What will the Barnet Council Labour regime of 2022-2026 be remembered for?

 I guess everyone goes into politics dreaming of leaving a golden legacy of success. But you can only achieve success with power. This was brought home to me last night. I was having a beer with my ex boss. He shocked us all by announcing that he had been considering standing as a candidate for Reform in Colchester.  He has always been a Conservative, but I never had him down as a reformer. He explained that he was very tempted as he believed that they have an excellent chance of winning Colchester Council and he fancied the opportuinity to run it and sort the problems in the Council out. It was nothing to do with their politics, it was access to power. What disturbed me most though, is that I know he is excellent at whatever he does, a superb boss, and I'd have put money on him doing a brilliant job running the finances. The conversation turned to Barnet. Another friend at the booze up is a Barnet resident and a Labour supporter. He was waxing lyrical about the achievements of Barnet Labour. I had to disagree, but he was claiming Barnet Council had been turned around and more potholes than ever had been fixed.

The sad truth is that Labour have not fixed the council and as far as I am concerned, their reign has been northing short of a disaster. On the night they won, Leader Barry Rawlings invited me to help formulate a culture strategy. Within a month I'd drafted one and circulated it to councillors and officers. I don't think any read it. Their vision was different. They believed the route to success was to employ expensive consutants, rather than follow my model of building a council of local arts organisations and building a collaborative network. My solution was almost zero cost and would have exploited all of the energy and efforts of people already doing good work. The abject failure of their efforts is best demonstrated by the failure to stage the Borough's biggest festival, The East Barnet Festival in an election year. My focus is always on arts, but across the Borough there is discontent. A terrible scheme in Edgware, albiet a legacy of the Tory regime, but one mired in failure. Labour promised to address the mess that is the Railway Hotel in Edgware. There was talk of a compulsory purchase order. Nothing has been done. Council taxes have gone up, services have not improved. I've not seen a leaflet from Labour in Mill Hill to see what they think they've done well. They do however have a website. Here is there manifesto

Labour launches ‘Ambitious for Barnet’ Manifesto

Barnet Labour have launched their manifesto for the local elections: ‘Ambitious for Barnet’ which sets out our programme to continue to improve services, our roads, pavements and green spaces, back the environment and support those struggling with the cost of living.

Council Leader, Labour’s Councillor Barry Rawlings said:

“The Conservatives ran Barnet on the snooze button for 20 years, with no real vision for the borough, and left a legacy of cuts, depleted reserves and run-down services.

“Labour has been ambitious for Barnet, delivering a far-reaching programme.

“That’s why we’ve filled over 16,500 potholes – 61 per cent more than the Conservatives managed when they were in power, upgraded and expanded a CCTV system that was broken more than half the time when the Conservatives were in charge, planted nearly 5,000 trees, improved or re-built 20 playgrounds and secured 1,000 new council homes.

“We have delivered this and much more, while keeping council tax lower than all our neighbours.

“We will continue to be ambitious in a second term, campaigning for our high streets, continuing to clamp down on crime and anti-social behaviour and building new affordable homes.”

As part of the Barnet Labour’s Manifesto, we are making six key pledges.

1)       Keep Barnet Moving: We will aim to cut roadworks times by 20 percent by charging extra penalties to dawdling utility companies for working too slowly.

2)       Keep Barnet Green: We will protect our green spaces, plant 4,000 more trees and create a ‘Regional Park’, making even more green space accessible.

3)       Keep Barnet Safe and Clean: We will continue to crack down on crime, anti-social behaviour, fly-tipping and litter to keep Barnet safe and clean by using our upgraded CCTV system with tougher enforcement and higher fines, whilst protecting the free community skips service.

4)       A More Affordable Barnet: We will secure a further 1,000 social rent homes, having already secured the delivery of 1,000 new council homes in our first term.

5)       A Healthier Barnet: We will campaign for greater powers to stop the increase of gambling arcades and fast-food shops.

6)       Keep Delivering Value for Money: We will always prioritise finding efficiencies and savings to keep costs down, ensuring council tax increases are minimised.

Councillor Rawlings added:

“These are difficult financial times and, unlike the Conservatives, who cut half of Barnet’s funding, we have worked with the Government to secure £37million more for local services.

“We have a roadmap to financial sustainability that invests in prevention to reduce demand for high-cost services.

“The Conservatives first priority is to propose raising council tax by 50 per cent over the next five years before doing the hard work to keep costs down.

“That’s the choice at this election.

“With a lot already done by a Labour council, and a lot more to be ambitious about, there’s a lot at risk under any other Party but Labour.”

They have a record to judge them on. The biggest achievement Barry can boast about is getting a £38 million bale out from government to shore uop finances. That is not sustainable. They have a record to be judged on. I suspect residents will not judge them kindly. Barry is a nice bloke, but Barnet needs someone who has the wherewithal to sort the finances out and I don't mean by getting baleouts. I mean by structural reforms and genuine efficiencies, which involves understanding where cash is being wasted. My view is that the management structure at Barnet Council is massively top heavy and they have set up all sorts of companies such as Barnet Homes, which have unnecessary boards and costs.  That is where I'd start. 

Two days after the Lionesses made us proud, Barnet's Labour Council is to be taken to Court for sex discrimination

File under "You couldn't make it up". The Labour Party was founded by Trades Union members and the Unions pay the bills for the party, regardless of whether the Leader is Jeremy Corbyn or Tony Blair. Whilst the root and branch membership of the Labour Party are proud of this association, it seems that as soon as Labour Politicians get their hands on the levers of power, they somehow seem to have a conscience bypass. Back on the heady night in 2022, when Labour took power and booted the Tories out, I spoke to the rather shell shocked Leader of the Barnet Labour group and the new leader of Barnet Council, Barry Rawlings. I made a note of his exact words. I didn't do this so I had a rod to beat him with, but because I thought what he said was important and I was impressed by his sentiments.

