Helen Michael: open letter to Councillor Richard Cornelius and to Scotland Yard

Since the electoral defeat of former Assembly Member and Barnet Cabinet member Brian Coleman in May, Barnet’s Tory council leader Richard Cornelius and his colleagues have sought to distance themselves from most of the more controversial policies that Coleman promoted.

 

Most significant among these is the parking scheme, which has caused so much anger among the residents and traders of this borough.

 

At a meeting with Barnet traders at a North Finchley forum in December last year, Councillor Cornelius was told in no uncertain terms by the shopkeepers and small business owners of this borough about the devastating impact of this ridiculous scheme. He replied:

 

“I’m listening, but I haven’t got any intention to do anything else other than that ... I’ve heard you and it’s obviously affected me. I don’t know what I can do. I don’t know if I can do anything.”

 

Local cafe owner Helen Michael said:

 

“We are wasting our time – you’ve said in no uncertain terms that you’re not going to do anything. We are begging for our businesses, for our livelihoods. Please do something.”

 

Councillor Cornelius and his fellow Tories sat back and watched as the life of our local high streets ebbed away, in some cases losing up to 40 percent of their usual level of trade.

 

He refused to do anything for us, so we acted for ourselves.

 

Bloggers, traders, residents, community activists and trade unions united and voiced their opposition to the changes. Prominent among the campaigners was Helen Michael. As spokeswoman for North Finchley traders she made every effort to focus attention on the injustice and devastating impact of the policy, and hold Councillor Coleman to account for the consequences of his scheme. Her efforts won admiration from London Mayor Boris Johnson – and even Richard Cornelius, who is reported to have suggested she should think of standing as a Conservative candidate for the council.

 

Only since Brian Coleman lost his seat on the London Assembly, and then his Cabinet post, and in response to two other electoral defeats, has the Tory group on Barnet Council admitted that the parking changes were unfair, and sought to retract them. Councillor Cornelius has now apologised for introducing the policy, and a review is underway.

 

How ironic it is, therefore, that the woman who did what Councillor Cornelius failed to do, and fought for the best interests of residents and traders, is now being investigated by Scotland Yard, after an allegation of wrongdoing in relation to a poster produced by her in the course of the parking campaign. An omission on this poster was rectified early on in the campaign, and Helen Michael was informed by local police that there would be no further action.

 

Despite this assurance, Helen Michael is now being investigated by officers from Scotland Yard, and yesterday spent two hours, under caution, being interviewed at a local police station about the poster, and her motivation for its publication.

 

We believe that this targeting of a local campaigner is a deliberate and politically motivated act of intimidation.

 

To involve the police in this way is inappropriate, and a serious misuse of their time and resources.

 

We call on Council leader Richard Cornelius to speak out against the victimisation of a brave, resourceful and admirable woman. We call on Scotland Yard to desist from taking any further action in regard to this matter.

 

Signed:

 

Derek Dishman

 

John Dix

 

Vicki Morris

 

Theresa Musgrove

 

Roger Tichborne

 

Church Farmhouse Museum - The final indignity

On a very bad day for the reputation of Barnet Council, I was not surprised to find this. Barnet Council are flogging off by auction the contents of Church Farmhouse museum.

http://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s4783/1688%20-%20Church%20Farm%20House%20Museum%20Clearance%20Contract%20Public.pdf

Here are two interesting paragraphs
------------------

8.2 Disposal of collection 
The existing collection must be removed from Church Farmhouse by the end of 
June 2012. Material will be disposed of, in accordance with the Council’s Historic 
items Acquisition and Disposal Policy, in four ways:  
• Retain in storage and in handling collections • Pass on to other museums 
• Sell 
• Discard
---------------------------
10. OFFICER DECISION
I authorise the following:
Award of contract to Auction Plus for the clearance and auctioning of items from the Former Church Farmhouse Museum, Greyhound Hill, NW4 4JR Signed Julie Taylor Assistant Chief Executive Date 2 July 2012
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Can you spot the deliberate mistake? Section 8.2 says that the collection must be disposed of by the end of June. The contract is signed on the 2nd July. Does this mean that the paperwork has been done retrospectively.

Is this yet another "non compliant contract".

