Mill Hill News - Barratts seek planning to add another 52 additional homes to the NIMR site

I have been contacted by residents and businesses affected by the development at the National Institute for Medical Research on the Ridgeway NW7, alerting me to a new planning application from Barratts, the developers. This is seeking planning consent to increase the number of dwellings by 52.

The details are as follows

19/3208/S73 | Minor Material Amendment to condition 2 (Approved Plans), Condition 26 (Play Equipment), Condition 32 (Car Parking), Condition 44 (Inclusive Design), Condition 45 (Energy Statement) and Condition 49 (Accessible Units)of Planning Permission for 16/4545/FUL dated 22/12/2017, to provide for the following design changes: Amendments to the approved floor plans of Blocks A, B and C to allow for the provision of 52 additional homes (within the same building mass of the original approved scheme, with no change to above-ground building volume or floorspace); Amendments to the basement floor plan of the Cruciform Cluster (Blocks A-C) to enlarge the basement, in order to provide a pro-rata increase in the provision of car parking spaces (52 additional spaces); Associated floor plan amendments to Blocks A-C and basement to accommodate pro-rata changes to cycle parking, refuse storage, private amenity space etc; Minor changes to elevations of Blocks A-C as a result of floor plan amendments; Pro-rata increase in the provision of affordable housing (to maintain 35% by habitable rooms); and Minor alterations to the floor plans of Blocks J1 and J2, to allow for an increase in M4(3) wheelchair adaptable units within these blocks | National Institute For Medical Research The Ridgeway London NW7 1AA
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I am quite shocked to see that they are describing the addition of 52 additional dwellings and parking spaces as a "Minor Material Amendment". This will increase the scale of what most people in Mill Hill already regard as a bad scheme by a significant amount. It is clearly an attempt by Barratts to squeeze even more profit out of the scheme. Anyone familiar with the scheme will know that it is already pushing the local roads and transport infrastucture to the limit. The existing scheme went through a full review by The Mayor of London. To try and change this under the false pretences of a "minor amendment" demonstrates that Barratts are keen only to maximise profits.

I have spoken to many local residents who have their lives blighted by dust, noise and congestion. It is most unfair that Barratts are now seeking to make their lives even worse. I would ask all Mill Hill Residents to object to this scheme as a matter of urgency. 

Please object to this scheme via this link

https://publicaccess.barnet.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=makeComment&keyVal=PSOMPWJII0F00

I would suggest that the following grounds be considered.

1. Lack of parking and public transport infrastructure to support such a development
2. Overdevelopment of an already intensive development
3. Will interfere with the activities of Residents, Finchley Nurseries and the MillHill Village Cricket club.
4. The Mayor has already approved the previous plan, which Mill Hill Residents felt was over intensive

This scheme is clearly an attempt by Barratts to squeeze even more profit out of an already very flawed scheme.

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If you want to see some of what local residents have had to put up with, checkout these videos.

This one shows what residents and businesses have had to endure.

And this one, filmed for my band The False Dots,  shows the destruction of the NIMR building as a backdrop for the final scenes. We wanted to ensure the destruction was filmed for posterity.

Open letter to Local Government Minister James Brokenshire MP concerning Barnet Council gagging residents

Dear Mr Brokenshire,

I am writing to you in your role as Secretary of State for Local Government. I am a resident of the London Borough of Barnet As you may be aware, the new administration of Barnet Council has recently changed the rules governing engagement between local residents and council committees.

Barnet Council previously allowed up to 30 minutes for residents statements and questions at council committee meetings. This allows local residents to exercise a degree of scrutiny over council business. The council required questions to be submitted three days before the meeting and would publish a list of written answers on the day of the meeting, allowing residents to submit a supplementary question, should they not feel their question had been answered appropriately. In the case of multiple residents asking questions, each was invited, in turn to ask a supplementary question, ensuring that, within reason, everyone got a turn. If time permitted, this may allow several residents to ask several supplemental questions, as it would round robin until there were no more questions or no more time.

There was no limit on the length of questions submitted or the number of questions that a member of the public could ask. The new rules state

1. Questions and comments should be amalgamated; it is perfectly possible to raise a comment as part of a question.  The number of words for each question/comment should be limited at 100.

2. Questions/comments should be raised under the current rules for questions.  This means that the council and lead officer would have notice of the question/comment before the meeting and would therefore be in a position to amend the committee report (if necessary) to include a relevant matter raised in the question/comment, if not currently within the committee report.

3. Residents may raise one question/comment on an agenda item.  The question/comment must relate to the substantive matter to be determined by the committee.  No more than two questions from residents will be allowed per agenda item taken in the order of receipt by the Governance Service.

The logic for the changes is as follows (as described in the relevant council paper)

In a recent 5-month period (1st September 2019 to 1st March 2019) a total of 598 questions were submitted by residents to theme committees (see list here), the Audit Committee and the Constitution & General Purposes Committee. From the total, one resident submitted 165 questions (28%) and another 111 (19%), with a further four residents submitting between 19 and 48 each. 79% of the total number of questions are submitted by 10 residents. The right of residents to raise questions and make comments at committees has become used to a degree which is officer resource intensive and requires limitation to achieve savings.

Enabling residents to attend meetings, ask questions, create petitions and raise issues at residents’ forums is an important element of the council’s governance arrangements. Residents should be able to understand how the decisions that affect them are made. However, the current arrangements in relation to public questions has resulted in senior officers spending a significant amount of time responding to (or coordinating responses to) questions from a small cohort of individuals. It is estimated that the time-cost of responding to public questions is around £42K per annum. Members are requested to consider whether this is an appropriate use of council resources and whether another arrangement may reduce the requirements on officers to provide responses to questions whilst maintaining resident’s rights to ask questions. 

What the council has not stated is that in this period, there have been significant issues with both the annual audit and the contracts managing council suppliers, which clearly warrented a high degree of scrutiny, by several residents with backgrounds in audit and contratcs. The individual mentioned, who submitted 165 questions in this period is a recognised expert in this field, who has previously been complimented by the former head of the Audit committee for asking questions that helped improved council governance. Furthermore, the former Local Government Minister, Lord Pickles, complemented the 'Armchair Auditors of Barnet' (referring to some of the individuals referenced above) for their diligence in holding Barnet Council to account and ensuring value for money is delivered.

It is matter of public record that questions from local residents secured an inquiry into council procurement, following questions regarding Metpro, an unlicensed security contractor for Barnet Council, that has resulted in at least £2 million savings since 2012. As such, the £42,000 referred to would seem to represent rather good value (assuming there have been no other savings identified by the rigorous questioning since 2012, which I believe to be highly unlikely).

I have many concerns. I believe that openness and transparency is vital to retain trust in local government. The new rules will favour organised pressure groups, Trades Unions and other societies etc that have large memberships, over ordinary residents. These groups can mobilise individuals to ask numerous planted questions and give scripted supplementary questions. Anyone familiar with Barnet, knows that this is exactly what will happen and that the £42,000 savings will not emerge.

