 years. The Surface in Millway lasted around six years before it started to fall apart. As far as I can see, this means that the work was not done properly. You can see this from the 7th tweet in the series of tweets above. It has got far worse. 

Once a road surface starts to deteriorate like this, the only proper solution is to resurface the road. The hump removal programme wrecked many of the Borough's roads and is the reason we are where we are. Potholes are caused by water and ice. The water freezes and damages and cracks the surface and substrate. This allows more water to get in. Once the substrate is damaged, then the only real fix is to start again. The Barnet Tories left a skint council with wrecked roads. The problems are 100% down to them. 

However, Labour did come in with a pledge to fix the roads. I sympathise with their situation, but they now need a plan to deal with it. The simple answer is to borrow the money to do the job properly. As ongoing maintenance bills will be far lower, ultimately the council will save money. The only caveat is that Labour must not make the mistake the Conservatives made, which was to let dodgy contractors do sub standard work. Without doubt, the Conservatives will then scream that Labour are "piling up debt for future generations". This will be inaccurate as there will be a massive benefit and the long term maintenance costs will be far lower. As someone who runs a business, I am all for investment backed by debt when there is a clear financial return. 

There are many other smaller measures that could be done. Last May, when I stood for the Lib Dems in Mill Hill, we outlined a few. Sadly, we didn't get in and the new Labour council have adopted none of these ideas.

Why are our local roads so much worse than in other areas?

If like me you do a lot of driving around various parts of the UK, you cannot but notice that the Roads in Mill Hill and Barnet are atrocious compared to most other Boroughs and other parts of the UK. At the weekend, we were in Burnham on Crouch in Essex. As we drove down the High Street, it was clear that whatever is going wrong with Barnet roads is not happening in Burnham. Just to prove the point, we made this video.



I was interviewed by the Barnet Borough Times last week and explained that I believe this is because in 2014 Barnet Council got rid of the staff responsible for inspecting and signing off repairs and brought in a cut price system of contractors signing off their own work.

I raised this with the Barnet Times. They interviewed Richard Cornelius, leader of Barnet Council, who blamed the recent cold weather for the pothole problems and insisted they would be repaired.

He said: “The roads were in quite good condition before the cold weather. We have four gangs out all the time repairing them at the moment. If they are reported, they do get fixed.”

Mr Cornelius said the council had been carrying out temporary repairs until the weather improved.

“Now the cold weather is over, the proper patching is taking place,” he added.

The council leader denied the problem was down to the use of private contractors and said the pothole situation in Barnet was “no better or worse” than in other boroughs.

Presumably the weather in Burnham on Crouch is no better than that in Barnet, but as you can see the roads are absoluitely fine. Blaming winter weather is clearly ridiculous, although there was a short cold spell, this was not a particularly bad year. Cllr Cornelius claims that "if potholes are reported, they get fixed". If the Lib Dems get in, we will put an end to this head in the sand reactive approach. We will ask refuse crews to identify and report potholes before they get bad enough to damage cars. I spoke to an expert in civil engineering who confirmed that the sooner you fix them, the cheaper it is and the longer the repairs last.

Voters in Mill Hill and elsewhere in Barnet can be sure of one thing. Councillor Cornelius has kindly made it quite clear that he thinks everything is marvellous and if the Conservatives are re-elected we will see more of the same. Both myself and my fellow candidate Richard Logue have a background in engineering. We will not be fobbed off by contractors who make excuses. We will make sure that a culture of doing things properly and not paying contractors until things are signed off will return. We believe that this will save money and give us better, safer roads. If it's good enough for Burnham on Crouch, it is good enough for Mill Hill and the rest of Barnet. And before anyone says this is just point scoring, the roads in Burnham on Crouch are the responsibility of Essex County Council. That is the council which Barnet had to bring in to sort out their childrens services, when OFSTED identified that they were failing. Essex County Council is a Conservative authority. I mention this, because it is quite clear to me that there are good and bad local authorities run by all shades of political party in the UK. It could not be clearer that, unlike Essex, Barnet are not capable of managing the business of council. Whatever your political persuasion, it is clear that Barnet Council needs change. We believe that only the Lib Dems have a credible program, that doesn't involve throwing money at programs or giving contractors pots of money and hoping it all works out fine.