Nothing at Barnet Council surprises me any more. So much for the heritage of Barnet. Is it any coincidence that a Council so hell bent on destroying every decent service in the Borough wishes to obliterate our history as well?

Helen Michael interviewed under caution by Scotland Yard Detectives for parking poster

Lets just stick to the facts. Helen Michael was yesterday interviewed by 2 officers from Scotland Yard's special investigations unit. This is the unit responsible for, amongst other things, terrorism investigations. Helen was read her rights and interviewed under caution. The reason? Because a poster produced on behalf of Barnet Traders, campaigning against the abolition of pay and display parking in Barnet and extortionate parking charges may have breached election law on a technicality. The purpose of the law was to prevent anonymous smear campaigns against people standing for elections.

The complaint against Helen Michael was initiated by the CEO of Barnet, Nick Walkley. Mr Walkley doubled up in this role as the returning officer. The Barnet Eye wishes to explore the motivation of Mr Walkley in making the complaint and wishes to know in what capacity he has been persuing this. This is relevant to the case. We believe Mr Walkleys behaviour may indicate more than a professional interest in following this matter up. Given that the Police told Helen they were unaware of any other investigations into breaches of electoral law, despite one recent high profile case concerning a leaflet in Brunswick Park, we have to ask, why has only Helen's case been investigated. 

Helen's protest has been highly embarrassing to Mr Walkley. In the film "A Tale of Two Barnets", Paul Shea, a local trader, stated that Mr Walkley had said in a public meeting he was "pissed off" at his treatment by Barnet traders at a meeting in January 2012. You can see Mr Paul Shea say this in the long trailer for the film, at 41 seconds. This clip was filmed in January 2012, long before the May GLA/ Mayoral elections. This proves Mr Walkley had an axe to grind.  (it is worth noting that this footage has been in the public domain since March). 

 Having publicly stated that he was "pissed off" with the traders and their protest, what can we make of his decision to set the police on  the campaign coordinator? The Barnet Eye knows of at least two other posters and leaflets that breached election law recently. One of these was produced by the Brunswick Park Tories, who unlike Helen have a party machine behind them and are aware of the rules for elections. Why hasn't Mr Walkley demanded the police haul the local Tories down to the station? 

In a couple of weeks time we see the Olympic start in London. Every terrorist and every nutcase in the world would love to inflict atrocities on us during this period. It beggars belief that Mr Walkley is insisting that Scotland Yard investigate Helen Michael, who was merely exercising her democratic right to protest against an unpopular policy at such a time. Does anyone (except Nick Walkley) believe that Helen should be suffering this persecution? Does anyone (except Nick Walkley) believe that this is a constructive usage of Police time?

Given Mr Walkley's statement about being pissed off with the Traders and their parking protest, can anyone see this complaint as a fair, impartial response to the traders poster? No one would take electoral fraud, anonymous smear campaigns or attempts to rig the voting system in Barnet more seriously than the Barnet Eye. No one would take attempts to pervert the process more seriously than the Barnet Eye. We don't believe that any rational person could claim the traders poster was any such thing. 

So let's just recap the facts.

In January 2012. Nick Walkley stated publicly that he was "pissed off" with the Barnet Traders for their "rough treatment" of him at a business meeting (ie asking a few tough questions).

In April the Barnet traders started putting up posters to draw attention to the parking policies of Barnet Council and Brian Coleman.

Two days after the first poster went up, the Council Leader Richard Cornelius informally rang Helen Michael and informed her that he'd been told the posters didn't comply with election law and it would be better if she took them down, otherwise she may get into trouble. Helen Michael notified the other traders who removed posters as best they could.

The next day a local police officer visited Helen Michael and informed her of the complaint. Helen informed the officer that she would remove all the posters and had indeed already began the process of taking them down. The officer informed Helen Michael that this should be enough.

In late June, Helen received a follow up visit from the Police, asking for her to attend the station.

On 3rd July, Helen visited the Police station and was interviewed by two officers from Scotland yard, who informed her Mr Walkley was the complainant. 