The 100 word limit makes it virtually impossible to frame a detailed technical question for a committee such as the audit committee, in regards to the annual council audit. Do you really think that it would assist the administration in running the council, if a resident who has a background in Audit notes multiple errors in the draft audit report, cannot raise these matters with the committee? It would also seem to me that with a 100 word limit, detailed, sensible questions will be impossible and that all we will see is a succession of people from pressure groups grandstanding with sloganistic and banal questions that will elicit no useful response.

I have spoken to several Conservative Councillors who are privately very unhappy with the new rules. One told me that the councillors should respect residents rights to hold the council to account, even if some are politically motivated. I would have thought that the fact Barnet has 10 residents who regularly ask detailed questions should be celebrated rather than stifled.

I respectfully ask you to consider the issues I've raised. I am sure we both agree that public engagement in public life should be encouraged. Barnet Council has a new leader and I am sure that he would appreciate some support and wise council from an experienced minister, who might assist him in seeing that there is a bigger picture here.

Regards
Roger Tichborne

Small Business Tuesday - My top five tips for success in a small business

If  you are reading this, it's probably because you have an interest in running a small business and you want to be successful. Reading blogs written by other small business owners who are successful is a good way to learn, but don't forget, there is more to be learned from failure than success. There are some really insightful blogs on the subject of failures. Not all of the lessons will be relevant to you, but what is interesting is that many of the lessons in some of these happen by accident (good or bad). For example in one blog that was about a failed Pizza business in Brooklyn (a very different business to mine), and there were several important lessons, which applied to my business, and we'd managed to avoid the pitfalls purely by accident. We were lucky with our location, it couldn't be better for a music studio, we built a team that runs day to day without my involvement out of necessity as I could not always be around, and we've always been finding new ways to boost our revenue more because our customers suggest it and we listen rather than having some amazing talent for predicting the future. Some of the other lessons in the blog we've found the reverse to be true. We started as small as it is possible to start and have grown organically. I guess that it just depends what sort of business you want to do. I also run the business with my wife and have done for 25 years. Just because something works for you, doesn't mean it will always work for someone else. That is where judgement comes in.

Having read many of these articles, I have put together my own five top tips for success.

1. Ensure there is a market for your product at the price you want to sell it for.
Anyone can make a success of selling, assuming there is a market for your product. If you have a massive budget for advertising, your product is of better quality than your competitors and you are selling it cheaper, than anyone else, you will sell your product. But making a profit is a very different matter and if you make a loss on each item, then you will fail. Work out your margins, these need to include paying your overheads and advertising and pay you a living wage. There are times when it is wise to sell products at a loss, such as when you have to shift stock that is taking up space. Many businesses do not recognise the cost of products hanging around and not selling. They are using space, time and energy that could be more profitably used for something else. All of these are factors in the price you should be selling your product for. If you are launching a new product on the market and you are trying to raise finance, the first question a sane investor will ask is whether there is a market for the product. For me, when I launched our rehearsal studio in 1979, it was in a derelict caretakers cottage in the industrial estate which my father owned. I knew there was a market because I was in a band, all of my friends were in other bands and none of us had anywhere to rehearse. From day one, I turned over a profit. Every time we expanded, it was based on the fact we'd reached capacity. Opening pop up shops/stalls/venues is a good way to gauge customer response. If people express an interest, but this doesn't convert into sales, then that is a big red flag.

2. Worry about what your customers are doing, not your competitors.
In my opinion, the biggest mistake small businesses make is that they worry about what their competitors are doing, rather than worrying about what their customers want. If you are a huge multinational, such as Apple, then of course you worry about Samsung, but if you are a small local business, such worries are a distraction. In my business, we get musicians from all over the world. Often they will say to us "we were rehearsing at XXXX studio last week and they had this great new YYYY". If it is something I've not thought of or some new equipment I am unfamiliar with, I'll do some research, but I'll always ask the customers why they were so impressed. A good example of this is air conditioning. Seven of our studios are air conditioned, and ten are not. Some customers want to pay a premium for this and others simply couldn't care less. It is a huge outlay and has high running costs. So we've built flexibility and choice into our offering. The same is true with new innovations in equipment. We will try this out in one or two studios. If this works, we gradually roll it out to other studios. Many of our competitors over spec their studios, which means that they price themselves out of the market, with equipment that is often too complicated for many of their customers. I've seen the same thing in all manner of businesses. There was one family run cafe that I used to love. It was packed to the rafters every day. It did a good cup of tea and a great bacon sandwich. As the family were getting old, they sold to a new owner, who had grand plans. Sadly, they didn't realise that doubling the price of tea and not making it properly was not a winner and if your customers wanted a traditional bacon sandwich, then making it twice as expensive, with boutique bread and a sprig of lettuce was not a winning formula. The logic of the new owner was that all of the other half full cafe's in the locality were doing this and the margin was better. He lasted a year. He wasn't taking his customers with him. I always thought he should have stuck with the PG Tips and the bacon sarnie, but added fancy teas and designer sandwiches as an upgrade, then he'd have attracted both markets.

3. Don't be a snob.
It never ceases to amaze me just how stupid some business owners are when it comes to their customers. Last year we supplied a major sound system for a local Mosque. They urgently needed it for a big celebration for Eid. I spent three days laying cables and testing the installation. The Imam and the worshippers were really friendly. To my amazement, they even offered me a cup of tea, which surprised me as it was during Ramadan and Muslims are not allowed to eat or drink. I queried this and they said "you are a guest and hospitality to guests is a requirement of our religion, so do not worry about offending us".  What shocked me was that the technical director of the Mosque told me that he'd approached several other companies that had been unfriendly and unwilling to even quote. They were a model customer and paid on the nail. We've had the same experience with African Churches, many of whom we supply with equipment. They tell the same story about our competitors. If you are a racist or a snob in your approach to your customers, it is very bad business and you don't deserve to be successful. One of the most corrosive terms in the small business community is "timewaster". These are people who come down, take up lots of your time, pick your brains and don't buy anything. In our retail operation we see these all of the time. Generally they are looking to use your knowledge to buy the same product more cheaply on the internet. We always inform customers that whilst we support customers who buy from us for free, it's £25 per hour for support if they don't. When they buy a guitar and need a new string fitted or a small adjustment to the intonation, they suddenly find that the internet savings have disappeared. On more than a couple of occasions, they have returned guitars to Amazon and done what they should have in the first place and bought it from us, when the penny drops and they realise that there is more to service than the purchase price. Civility meant that we get their in the end, most of the time.

4. Understand the difference between Ryanair and The Orient Express.
So you want to take your beloved to Paris for your anniversary. Would you go on The Orient Express or would you fly Ryanair? Both will get you to Paris, but the experience and the cost could not be more different. Both companies business model could not be more different, both companies customer base could not be more different. Both are successful, which is demonstrated by the fact that you've heard of both. It is a good illustration of the fact that you there are many ways to do the same thing (in this case get you from A to B). In the case of Ryanair, they are set up to do it as quickly and cheaply as possible. The Orient Express is set up to do it in the most comfort possible. The Ryanair journey will be forgotten as soon as you get off the plane, the Orient Express will be remembered for a lifetime. They are both successful because they stick to what they are good at. If you are offering an Orient Express service, you can't do it at Ryanair prices and vice versa. Work our what you can do best and stick to it.