Barry said "We won't get everything right, I am sure we will make a lot of mistakes on the way, but whatever we do, we will put fairness, equality and decency at the centre of it" He then went on to say "I expect you to hold us to account and remind us of this when we do get things wrong". Although Labour has made many mistakes, I've had no reason to remind Barry of his pledge. Until now. Today, two days after the Lionesses amazing victory, where we are all basking in the reflected glory of our amazing female team, a dispute has been launched by the Public sector workers union UNISON, alleging that Barnet Council and its Labour bosses are acting in a discriminatory manner towards their own female employees. The Press Release says:-

"Barnet UNISON is urging its female members in the London Borough of Barnet (LBB) to come forward as the union prepares to launch a collective legal challenge over potential equal pay breaches by the Council.

The move follows extensive investigations into pay practices within LBB, particularly in relation to the use of “task and finish” arrangements in the Waste & Recycling service. UNISON believes there is now sufficient evidence to support equal pay claims with reasonable prospects of success.

John Burgess, Branch Secretary of Barnet UNISON, said:

“The possibility that staff – the majority of whom are women – may have been underpaid for years is deeply concerning, especially in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. Equal Pay is not just a legal right, it’s a fundamental matter of fairness. UNISON is committed to ensuring our members receive the pay they are legally and morally entitled to.”

The union is now asking affected members to complete an Equal Pay case form detailing their job roles, grades, and employment history. This information will allow UNISON to assess each claim and proceed with legal and procedural steps, including lodging a collective grievance and initiating early conciliation.

Barnet UNISON is also reminding staff of the strict six-month legal time limit for making an Equal Pay claim. Anyone who has recently left the Council or changed roles is urged to act quickly.

UNISON has led the fight for Equal Pay in local government for over a decade, winning millions in compensation for underpaid workers. The union will continue to engage in constructive dialogue with Barnet Council while preparing to take legal action where necessary."

It really is appalling that now, of all times, such inequality is happening in Barnet, especially with a Labour Council. Now we all know there is no magic money tree and with cash tight at Barnet Council, it is hard to sort these sort of matters out. However, not only is it morally wrong to pay discriminatory pay rates, it is against the law. Any legal action will cost taxpayers money, and I for one, resent my hard earned cash being spent to defend the indefensible.

I sincerely hope that Barry Rawlings now picks up the phone to Unison branch secretary John Burgess, who is decent man and an excellent Union Rep and gets him around a table to resolve this. The people who are suffering as a result are amongst the lowest paid employees on the Borough payroll and if Barry really is a Labour politicians, he should start acting like it and sort this out. If you see Barry out and about, please ask him if he still believes what he told me on the night he was elected. 

Barnet Council - The land where everything is opaque

 I have just reviewed the minutes of the Barnet Council Cabinet meeting on the 17th June.

I asked the following question

In the paperwork, the following comments appears "The new Culture Strategy was launched as part of the ‘Art in Barnet’ campaign and a prestigious public art trail ‘Barnet Legends’ was commissioned with specialist public art agency Create London. The trail unveiled 20 commemorative artworks recognising historical figures who made an impact on the borough. 140 45 events were hosted across our libraries team as part of the UKSPF funded Creative Communities Programme. Activities included intergenerational events for ‘Grandparents Week’, green activities, a creative writing course, dance, crafts and an improvisation show for children." As the owner of Mill Hill Music Complex, London’s oldest independent music studios, which has hosted artists such as Amy Winehouse, Kate Nash, Flo and Raye, seeing all win prestigious Brit Awards, can I ask why local arts providers have not been contacted with regards to this initiative. Surely the musical history of Barnet should be properly celebrated and the contributions of these amazing artists, with strong Barnet links should have been recognised. I am also interested as to whether local artists were engaged to produce the art works. 

Dr Aashish Bansal also asked a public question. I received the following response from Barnet Council.

Further to the email below, you are welcome to attend the Cabinet meeting this evening. At the meeting, the Chair will provide a response in relation to your question. Following which, you may if you wish ask a supplementary question in respect of the response given. Further details about the meeting can be found here: https://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=1010&MId=11718&Ver=4

I hadn't realised but this was the first time I have asked a question of the Labour administration, elected in 2022 and the first question to Cabinet since Richard Cornelius, former Tory Leader abolished the Cabinet system over a decade ago, in an attempt to improve transparency at Barnet Council. The Tories, for all their faults, would always provide a written answer, and you could decide whether to ask a follow up question. You also had time to compose it. I was shocked to learn that if I wanted to know the answer, I had to turn up in person. I also had no time to compose a thought out response. 

When I approached the chair, I specifically requested that responses from the committee be properly minuted and recorded. I was under the impression that this was agreed. However, when I reviewed the link above, there was no mention of what the member (Councillor Anne Clarke) who responded said. 

I have long been critical of the Cabinet system in local government. It means that decisions are made behind closed doors, without proper scrutiny from councillors. It makes councillors who are not in the cabinet largely redundant (not that their allowances reflect this). When Labour were elected, I suspected that they would have a few faults and make a few mistakes, but I did not anticipate that the would make the previous Tory regime look like a model of transparency and accountability.