The Barnet Eye is of the opinion that Mr Walkley has compromised himself by launching this complaint against the Barnet Traders whilst ignoring other potentially more serious breaches of the law. Had he persued other leaflets and posters with equal vigour, then this charge would not be valid, but as only Helen Michael has been summoned to an inquisition, it is clear what is going on. It is time for Mr Walkley to consider his position and if he won't then Council Leader Richard Cornelius should.

Barnet Tories ignore Anti Semitism if it suits them !

This blog has had a large number of hits on the story about Jonathan Hoffman picketing the appearance of Miriam Margolyes at the Arts Depot. Mr Hoffman is a leading Zionist campaigner and will let no criticism of Israel or the local Jewish community pass without vocally opposing it. Barnet Tory Councillors also make a big issue of support for Israel and condemnation of any instance of Anti Semitism in the Borough. In fact Mr Hoffman rallied to support Councillor Brian Coleman as a friend of Israel during his recent Standards hearing. The Barnet Eye admires people such as Mr Hoffman who stand up for their principles and put themselves in harms way to get their point across. We don't always agree with everything Mr Hoffman says or does, but it requires guts and determination to stand on the street and run the risk of abuse or even possible violence.

The Barnet Eye has less admiration for the Tories of Barnet Council such as Rams and Coleman, who are sometimes a little more equivocal with their support. It may surprise newer readers of this blog to find out that this blog was founded because of our stance AGAINST AN ANTISEMITIC VIDEO POSTED ON THE BARNET COUNCIL WEBSITE. At the time I was writing a blog on the Hendon Times website. It was (as this blog is) very well read. It also (as this blog does) ruffled the feathers of Councillors on a regular basis. The editor of the Times told me on several occasions that various Tory Councillors (including Councillor Rams) had contacted him asking for the Times to dispense with my services. Amongst other things I was told that I couldn't refer to the then Council Leader, Mike Freer. I was then told that I had to stop mentioning Brian Coleman. All of these things I complied with.

Then I was informed by one of the people who regularly commented on my blog (and who had started his own blog) that Barnet Council had posted an Anti Semitic video on their Youtube site. I was outraged and posted an extremely hard hitting blog demanding that the Council immediately removed the video and apologised for their crass action. What do you think happened next?

Well you may (or may not) be surprised to hear that Barnet Council contacted the Times and demanded that I was sacked as a blogger. The Times duly complied with this request. I set up the Barnet Eye in response to this outrageous behaviour. My return was lauded by the fellow Blogger, Don't Call Me Dave here - http://www.notthebarnettimes.co.uk/2008/10/rog-t-is-back.html - Don't call me Dave also blogged about the original video here - http://www.notthebarnettimes.co.uk/2008/10/council-refuses-to-remove-offensive_03.html - Don't Call Me Dave was shocked by the behaviour. At the Time, I believe he was still a member of the Chipping Barnet Conservative Association, which he had been an officer of. As far as I'm aware, he was the only Barnet Conservative to express any support for me in response to my sacking for opposing Anti Semitism.

It seemed that the rest of them were quite happy with me to get shafted, because it was rather convenient for them. If such a thing had happened to anyone who was a friend of the Barnet Tories, then we'd have seen more than Mr Hoffman outside the Times office.

That is why I think they are all a complete bunch of hypocrites. That is why I don't trust them an inch.

Wasting Police time

So this morning Helen Michael, coordinator for Finchley traders and owner of Cafe Buzz is nipping around to her local police station for "a chat" about a poster displayed by a few local traders as part of their campaign to restore pay and display parking. So far, Helen has had two visits from the police, several exchanges of emails & telephone calls with the police. It is also clear that the Police will have had to seek legal advice on the matter as the infringement seems to be a rather technical issue. It appears that thus far, the investigation has lasted three months.

It seems to me to be extremely unlikely that the Police would have chosen to persue this beyond the initial visit to tell Helen she'd made a mistake without intense pressure from someone. When Helen was originally informed of the problem, she complied with the request of the police to desist from distributing the posters and to get any further ones amended. Everyone assumed that that was the end of the matter. The Policeman who visited Helen seemed to think that as it was a simple and genuine mistake, that would be the end of the matter, so long as she complied.