5. Don't lose focus.
Every day I get at least three sales calls and a dozen unsolicited offers of business services. These are for all manner of things, cheaper electricity, advertising opportunities, better SEO, a better website, business factoring, a whole manner of other things I can't even recall right now. Just imagined if I spoke to every single one? I'd have no time to do anything else. But if I ignore all of them, will I be shooting myself in the foot. Just suppose that one of those calls I ignored today could save me £1,000 a year on my electricity bill? Just suppose the SEO sales person could bring me in £50,000 a year more business? How do I see the wood for the trees?

I have a simple way to keep focus. It is called efficient time management. I have a spreadsheet of all of the things our business spends money on and all of the things that bring customers in, such as advertising. Once a week, I clear out my mailbox and as I go through, I have a look at the costs / income associated with the proposal. If it is clearly a 'blind spam' email of the type I've seen a million of, it is dumped as it is likely to have nothing interesting. If it is on a subject I've never seen, I will read it and if there is perhaps an element of interest, I will investigate further. A relatively recent example was an email imploring me to use a company's services for Instagram advertising. Whilst I didn't take up their kind offer, I did a review of our company Instagram. A quick google of a few websites, gave me some great tips. In a couple of weeks, we doubled our followers organically, with people who are interested in our business. It also made me focus on the content of what we were posting and on trying to make people share and be interested in the posts. As with all social media, it is all about content. So stay open to new ideas, but don't fixate on them and don't pay other people to do things for you until you can see that there really is a payback.

As with any form of advertising, it is difficult to know if money spent on social media is effective. We have had some very effective social media strategies. They don't work for ever, but they do work. My view has always been that a good long term plan is simply a succession of good short term plans. Set your objectives and work out how you will realise them. In 2013, we set a five year goal of increasing our turnover by 100% in the rehearsal business. We have massively over achieved that. As you learn, you should be able to improve your plans and strategies. You may think that I would be smug and self satisfied about that. Not at all. I have realised that we've neglected developing our retail business and have missed opportunities in both the hire and recording business. The reasons for this was the necessity to invest in bringing our core business into profitabilty following our massive development in 2012, which we largely financed ourselves. Now we have to get the rest of the businesses performing to the same level. How will we do that? Watch this space. I will be writing regular updates on a Tuesday, so you can follow the fun!

Environment Monday - Why Thunderbirds won't save us from the Environmental Catastrophe we are facing

Thunderbirds

Back when I was seven or eight, I was watching the news with my Father. The big story was the famine in Biafra. I doubt many people in the UK under 50 will have a clue where Biafra was or why there was a famine. For me, it was the first time I became aware that not everywhere in the world was like Mill Hill and that really bad things happen on a massive scale, which affect millions of people. For me, hunger was something that was a slightly unpleasant feeling in my tummy just before Mummy served dinner. Water came out of a tap and you could drink as much as you like. Home had a comfy bed and a secure front door. As regular church go'ers there was a big appeal to send money to the 'starving children in Africa'. When we didn't eat our school dinners, the nuns would berate us and tell us "there are children dying in Biafra for want of that food you are leaving". If you didn't eat your cabbage, you'd feel very guilty watching the news later, seeing the hopeless faces of the children. It troubled me to see such misery.

At the time, I was a big fan of the TV series Thunderbirds. I loved the concept of a millionaire setting up, for purely altruistic reasons, an organisation that could help people anywhere in the world. Although the specific machines didn't exist, there was no technology on the program that didn't exist at the time. We were sending men to the moon. So I asked my Father a question, as I believed him to be the font of all knowledge. I said "Dad, why doesn't the United Nations set up an organisation like Thunderbirds, with planes and boats and food supplies, so that when something likes this happens, they've got everything ready to help people?" I couldn't actually believe that all the really clever people in the world hadn't thought about this or come up with such a simple solution. After all, we had a massive army, a massive air force and a massive navy and they weren't fighting any wars, so why couldn't they simply take a load of food and temporary buildings to Biafra and fix the problem? After all we'd fed and housed millions of squaddies involved in the D-Day Landings, using long supply chains. My Dad's answer was one I did not understand. It seemed to make no sense at all, but as he seemed very sure of it, I assumed that he was right.  He stated "Most of these disasters are man made and many powerful people are making a lot of money out of them". I asked what he meant. His response was quite disturbing "Things only happen in this world when people can make a lot of money out of them". This made even less sense. For the Biafra appeal, our Parish Priest was thanking people for their generosity and telling us how many poor people we were feeding. So I said to my Father "But surely people are generous, Father Dowley was saying how generous they'd been with the collection". My father's response gave me my first insight into human nature. He said "If you work it out, everyone has probably put less in the collection than they spent in the pub the night before".

I was reminded of this yesterday. Our local Church has a monthly food bank collection. I usually buy ten pounds worth of provisions for this. It makes me feel good, but on the previous Saturday night, I'd bought myself and my wife two rounds of drinks in the rather pleasant Green Room bar in West Hampstead after the Jester Festival closed. Each round (a lager and a red wine) were £11.70 a pop. I don't really know why, but it made me feel rather hypocritical.

I had forgotten about Biafra, I was only a child and it was a long, long time ago. I was reminded only because a friend at the Jesterfest asked if I was going to see The Dead Kennedys (a US punk Band on their forthcoming tour). I was intrigued to find out what their front man Jello Biafra had been up to. I did a quick google of his name and was reminded of the crisis. I was appalled to find that 2 million Biafrans had died. I had vague memories, but was horrified to find that the famine was caused by a civil war. What did interest me was to find that I was not alone in my view that the International Community should respond. The Charity Médecins Sans Frontières  was formed as a direct result of the crisis, to give medical aid to those affected by such crises. So it seems that there are good guys there, who don't only think money.

Biafra was 50 years ago. How many Trillions have been spent on military hardware? How many have died of starvation, how many of those as a direct result of man made decisions? Whilst Biafra was an appalling tragedy on a truly massive scale, the world is facing a global crisis on a scale way beyond anything we've witnessed. Global warming, deforestation and an ever increasing population is making it ever more inevitable that it is only a matter of time before we see starvation and famine on a continental scale. There is time to avert this. In Western countries, the population is in decline. The reason? Because when you have prosperity and wealth, the birth rate drops. As for global CO2 levels, a study has shown that a crash global program of tree planting could massively lower the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, as well as providing valuable wildlife habitats. Technology is developing all manner of ways of generating electricity in a clean manner. As for food, we need to change the way we eat. I have adopted a semi vegan lifestyle. I love eating meat and I do not want to spare myself the pleasure. But what I do is I limit my meat eating, and when I do, I eat free range, high quality food. This was a decision I took more as a result of the lifestyle changes I adopted to help me live with cancer, but now the vast majority of meals we eat at home are vegan. We buy organically grown vegetables. If we go out, I will have a steak or some duck if we are in a Chinese restaurant, but at home, we have a lot of soups, lentils and pulses, salads, rice and pasta dishes. I find that I enjoy the meat more when I have it less often, as it seems far more of a treat. I don't eat cheap supermarket sausages (factory farmed in awful conditions) or watery bacon and ham. If, as a society,  we all did this, maybe eating meat 1-2 days a week, we'd save money, be able to eat better quality food which is tastier and better for us. It would also free up resources to allow the 50% of people who live with a degree of poverty in the world to have a fairer share. Meat and dairy farming creates greenhouse gasses and a reduction in this globally would have a huge impact. We should also try and eat locally grown foods when they are in season. If you buy English strawberrys when they are in season and compare them to the imported ones you buy at Xmas, you will taste a completely different food. Sadly, we have been conned into thinking there is no cost to having the fruit and veg we want all year around. There is. It has to be transported thousands of miles and when it gets here it just doesn't taste as good.