It is clear to me that the reason that we no longer get proper responses and what we do get are not properly minuted is because the Barnet Labour Party have no interest in public accountability. To me it reeks of contempt for the public. I am most disappointed that my fellow Barnet Bloggers have seemingly lost interest in holding the council to account. All I can say is that I will continue to do the job that has fallen on my shoulders. If we want good governance in Barnet, we need citizens who are engaged in the process. The reason Councillors of both Tory and Labour persuasions don't want engagement is because it is nice and comfy for them if we take no interest. Ten years ago, the Barnet bloggers were setting the pace in the UK in terms of public accountability. The requirement for this is stronger than ever, but no one seems interested (apart from me) in doing it. If I wasn't so bloody minded I'd give up, but sadly for our councillors, in Barnet, the land where everything is opaque, I will make the case for transparency until they listen or I can't anymore. Barnet residents deserve better, but they won't get it unless they get off their arses and put some work in. 

Barnet Council Cabinet review Edgware Redevelopment and give the Barnet Tories a does of reality

 It's been an odd week for me, as regular readers will know. Digging up ancient memories from long ago. Monday, visiting the hospital where my Mum was treated for cancer, yesterday visiting a Barnet Council Cabinet meeting, where I made my name as a blogger, attracting national interest from press, TV and all sorts of other social media. I stopped going a decade ago, as the then Leader, Tory Richard Cornelius agreed with me that the Cabinet system did not work in local government, and abolished it. Labour had brought it in, under their previous administration in 1999. Whenthe Tories were run by Maoist style leaders sucha s Mike Freer, they loved it as it avoided public and council scrutiny. When Cornelius took over, he went back to a committee system. Whatever you may think of Cornelius, he was by far the most open and reasonable leader of Barnet Council. He believed in transparency and openness and would attend public meetings to put forward his case. As a result, he was shafted after he won a stunning victory, when Labour thought they had it in the bag, in 2018 and Dan Thomas, who was more in the Freer mold came in. The dodgy, secretive ways of time gone by started to come back. The first act, when Labour won, was to bring back the Cabinet system.

Since I last attended one of these, there's now a big row of tables, stuffed with council officers, all looking bored, playing with pencils and presumably getting overtime. This space used to be reserved for the public. You can see them all looking bored, behind me in this crafty selfie!

I've had np cause to visit the Cabinet since, but last night I had a question on the arts strategy. I turned up and the public gallery was full. The Edgware redevelopment was being discussed. The room was packed, I was eyed suspiciously by a security guard who challenged me as to my motives. When I explained, he opened the door. After the usual pleasantries, we had opposition questions. Three Tories made their way to the front. These were the Leader Peter Zinkin, The deputy Lucy Wakely and a third one, who I must confess I didn't know. Now I have to say that I actually like Peter and Lucy. They are decent people. Unlike the old guard of Freer, Thomas, Rams, Coleman, etc all have only ever been reasonable and decent to me. On the night when Labour won, in 2022 at the count, I saw Peter Zinkin looking dejected at loosing his seat. I bought him a cup of tea and we had a chat. Despite what people say, most councillors are actually decent people, who want to do well for their community. It is sad that the Barnet Tories became a repository for people with dodgy agendas after they won the council in 2002. The like of Coleman had a very bloated idea of their own self worth. A (long) spell in opposition will hopefully cure the local Tories of this tendancy. 

Peter Zinkin strode up and did his best to channel his inner anger at the beastlyness of Labour, who are " ignoring local people in Edgware and not consulting". Peter's trouble is he is a reasonable man. When greeted with reasonable replies from the likes of Ross Houston and Barry the Boss, he reverted to type and was reasonable and sensible. Lucy Wakely had a go and did no better. Ultimately, the redevelopment was the Tories baby under Dan Thomas. They know they are chancing their arm and I suspect that they didn't want to push their luck in front of a bunch of residents who were keen supporters. Labour made perfectly reasonable responses (something that never happened when the Tories had a cabinet, they were obnoxious to all, especially bloggers, so we wound them up no end. The meetings had packed public galleries, that would howl with derision). It all felt rather odd to me. 

I tweeted about the Tories Chutzpah in claiming they were good at consultations, Cllr Zinkin replied

We probably did less well at the beginning but over the years we learnt and by the start of work it was almost a continuous dialogue not always appreciated but fewer misunderstandings

— Peter Zinkin (@pzinkin) June 17, 2025

The main beef seemed to be that the public hadn't had a chance to comment or ask questions. I found this rather odd, as there was a committee item and a competent opposition would have tipped the Save Edgware Campaign off and given them a hand drafting some killer questions, had they been doing their job properly. It seemed a bit strange to me listening to the leader of the Barnet Tories moaning about the way public questions are handled, when they brought the rules in that made it difficult for the public to ask questions. I remember the good old days, when there were dozens. At one time, us bloggers would liaise and share our questions, just to make sure we got everything covered. It did us no good at all, the Tories took no notice, but it was jolly good fun watching them embarrass themselves, as they thought their clever antics in giving non answers were mightily clever. 

Another beef of Councillor Zinkin was lack of consultation. Barry the Boss pointed out that this process didn't begin until planning applications were being debated. Until that point there was 'nothing to debate' Councillor Zinkin stated that in the good old days of the Tories, consultations were done properly. For anyone familiar with One Barnet, this was hilarious. The judge found that Barnet hadn't consulted properly, but that we, the people, could do nothing about it, becase we'd been too late submitting our legal objection. The formula used to calculate the date meant that a perfectly good legal challenge to a very bad administration, failed as The Tories had, by luck or design, managed to string us all along so that we'd missed the date. Our contention that it was impossible to have submitted in the alloted period as it was not clear at the time that the consultation had been botched, sadly was ruled inadmissible. And here we were, ten years later, with the Tory Leader lecturing Labour on how to do good consultations. 