The question has to be, why has this dragged on. Who has decided that Helen must "be made an example of"? Who thinks it is in the public interest to drag the Police away from jobs protecting the people of Barnet to persue a local resident who made a genuine mistake, because they weren't familiar with electoral law? Is that same person going to press the police to take similar action against the Conservatives in Brunswick Park for issuing a leaflet which broke the same law? If the Police are forced into persuing this case, then everyone in Barnet will insist that they also take action against the local Conservatives, who have agents who have undergone training in the law to ensure that such cock ups don't happen.

Now I sincerely hope that "the chat" is just that and it is the end of the matter. I am sure that the police hate getting dragged into political rows. I am sure that they are less than pleased to be wasting their time on something which is so completely trivial. As to whoever made the complaint. The GLA election of Andrew Dismore had a margin of 20,000 voters. Boris Johnson had an even bigger margin in Barnet as Mayor. As I understand it, the traders put up about 20 copies of the poster for a couple of days, before they were advised to remove them. That means that each poster would have had to have changed the voting intention of a thousand people to have any impact at all. The truth of the matter is that the poster did not change a single persons intention to vote for Boris or Brian. This was done by Brian Coleman's policy of abolishing Pay and Display and Boris and Ken's relative records in Barnet. People don't see posters in shop windows and change their mind. All the poster will do is show the local politicians, that their policies are highly unpopular.

I was under the impression that "wasting Police time" was an offence. Rather than persuing Helen Michael and anyone else who put the poster up, maybe the police should be having a word the person who is insisting that they carry on this ridiculous investigation. Common sense really has to prevail.

Guest Blog - Barnet Cleans Up the Streets, Two Ways - By Heather Smith

By Heather Smith,

The streets of Barnet need help. The roads themselves are in need of repair due to harsh weather over the past few years, but that is not all that is wrong with the streets. The streets of Barnet apparently have an alcohol problem. At least, that is what a report in the Times stated.

After a front-page story on homeless men living in abandoned garages in Edgware, Environmental Health has stepped in to block access to the garages and hopefully stop the homeless from returning. The Barnet community had been previously complaining of rat infestation and clamoring for Barnet Council to contact the owners to clean up the garages. Nothing was accomplished. When the report in the Times came out, however, steps were finally taken. A barricade was put up restricting access. Edgware Sergeant Dan Reid said:

“Getting the issue on the front page really kick started the local authority to take action. I have to say they have done a fantastic job – the garages are still in disrepair but we have taken away this facility for street drinkers.”

The abandoned garages have been approved for demolition, though no date has yet been set. In the meantime, the owners of the abandoned garage have been forced to hire a pest control company to get rid of the area's resultant rats and mice. Barnet Council is also looking to enact an alcohol exclusion zone through Edgware to thwart people drinking on the street.

Sergeant Reid said: “With taking away the garages and introducing the drinking ban we are going to massively reduce crime in Edgware.In the short time since these boards went up we have seen a fall in the number of shop lifting and anti-social incidents in the immediate vicinity.I think this is an effective solution for Edgware but the no-drinking zone will tie it all together.I wish the owners had done more – this could have been sorted earlier. It has taken the Edgware ward panel and the local authority to step in and sort it out.”

Not only are the homeless being evicted and the drunks gotten off the streets, but the unemployed young residents of Barnet will also be receiving aide. Some of the money earmarked for improvements will go towards encouraging local businesses to hire interns and apprentices in an effort to give the youth experience in real employment situations. The target ages of the youth are sixteen to twenty four.

In addition to this, the physical streets of Barnet are also scheduled to be improved. Roads and pavements in Barnet are scheduled to be torn out and replaced as part of a £4.5 million set of measures. Richard Cornelius, leader of Barnet Council, said: 

"Our residents have told us that improving the condition of the borough's road and pavements is a top priority. The bad weather over the past few winters has damaged our roads and pavements and we need to fix them while we can. We are investing in the future of our borough through helping our young people and fixing our roads and pavements."

All these improvements should make Barnet's property values increase and promote economic growth in the area. What lesson can we learn from this? If you want something done, go public and make sure that the Council can't ignore you.