The point I am trying to make is that we, as consumers, have the power to change things. Sadly my Father was right. The United Nations, to me a completely failed and discredited organisation, will not save us from the impending crisis. But we can use our spending power to change things. We can also use our votes to elect parties that pursue green agendas. I believe that if the UK started investing in development of green technologies as a national priority, we'd be at the forefront of the the technology of the future and this would protect and future proof our economy. When you switch on the light in your kitchen, do you care how the electricity is generated? My guess is that you never give it a second thought. You just want the light to come on. The same with the kettle and the oven. A few years ago, I realised that I have a responsibility to the planet. We installed solar panels at both our business and our home. This was an investment that is now paying us back handsomely. Sadly, the government has gotten rid of all of the incentives that make this financially worthwhile. The renewables industry in the UK has gone into a massive slump. This is tragic and irresponsible. There are several things the government could do to help us make the right decisions.

1. Give tax incentives to Supermarkets and shops to stock locally produced, in season food.
2.  Adjust the tax structure to favour meat and dairy farming to encourage humane farming techniques that remove cruelty (ie higher taxes for intensive farming to subsides farms using better practice).
3. Restore the previous tax breaks and subsidies for renewables.
4. Teach schoolchildren about vegan cooking and fresh foods and ensure all schools serve proper nutritious foods.
5. Make supermarkets have to pay consumers to return packaging.
6. Give tax breaks to firms to encourage green travel policies for employees.
7.  Plant more trees and shrubs. In London we desperately need more shrubs that have sticky leaves to be planted by busy roads. These capture particulates and have a major role to play in improving air quality.
8. Use tax incentives to develop technologies for removing pollution from the atmosphere at pollution hotspots (Busy roads, power stations, incinerators etc).
9. Develop biofuels that are carbon neutral.
10. Make walking to school a no 1. priority for school admissions, with penalties for parents of children in urban areas who drive children to school.

I am sure that some of this will not be too popular in some circles. My view is that if you want to pump pollution into the atmosphere, be it by using coal generated electricity or by driving you child miles to the school of your preference, then you should pay for the privilege. I am a big fan of the concept of using the tax system to make us act as better citizens. There is a strong libertarian lobby that thinks that people should be allowed to do as they please. My view is that anti social behaviour should always incur a cost. We all pay the price for the rise in asthma in the UK, caused by pollution, and those of us who create less are subsidising the least responsible members of society. I call that unfair.

Much as I'd love Thunderbirds to rescue us, ultimately it is up to us, collectively as individuals to make the difference. My Father was right, people only do things when they make loads of money out of it. If we changed the way we tax things so the good guys did a bit better and the bad guys did a bit worse, then we'd have real change.

The Tweets of The Week in The London Borough of Barnet - 7/7/2019

A busy week for me. A busy week for our local tweeters. Some rather good ones!

Don't forget to follow any tweeters you like the look of!


1. Let's start with some rather nice pictures of Mill Hill Broadway

Mill Hill Broadway pic.twitter.com/sCxeEPLJCJ

— A Better Mill Hill (@ABetterMillHill) July 5, 2019

2. We are big supporters of our local litter pickers. Well done to the Mill Hill group. Make sure you follow them so you don't miss the next pick.

The Mill Hill Litter Pickers is holding their July Litter Pick THIS Saturday 6th @ 11.00am we are actively looking for volunteers to help us! Please come along and volunteer one hour of your time to a great local cause - meet @ Copthall Car Park #lovemillhill #millhill pic.twitter.com/NGI3nZmeF8

— Mill Hill Litter Pickers (@MHLitterPickers) July 5, 2019

3. I bet you didn't know Burnt Oak had such a glamorous past.

Burnt Oak Broadway, circa 1977, as seen in 'The Professionals'. pic.twitter.com/og5huiK80A

— NW London TimeMachine (@time_nw) June 30, 2019

4. All we seem to hear about young people is bad things, it is a really misleading picture as the vast majority are amazing. Megan is a fine example of this. Well done Megan!

Last night one of our Guides at 7th Edgware was presented with her Guiding Star award for courage and initiative during a medical crisis situation. Well done Megan - we’re all SO proud of you! 💪🏻💪🏽💪🏿 pic.twitter.com/Q1rdFc6ofy

— 7th Edgware Guides & Rangers (@7thEdgware) July 4, 2019

5. This is one of our favourites as well!

One of my favourite things about East Finchley is the lovely independent cd shop that’s still going pic.twitter.com/IQZTq31FCK

— Sarah Crook (@SarahRoseCrook) July 7, 2019

6. A bit of interesting local history.

East Finchley Tube Station was opened on this day in 1939. The station was designed by Charles Holden, after an initial plan by Bucknell & Ellis. The Grade II listed station also features Eric Aumonier's archer statue on the platform area https://t.co/hY14P43NXp #finchley #barnet pic.twitter.com/zwUAy5eets

— Modernism in Metroland (@mod_in_metro) July 3, 2019

7. A lovely picture, we hope the kittens can be reunited with their owners.

Saw these two little kittens at the farm today. I think one of the neighbours along slide the farm lost some kittens the other day. I wonder are these her kittens? pic.twitter.com/9USCNuPp4g

— Clitterhouse Farm, Cricklewood (@clitterhouse) July 6, 2019

8. East Barnet festival is a local gem. Even the Festival dog enjoyed it.

Back at East Barnet Festival to watch Mike Next Door Man gig. He wasn’t bad and I hardly needed any squeezy cheesey at all. To be honest I felt a bit cheesed out yesterday. Hoomum happy. #dailypupdate #festivaldog pic.twitter.com/WETQPKTtJU

— Yoshi (@YoshiDachshund) July 7, 2019

9. As a community, sadly in this day and age we need to support our Foodbanks.

Colindale Foodbank are asking for more supplies! Can you support our drop off point. Tinned goods, pasta, loo roll, toothpaste ... whatever you can give. pic.twitter.com/iTI0WavwfB

— The Chandos Arms (@ChandosArmsPub) July 5, 2019

10. And finally, Just over the border, in West Hampstead, we saw an amazing performance today by a very talented young girl.

An amazing performance from Faith, a brilliant new artist at @JesterFestival to open today’s programme- Great to be doing the PA system for such an amazing singer pic.twitter.com/btpXTdF5ME

— MillHillMusicComplex (@MillHillMusicCo) July 7, 2019

The Saturday List #222 - Ten times our family switched brands

Back in the 1960's and 70's when I was growing up, there were some pivotal moments when our family switched brands. Things that had been seemingly permanent fixtures suddenly disappeared and were replaced with something else. Here are the ones which left a lasting impression

1. The Sun -> The Guardian. My mum used to read The Sun. She said it had amazing writers such as Nancy Banks Smith. Then one fine day in 1969, Rupert Murdoch bought it. I will never forget it's arrival, complete with resplendent topless page three girl. My mum nearly had a heart attack and it went straight in the bin. The subscription was immediately changed to The Guardian, where Nancy Banks Smith had decamped to. For the record, my Dad always stuck with The Express.