The Tories did make a couple of good point, perhaps the best was that putting a garage for electric buses, that have the habit of catching fire and exploding, under massive blocks of residential flats was a bad idea. Labour seemed to agree, which rather took the wind out of Cllr Zinkins sails. The current big bugbear of the Tories is that Labour are planning to give the developers £41 Million back from the Community Infrastructure levy.  Tory Hale Councillor Gurung posted this on Facebook earlier yesterday.

Barnet Labour Backs Developers Not Residents

Tonight, Barnet Council is being asked to approve a shocking proposal: to hand back £41 million of Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funds to developers Ballymore and TfL money meant for local infrastructure, schools, and services.

Even more alarming, Ballymore admitted their Broadwalk development was financially unviable yet instead of holding them to account, Barnet’s Labour-run Council is working hand-in-hand with them to return money they were obliged to pay.

This is £41 million that should be invested in our community

not handed back to developers to meet infrastructure obligations they always had.

From the start, Barnet Labour has been on Ballymore’s side. This latest move proves it once again.

We deserve a council that stands up for residents not developers. As your local councillors in Edgware and Edgwarebury we will always stand up for our residents.

I had a word with my mole in the Labour Cabinet before the meeting. I asked about this. They told me they couldn't possibly discuss the matter,given its commercially sensitive nature. I then explained that the Tories were giving them a public pasting and they really should, maybe not to me right now, but as soon as they possibly could. To my surprise, I got a full answer at this point. There are strict rules that govern such things, and the council legally has to repay the money. Keeping it and telling Ballymore to sod off, would simply mean Ballymore would sue Barnet, who would lose, have to pay the £41 million, as well as compensation and damages. Oh yes, and the Tories know this (or they should if they have done their job) and are simply making mischief. As to the development being 'not financially viable', this was simply the fault of the Tories who'd done such a rubbish job drawing up the SPD and now Labour were having to sort it all out and Edgware residents were truly lucky to have such a wonderful Labour Council, even though they'd elected useless Tory Councillors. I was then told all of this was priviliged information and if I said I word of this to anyone, I'd be locked up in Gaol for six months for breaking the local government act.

After three seconds deliberation, I decided to share this with you all. If I get sent to the slammer, I expect protest on the streets of Barnet. A free pot noodle for the first reader to guess which cabinet member broke the rules of the Papal Conclave The Local Government Act. 

They say that history repeats itself. Once as tragedy and once as farce. That certainly seems true of the Cabinet system at Barnet Council. If ever you've wondered how I feel blogging about Barnet Council, Tories and Labour, read the Greek myth of Sisiphyus. 

Is your road being resurfaced this year? The full list of scheduled road repairs in the London Borough of Barnet

 BArnet Council have announced the full list of planned roadworks for the forthcoming financial year.

Is your road on the list?

2025/2026 work programme - updated weekly

Road name and ward	Details of work	Status
Alexandra Road, Hendon	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Approach Road, East Barnet	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Baring Road, East Barnet	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Barnet Hill, Barnet Vale/Underhill	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Bohun Grove, East Barnet	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Bridge Lane, Golders Green	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Brockley Hill, Edgware	Road patching	Awaiting scheduling
Brookhill Road, East Barnet	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Chase Way, Brunswick Park	Pavement patching	Scheduled to start 1 April 2025
Church Road, Hendon	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Church Road, Hendon	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Church Road, Hendon	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Church Terrace, Hendon	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Colindeep Lane, Colindale South	Road patching	Awaiting scheduling
Colney Hatch Lane, Friern Barnet	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Colney Hatch Lane, Friern Barnet	Pavement resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Colney Hatch Lane, Friern Barnet	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Colney Hatch Lane, Friern Barnet	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Cool Oak Lane, West Hendon	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Deans Lane, Edgware	Road patching	Awaiting scheduling
Deans Lane, Edgware	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
East Barnet Road, East Barnet	Road resurfacing	Scheduled to start 11 April 2025
East Barnet Road, East Barnet	Road resurfacing	Scheduled to start 16 April 2025
East End Road, Finchley Church End	Road resurfacing	Scheduled to start 7 April 2025
Edgeworth Road, East Barnet	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Edgware Road Slip Road, Cricklewood	Road patching	Awaiting scheduling
Edgware Road Slip Road, Cricklewood	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Edgwarebury Lane, Edgware	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Ellesmere Avenue, Edgwarebury	Road patching	Awaiting scheduling
Elm Close, Hendon	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Fernhurst Gardens, Edgware	Pavement resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Finchley Road, Golders Green	Pavement resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Friern Barnet Lane, Whetstone	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Friern Barnet Road, Brunswick Park	Road patching	Awaiting scheduling
Friern Watch Avenue, Woodhouse	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Garden City/ Manns Road, Edgware	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Golders Green Road, Childs Hill	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Goldsmith Avenue, West Hendon	Pavement resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Gravel Hill, Finchley Church End	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Greyhound Hill, Hendon	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Greyhound Hill, Hendon	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Grove Road, East Barnet	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Hale Lane, Edgware	Road patching	Awaiting scheduling
Hammers Lane, Mill Hill	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Hermitage Lane, Childs Hill	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
High Road, West Finchley/Woodhouse	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
High Road, Whetstone	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
High Road, Woodhouse	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Highfield Avenue, Golders Green	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Holcombe Hill, Mill Hill	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Holders Hill Road, Finchley Church End	Pavement patching	Scheduled to start 1 April 2025
Hutton Grove, West Finchley	Road patching	Awaiting scheduling
Lanacre Avenue, Colindale North	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Leslie Road, East Finchley	Road patching	Awaiting scheduling
Lodge Lane, West Finchley	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Meadway, Garden Suburb	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Midholm Close, Garden Suburb	Road patching	Awaiting scheduling
Millway, Mill Hill	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Milton Road, West Hendon	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Norrice Lea, Garden Suburb	Road patching	Awaiting scheduling
Oakleigh Road North, Whetstone	Road patching	Awaiting scheduling
Orange Hill Road, Burnt Oak	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Osidge Lane, Brunswick Park	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Priestley Way, West Hendon	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Prince Of Wales Close, Hendon	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Purley Avenue, Childs Hill	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Queens Road, Hendon	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Simmons Way, Whetstone	Pavement resurfacing	Scheduled to start 1 April 2025
Somercoates Close, East Barnet	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Somerton Road, Childs Hill	Pavement patching	Scheduled to start 7 April 2025
St Davids Place, West Hendon	Pavement patching	Scheduled to start 8 April 2025
St Margarets Avenue, Whetstone	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Stanhope Road, Woodhouse	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Station Road, West Hendon	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Sturgess Avenue, West Hendon	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
The Drive, Edgware	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
The Hyde, Colindale South	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
The Ridgeway, Childs Hill	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
The Ridgeway, Mill Hill	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
The Riding, Childs Hill	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
The Vale, Childs Hill	Pavement resurfacing	Scheduled to start 1 April 2025
The Vale, Childs Hill	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Vivian Avenue, West Hendon	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Warwick Road, Barnet Vale	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Water Brook Lane, Hendon	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Wellhouse Lane, High Barnet/Underhill	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Wellhouse Lane, High Barnet/Underhill	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Westbury Road, Totteridge & Woodside/West Finchley	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling
Western Parade, Barnet Vale	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Wolsey Grove, Burnt Oak	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Wolsey Grove, Burnt Oak	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Wood Street, High Barnet	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
Woodfield Avenue, Colindale South	Pavement patching	Awaiting scheduling
York Road, Barnet Vale	Road resurfacing	Awaiting scheduling