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Guest blogs are always welcome at the Barnet Eye, please submit via the link in the sidebar. Heather Smith is an ex-nanny. Passionate about thought leadership and writing, Heather regularly contributes to various career, social media, public relations, branding, and parenting blogs/websites. She also provides value to hire a nanny by giving advice on site design as well as the features and functionality to provide more and more value to nannies and families across the U.S. and Canada. She can be available at H.smith7295 [at] gmail.com.

THE £1 BILLION GAMBLE: A DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN

Barnet Council Not For Sale

Barnet Unison & Barnet Alliance for Public Services Special Conference

Saturday 7 July 12-3, The Greek Cypriot Centre, 2 Britannia Road N12

The bankruptcy of the South London hospitals, a direct result of the PFI scheme, demonstrates the dangers of involving private for profit companies in running public services. This is exactly the future that Barnet council is planning for us with their One Barnet Programme.

The One Barnet Programme that Barnet Council is pushing through is much more than 'outsourcing' - it is a total sell-off of all our council-run public services, which will create a 'hollow council' when 70% of the staff are shed en-route to becoming a 'commissioning council'. Should anything go wrong in the One Barnet plan - there will be almost no staff left in-house to remedy it. We, Barnet residents, will be left on our own. This is a catastrophe waiting to happen and we cannot afford to stand aside and watch.

Barnet residents and council staff will have an opportunity to learn more about the likely disastrous effects of this car crash waiting to happen that is the One Barnet Programme, in a conference on Saturday 7 July 12-3 at the Greek Cypriot Centre in North Finchley. Speakers include experts like Prof. Dexter Whitfield, Director of European Services Strategy Unit, Mr Andy Mudd chief consultant of the Association for Public Service Excellence, Mr John Dix, Barnet blogger Mr Reasonable, and guests from Aberdeen and Edinburgh, where similar programmes were stopped and reversed at the last moment by concerned citizens and the trade unions. Guest speakers from Sefton Unison, where Capita Symonds, one of the competitors for Barnet's huge contracts, were kicked out lately, not before they devastated the services they were supposed to provide, will share with us their experience and tell us how we can still stop the train.

Contact:
barnetalliance4publicservices@gmail.com; 020-8446 6799(Julian) ; 07957-486 379 (Tirza)

Nick Walkley's Additional Weekly Message to Barnet Council Staff - Follow the example of SPAIN !

From: "First Team" First.Team@barnet.gov.uk; 
Date: 1 July 2012 14:59:01 GMT+01:00 
To: "AllStaff" 
Subject: Additional Weekly message from the Chief Executive


Over the weekend, like many of you I watched Spain win the European Championships. We witnessed possibly the best display of football by any team in history. What was the secret of their success? Teamwork. I was truly inspired by the way everyone knew where everyone else was, each player covered for their colleagues and players being substituted accepted it in good grace for the benefit of the team.


We can all learn from their example. For Barnet Council to succeed, we must work as a team. We must support our colleagues and if there is no longer any place for us in the organisation, we must accept this with good grace. Perhaps the greatest secret we can learn from Spain is that everyone knows who is the boss and he gets all the rewards and plaudits that a successful boss deserves. The team is successful because they do exactly what the boss tells them.When players do not do what the boss tells them, they are off.

There is another lesson we can learn from Spain. How many of the players are employees of the Spanish federation? Yes, you are quite right, NONE !!!! Nope, they all work for other teams. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool and Manchester City. The training and development of the team is OUTSOURCED to the organisation that do it best. All that happens in Spain is that they COMMISSION the best players from the BEST TEAMS. Because Spain has the best TEAMS and the BEST BOSS - they win !!!!!

You may also have also noticed that when the Spanish players were substituted, the BOSS didn't come over and pat then on the head, as is the practice with lesser teams. Nope, the boss expected them to go out, give 100% and do their job. Why bother with pleasantaries. The players get a medal for their efforts and they get all the girls when they get home. Why would they want a pat on the head from the boss, when they can have all of these things.

Staff at Barnet Council should realise that like the Spanish players, they are lucky. When they are outsourced, they will have the chance to join the best teams, with world class organisations such as Capita and BT. They will also have the opportunity to work for the best, most dynamic Council CEO in the world - ME!

How could any of you fail to be ecstatic at such a wonderful proposition? And if you don't realise just how lucky you are, then maybe you should consider joining a team in the Conference?