2. Sharwoods Mango Chutney -> Branston Pickle. In our house, ham sandwiches on a Sunday afternoon was a tradition. These were liberally smeared with Sharwoods mango chutney. Then one day, my Dad saw an advert for Branston Pickle. He bought a jar and decreed that it was far better on ham sandwiches than the Sharwoods mango chutney. I have to confess that I have switched back. Whilst Bransto9n is superior on a good cheddar cheese, Sharwoods is actually far better on anything else.

3. Heinz Salad Cream -> Hellmans Mayonnaise. Like every household in the 1960's, we had a bottle of Salad cream. A salad was lettuce and tomatoes with a liberal dollop of the tangy gloop. Then my sister bought a jar of Hellmans and never again did Salad Cream darken the door. These days, I make my own dressings and such items as avocados have been added to the salad. My old, dearly departed friend Paul Hircombe once confided in me that he knew he'd smoked too much cannabis when he developed a craving for salad cream. I went off Mayonnaise when I worked near a Pret store. I loved their sandwiches and would have one every day for lunch. I then realised they all contained Mayo, eventually I couldn't stand the taste and the soggy texture it adds.

4. Coop 99 Tea -> Typhoo. My Mum was a firm believer in the Co-op. She'd always buy their 99 tea, Then they closed the Mill Hill Branch, so we were stuck. She moved to Typhoo. Mrs T prefers Yorkshire these days.Years later, I did an IT contract for Streamline, the card processing company. Their office was 99 Leman Street. I was fascinated to learn that this was the former head office of the COOP.It urned out that this was why the tea was called 99 tea.

5. OMO - >DAZ. My mum was always keen to watch the pennies. She always bought OMO, but TV advertising persuaded her that DAZ was a better bet, I'm not sure. We have those gunge capsules now. My Dad suggested that she should do "The Daz challenge" and do a comparison, but she was having none of it. OMO was the number one brand, but it seems to have completely disappeared.


6. Humber -> Ford. When we were little, my Dad used to love Humber cars. They were big and had walnut panelling. Then one day, he turned up with a Ford Zephyr 4 with the number 3456 VT. He told my sister Val that it was her special car. It was followed by a Zodiac, A MkIII Capri and then a Mark V Cortina Estate. My Dad liked technology and hated the romantic notion that old technology was better. He told me that Ford cars were designed by big fat Americans so were the most comfy cars for large men to drive. Over the years, I have found this to be true. Although they lack the finish quality of BMW's and Mercedes, I find them to be the only cars that are not claustrophobic.

7. Electric -> Gas. My Dad was not a fan of gas. He used to work for the Charters Towers Electric Board in Queensland, Australia and so felt about electricity rather like I feel about Manchester City. When I was small, he was very proud of our electric storage heaters. He used to tell us that soon all electricity would be generated by nuclear power stations and would be dirt cheap. By 1976, faced with mounting bills and a freezing cold house, he succumbed to my mothers complaints and converted to gas. He wasn't happy, but he loved a toasty warm house. I still have the same house, bought it from my mum when he passed away, still toasty warm, although we've had a few boilers since. There was a funny story about the installation. My Dad didn't trust Gas, so he took the quote from the Gas board which was twice the cost of all of the others. He also signed up for their five star servicing. When the first annual service was due, the engineer turned up, declared the system unsafe and cut it off. He told my Dad that he shouldn't have employed cowboys. When my Dad produced the invoice to prove that it was the Gas board who fitted it, the engineer was unmoved. After a huge row, my Dad got a new system fitted, £500 back from the Gas board and a letter of apology from the chairman.

8. Plain Garibaldi biscuits -> Chocolate Garibaldi Biscuits. My Dad loved Garibaldi biscuits. One day he turned up with a packet of chocolate ones, that he'd picked up by mistake. When we tasted them, they were delicious. My Dad conceded that this had been a lucky accident and we always had chocolate Garibaldi biscuits after that. If my Mum had had her way, we'd only have ever had 'Nice' Biscuits as these were cheap. My Dad on the other hand would buy the tastiest biscuits he could find. He said he'd spent four years in the RAF eating biscuits that tasted like cardboard, bombing Hitler and saving democracy, so there was no way he'd eat such rubbish now he could afford decent biscuits.

9. Petrol Lawnmower -> Electric Lawnmower. Dad was given a broken petrol lawnmower in around 1969. He could fix anything and soon got it going. It was his pride and joy, but only he had the knack of starting it. You had to put a piece of cardboard in to act as a choke, which was way beyond my technical capabilities. by aboput 1980, he'd become a bit lazy and to our amazement bought an electric lawnmower. He would occasionally still use the petrol one when we had visitors, as it left nice lines on the lawn, wheras the electric version simply made the grass short. When he died, I threw it in a skip. The lawn is now concreted. I couldn't be bothered mowing it. Shame on me. I installed a wildlife pond, as a peace offering to the Gods of Nature.

10. Marigold gloves -> Electric Dishwasher. My mother was very scornful of electric dishwashers and claimed that it was a sign of over indulgence and lazyness. Then again, she would always insist that my Dad or one of the kids did the washing up. That worked well when there were six kids at home, but by 1978 it was just me and Dad. My Dad did what he always did when he was sick of something, which he was of  washing up. He went out and bought the most fancy, expensive dishwasher he could find. My mother was horrified. She complained for at least a week. About two weeks later, we were sitting having lunch and to my amazement my mother turned to my father and said "I'm sorry, you were right about the dishwasher, we should have got one years ago". Both my Father and I were stunned. I think that was probably the only time she'd ever said that. After she left the room, my Dad said "Hell has frozen over" and we both cracked up. My mum was not one to dispense praise lightly. When I married Clare, she bought us a dishwasher as a wedding present. She told Clare that women should not do menial tasks if they could buy something that did the job. She felt that dishwashers were probably the most important development in female emancipation in her life (well that and the spin dryer, that consigned mangles to the scrap heap, but that was long before I was born).

Have a great weekend.

Why we must not allow Barnet Council to gag residents + Pride Weekend

On Tuesday 16th July, the Audit committee of Barnet Council is convening. This is the committee that oversees the business of the council. It is both the most boring and the most important committee inthe council. As a blogger, I always loathe and detest the approach of this. It means setting a diary reminder to check the papers when they are released. It means at least four hours reading of the papers, making notes and then, if required, formulating questions. I don't enjoy this at all. But I do think it is important. residents should hold the council to account.

Back on 19th September 2017, the committee held an extraordinary meeting of this committee. Both myself and John Dix exercised our right to ask questions and make a public comment. The reason for the extraordinary meeting was that at the previous meeting, the council had presented an audit report that was not fit for purpose. 

http://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=144&MId=9401&Ver=4

After the meeting, the then chair, Former Councillor Hugh Rayner personally thanked myself and Mr Dix for our efforts bringing certain matters to his and the committee's attention. Follow

ing a recent change in rules, we can no longer do this. If you click on the above link and look at the questions, especially those from Mr Dix, who is an expert in such matters, you will see that the questions are not trivial, not simple grandstanding and that they were useful.