Saturday Fun - Let's play Barnet Council Pothole Bingo

The Barnet Tories are boasting on their website that they are doing a marvellous job with the local roads and waiving around some rather "interesting" statistics about how many potholes they are fixing a month in the Borough

Just to put in perspective how well they are doing, there are 21 wards in the London Borough of Barnet. That means that in each ward, they are filling in approximately one per week. As there is a council election on the third of May, I thought it would be interesting to count the number of potholes, bad road surfaces and road hazards between my house and the polling station using my usual route (Down Millway, Along the Broadway and up Hartley Avenue). Having counted them on the way up, I though I'd photograph them on the way back for posterity and tweet them. Here is a challenge. Normally I'd offer a prize of a free pot noodle for the winner but that breaks election rules. So it's just for fun. How many potholes are there between your house and your polling station?

If you can tweet all of them and beat our total you are the winner!

To find out how many we found, click on the tweet below!

1 - Let's play @BarnetCouncil pothole bingo! How many potholes, bad road surface and traffic hazards can I photo walking from the polling station to my house - here's the polling station pic.twitter.com/nUyDWxXJQB

— Roger Tichborne/RogT #CTID (@Barneteye) April 7, 2018

Assuming they fix these at the advertised rate and don't do any others in Mill Hill, they will all be fixed by the 15th September.

Oh what fun we have in the London Borough of Barnet.

Today is #Potholeday in Mill Hill - Tell us about your favourite

FixMyStreet.com - Mill Hill Pothole map

Many Mill Hill residents have been commenting on social media that local roads have become ever more riddled with potholes and other dangerous hazards. The Barnet Eye yesterday photographed some of our favourites on our daily doggy walk. We do this walk most days it is a circuit of Millway, Station Road, Woodlands Way, across Mill Hill Park, Daws Lane, Goodwyn Avenue, Millway. Yesterday, I set myself a challange to photo the best potholes on the route. Here's my pick!  I see these every day, I feel like they are almost old friends. Sometimes the council fills them in and they disappear, but like my faithful doggy, they soon come straight back. Do you have a favourite Mill Hill Pothole?

Today is #pothole day in Mill Hill! Here are some of our favourites.
#1 - Daws Lane by Zebra crossing pic.twitter.com/dyd1XKAMx0

— Roger Tichborne/RogT #CTID (@Barneteye) March 22, 2018

Today is #pothole day in Mill Hill! Here are some of our favourites.
#2 - Mill Hill Broadway by Lloyds Bank pic.twitter.com/SaxX7HPbuI

— Roger Tichborne/RogT #CTID (@Barneteye) March 22, 2018

Today is #pothole day in Mill Hill! Here are some of our favourites.
#3 - Woodland Way pic.twitter.com/J5nkG7ceEY

— Roger Tichborne/RogT #CTID (@Barneteye) March 22, 2018

Today is #pothole day in Mill Hill! Here are some of our favourites
#4 - This will soon be the mother of all potholes, marked by lovely sign pic.twitter.com/5Vgx9k7UcY

— Roger Tichborne/RogT #CTID (@Barneteye) March 22, 2018

As you can see, any of these has the potential to damage a car tyre, throw a cyclist off a bike or trip a pedestrian. Often cars see the pothole and swerve. If you happen to be on your bike when this happens, you may end up in hospital as a friend of mine recently did. In short the roads of Mill Hill are falling apart. 

Whilst this has been going on, the local Conservative Councillors have been busy fighting each other. Last week, this culminated in the deselection of Councillor Sury Khatri as a Conservative candidate in the forthcoming council election. Cllr Khatri resigned the Tory whip in protest. The last eighteen months have seen a marked deterioration in the roads in Mill Hill with many becoming dangerous to pedestrians and vehicles. 

The Barnet Eye has been out and about in the Borough and was interviewed by Beril Naz Hassan from the One Show for the City News show. 

It is not just car drivers and cars that suffer from the dangers of potholes. On dark roads, they are especially dangerous for cyclists as a pothole can dismount a cyclist and write off a bike. For pedestrians they represent a trip hazard and drivers suddenly swerving to avoid potholes is an added danger. 

The Hendon Times has picked up the story. Sadly none of Mill Hill's Conservative Councillors wanted to explain why they've allowed our roads to get into this state. Instead, they wheeled out Dean Cohen from the other side of the Borough, who simply reeled off some party political guff about money not being mentioned in the Lib Dems proposed budget. The reason is quite simple. We believe that our proposals will have no impact on the overall budget, whilst delivering a better and more sustainable solution. We believe that repairs of Potholes has been mismanaged and we will ensure that all Potholes are inspected by qualified council engineers before invoices are paid. Whilst it may be cheaper in the short term to do a bodged repair and not inspect it, the continual repairs to the same potholes are expensive and counter productive. Our scheme would see potholes fixed once and fixed properly. 