Nick

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Yup, you probably guessed. This isn't really an email from Nick Walkley, CEO of Barnet. It is a spoof which I made up. Sadly I suspect that there is more than a grain of truth in some of the sentiments which I ascribed to "Non Stick" Nick. He clearly isn't interested in anyone who has a different view of the changes he's implementing. He clearly thinks he knows best. He refused to attend the Association for Public Service Excellence briefings. Why? we can only assume because he believes that he's the Del Bosso of local Government. He has already publicly stated that the bidders are the "best teams" around. Can Barnet Council learn anything from Spain's victory? I suspect they can. For many years they under achieved at major tournaments. They undertook a root and branch review of the way football was run in Spain. What did they do? They unified a fragmented system and instilled a sense of pride in the National team. The national association was strengthened and improvements brought in to the systems of coaching at all levels.

Sadly Barnet Council is going the other way. They are destroying the systems of control and oversight. Anyone who is familiar with the problems with procurement in Barnet can only draw the conclusion that the system is broken. This must be fixed before they even consider any more outsourcing. Once a strong system of corporate governance is in place, then they can start fixing the problems. Until that is done, things can only get worse. That is why One Barnet must be cancelled.

Is I ???

You may well think "WTF is he on about now?" One of the joys of having run a music studio for 33 years is that we've seen a vast number of people pass through our doors and grow up. We're now seeing the children of our original customers, bringing their children down to play music.

One of the more amusing things is the way that these kids change. Often they'll first appear as babes in arms, when proud Mums and Dad's bring them down to show us. Most people who are into music want their kids to get the bug. We next see them around six or seven, when they are getting their first guitar or drumkit. We are in the lucky position that our customers trust us. It also makes the kids feel a bit special and a bit rock and roll to visit the studios. 

They then disappear again until they are twelve or thirteen and come down with their first band. Proud mums and Dads lurk around, happily savouring the cacophony and visualising the day when the song reaches No 1 and the y get bought  the retirement villa in Bermuda on the proceeds. 

All of these visits are happy joyous, smiling encounters. 

What happens next is that hormones kick in. All of a sudden the kids won't be seen dead in a room with their parents. That doesn't mean that the free taxi service is dispensed with, it's just that the parents have to park around the corner. Strange things also happen to the appearance of the kids. These beautiful bouncing babies have morphed into straggly unwashed teenagers, lank hair, ill fitting clothes and spots. Perhaps the most interesting thing is what happens to their linguistic skills. One week they will come in and say "Hello, what studio are we in today". The next week they will point to the diary and say "Is I?" or something else which only years of training can decipher. Semi Patois accents are adopted (Is this compulsory for Mill Hill County High School?). The free taxi service (AKA parents) at this point appreciate our services more than ever. We actually get the little darlings out of the house for a couple of hours. Occasionally we will have the odd comic moment. On one occasion, a teenage man mountain in torn jeans, leather jacket, with hair that hadn't made contact with a shower for at least six months lurched in. Without uttering a word he pointed at the Pork Scratchings hanging on the wall and slammed down 60p. Many an old lady would have run for cover at the mere sight of this young man. As he turned around clutching his tasty snack, all of a sudden mummy entered. He had forgotten his guitar lead and she'd come to bring it. She saw the bag of pork scratchings and exclaimed "Joshua, what would the Rabbi say if he saw you with those?". All of a sudden the man hulk was transformed back into the naughty little boy aged five, running around giggling as he bashed cymbals on the cymbal display. 

I was reminded of this yeserday. The incident above happened in 1999. Yesterday Joshua turned up in his Mercedes, to give his son (mini Josh) aged five or six a drum lesson. The leather jacket is gone and the hair is washed and neatly cut. He was explaining to mini Josh how he'd been coming down since he was his age and how fantastic our new studios are. I wonder what he'll say when he catches mini Josh buying a crafty bag of pork scratchings in about ten years?

I asked big Joshua if he was still playing with anyone. He had been in a great band at university and music had been a massive part of his life. "With the kids and work, I just don't get time. The kit has been in the garage since we moved. It is just great to be down here with Josh". 

Sometimes the circle of life is a wonderous thing. I had the same conversation with his Dad (Old Joshua) when Josh was about five. 