Barnet Council no longer values such questions. Last week, I wrote a blog detailing how they planned to stop such detailed analysis by local residents. The new administration of Councillor Dan Thomas chose this as it's first major policy change. Earlier this week, I spoke to a local Conservative Councillor for over an hour about the matter. Theyconfirmed to me that many of there peers are uncomfortable with the change and unhappy to see the council move away from a transparency agenda. They feel it is a very Un-Conservative policy and sends all of the wrong messages. I agree.

As I explained, it also discriminates against ordinary residents and favours organised groups, who can arrange for multiple questions to be submitted by members.

A petition has been set up for those who want to register opposition to such an illiberal agenda

https://www.change.org/p/barnet-council-are-planning-to-change-the-constitution-to-dramatically-reduce-the-level-of-resident-scrutiny-at-committee-meetings-please-sign-this-petition-to-request-barnet-to-withdraw-their-draconian-proposals

If this bothers you, please sign this.

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As it's Friday and it's pride week, I wanted to do something special, but sadly this is more important. If you want to know why Pride is important, I suggest you enjoy this track by The Tom Robinson band. When this song was released, I was fifteen years old and in a very homophobic environment at Finchley Catholic High School. I had identified myself as a punk and this song made my life very difficult as it meant that some serious thugs who didn't like the punk scene had some serious ammunition to indulge in some very nasty bullying. I had a Tom Robinson Band badge, as I thought his previous single 2-4-6-8 Motorway was a masterpiece. When I heard Glad to Be Gay, I thought two things. The first was that it was a brilliant song and the second was that I was in for a good kicking. That was how things were, and homophobic bullying was almost condoned in FCHS at the time, although I was not gay, just a punk with a badge. Sure enough, I was cornered in the playground by a group of five or six lads, not keen at all in ensuring my wellbeing.

I was born lucky. The Lord gave me the gift of great eloquence at such moments. When I was confronted, I was challenged 'Oi Tichborne, you like Tom Robinson, you are a poof and a queer'. I replied 'Tom Robinson's song is about Police brutality and how they treat people unjustly. We are all from Irish families, and I'm amazed you are sticking up for the British state'. This completely took the wind out of their sails. The ringleader then said 'No it isn't its about how good it is to be a poof'. I responded 'So you have learned all of the lyrics, sing the first verse'. At this a teacher on playground duty, noticed the altercation. She came down and said 'Whats all this about?'. I said 'We are just discussing whether the new single by The Tom Robinson Band is a protest song about Police Brutality or a celebration of being Gay'. To my utter surprise she said 'Well it is clearly a protest song about the Police'. She then said 'In my experience most people who have a problem with Gay people have something to hide'. At this the lads dispersed. As she was my form teacher she then asked 'Are you ok?'. I said 'Yes, it was nothing'. She said 'I'm glad that someone was listening to the lyrics properly. If you like protest songs, you should listen to Joni Mitchell and Woody Guthrie'. It was one of the few times that a teacher said something nice to me at that school. I am just glad we no longer have to tolerate such bigoted views. When my son went to FCHS, the whole repressive atmosphere had changed. The sad thing was that in 1977, it was not only dangerous to be Gay, but to even express moderate views was at times putting yourself in the way of risk. A good friend of mine stated that he was gutted that Tom Robinson had released the song as he couldn't like him anymore. Not because of any musical issues, but because his Dad would have beaten him black and blue if he found a TRB record in the house.

The Tom Robinson Band were perhaps the bravest of all of the 1977 punk bands, I wish I'd been a bit braver to say so more publicly and in more strident terms. I hope that this belated note, 42 years later, is not too little too late. At the time, I was just pleased not to be duffed up, and the TRB badge was consigned to the box of old, unworn badges. Until I went to Orange Hill, they were a guilty pleasure, but at OHSHS, without the spectre of the church and antiquated Irish views, people accepted them for what they were. A great band.

Why MP Mark Field is out of order to criticise The Passage

You remember Mark Field? The MP who forcibly and violently ejected a female protester at a gala dinner a few weeks ago? well this morning, I was shocked to learn that he was even more unpleasant than I had realised. Why you may ask? Read on.

Here's a little quiz question for you. What have Samantha Cameron, George Michael and myself all got in common? The answer may surprise you. We've all done a volunteer shift at The Passage, a day centre for homeless people near Victoria station. I volunteered there for many years (I stopped when I had treatment for cancer and was no longer working at an office in Central London). I used to work on the breakfast shift, providing a hot, nutritious breakfast for London's homeless. I got to know many of the clients. It was heartbreaking to hear the stories. Some were ex forces people who simply couldn't cope with civilian life. Some were people who had become homeless following the breakdown of relationships and loss of family home. Some had mental health issues, some had alcohol and substance issues. The perception of many is that such places are simply 'soup kitchens' doling out free food. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not least because all but those in extreme hardship pay for their breakfast. Typically a hot breakfast would cost in the region of £1. Tea and coffee was free, as were food donations from shops such as M&S and Pret, but  a fry up of sausage, bacon, egg, beans and a hash brown had to be paid for.

The second misconception is that all that people did was come in for some food. There are showers, washing facilities and the opportunity to buy clothes at cheap prices. Personal hygeine is hard for people on the streets. It is also a key part of basic human dignity. It is very hard to get yourself a job, a flat or anything else if you smell and you are dishevelled. For many homeless people, this was as an important service as the breakfast.

But there is far more. The breakfast and the showers are simply a way to engage with the homeless and build trust. The most important part of the mission is to actually help people find their feet. The passage has medical services, offers training and help finding jobs. The charity also has a hostel which helps people get back into the regular life of having accommodation. Each client has different needs and this doesn't work for everyone, but this has been the pathway to reintegration with society for many. 

