Barnet Green member Elliot Folan at the Whetstone crossing reopening

Barnet Greens held a “definitely not official” ceremony after helping achieve the reopening of the “green man” pedestrian crossing at the dangerous corner where Totterid ge Lane meets Whetstone High Road.

Following objections by residents and a campaign spearheaded by local Barnet Green Party members, Barnet Council has reopened the crossing this week.

The Highways Department closed the much-used crossing several weeks ago, saying the number of pedestrians operating the “green man” facility was holding up the traffic.

“What noone could understand was why Barnet Council ever thought that was a sensible reason for closing the crossing, which is used by hundreds of people every day” said Andrew Newby, Barnet Green Party chairman and nearby resident.

“They should not put people’s lives at risk just for some notional reduction in traffic congestion. If there are too many cars on the road they should look at ways of reducing the number of cars.”

“I asked to see the road safety figures and the traffic statistics. They supplied the safety figures but not the traffic statistics and I believe that when they reviewed the statistics they realised they could not justify closing the crossing. I plan to submit a Freedom of Information request to get the facts.”

Barnet Greens will carry on campaigning for the reopening of the crossing on the opposite side, at the junction of High Road with Oakleigh Road North,  and we are also seeking appropriate zebra crossing surfaces at the junctions to alert unobservant drivers to fact that pedestrians might be in the roadway.

We will be stepping up our campaign for a 20 mph speed limit on all residential streets in the borough, now that the NHS has come out in favour of the limit. Several other boroughs have already adopted 20 mph limits but Barnet is taking its usual caveman attitude. To sign our petition click on “sign our petitions” icon on the home page.

Noel Lynch, Barnet Green Party chairman and a candidate in East Finchley ward

Next Saturday is your final chance to put your questions to local Green Party candidates in a ‘Meet and Greet’ session in East Finchley.

Some of Barnet Green Party’s candidates for parliament and for the Barnet Council election will be at our stall outside Budgens on East Finchley High Road from around 10 am to 1 pm to respond to your queries and hear your views.

If you can’t make it on Saturday you are welcome to send in a question or a comment to info@barnetgreenparty.co.uk and we will reply as soon as we can.

On Barnet Council, our pledges are:

We’ll fight for: jobs, homes, insulation, a 20 mph speed limit, better public transport, good policing.

Nationally, a Green MP from Barnet would:

Save tens of billions by scrapping British nuclear weapons, withdrawing at once from Afghanistan, cancelling ID cards and scaling back other ‘Big Brother’ projects.

An artist's impression of the proposed Brent Cross development

Barnet Green Party is urging local people to write in the next seven days to Communities Secretary John Denham to demand a public inquiry into the the 4.5 billion pounds Brent Cross Cricklewood redevelopment.

Objectors have only until March 12^th to make their views known to Denham, who will then decide whether to over-rule Barnet Council’s approval and call in the plan for further assessment.

“The whole scheme is monstrously unsustainable and would have a damaging effect on wide swathes of North London well beyond the boundaries of Barnet borough,” said Andrew Newby, Green Party parliamentary candidate for Hendon.

“The housing programmes need major revision to make them sustainable and the planned expansion of Brent Cross shopping centre should be halted completely, having already been rejected at a previous public inquiry.”

Andrew Saffrey, Golders Green candidate for the party in the coming Barnet Council elections, is particularly unhappy at plans for an incinerator, which he believes will blight Golders Green and spread pollution far and wide.

an incinerator in Sheffield

“The waste incinerator has been dressed up in the consultation material as a “gasification plant” or a “CHP station”. Whatever it is called, it will emit large quantities of harmful pollutants from a 140-metre chimney into the suburbs of North London,” he said.

Newby said in a letter to Denham: “Even supposing the developers fulfill their pledges of high standards for all aspects of their monstrous proposals, the scheme is so enormous that it will have an impact on the national target of an 80 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

“The BXC plans include only token sustainability measures, so the expanded shopping centre, the new homes and the other buildings are likely to churn out hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO2 in their many decades of existence. Residential buildings will only achieve level three (out of six) under the Code for Sustainable Homes although the government’s target is for all buildings be carbon neutral (level six) by 2016.