I don't usually plug my business in this blog too much, but if you fancy a drum lesson, buy a drumkit  or a jam with your band then check us out - http://www.millhillmusiccomplex.co.uk/ -  sadly though, we no longer sell pork scratchings

The destruction of the London Borough of Barnet

The Tory response to the economic downturn

Last night, I had a vivid demonstration of the collapse of the infrastructure supporting families within the London Borough of Barnet. Let me explain. My son plays for Watling Youth FC. Every year at this time the club holds it's awards night. Last year the event was held at the Mill Hill Sports Club. The requirements for the venue is that it has to be able to hold 40-50 boys aged 7-12 and their parents/carers/ friends. Experience has taught us that it is better for all if we have the awards at a venue with an area outside for the boys to kick a ball around, whilst the parents have a drink and a chat. The Mill Hill Sports Club was idea, with it's large grounds and clubhouse.

Fast forward 12 months. This year, the venue is shut. The London Borough of Barnet has taken the site to house a new school. So where could we go? The only suitable venue we could find was in the London Borough of Harrow, at the Canon's Community Hall. The evening (as ever) was a fantastic success with all the parents and boys thoroughly enjoying themselves.

As I sat there I pondered the fact that a club such as Watling could not find a single suitable venue in the London Borough of Barnet. How ironic that the venue we used last year is being transformed into a school. It is a graphic demonstration of the destruction of the London Borough of Barnet by this administration. There is a chronic shortage of school places, so they have to rob land from community organisations, such as the Mill Hill Sports Club, to fill the gaps. What this means is that they can fulfill their legal obligation to educate children, but there is absolutely nothing for them to do outside school hours.

I may hear supporters of the administration saying "but there are no suitable sites in Barnet for the schools". This is (or was) complete nonsense. In Mill Hill these are three school sites which are currently being redeveloped as property developments, which were formerly school.

1) St Josephs College on Lawrence Street. This huge site was formerly owned by the Roman Catholic church and was used to train students as Catholic Priests. It is a huge site.

2) Holcombe House. This was also owned by the Roman Catholic Church and housed the Missionary Institute. It offered theological training and was used by people studying to degree and masters level.

3) Littleberries. This was the former site of St Vincents School, which moved over the road. The site used to house a single form entry primary school.

All of these sites are designated as educational establishments, but the London Borough of Barnet showed no interest in the sites. They all have access to extensive lands and are in beautiful locations. If developers get their way, they will exploit these locations to build prime real estate.

But we are getting two new schools. We are getting the Etz Chaim Free School in the former Daws Lane Garden Centre, which was originally Mill Hill Swimming pool and was given to the people of Mill Hill as a gift for the sole purpose of provision of recreational facilities for the general public. We also have the Mill Hill Sports Club development. Barnet have also sold off huge parcels of land around Fairway and Broadfields schools, which could have been used to accomodate growth.

The mayhem doesn't end there. We have the huge Mill Hill East development, currently going up. This is a small town and will have it's own school. Rather sadly, the two nearest pubs to the site. The Angel and Crown and the Mill have recently shut to be replaced by yet more developments. The Mill is a particular loss, given it's beautiful Garden, which was used by many families in summer months for a pleasant pint. Both pubs were also regularly used as venues as part of the Mill Hill Music Festival.

In all of this there is a pattern. Property developers identify non residential sites such as pubs, schools, etc which provide valuable community facilities. They know that if they can get the planning consent flipped from educational usage to residential, they will make a fortune. As the pattern repeats itself across the Borough, more families are housed and the requirement for more school places increases. As the educational sites have been redeveloped, the council has to look at it's portfolio of properties and as they place no social value whatsoever on recreational activities, they know these are soft targets for conversion into schools.

I tried to instigate a campaign against the loss of the Mill Hill Sports club, but no one wants to deprive children of an education. Local people bought the council line that it was "the only possible site". I have learned from bitter experience that a campaign that local people are not interested in, is a complete waste of time.