What has all of this got to do with MP Mark Field. He is the local MP for the passage and he has apparently been describing the Passage in most derogatory terms. He has described it “magnet for these undesirables to flood into Victoria”. Field said: “It is high time that The Passage … started to take a little more responsibility for its ‘clients’ ”. I assume (and I may be wrong) that Mr Field wasn't referring to myself, Sam Cameron and George Michael. He was referring to people in desperate need of help and support. In his comments, he mentions that many of the clients are from Eastern Europe. What he clearly is completely ignorant about, is the fact that they have not decamped from Poland purely to get a cheap fry up on a wet Wednesday morning and the delight of sleeping in a cardboard box in a doorway. The vast majority are migrant workers, attracted by relatively high salaries in the building industry. What happens time and again is that when the contract finishes, they are unable to secure work elsewhere. The building industry in London is in a Brexit fuelled recession. Without work and with high accommodation prices, many find themselves on the streets, penniless and without support. Often engagement with the Passage results in a new job or a ticket back to their country of origin. Often they have come for a specific job and are just unaware of how to find another one. Sometimes they have fallen into problems with drink and drugs, but engagement with the Passage is the first step in dealing with these problems. People who are clearly intoxicated or violent are simply not allowed in and bad behaviour will result in a temporary or permanent ban from the facility.
What really sticks in the craw about Mr Fields comments is that, until he decided to assault an unarmed woman, he was a minister in the Government. When he talks about 'taking responsibility for their clients',  Field and his friends in the cabinet have a primary responsibility for creating the London homeless crisis. In a perfect world, the Passage would simply not exist. It is a stain on our city and our country that it does. The day people with the wealth, power and influence start to care about dealing with the causes of homelessness in London, will be the day that the institutions such as the Passage will start to no longer be needed. Sadly for the rest of us, Mr Field simply doesn't care about those at the bottom of the tree. One ex soldier, who had lived rough for over a decade told me that if he'd realised just how little his country had cared for our servicemen when he left the forces, he'd never have been prepared to make the sacrifices that him and his comrades had made in service of the British government. He told me that he received no help preparing for the re-entry into civilian life with PTSD. He told me fascinating stories about his military service. I feel enraged to hear such a person described as an undesirable. He told me that despite living on the street, he had a very ordered life. He kept himself clean and apart from occasionally drinking a bit too much of an evening, on cheap lager from convenience stores, lead a reasonably healthy life. He spent his time drawing, sometimes selling them. He was a talented artist, but told me he couldn't cope with the pressures of paying bills and organising himself, as he'd joined the army at 17 and had no clue how to do such things.

If Mr Field got his wish and the Passage disappeared from his constituency, the people who use it would not disappear. They would simply lose access to the services that may help them turn their life around. The Passage has been open for several decades. Like music venues, I would advise people not to buy a flat near such a place if they don't like their new neighbours. As it is a day centre, there are not huge crowds late at night. Having opened up on numerous occasions, you are greeted by a cold, hungry and very quiet crowd when the doors open. People are invariably grateful and respectful. The constituent Mr Field agreed with  in his email talks about drug dealing. Whilst it is impossible to guarantee that this doesn't happen, no client would do this openly as this would immediately lead to exclusion. My assumption would be that those clients with drug issues would conduct such activities well away from the Passage. To gain entry, clients have to pass through entrance security and anyone with known issues are not permitted entry.  Like many things, I suspect that the likes of Mr Field have no real interest in the truth.

That is not to say that no client is ever difficult. I have encountered one or two, but they are a tiny minority. In fact other clients are often keen to ensure staff are aware of any problems which may disrupt the centre. A friendly whispered "keep an eye on him" will alert staff. In all the years I was working there, only once was I verbally abused in a threatening manner. The person was asked to leave by a paid member of staff and at least half a dozen of the other clients apologised for the behaviour. The Passage has strict protocols for dealing with such incidents. As the person clearly had mental health issues, I was more concerned that they got help than were excluded.

Am I surprised that a man like Mark Field should display such ignorance? No, am I surprise, sadly I am not. The more I learn about Mr Field, the more unpleasant he seems.

Small Business Special - Why attention to detail is vital to succeed

 

This year my studio business is celebrating its 40th year. This is an achievement (outside of my personal life), above all others, that I am proud of. This year will be far and away our most successful ever. By every measure we are doing very well. Every week we are getting some of the worlds most famous artists turning up. When we started as a dinghy rehearsal space in a derelict caretakers cottage, in a run down industrial estate in Mill Hill, I never dreamed that we'd achieve anything beyond being a well loved space for a couple of local teenage punk bands. I was 16 at the time, still at school and my primary motivation was to have somewhere for my band the False Dots to rehearse. The year was 1979. It took ten years before I even considered the operation to be a business. At the time I had partners in the venture, but my day job was working in IT. I'd gone into IT as in the 1980's the entry criteria was low and the rewards were good. I was extremely lucky to have a fantastic boss, Mr Peter Sutherby at SPL International, who trusted and empowered me. He passed away a couple of decades ago, but was a true gentleman. His style was to let me get on with it and support me when I needed it. Although my title was the rather grand "Tandem Operations Controller", I was a dogsbody. I did everything to keep the in house systems running. This meant ordering paper, printer ribbons, dehumidifiers, organising backups, maintenance and performing system upgrades and doing some systems programming work. I also cleaned the tea machines when Ted, the maintenance man was off. I loved the place. There was a brilliant social life, every evening, the 20-30 young graduates working for the company would adjourn to a pub close by. The office was in Windmill St, off Tottenham Court Road. If I managed to save some money on a paper order, Peter would buy me a beer or lunch. If there was an emergency, I'd often have to stay till 3 in the morning, but if there wasn't and I wanted to visit Clare at Uni in Manchester, he'd let me knock off at 4pm on a Friday.

In short, I had responsibility and I learned the value of paying attention to detail. I left SPL in 1986, after it was taken over by a far more regimented company. The job had well prepared me for future jobs and also for running my own business. I realised that managing a balance sheet is key to success. But, with regards to my studios, I also realised that we were not a 'normal business' and there were different rules in operation. This became clear in 1986, when we tried to borrow £3,000 to buy a PA system. The bank totally refused to lend the business the money. Then the manager said that as I had a career in IT he'd give me a personal loan, no problem. This has been a recurring pattern. The UK does not understand non mainstream business. Lending is far too conservative. Three times, we've tried to borrow money and three times we've been refused. Every time, the reason is the same, in short because the bank doesn't understand the risk of a music related business. When we wanted to borrow money to build our new block, they were happy to finance the building, but not our plans. The reason given was that our turnover did not demonstrate that we could support the costs of the new block. Of course it couldn't, we were doubling the size of the operation and opening amazing new, purpose built studios instead of ramshackle converted lock ups. I had a stark choice, raise the money myself or give up on my dream. I was lucky that my IT skills meant I could secure lucrative IT contracts. I also managed to conduct a major property deal that gave me the finance in place to complete what we planned.

The new studio block opened May in 2012. It was fully operational by September. Since then, we have grown our turnover every year. The growth has been as follows

Year	Growth
2019	18.7*
2018	8.8
2017	5.1
2016	2.7
2015	16.2
2014	30.7
2013	15.3

* Year to date

For a mature, 40 year old venture to be achieving double digit growth, I would say is pretty impressive. But you may ask, what happened in 2016? The answer is actually quite simple. In January 2016, I had a medical procedure to deal with prostate cancer. This really knocked the wind out of my sails. Interestingly in January 2016, we were showing 24% growth on the previous January. I had six months where I completely lost focus. We have a good team at the business, but the eye was taken off the ball. And when you take your eye off the ball, it can be very hard to get it back.

Last summer, I realised that we had let the business drift. I've always kept sophisticated spreadsheets tracking what we were doing, but I'd stopped analysing them. I locked myself in a dark room and did some serious number crunching. Music, like all businesses, changes constantly. There were several major trends in our business that I'd not made the effort to spot. The most important of these was that our dance studio was booked to capacity, whereas other studios were empty much of the time. So we repurposed one, with the conversion taking place over the Xmas break. Another trend was that our piano studio was also at capacity, so another piano was purchased for another studio. Further analysis also demonstrated that one of our old traditional rock and roll studios was far less utilised than the others. It seemed that people were actively avoiding it. Three years ago, it had been the most popular. What had changed. Some analysis of our website showed that the description was rather off putting. A simple edit was done. We also did a refurbishment of one of the studios that had become tired. As you can see, this has born great rewards.