 

We will share more info when we have it. This info was taken from Barnet Council's website - Programmed road and pavement works | Barnet Council

How Much? Barnet Council wasting money on staff to post pointless tweets & Facebook posts

Yesterday, I wrote this blog about how Barnet Council, who have just had a £55 Million baleout from the Government are wasting your money. I didn't post it as Tuesday is food blog day. Today, just as I was about to post it. To my amazement, I saw this post

Don’t forget to bring your photo ID if you are voting at a polling station in the Finchley Church End by-election on Thursday 6 March 2025.

If a voter does not have suitable voter ID, they can apply for one here https://t.co/qt1M4alvde by Wednesday 26 February 2025 at 5pm.

— Barnet Council (@BarnetCouncil) February 25, 2025

Now, for once, it was a useful, sensible tweet, with an important message that directly affects Barnet voters in the forthcoming Barnet By Election. All good? Well not really. Anyone who knows anything about Social media (such as Barnet Council's paid staff) should know that a single post is nowhere near enough. They should have been tweeting this message out ever since the Byelection was announced. They should have been asking us to retweet it and let our friends know. I would have amplified this message more if I'd seen it earlier. What is shocking is that our local parties have not retweeted it. Anyway, on with the text I'd written. I think this rather amplifies the point though........

On Monday,  Barnet Council posted this tweet. A council that has just applied for a £55 Bale out wants to give away money for a Festival of Architecture. I am sorry to say, but if I was going to pick any London Borough to celebrate in the London Festival of Architecture, Barnet would be the last one. The list of buildings of note that we've lost in the last 20 years is something beyond comprehension. A few iconic ones? The National Institute for Medical Research (replaced with a bad Barratts knock off copy). The National Newspaper Library in Mill Hill. Countless interesting pubs,  houses, shops etc have been gutted, demolished and ruined. And the new buildings. Anonymous, dull structures in Colindale, etc. 

So this is what they tweeted. 

Last chance to apply for the Community Fund! Applications close TOMORROW. Grants of £250 to £500 available for your event at the London Festival of Architecture. https://t.co/sM7WgSXHR3 #LFA2025 #VoicesInArchitecture #LFAFestivalVoices #LFA2025Voices pic.twitter.com/G7fCp0WBwl

— Barnet Council (@BarnetCouncil) February 24, 2025

This was also posted to Facebook. .

It's bad enough that they are doling money out, but they are paying staff to do this. As best I could see, this was the only social media post on Monday. 

I've been monitoring Barnet Council tweets etc for a while. I was interested to find out how much effort they were putting into their tweeting and what sort of response they were getting. FYI when I looked on Monday, the tweet above had around 300 views and no engagement. I sent an FoI request and got this answer

Thank you for your request received on 9 January 2025, for the following information: 1. Details of the number of members of staff engaged on maintaining Barnet Council social media accounts 2. The average number of hours that these members of staff spend per day on social media accounts for the last month where figures are readily available 3. If available, the time spent by platform 4. Any targets etc that staff may have for numbers of posts etc We have processed this request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. 

Response I am writing to inform you that we have searched our records and although we hold some of the information requested, some of the information you requested is not held by London Borough of Barnet. We have provided answers to your request below. 