“This scheme is an ideal opportunity to install energy conservation measures and sustainable power facilities right from the beginning. There is plenty of scope on the site for enough wind turbines, solar arrays and ground source heat pumps to make the whole area carbon negative, never mind carbon neutral. Yet the requirement for 20% renewable energy is proposed to be met entirely by burning domestic waste. Not a single solar panel or wind turbine is proposed.”

Newby also says: “Any expansion of Brent Cross would undoubtedly have further harmful affects on the several shopping areas within a few miles of the development.

“Shopping districts likely to suffer from would include Golders Green, Hendon, Temple Fortune and Finchley Central. Many businesses in those areas are already struggling under the impact of the recession and Barnet Council should not have approved the BXC plans without studying their likely impact on local communities and implementing measures needed to support those communities.

Saffrey said in his submission to the ministry: “With an estimated 29,000 vehicle trips a day predicted to be generated by this development, clearly this project is seriously jeopardising efforts to control and reduce CO2 emissions.”

“Suggestions that a light-rail system is sorely needed to serve Brent Cross have been derided by Conservative councillors yet providing light rail has been enormously successful in other large-scale development projects, notably Canary Wharf,” said Saffrey.

Newby said: “With a general election coming up and a number of marginal labour seats nearby there is a good chance of Denham calling in the plan if enough people write in.”

If you want to ask the minister to call in the plans, send a message to: john.denham@communities.gsi.gov.uk

or send a letter to:

The Rt. Hon John Denham MP
Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government
Eland House, Bressenden Place
London
SW1E 5DU

A bus on the test run of route 324 at Brent Cross Tesco

A new bus route serving part of Barnet borough has been announced, to the pleasure of local Green Party members.

Route 324 will link Brent Cross Tesco to Stanmore via Hendon, Colindale and Kingsbury every 20 minutes during the day time.

The new service will use a stop within the Tesco grounds, providing new links for residents in the Marble Drive and Whitefield Avenue areas.

Colindeep Lane, in Colindale, will also be served by a bus for the first time, increasing public transport options for those who wish to leave their car at home.

Zain Sardar, the Green Party’s local election candidate for Colindale, was pleased at the news.

“It’s brilliant” said Zardar.  ”People in Colindale, and in particular around Colindeep Lane, can now enjoy better access to the public transport network  in London.”

“This new service will help everybody – from commuters going to Hendon Central and shoppers at Brent Cross, to students at Stanmore College and patients at Kingsbury Community Hospital – this route benefits so many” Sardar added.

Andrew Newby, the Green Party general election candidate for Hendon, also welcomed the new service.

“Coming hot on the heels of the re-routeing of the 186 via Grahame Park and Aerodrome Road, this is another piece of good news for public transport users in Colindale” said Newby. “Providing areas with new services really gives people a choice and is an added incentive for people to use forms of transport that are more sustainable.”

Andrew Saffrey, the Green Party’s candidate for Golders Green ward, praised the new route.

“Until now, bus links to the north and west from this part of Golders Green ward have been poor” said Saffrey. “Instead of having to walk to Brent Cross bus station, or change buses, residents in the area around Mapledown School will be able to get to Hendon Central and Kingsbury much more easily.”

“The consultation showed very strong support for this route, particularly in places like Colindeep Lane where previously no bus route served” Saffrey added. “This can only be a good thing as it means people are desperately crying out for bus services to reduce their dependence on the private car.”

Transport for London (TfL) plans to commence services in Autumn 2010 with single-decker minibuses.

More info:
* TfL press release
* Hendon Times article

Steve Norman and Candy but where's that bus?

Barnet Green Party has selected East Finchley as its target ward for the borough council elections on May 6^th and will officially launch its campaign in the ward this coming Saturday, February 13^th.

The launch will take place outside Budgen’s supermarket on the High Road. We invite all local people to come along at about 11.00 am to meet ward candidates Noel Lynch, Steve Norman and Andrew Newby.

The Electoral Reform Society calculated that the number of votes achieved by Barnet Green Party in the last borough election in 2006 could have won six seats for the Greens under a fair system of proportional representation.

The present first-past-the-post system and the fact that our votes were spread widely across the borough meant that we were denied any seats, so this time we are focussing our campaign effort on East Finchley, the ward where we have greatest support.