We also talk to our customers. As a result of this, we've installed a far more robust wifi network in our reception area and new block. This is vital for many of our new generation of customers and is appreciated.

We've also analysed our costs. Many of these we have little control over. Rates go up, utilities go up, wages go up. When we built the new building, we put huge solar arrays on the roof. These actually bring in cash, they also help us realise our green agenda. We identified that there were savings to be made in advertising costs. This has to be managed sensibly and monitored, but we've cut this by around 50% whilst still raising our turnover. We now are being far more tactical in how we manage our advertising. It has paid dividends. We are doing far more 'free' online advertising than we were two years ago. My advice is very much to tinker and see what you can trim, but also to see if you are missing a trick. We have been far more active on Instagram, which seems to be working quite well.

We are now actively planning another round of development. Our new block has allowed us to develop new partnerships. We are reaching the point where in two years we will be effectively at full utilisation. Other businesses want to relocate to our site. Mill Hill is becoming a major arts hub and we need to make the dream a reality. We have planning permission for a new building. The uncertainties around Brexit put a spanner in the works, but we now have some major partners who are keen to push on. In the modern business environment, the successful businesses of the future will be those that collaborate effectively. Concentrate on your core, what you do well, and bring in partners who can add value. The reality is in the numbers. We've seen growth of 244% since 2012, in a business that's been running since 1979. This is not solely down to me, it's down to the great team we've put together, our partners and the loyalty of our customers. The great thing is that I feel as if the challenge is as fresh and exciting today as it's ever been. I think that to succeed in running a business you need three things, a passion for what you do, attention to detail and teambuilding skills. Understand your limitations and your strengths. If you can't do something which is key to the business viability, find someone who can. One of the best lessons Peter Sutherby taught me is that when you find that person, let them get on with it and support them.

Environment Monday - Can Technology solve the Global warming crisis?

It's that time of the year when people start to think about global warming. When the sun shines and it is hot, it seems to focus the mind. With much of Europe seeing record temperatures, it is becoming ever clearer that we need to do something. There seems to be three main schools of thought. These are

1) Bury our heads in the sand and wait for disaster to befall us before we do anything (advocated by the likes of Trump and Farage)

2) Embark on a massive program of decarbonisation and take a huge economic hit (advocated by extinction rebellion, the Green party etc).

3) Develop new technologies to fix the problem (advocated by the likes of Elon Musk)

For me, option 3 is the most interesting. Perhaps the thing which intrigues me most is that we don't really need to develop that much. Most of what we need is already here, but we choose not to deploy it. Lets have a look at a few ways in which we could massively reduce our carbon footprint.

Solar energy - There are two problems with solar energy. The first is that the sun doesn't shine all day and the second is that when it does it can actually generate too much energy. With a carbon fuelled power station, you can regulate the generation and manage power spikes. With solar energy, the production is almost chaotic. Take last month. I have solar panels. For June, my panels produced 3.45KW/H on Monday June 10th. On Thursday June 27th it produced 23KW/H. Our consumption on both days was around 20KW/H. This demonstrates how hard it is to rely on solar. But there are technologies to manage this. Elon Musk has invested billions in a plant to produce batteries. These would allow charge to be stored. I spoke to a friend who is an engineer. We had a fascinating discussion on this issue. His view is that every new dwelling by law should be required to fit a solar system and a battery system to store the energy. For most properties, this would add around £14,000 to the build price. These homes would then enjoy free energy for much of the year at no carbon costs.  It seems to me a no brainer. As we pay mortgages back over 20 odd years, the home owner would be in substantial profit by the end of their mortgage. It really is criminal that this hasn't been done. But he had an even more interesting idea. For the vast majority of UK residents, our cars are idle for up to 23 hours a day. Every car has a battery. A simple regulator could be supplied that would allow you to plug your car into the national grid. When solar is overproducing, our cars could mop this up and then feed it back to the network as sunshine declines. The system would manage the battery so that there was always ample charge to start the car. Car owners would get a fee from the grid for their contribution. My friends suggestion was that things such as congestion charge, road tax could be used to incentives usage of the system. The system would be primarily used to manage sudden peaks and troughs. I found this idea fascinating

Biofuels - The idea is that you farm fuels to be burned in a sustainable manner, so that the net carbon usage is zero. This can be as simple as managing forests, but it could be using genetically engineered microorganisms to pull carbon out of the atmosphere which can be converted to oil and petrol. I saw a fascinating proposal to grow such micro organisms in polythene tubing in the Nevada Desert. Using the Earths resources such as trees, algae etc to capture carbon seems to me a really sensible proposal. Using technology to enhance and manage this is clearly the way of the future.

Tidal power - Using the tide to generate electricity is not a new idea. The idea is that you use the rising and falling tides to generate electricity by working turbines. Production is entirely predictable. The downside is that these peaks are not sync'd with when we actually need them, which again brings us back to storage of electricity

Hydrogen technology - Hydrogen is the cleanest imaginable fuel. When it burns it produces water. You can produce usable hydrogen simply by passing a current through water. If our tidal and solar powered systems are producing too much energy, this would seem to be a sensible thing to use the overproduction for.

Transport modal shift - Transport is a huge source of carbon in the atmosphere. It seems to me to be perverse that the UK is still buying new Diesel powered railway vehicles. It would seem to me that we should be aiming to replace these with electric or hydrogen powered vehicles. The UK should be setting firm deadlines for the end of diesel power on our railways. But there is more we can do. Our transport networks are geared up for rush hour traffic. If we could persuade 15% of workers to avoid the rush hour, we'd see huge reductions in carbon emissions. The less cars on the road, the less idling at traffic lights. We need a coherent strategy to encourage usage of bicycles. With technology, it should be possible to log journeys and I'd like to see us all have a personal carbon allowance, which determines the rate of tax we pay. If we take a decision to pollute, we can pay for the privilege. many of us walk around with Fitbits and other trackers. If we walked, cycled and took the train, it would be easy to log this. As we'd be fitter and healthier, the NHS would need less money. Sadly, as I live in Barnet, which is possibly the worst London Borough for cycling, I don't put into action what I preach as much as I like. I do usually walk to work, but once you venture onto the  A1/A41/A406 you are risking your life. We need to invest in technology. When I first started my working life, I used to travel to St Pancras on an antiquated Diesel powered train. In 1983, this was replaced with an electric train and in 1987, the Thameslink Cross London service opened. Last year, the upgrade of this (Originally called Thameslink 2000) was finished. When the service was a rickety old diesel carriage, only around 4-5,000 people a day were using it. Now it is one of the busiest lines in the country. It has cost billions, but has transformed the travel patterns of hundreds of thousands of people. This has generated prosperity and removed carbon. It is a shining example of what we should be doing.

The point I've been trying to make is that most of what we need to secure a massive decrease in the UK's carbon footprint is not yet to be developed fancy systems. It is simply being creative and using what we've already got in a sensible and well managed manner. If we put the money into it, the UK could become world leaders in something that would be hugely lucrative. To me it is a no brainer. Sadly our political masters seemingly have no brains!