1. Details of the number of members of staff engaged on maintaining Barnet Council social media accounts 1 X News & Social Media Manager, 2 X News & Social Media Officers 

2. The average number of hours that these members of staff spend per day on social media accounts for the last month where figures are readily available Rotates between the team 2-3 hours per working day for the individual on duty 

3. If available, the time spent by platform Information not recorded 

4. Any targets etc that staff may have for numbers of posts etc No targets for posts; annual evaluation assesses posts' performance with reach and engagement metrics

So to produce these tweets etc takes 2-3 hours a day. There is no monitoring of what the staff do and no targets. I wrote to Barry Rawlings, leader of the council and the Tory opposition leader, Peter Zinkin. I got no response from Cllr Rawlings. 

Here is the email I sent.

Dear Councillors

 

FYI  - Do you think this is a sensible usage of council resources? Are you happy with the way the success of engagement is being evaluated.

A few observations. The council's twitter feed has a following of approx 35K accounts. Many will be news organisations etc. This represents less than 10% of Barnets population. As best I can tell, posts get an average of around 300 view, which is less than 0.1 of the population. The recent Holocaust memorial being an outlier with 11K views, but still only acheived 11 likes and 4 retweets. 

 

To me, this looks like a very ineffective use of resources.

Here is Councillor Zinkins response (that i it in it's entirity)

as you say almost a complete waste of time

Regards

Cllr Peter Zinkin

I have long found Councillor Zinkin to be one of the more sensible and approachable Tory members. Although brief, his response does seem to confirm this assessment. 

These officers also post on the Barnet Council website. The news section has 1-2 posts a week on average. They also produce a weekly newsletter called Barnet First, which allededly has 45,000 subscribers. This means approx 15% of the people who live in the Borough subscribe. Most of the stories appear in several editions and are generally a rehash of the stories in the news section. You can see the newsletters here and sign up (I'd urge all Barnet residents to do this, you are paying for it!).

Given that there are a full time team of two staff and a manager doing all this, I can only say that it is appalling. The home page is as bland and dull as possible. There are no previews of what is in the newsletters on the homepage, which is also difficult to find. The actual Newsletters are laid out in the most boring way possible. There is no attempt at all to engage with the audience, no "What's in this edition" at the top. No thought given to what might encourage readers to read the whole thing. 

To sum up. I'm all for engagement with the public. I'm all for putting information out there on social media. What I am not all for is wasting taxpayers money in a totally incompetent way. Do it properly or don't do it. On Monday, I wrote a slightly tongue in cheek blog about Elon Musk and DOGE. I am sure Mr Musk would have something to say about this, if he were interested in Barnet. 

What Barnet Council needs is a bit of DOGE and Elon Musk, not baleouts from Government!

The biggest mistake that inept politicians make is that they cannot accept that people they disagree with have some good ideas. The last thing I am is a fan of Donald Trump, but I have no doubt at all that the creation of the Department for Government Efficiency (DOGE) will save American taxpayers billions. I say this based on my experience of dealing with the inept bureacracy that is Barnet Council, having written this blog since 2008. It appears to me that much of what DOGE is doing is what the Barnet bloggers spent a decade urging the leaders of Barnet Council to do. Perhaps the greatest victory of the Barnet Bloggers was to force Barnet Council to hold the "Metpro Inquiry" in 2011. This exposed the total failure of Barnet Councils oversight of suppliers. The fallout lead to savings of millions of pounds and tightening of fraud controls etc (You can read about it here). At the time, the convention in the Council was that an opposition councillor chaired this committee, to ensure that a critical eye was passed over the council's business. The chair was LibDem Lord Monroe Palmer. He did a good job and gained the confidence of all. Eric Pickles, then local government secretary congratulated the Barnet bloggers for our efforts exposing waste and potential fraud. What did the Barnet Tories learn from the debacle? Well they learned that they had lost control of the process. They abolished the convention of putting an opposition councillor in charge of audit. This had the added bonus of giving another Tory a healthy fat 'special responsibility allowance'. One of the biggest critics of this change was Labour councillor Arjun Mittra. Sadly, when Labour won, his criticism of the concept of a member the administration running the audit committee disappeared and he copped a nice fat allowance himself. 

Last week, it was announced that Barnet Council were receiving a big fat £55 million baleout from central government to plug the holes in their finances. It may surprise you to learn that Barnet Unison union came up with a plan to slash costs. Here are the key cost saving measures that they have identified.

• Reduce Executive Directors by deleting the following 3 Executive Director roles: Strategy and Innovation; Resources; Assurance and Public Protection. 

• Delete the Deputy Chief Executive role 

• Create one Executive Director role: Corporate Resources. All of the services covered by the deleted Executive Director roles transfer to the newly created Corporate Services Directorate with the exception of Public Protection which should be transferred back into the Environment Directorate as it was before the TUPE transfer to Capita in 2013.

• Greenspaces should be moved from Communities, Adults & Health back into Environment.

 • The Assistant Director (AD) role for Greenspaces and Leisure should become the A.D for Libraries and Leisure.

 • The Senior Management Team (SMT) restructure should incorporate all Heads of Service and Assistant Heads of Services levels of management in order to ensure greater equity in terms of numbers of staff managed by individual managers. 

• The Senior Management Teams (SMT) of The Barnet Group (TBG) and Barnet Education and Learning Service (BELS) are to be included in this restructure to deliver savings, avoid redundancies and making cuts to services.

 • For transparency and accountability Barnet Council should instruct BELS and TBG to publish all salaries over £50K as per the Localism Act 2011 – Openness and accountability in local pay. 

• Save £7.299 million annually by insourcing services thus avoiding the increase in national insurance which has been imposed on the private sector by the Labour Government. 

 • Impose financial penalties on Capita for underperforming of the collection of Council Tax and Business rates. 