In the London Mayoral election in 2008, around 25 percent of East Finchley participants voted Green as either their first or second choice. We only need to boost that score by a few percentage points to win the East Finchley council seats and secure a much-needed Green presence on Barnet Council.

Greens in several London boroughs, including neighbouring Camden, have won council seats by targeting certain wards and Barnet Greens are aiming to match that achievement this time.

The launch in East Finchley will be part of an action day that will also include canvassing around the ward and a stall outside Budgen’s. At the stall we will be collecting signatures in support of our campaigns for a new bus service between East Finchley and the Royal Free Hospital and for a 20 mph speed limit in East Finchley’s Church Lane as well as other local streets. We will also be collecting supporters for our call to Barnet Council’s pension fund to sell its BAe shares.

Our general election candidates Donald Lyven (Finchley & Golders Green), Kate Tansley (Chipping Barnet) and Andrew Newby (Hendon) will all be at the target ward launch.

Noel on the campaign trail

East Finchley is Barnet Green Party’s top target ward and Noel, Andrew and Steve are aiming to win. Please vote for them!

Noel Lynch – long-time East Finchley campaigner:

Green Party stalwart and former London Assembly member Noel Lynch has campaigned in East Finchley for many years. He is currently pushing for improvements to East Finchley’s bus links, in particular for a new route to the Royal Free Hospital.

Noel said: “London Greens are proposing the cancellation of Boris Johnson’s recent approval of a big rise in bus fares. Boris doesn’t care about ordinary people or the environment.” Noel has fought to protect East Finchley and other neighbourhood communities and has been a long-time champion of small business.

Andrew backs solar panels

Andrew Newby – angry at uncaring Barnet Council:

Financial journalist Andrew Newby has had his home in the borough for 23 years. He is furious at Barnet Council’s weak social and environmental policies and its refusal to adopt the Sustainable Communities Act.

“Some Green policies are unglamorous, such as better insulation of private and social housing, but they can save money and give everyone a better quality of life,” he says. In Totteridge ward in 2006 he doubled the Green Party vote, beating Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates. In East Finchley he aims to beat all other parties and win a council seat.

Steve Norman – defends human and animal rights:

Steve and Candy but where's that bus?

East Finchley-born Steve Norman is a professional gardener but it wasn’t just the environment which led him to join the Greens. “I joined because of its policies on animal rights and civil liberties issues. I am concerned about corporate interests being given priority over human rights,” he said. Steve himself coordinated a campaign against greyhound racing, focussed on Walthamstow track, which has now closed down.

Steve first stood in East Finchley ward in 2006 campaigning alongside Noel. In that year Noel and Andrew were the top polling  Barnet Greens, with Steve not far behind.

Green Party's Darren Johnson, Deputy Chair of the London Assembly

The Green Party’s Darren Johnson will be aiming to freeze bus fares when he seeks to amend Mayor Boris Johnson’s draft budget.

The £75m that the Mayor is raising from the 12 percent bus fare increase would instead be raised mostly from motorists, with the reinstatement of the £25 emissions charge on gas guzzlers and retention of the western extension of the congestion charge.

Responding to the London Mayor’s consultation budget proposals for 2010/11, Darren Johnson said: “I will seek a reverse of this year’s fare rises on the buses by urging the Assembly to support an amendment to the mayor’s budget.

The Mayor’s budget proposals will mean less money raised from car drivers, whilst public transport users are paying more. I want to see the Mayor protecting the poorer Londoners by freezing bus fares and making those who pollute more, pay more.

The Mayor claims that he has to increase bus fares whilst cutting bus services in order to fill a financial black hole, but a large part the deficit is created by for vanity projects such as scrapping bendy buses and dropping charges designed to discourage polluting cars.”

Green Party's Darren Johnson, Chair of the London Assembly

Barnet Green Party is calling on Transport for London to institute a new bus service.

This new service would take in:

North Finchley – Finchley Memorial Hospital – Finchley Leisure Centre – East Finchley – Kenwood – Royal Free Hospital.

Increasing numbers of patients are being referred to the Royal Free Hospital. In view of the difficulty of getting there by public transport and the need to increase the bus service between North Finchley and East Finchley, the Green Party’s Darren Johnson, Deputy Chair of the London Assembly, is to lobby the Mayor, Boris Johnson, to instruct Transport for London to institute the new route.