We would also require refuse collection crews to report all potholes back to the council as soon as soon as they start to appear. The quicker they are repaired, the less damage to the road substrate and the cheaper the repairs. In short, you get more repairs, better repairs and less disruption to traffic and a net cash saving. As an engineer, I recognise that quality control is the key to saving money. Sadly the councillors who run Barnet Council have no such background and don't understand that the council needs people who are qualified to ensure that in an outsourced council culture, staff are employed to ensure that contractors do the job properly. Only by proper quality control of repairs, will we see any change. I am amazed that the councillors running Barnet do not get this. 

We don't have all the answers, but we believe that there are plenty of residents out there who will support us and will understand that by working together and harnessing the fantastic talents we have in our Borough, we can build a better Mill Hill. Respected local blogger and oustourcing expert John Dix posted the following comment on the Barnet Times website today.

Rog T is correct that Barnet no longer have a team of engineers inspecting road repairs. Indeed I asked the specific question how many Barnet council staff monitor road repairs. The answer....ONE person for all of the road repairs in Barnet. Contractors monitor themselves. Outsourcing costs us a fortune and delivers a rotten service.

You may say "What does he know about Highway Repairs?". The answer is very little. That is why I spoke to an engineer friend who works for one of the main companies that repairs potholes in London. He explained how a properly managed, pro active strategy of road maintenance, backed by an engineering based approach saves money and delivers better roads. His five suggestions are as follows:-

1 - Identify problems early and fix properly before the substrate is damaged.
2 - Ensure that repairs around manholes and other fixed items are done correctly. These require more than simply bunging some tarmac in as the movement generated when vehicles pass over destroys surrounding tarmac in no time.
3 - Ensure that all repairs are properly sealed against water. Freeze/Thaw activity will soon destroy bodged repairs. If water gets underneath the surface, the whole road will start to disintegrate.
4 - Ensure that all repairs are inspected and signed off by a qualified engineer before the invoice is paid
5 - Track locations and if there are recurring repairs, find out why and fix properly.

Back in 2010 I suggested that refuse collection crews be instructed to report all potholes and other road hazards back to the council, rather than waiting for residents to report the issues. The existing system means that potholes are only reported once they are actually dangerous and the road surface has sustained serious damage. By this time the road substrate layer is damaged. If they are identified early then the repairs are easier and will last. The tweet above showing the deteriorating surface in Millway is one such area that should be fixed immediately. 

There are three ways that this situation is costing us a fortune, money that could be saved if the council was run properly.

1 - Repeated repairs cost a fortune. Although a proper repair may individually cost more than a bodged one, the repeat visits mean that overall the cost is dwarfed.
2 - The council is paying a fortune in compensation for damaged cars, injured pedestrians, broken bikes and hurt cyclists.
3 - The council is quite happy to pay PR consultants to "manage the perception" of the council in the face of these issues. If they spent less on PR and more on engineers to get the job done then we'd all be happier. 

Seems that the @barnetTories who run @BarnetCouncil are happy to waste money on propaganda and advertising to line the pockets of landlords pic.twitter.com/NBLW1L4Kvq

— Roger Tichborne/RogT #CTID (@Barneteye) March 22, 2018

Sadly we have an administration that is too busy fighting amongst themselves to look for solutions. In Barnet Council there is a culture of "ringing a management consultant" when they perceive there is a problem. They pay a fortune for reports and have endless restructures. All the while services decline. This is why Mill Hill roads are starting to resemble the surface of the moon. We thought we'd end this little article with some fun and run a Spot the difference competition

Woodland Way NW7

The surface of the moon

Barnet Council offers you the chance to win £25,000 simply by paying your Council Tax

I kid you not. Barnet Council is offering residents the chance to win £25,000 in a draw of people paying their tax by Direct Debit, full details here http://www.barnet.gov.uk/news/article/489/one_lucky_barnet_resident_could_win_25000

Barnet have a history of gambling. Former Council Leader, now Finchley MP Mike Freer gambled with £27.4 million of council money, investing it in high risk accounts in dodgy Icelandic Banks that had had well document credit warnings, to gain high interest rates. Freer had actually borrowed the money on lower interest rates.

