Well it all went pretty well. The weather conspired to cause problems with a few showers, but people stayed around and enjoyed carols, singing and a great group of sax players. The mulled wine was popular and Santa was almost mobbed. I would like to say a big thank you to all those who helped make it happen. These events take a lot of organising.
If you are in High Barnet on Sunday evening then why not come along to Ravenscroft Gardens on Wood Street and join in with the Friends of Ravenscroft Gardens Festive celebration. There will be community carol singing, music and refreshments and Santa. Admission is free although donations are welcome. Any money raised will be spent on the Gardens. It all starts at 5pm and finishes at 7pm.
Sir Nigel Gresley
Well there’s a first time for everything. I was told by a friend who really is a bit of a train spotter that Sir Nigel Gresley was coming through New Barnet this afternoon so I took the opportunity to go down and take a picture. There were a few hardy souls waiting and it wasn’t long before the train steamed through at quite a pace. I wonder if someone will be taking pictures of the trains that currently use the line in 50 years time and feeling slightly nostalgic.
Last night at the Area Forum we were ‘treated’ to two presentations. The First by the deputy leader of the Council Cllr Lynne Hillan on the forthcoming budget and the second by an officer on the new Local Development framework.
Cllr Hillan did her best to outline the issues, i.e. less money from central government and growing demand for services. What was not clear was what would be sacrificed to square the circle or what the priorities of the Council would be. This was neatly sidestepped by moving onto the consultation process which will help the Council appreciate residents’ priorities and concerns. Members of the public swiftly identified the flaws. Firstly the consultation is advertised on the Councils website and will be advertised in local papers, but many residents (especially older people) don’t have access to the web and many people don’t receive either of the two local papers. After the meeting another Cllr remarked that they didn’t know why we were bothering with the consultation as most of the budget is fixed or ring fenced by central government leaving little room to shift priorities.
The second presentation on the LDF was again more about the consultation process on the draft high level documents than anything else. The LDF is the successor to the Unitary Development Plan (jargon alert) which sets out the planning goals for different areas of the Borough. The question of how the success of the consultation would be measured was raised and not answered. The best bit though was when two former Tory Cllrs Robert Newton and Daniel Hope pointed out that the LDF strategy document was very weak on detail and that compared to Westminster Councils it was sadly lacking. The interesting defence consisted of ‘we are not like Westminster’ and ‘central government really like what we’ve done’. Well of course they would as Barnet is offering to build far more homes than the current government target requires. Further probing by others failed to illicit any further defence of the LDF and the overwhelming feeling was, tell us your concerns as part of the consultation process and we will ignore them.
The meeting then moved onto the more familiar ground of the points raised in advance by the audience, before mental exhaustion brought a halt to the meeting at around 9pm.
Tonight is the Chipping Barnet Area Forum which is being held at Chipping Barnet Library. If you are going along I’ll see you there.
Whilst I’m on the subject of parks. The Friends of Ravenscroft Gardens in High Barnet are holding a Festive celebration on the Sunday 13th December 5pm – 7pm. There will be Carol singing, musicians and even Santa may turn up. Given the huge success of the Victorian day earlier in the year I’m hoping this event will be just as much fun.
Highlands Garden sign
Highlands Gardens is a beautiful little park in Leicester Road New Barnet. It’s a park that over the years has been sadly neglected. There is a small friends group that have managed to raise enough money to re-instate the pumps for the water features and is working on getting the ponds relined so that there is enough water to operate the waterfalls that make this park so special.
A few weeks ago Barnet Council installed new signage. A cause for celebration? Well take a look at the photo. As far as I’m concerned these signs are ugly and inappropriate for the style of the park and unfortunately the Friends of Highlands Gardens were not consulted about the design. If they had been then we could have suggested better ways to spend the money. For example the Friends have developed a tree trail for the park that could have been implemented instead.
My colleague Cllr Jack Cohen has posted the following on his Hendon Times blog.
The tories are in a real mess over this as they desperately avoid trying to admit what the Future shape programme is actually about.
Last night I attended the SPACE AGM. SPACES are a residents group that represent Sebright, Puller, Alston and Calvert Roads. They are one of the best organised and most active residents groups that I know of. The big issue last night was parking. The roads represented by SPACES are almost the last roads in High Barnet that are not in a controlled parking zone (CPZ). As a result they suffer from over spill parking as well as the fact that there is too little space to cope with residents parking at peak times. The community is split over the solution. Some feel that being part of the CPZ would improve the situation. Others think it would make little difference and is not worth it.
I have been knocking on doors and talking to people and will continue to do so in order to get a clear picture of all the issues. My own view is that we need to look at what the effect of a CPZ would be and understand fully what the implications are before making any decisions. That will require the Council to do a proper study and draw up proposals for consideration. It is very important that everyone understands the issues and can make an informed choice.
It seems that the trust is closing because the two trustees are retiring and no replacements have been found. I hope more efforts will be made to find new trustees as losing the trust would be a very bad thing for Barnet.
Barnet Times