In recent days, this blog has been focussing its attention on the One Barnet project and the One Barnet project board. When I first heard the then Council Leader, Mike Freer MP describing the One Barnet program, I was quite excited. Mike explained that it would bring together all parts of Barnet, to ensure a co-ordinated approach to running the borough. He explained that the Police, NHS, educational authorities and business would be involved and the council would have a balanced strategy. Even more radically, Mike explained that he had paid for the Trades unions to engage a top expert, Dexter Whitfield to advise them on the project, so that they could add constructive input. The Barnet Unison rep, John Burgess was initially sceptical, but the fact Barnet Council had paid for him to have access to such a figure, made John feel that there may be the basis of a very constructive process. Mike explained at a business breakfast that One Barnet would not simply be a "big outsourcing project". It would encourage efficiency by cooperation, would deliver better services for less money and would include all strands of opinion in the formation of policies. He pointed to the appontment of Dexter Whitfield as proof of his good intent.

The whole process has unravelled. Dexter Whitfield delivered his taxpayer funded report. It damned the whole process and showed it to be ill thought out, badly managed and risky. Mike Freer reacted in the most stupid way possible. Rather than seek to address the weaknesses, Freer rejected the report out of hand and withdrew to his bunker. In my blog earlier this week, I commented that the lack of transparency of the One Barnet board meetings and the membership of the board was a threat to democracy. Not because of any reservation about the individual members, but because there is a board of people talking about reshaping the Borough, none of whom are elected representatives and none of whom have any democratic mandate for what they are doing.

We also have the issue of the people who aren't represented on the board. There are no representative from small business. There are no representatives from the charitable sector. There are no representatives from any sort of environmental groups. There are no representatives from any of Barnets ethnic or religious communities. Most of all there is on one who is a single, one parent family living in social housing and on benefits and a child who is in trouble with the police. You may thing "what a stupid statement, what could someone who is a a single, one parent family living in social housing and on benefits and a child who is in trouble with the police, possibly add to the conversation about the future of Barnet?" Well, if you think about it, such a person is the person who actually has first hand experience of all of the failings of all of the organisations on the list of board members (as of my FoI request in 2010). 


•    Tom Nathan, Commercial Director, Brent Cross Shopping Centre
•    Cameron Ward, Chief Executive, NHS Barnet
•    Stephen Knight, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Middlesex University
•    Neil Basu, Borough Police Commander
•    Marilyn Hawkins, Principal, Barnet College

Lets think this through. Of the One Barnet Board, our single parent would probably have the odd shopping trip to Brent Cross, but the fact they are on benefits either means that Brent Cross cannot offer cost effective employment, or it has destroyed local jobs in local shops which may provide a way out of the benefit culture.  Our single parent would presumably have experience of the NHS. Would their experiences be positive or negative. I'm lucky enough to have an excellent medical practice at the Millway surgery, who I have no issues with at all. I had different expereinces with Barnet Hospital and my mother when she was ill.

As to the people from Barnet College and Middlesex University. These are the best paths out of poverty and  benefits, but are people in such situations actually able to contemplate using such establishments. Are course structures accessable? I don't know and I doubt whether the people on the One Barnet board really know if the people they should be reaching see education in this light.

Then there is the Barnet police. I may be wrong or naive or even out of touch, but I wonder if the Borough Commander has ever considered popping in for a cup of tea with the mum of an young offender, to see what she thinks of the police in a private and non confrontational situation? I believe that one of the main victims of the Coalition cuts is some of the outreach work that the Met Police were doing. I believe this is false economy.

And then there is Nick Walkley. Does he ever nip around to visit the single mums of Barnet, to see what they think of the services his organisation provides?

The One Barnet board has been in existence for six years. What has it delivered? Has the strategic thinking improved in Barnet? Are we getting the big decisions right? Are we providing an environment where Barnet is becoming a better, safer and healthier place to bring up children? The answer for me was answered last night when I had to visit the London Borough of Harrow for mys sons football team to receive their awards.

The Barnet Alliance for Public Services  (BAPS) and Barnet UNISON have organised a conference to highlight the problems with the One Barnet Program. If you care about the future of the London Borough of Barnet, please come along

Barnet Council Not for Sale’ Conference 7 July 12—3pm - Saturday 7 July Barnet  Greek Cypriot Centre, Britannia Road, Britannia Road, North Finchley, London N12 9RU.