The current Leader of Barnet Council has gone one step further and taken a Billion Pound Gamble with the huge One Barnet outsourcing contracts. These contracts take running of council services and many local jobs out of Barnet to far flung call and operations centres. Hundreds of local jobs have been lost. Barnet Taxpayers even gave the winner, Capita, a £16 million bung towards new systems, despite telling residents before the signing that the services were being outsourced so that Capita could invest in the systems and save Barnet money! The contracts are a gamble because one in four public sector outsourcing contracts have gone wrong.

It seems to the Barnet Eye that the Tories may have a gambling problem. Their latest punt is on a 3p a day tax cut for residents just before Council elections. They are hoping that this bribe to the public wins them another four years in office. After the last election in 2010, the first act of the Tory cabinet was to award themselves huge payrises. We wonder what surprises they have in store for us this time.

Now don't get me wrong, I like a flutter (with my own money of course) and the plan to get higher usage of direct debits is actually a very sensible aspiration. If I win the £25 grand I'll be more than happy and won't be complaining. I see this as a sensible way to promote a money saving service. I would urge all Barnet residents to sign up for direct debit, as this is a better way to pay and will save the council money and lower all our tax bills. So unlike Iceland, One Barnet and the Tax cut it is a case where some good may come of the scheme. As it is a free draw and all council tax payers are entered, it is not even a gamble for us In the truest sense of the word.

 My only concern is that given our lords and masters predilection for a bit of a flutter it will tempt them into thinking that they can make all manner of unpopular policies work by having a prize draw. Maybe we'll have a situation where everyone who gets a parking ticket in Barnet will be given the chance to win £25,000. Or if everyone who is kept waiting in A&E at Barnet General for more than four hours will get a free National Lottery Scratch card. With our current council, nothing would surprise me, apart from them doing their jobs properly. It is interesting to note that Barnet had the most pothole complaint in London last year http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/11115458.Barnet_had_most_pothole_complaints_in_London_last_year/ which demonstrates how the most basic things are simply not being done, whilst crackpot schemes abound.

Planet Earth to Brian Coleman.....

I sometimes wonder what planet Councillor Brian Coleman lives on. I often wish it wasn't this one. I asked a close friend of Councillor Coleman how can you tell when he's talking rubbish and the response came back "Because his lips move". Rather bizarrely, Coleman has announced that the roads of Barnet are free from potholes - http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/8496169.Potholes_gone_claims_Councillor_Coleman/ .

Now as he's the bloke in charge of roads in Barnet, I suppose you'd expect him to know. Barnet Council have very helpfully set up a website where we can report potholes and track the progress of repairs. It's called Fixmystreet.com - http://barnet.fixmystreet.com/reports/Barnet - and guess what. There are literally hundreds of potholes showing as being unrepaired. I'm a big fan of the fixmystreet website. It's a great idea, it gives lazy councillors such as Brian Coleman a way to check from their front room how the council are getting on with repairs. How hard is that?

Brian Coleman gets over £113,000 a year from the public purse. He claims he works 100 hours a week. Maybe in his busy schedule he should make ten minutes to have a look at his own councils website.

Barnet Council Update - What happens when you put a clueless idiot in charge of roads

As you might know, Barnet Council appointed Councillor Brian Coleman as supremo for roads in Barnet after the last election. Mr Coleman immediately announced that his priority was "Roads, Roads, Roads".

So how has Mr Coleman been doing? One of Mr Colemans first pledges was to fix all of the Boroughs potholes by October (ie Now).Has Mr Coleman lived up to his promise? Well this week, The Barnet Press  berated Brian Coleman for refusing to reveal details of Pothole repairs.

The Press stated that Mr Coleman was unable to explain his reasons for blocking the request. Anyone who knows Mr Coleman will be rather surprised at this reticence from someone who is normally only too keen to share his opinions.

 The Full story is here.

http://www.edgware-today.co.uk/News.cfm?id=35325&headline=Tory%20councillor%20keeps%20pothole%20repairs%20secret

Not a good sign, however there is an easier way to find out than asking Mr Coleman. Barnet Council has helpfully set up a website to report and monitor problems such as potholes. It's actually a rather useful website and it's called :-


http://barnet.fixmystreet.com/

So I thought I'd have a look. Are there any potholes left in Barnet?  I went to the "all reports" page on the website. Sure enough, there were plenty of reports, but then I noticed something even more interesting. If you scroll down on the reports page, there are reports with the title "Older reports, state unknown" - try it yourself here - http://barnet.fixmystreet.com/reports/Barnet -  I was staggered by this. Guess how many reports fitted into this category? I counted over 1,300. Here's just a couple of examples, which Barnet Council clearly haven't bothered to check out.

