What’s happened to the councils where I live website? Take a look here. There does not appear to have been any updates to the site since March apart from a complaint in the comments section made in June. How much did we pay for this? Surely it would be much better to support existing residents groups to develop their on line presence rather than this top down approach, which clearly does not work.

I have been toying with the idea of improving my blog by adding more pages that contain more static information. My previous blogging platform blogger did not allow me to do this. I also wanted to create something that would provide wider information about the ward and allow me more space to promote High Barnet in general. It seemed sensible to take a domain name that reflected that desire so I have chosen highbarnet.org. For the techies amongst you I am using wordpress to create the site and as I …

I recently received notification of a proposal to place a mobile phone base station and 17.5 metre mast at Newman House, Queens Road, Barnet EN5 4DL. The mobile phone companies have been trying to get a mast in this general area for a while now and judging by the emails in my inbox this latest attempt is no more popular than previous applications.
The problem of course is that we all have and want to use mobile phones but none of us want the associated equipment nearby. My own view is …

Last night was certainly a night of two halves for me. Up first was the rally against the cuts to the on site sheltered housing wardens. When I arrived at Barnet House a noisy demonstration was in progress. I had been asked to speak on behalf of the Lib Dem group at the rally. I spoke about our opposition to these cuts. They are mean spirited and just plain wrong. The proposal before the cabinet meeting was a kludge designed to show that the consultation process had had some effect. …

Yes bollards.
Alston Road is a narrow road and a bus route and a rat run for traffic avoiding the High Street and Stapylton Road. It has a nice York stone pavement which is constantly being damaged by vehicles mounting the kerb.
The local residents association (SPACES) have been trying to get bollards installed for quite a while. There have been various meetings and false dawns. I decided to have a go at getting this sorted out. I met with the former head of highways on site and we agreed that bollards …

When the council re-laid the pavements in the Meadway (a road in my ward on a steep hill) they re-laid them at some points at a different and higher level. This caused particular problems outside one house where the change in level resulted in the householder bumping the silencer on his car every time he tried to use his drive. A number of phone calls to the Highways department later and said householder was left somewhat frustrated by the lack of responsiveness.
The Highways department are usually very good at …

This article on Lib Dem Voice amused me. It’s an all too familiar scenario. One visitor I had recently said that they had come to ask my advice? Fair enough. I enquired what kind of advice expecting a response such as a parking problem or a planning issue or a council tax problem, but no. They just wanted my advice. I quickly established that there were no particular problems with any of these and all appropriate benefits were being claimed.
I then carefully explained that usually when someone comes to …

At last Thursdays Resources, Performance & Partnerships Overview and Scrutiny Committee (why such long names?), the major item of business was to note the contents of the Capital Asset & Property Strategy.
Being asked to note a report is a totally pointless exercise. The report had been through cabinet some time ago so there was no chance to change anything, so we duly noted it. I did however have some questions which I had submitted in advance in the vain hope of some meaningful answers.
The report talks about tying in …

The Barnet Press are reporting the proposed sheltered housing cuts that I blogged about a few days ago. click here to see what they have to say.

I was recently contacted by a resident of sheltered housing scheme in my ward. He had been told that it was very likely that there would be stringent cuts to supporting services for people living in sheltered housing including the withdrawal of emergency pull cord systems. What is actually happening is nothing less that the removal of any distinction between those living on their own and those living in sheltered accommodation with warden supervision.
The budget for support services for sheltered housing is expected to be £1.3 million. Barnet’s Tory …