 • Conduct an urgent review of the back-office services of TBG and BELS.

 • Use economies of scale to help deal with the increased wage bill 

• Barnet Homes, part of TBG, should be brought back into the Council. 

 • The Housing Service should be merged with the Directorate of Growth to become the Housing & Growth Directorate.

This, to me, looks like some serious cost cutting that Elon Musk would be proud of! The slashing of highly expensive and completely unnesscary management roles and boards seems like a very sensible idea. It also improves transparancy, seeing where taxpayers money is being waste on fat salaries.

The best way to beat your opponents is not to ignore their good ideas. It is to nick the good ideas and make them better. Barnet lead the way in the UK for citizens holding the council to account. We have replaced an inept Tory council with an inept Labour council. You may be tempted to vote Reform. Well, personally I wouldn't bother. They have one councillor in Barnet, who defected from the Tories. Brian Coleman reported "He has an appalling reputation in Barnet . In May he stood for Group Leader and was roundly defeated by his colleagues who recognised that he is known for his lazyness" 

Sury Khatri campaigniong for the Tories

They have also acquired two former Tory Councillors as candidates, one of whom was deselected in 2018 and then endorsed both the Lib Dems and Labour in 2022! Coleman said of him "He was never capable which was why he was deselected in 2018 by Hendon Conservatives"The other was a former Barnet Tory Mayor. Coleman said of her "As for Lisa Rutter she applied to be the Conservative candidate in the Barnet Vale by election in July and was rejected (she is as thick as two short planks) and this is a fit of pique". Now I wouldn't give Brian's views too much credence normally, but these people were all mates of his, not too long ago. It is widely recognised that the Barnet Tories were inept and according to Coleman, the most inept of them are now running as Reform candidates. If you think they will sort Barnet Council out, then you must still believe in Father Christmas. 

Sadly, the UK is unlikely to have a DOGE style authority any time soon. Whatever I think of Musk, the fact that we've got completely inept councils run by people who are useless is something that his approach may sort out. I'd have no problem paying higher salaries to the best people to sort Barnet Council out. Sadly we have a bunch of stuffed shirts who's primary concern is their own wallet. That is why we have litter filled pavements and potholed roads. Every year tax goes up and the Borough deteriorates. I quite like Elon Musk's idea of getting Federal Staff to justify their employment. People like me, who run small businesses don't carry passengers. I see no reason why the taxpayer should. In Barnet, whenever their is cost cutting it is the people who do the work who suffer, whilst the bosses simply put up their own wages. I'd reward the people who do the work, get the fat cats on high salaries to justify their wages and get people who understood what they were doing to run the place. I'd also cut the number of councillors by 1/3rd. In Mill Hill, we have three councillors, one of whom doesn't bother attending. He gets paid £11,000 for the privelidge - Members allowances paid 2023 to 2024 (ODT, 22 KB) -You are paying that. Has anyone in Mill Hill actually noticed his lack of work? Barnet does not need 63 councillors. Council Leader Barry Rawlings said of the bale out "The pressure on our finances has never been greater. As a council, we face an unprecedented crisis in financing our services, driven by a perfect storm of a decade of funding cuts from central government, high interest rates making services more expensive to deliver, and ever-increasing demand for complex and costly services we have a legal duty to provide, such as adults’ and children’s social care and temporary accommodation." -

Cutting 21 councillors would save nearly a quarter of a million quid a year. It may be a small amount in the budget, but it would be there for other services that matter.  It would also show that the political classes are willing to share the pain. But that will never happen without a DOGE style purge and that won't happen in the UK because no one has the balls to actually call out the waste. We have a culture of laziness in public sector management and political leadership. They are happy so long as someone else does the dirty jobs and their wallets bulge. 

Barnet Council - They can't organise a booze up in a brewery - Official

Barnet Council is a shambles. There is no accountability, there is no understanding of finance, it is like a truck driving towards a cliff, where the driver is too busy checking Twitter to see the impending disaster. Why do I write these blogs? Three reasons. 1. I pay tax and the less tax I pay, the more beer I can drink, and when they waste money it means my beer budget is smaller. 2. I know plenty of people who rely on Barnet Council for all manner of services and what they do is important. If the council does this badly, people I know suffer. 3. Because I live in Mill Hill, I plan to die in Mill Hill and if Barnet Council screws up, it makes Mill Hill a worse place to live in and we see more potholes, graffiti, litter, crime, begging, old ladies starving or freezing to death, children getting a bad education.... I could go on. 

I started this with blog with a very bold claim. But the sad thing is that as far as I can see is that it s completely true. Recently one of Barnet's top councillors Ammar Naqvi was exposed as having lied on his CV, pretending to have jobs and qualifications that he hadn't. He was the fiannce chief for Barnet Council. When the truth came to light, he was booted out of the Labour party, resigned as a councillor and has forced a by election in Burnt Oak. Labour has a huge majority in Burnt Oak which is there safest ward. The Tories always said that you could stand a donkey with a red rosette in Burnt Oak and win. So even if there is a huge shock, it will make little difference to the way the council is run. Councillor Naqvi has been around for years, how did they not know that he'd embellished his CV? Are no due dilligence checks done before someone is put in charge of Council finances?