From July 16th - http://barnet.fixmystreet.com/report/124958
From July 7th - http://barnet.fixmystreet.com/report/123412
From March 8th - http://barnet.fixmystreet.com/report/697

There are literally hundreds of these reports, which it seems Barnet haven't even bothered to look at. It strikes me that the real reason that Brian Coleman won't reveal details is because he hasn't got a clue. Is it really beyond the wit of the man to check this website out and berate his officials if they don't fix the problems. When Coleman took over as transport supremo for Barnet, no one forced him to say that his priority was "roads, roads, roads". No one forced him to say that all of the potholes would be fixed by October. What sort of person makes such statements, without checking whether the promises were feasable? Having made the promises, what has he done to actually check on the progress. He is clearly too lazy to bother checking the Fixmystreet site, which is a simple way to tell. Sadly for the Council Tax payers of Barnet, Mr Coleman has been made to look like a clueless idiot by his own council website. As ever, the Barnet Eye cordially extends an invitation to Mr Coleman to write a guest blog explaining why he is incapable of delivering what he promised. While he's at it, maybe he'd be so kind as to tell us why Barnet Council ignores so many cases where public spirited residents report problems. I think the Fixmystreet website is an excellent resource. It is actually a great example of David Camerons idea of "big society", where citizens contribute to making the council run efficiently. Sadly it seems that Mr Coleman is more interested in BIG DINNERS than big society. It seems that when Mr Coleman says "I haven't got a clue", he's being extremely honest.

Thought for the day - the real cost of potholes in Barnet

As I ponder my tea and toast this morning one rather strange thought crosses my mind. With all of the potholes around the Borough, just how much has it cost the motorists of Barnet? I don't mean the cost of mending the potholes, but the cost of mending our cars. My brother is a welder and he tells me that he's welding at least one alloy wheel a day. Whilst he's doing rather well, he was telling me of the damage which is being done to our cars. A new term is springing up in the world of the MOT testers who check the roadworthyness of our cars. "Pothole fatigue". This is damage caused to cars by continually hitting potholes at high speed. I myself have been caught out several times recently. Whilst I'm a reasonably careful driver, with recent heavy rain, not all potholes are visible. You know the feeling "CRUNCH".

I was discussing this with a couple of friends and they suggested that maybe the Council could erect hazard notices. These would indicate to us that we are approaching an unrepaired pothole. One of the other effects is that I've spoken to several cyclists who have severely damaged their bikes. Whilst we all understand that the Council is stretched repairing the potholes, the failure to warn of us of road hazards could be construed as negligence in a court of law. Let us hope that the Council considers this seriously and at least puts a few signs up. I would nominate Watling Avenue by Burnt Oak Leisure Centre as the worst bit of road I know in the whole Borough.

Barnet Council Potholes special : Another Barnet Eye success !

If you want something done in Barnet, yet again it seems that telling The Barnet Eye is the way to do it. This has been shown yet again by the latest press release from Barnet Council. This details the success of the http://barnet.fixmystreet.com/ website. This came to my attention last month and I thought to myself "Hang on, this is a great idea. Why don't I shout about it on my blog, so that residents can get a better service from the Council". I did some research and found that nobody seemed to know about it.

I immediately posted a blog detailing the site and telling the Council to get their act together. I am pleased to say that this has had an immediate effect. According to the Council press release

During February alone, 285 reports have been received by the council through the website, an increase of 125 compared to January.

On my blog I use a tracker system called Statcounter.com and I'm pleased to say that there have been a large number of people looking at this site and then going straight to Fixmystreet.com to report problems. In my original blog, I criticised the Council for failing to properly publicise the website. Again this has been acknowleged by the Council. Councillor Daniel Thomas, says in the last paragraph of the press release :-

It is great to see the site continues to grow month on month. However this growth in the website is demonstrating that we seem to be better at fixing the problems than we are at telling people we have done so - the next step for us is to fix that

I have a message for Councillor Thomas and all of the other Councillors in Barnet. This blog is read by tens of thousands of people in Barnet. Whilst I don't necessarily agree with all of the politics of the current administration, I will support ANYTHING which makes life better for Barnet residents. That is why I have been plugging FIXMYSTREET. I've put it in the sidebar at the top, so it's easy to find. If any Barnet Councillor (irrespective of party) knows of anything which I could publicise to the greater good, I'll do it here for free. I am sure that Barnet Council keeps stats on it's computer. They can see how many people visited their site directly from this blog. If they want any help getting their message across, they only have to ask ! It's just a shame that I didn't discover the site in January when it was launched.

(by the way, you might be interested to know that the screenshot at the top of the page of the current image of Fixmystreet has the picture of potholes in Millway which I submitted with my report. You'll be pleased to know these were fixed yesterday. You can check out the full report on the site here - http://barnet.fixmystreet.com/report/98848 )

Barnet Councils biggest pothole

Wanna know where all the cash went to resurface Barnets roads? Look no further - latest estimate £18 million.According to the Conservative Leader of Barnet Council, Councillor Lynne Hillan, it would be a bad thing if Barnet Council became too "risk averse".Yep maybe they should just go down to the casino and win it all back !

Potholes in Mill Hill - A victory for the Barnet Eye

On Friday, I asked "Does the new system of reporting potholes to Barnet Council work". On Tuesday we have the answer. It does if the Barnet Eye takes up the case! The first case raised on the Fix My Street website (you can also access this via the link in the sidebar) was on 25th January. Despite several more reports, no action. On Friday, I wrote a blog and lo and behold Tuesday morning at 9.45am, this is the scene from my bedroom window (I've blotted out the faces of the Council employees). So yes, if you make enough fuss they fix your potholes.

I went down for a chat with the team fixing the holes, but sadly they weren't in a chatty mood. I asked how many potholes they'd fixed and they responded "who are you" I replied that I'm a local resident. They then told me I couldn't take any pictures in a slightly intimidatory fashion. As I'd already taken this one from my bedroom, I said "Ok" and departed (hence the blotted out faces to spare their embarrassment).

I think Council employees do a good job. I'm sure they've probably been getting all sorts of earfuls from residents about potholes, hence their defensive posture. I'd urge all readers of the Barnet Eye to remember that these guys are doing the best job they can in the circumstances. It's not their fault that Barnet Council woefully under resources them. You have the opportunity to have your say in the way things are run in Barnet in the Council Elections on May 6th. In the meantime, remember that if you have a pothole in your road, it will only get fixed if you report it. If they do nothing for a period of weeks, let me know and I'll write a nice blog and see if that helps (you'll have to send me a couple of piccies and a link to the fix my street report).

I must say that on  a personal and rather selfish level, I'm rather pleased that the Council listened to my blog and fixed the road this morning. One - Nil to the Barnet Eye.

Barnet Council Potholes Special - Does the new system work?

I thought I'd try a little experiment. I thought I'd see how well Barnet Council's new website which you can use to report Potholes in the road works. Here's a selection of pictures taken in my road. As you can see the state of the Highway looks more like a scene from a warfilm, with crater sized potholes, some full with water. Clearly these are serious hazards to cars and in places the road is in a state of collapse.

I notice that there have been several reports of these already made on the Councils website

http://barnet.fixmystreet.com/report/97227
http://barnet.fixmystreet.com/report/98137
http://barnet.fixmystreet.com/report/91182

Now I notice that some say the day, but not the date. The oldest is dated 25th January, over 1 month ago. Others just say Wednesday and Sunday. Anyway, I've just made a new report. Let's see just how long they take to fix. By the way, whilst I was taking these pictures, a van shot past and kicked up a stone, which left a large dent on a parked car. I strongly suggest that you avoid parking in Millway till these are fixed. There are huge numbers of lumps of rock in the road. It wouldn't surprise me if someone gets injured as if the rock had hit a person it would have rather badly hurt them.

To report your own problem click here - http://barnet.fixmystreet.com -

If you reported a problem and the system hasn't worked (let's say you've waited more than 14 days) please email me by clicking here.

I think the idea of this website is superb. I just hope that it works and the problems get fixed. I am surprised that the Council don't ask their own dustmen to keep an eye out, after all they cover more or less every inch of the Borough. Would that be too simple?


It rather looks like Barnet Councils statement that they would fix all of the Boroughs  potholes by the end of last week was a tad overoptimistic -
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/5009965.Potholes_should_be_filled_by_end_of_week_says_council/

It rather looks like Tory roads supremo, Councillor Daniel Thomas, has the Midas touch in reverse. He's only been in the job for under two months and we've run out of grit and all of the roads have fallen to bits !