Finances? It is something that myself and the other Barnet bloggers have historically taken a keen interest in. My fellow blogger Mr Reasonable has recently exposed the reasons for a £41 million shortfall in the finances. Whilst I accept that Mr Reasonable is right to call out the historical mismanagement of Barnet finances by the Tories, which is the root cause of the problem, he is far to lenient on Labour. They took over in 2022 and should have thrown the books open, exposed the mismanagement they had presided over and put together a properly costed and funded four year plan to try and recover the situation. Speeding up the insourcing of mismanaged services by Capita would have cut costs radically and given the opportunity to improve services. As Mr Reasonable stated, they also failed to put taxes up. When you take over, you get a small window, where you can blame everything on the previous administration, if you have the evidence. After nearly three years, you have to take responsibility yourself. 

There is one thing that Barnet Council could and should have done on day one, was dissolve the Barnet Group, who run Barnet Homes and oversee the council house stock. There is a whole layer of management, on fat salaries, that replicates similar roles in the Council There are duplicate IT systems and huge waste. They also employ shoddy and dangerous contractors. Have a look at these posts on Facebook.

Not only do Barnet Homes cost the taxpayer a fortune, they employ shoddy contractors who do substandard work and even cause fires in tenants homes. It simply isn't good enough. This particular tenant is supposed to be having his kitchen renovated.  The work was supposed to take one week. It is still not done. The tenant has over 100 official complaints with Barnet Homes, for shoddy work and problems with the property. 

The tenant also had problems with Barnet Homes where they were paying their rent and Barnet Homes were saying they hadn't and threatening them with court action and eviction. I got involved and started to do some digging. My digging seemed to identify and issue with a poorly designed payment portal. I wrote to the CEO, I did not get a satisfactory answer to my query. So I put in an FoI to Barnet Homes, asking about the number of such misdirected payments. I submitted the request on 29th October. By law, I was supposed to get a response within 20 days. There is a requirement on the authority to be helpful! 

This was the first response I got, on the 14th November

Dear Mr Tichborne,

 

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request, which was received by Barnet Homes on 29 October 2024.

 

Unfortunately, due to an administrative error there has been a delay to our Complaints and Information Team acknowledging it. I am very sorry for this.

 

Whilst Barnet Homes provides support, the London Borough of Barnet is ultimately responsible for the suspense account and your request therefore needs to be directed to the council’s FOI team. For expediency, I have included the council’s team in this email so they can process your request (@Freedom of Information Act).

 

I apologise again for the delay; I will take this up with our team.

The next response came on the 12th December

The Complaints and Information Team is presently very short-staffed and therefore you may experience a delay to our usual response timescales. We will provide you with a response, where needed, as soon as possible. We are very sorry for any inconvenience and we thank you for your patience. 

This could explain why the poor tenant, who's home has been trashed by dodgy contractors gets nowhere with his complaints.  

Having not got a response by January from Barnet Council, I warned them that I would report them to the ICO who regulate FoI requests.

On the 15th January, I finally got this response

Dear Mr Tichborne,

 

London Borough of Barnet apologises sincerely in the delay in providing you the requested information.  Please see response below.

 

Your request:

Please can you supply me with the closing balance for the suspense account, where misdirected payments, including rent payments with incorrect payment reference numbers are directed, for the following dates 

1st January 2024

1st April 2024

1st October 2024 

Please can you also supply me details of the total number of payment transactions directed to this account for the month of September. 

Response:

Please see the totals for Council Tax below.

 

Please can you supply me with the closing balance for the suspense account, where misdirected payments, including rent payments with incorrect payment reference numbers are directed, for the following dates

 1st January 2024 - £275,712.91

1st April 2024 - £0.00

1st October 2024 - £513,295.92 

Please can you also supply me details of the total number of payment transactions directed to this account for the month of September - 924

Kind regards,

I was horrified at this. This indicated that nearly 1 in ten tenants payments were being misdirected. So I emailed the leader of the Council and the CEO of Barnet Council to explain. 

To my amasement, the next reply I got was this. It wasn't from Barnet Council. It was from Elliot Sweetman, the CEO of Barnet Homes

Dear Mr Tichborne,

 

Thank you for your email which Cllr Rawlings has asked me to respond to.

 

Just to clarify, the figures in terms of values and transactions you have been provided in response to your FOI request relate to the council tax suspense account, not council tenant rent payments. We’re still investigating why different information was provided to that requested. However, in respect of council tenant rent payments, Barnet Homes undertake daily checks to identify incorrectly assigned rent payments and advise that on average circa. six rent payments per month are identified in the suspense account and reallocated to the correct rent accounts.

 

We will come back to you with the further information you have enquired about as soon as possible.

 

Kind regards,

 

Elliott Sweetman

So here we are. It is nearly three months since I first made the enquiry. I still don't have the information I requested, although Mr Sweetman has provided some rough fugures, that his organisation originally said they couldn't provide! We also now know that last September, nearly a thousand council tax payers payments went astray. If that is representative of the year, that is over ten thousand council tax payers who are paying and their account isn't being properly credited. There is another issue that the response highlights. The balance on 1st April was zero £. As there was a quarter of a million in January and half a million in September, why was there a zero balance in April? I asked the question for a specific reason. That is when the council is finalising its annual accounts. It is pretty clear that the cash was transferred to other accounts to balance the books for year end. I have emailed the Section 151 officer for an explanation. The Section 151 officer's job is to ensure financial probity. I've not had a response, so far and have emailed the officer again to ask for confirmation of receipt.

It interests me that Barnet Council Leader, Barry Rawlings did not respond to my email. Despite Barry assurring me, on the night he won the election, that he welcomed critical scrutiny, it is clear to me that the Labour Administration are not interested in such things. 

I will give Mr Sweetman and Councillor Rawlings the opportunity to provide a guest blog, unedited to explain themselves. It is clear to me that neither organisation are up to the job. The emails are there, what do you think?

By the way, this is what I was talking about here.