Barnet Green Party's 2010 election launch at Tally Ho Corner.

North Finchley is due to acquire a new Cultural Quarter, courtesy of the Mayor’s regeneration funding.

Barnet Green Party chair Andrew Newby had a letter published in the Barnet Times (26-1-12, p20), What About the Pollution? Here it is. Below that are Poppy’s reflections on the proposed plans.

What about the pollution?

The Mayor of London’s office has announced that North Finchley will receive a grant of more than £1m for a street makeover near the Arts Depot and at Tally Ho corner.

Let us hope the money is spent effectively.

When will Barnet Council or the Mayor of London find some money to do something about the unhealthy pollution levels in North Finchley?

The Tally Ho pollution monitor has recorded average annual Nitrogen Dioxide levels around 50 percent above the World Health Organisation recommended maximum every year since the monitor was installed in the 1990s. See the Barnet section on http://www.londonair.org.uk/.

Nitrogen Dioxide, emitted mostly by motor vehicles, can itself damage your lungs and can combine with other substances to form other pollutants.

Specialists tell me that taking action to reduce Nitrogen Dioxide at Tally Ho would require a political decision to fund a project.

Barnet Green Party has campaigned on this issue for several years but unfortunately, neither Mayor of London Boris Johnson nor Barnet Council’s Conservative administration seem much bothered about pollution, in North Finchley or anywhere else.

I hope the people who go to see the promised ‘public art displays’ at the Arts Depot are not affected by the fumes they will be inhaling.

Not that there are likely to be many such people, unless Barnet Council sorts out its car parks policy.

Ironically, the freshest air in North Finchley at the moment is probably right in the middle of Lodge Lane car park. At midday on Saturday, a time when the car park would once have been jam-packed, the windswept rows of empty parking spaces provided forlorn evidence of the failure of Barnet Council’s switch to payment by mobile phone.

The council needs to revise its car parking policy urgently. Many suggestions have been made. One idea would be for Barnet to link in to the Oyster system so that users can just touch in and touch out of council car parks, being charged for the length of time their vehicle had been in the car park. Or Barnet could use one of the systems available which read a chip embedded in the vehicle.

Of course linking to Oyster or something other system would require an initially outlay but the council should quickly gets its money back from fuller car parks.

To go back to my initial point, if money can be found to pay for a “cultural quarter” in North Finchley why can’t any be found to try to reduce pollution or sort out Barnet’s car parking crisis?

What About Local Businesses?

The ArtsDepot is in a desolate wind tunnel

I welcome the overdue news that the area around the ArtsDepot in North Finchley is due to receive a facelift.
The Artsdepot towers in a shabby windswept urban desolation that does its best both to run over and blow away any brave soul who strays into its narrow orbit.

The borough recently announced that the Mayor of London has allotted over £1million to create a new Cultural Quarter around the Artsdepot, to include they say “new lighting, a space for public art installation and improved signage… [plus] improved pedestrian access, decluttering the high street as well as supporting local businesses to give the high street an uplift.”

I look forward to find out more about the plan: how is it proposed to undo the wind tunnel effect; to cut the heavy pollution in the area; and to make the quarter welcoming to local people. More realistically I want to know a lot more about the substance behind the promise to “support local businesses”.

I know culture quarters. I’ve seen them in regenerated areas such as London’s South Bank and Brunswick Square. They all feature the same uncheap eateries (whose names commemorate their Italian founder, or South American reptiles, or African long-necked ungulates, you know the ones I mean). Once opened, they might claim “local business” status. Lets not let that happen.

Listen Barnet, support genuinely local businesses that will give us a sense of community. You could start by bringing back the wonderful Quadruples and Lavender Lady, our local health food shops (we’re losing the Finchley Health Food Centre) that could perhaps expand into catering. Talk to Helen at Buzz Cafe and the industrious people at Ari about how to talk to the local businesses and what works for them. Keep out the big chains and keep your promise.

Green Party member Donald Lyven’s observations on the forum of 23 November:

I attended the Finchley Forum at Avenue House last Wednesday.  The problem with customers not using local shops due to pay and display machines being covered is getting very serious.  I heard testimony from shop keepers in Temple Fortune and East Finchley all saying they are losing business since there are fewer customers as people drive away when they see the covered parking machines and need a mobile phone and bank card to park.

I know it’s easy to mock and say people should walk or cycle to the shops instead, especially when you just want a loaf of bread or a pint of milk, however, these shops are losing ALL passing trade.  A case in point is me on Saturday.  I drove to Tally-Ho and parked in Lodge Lane car park.  As I have already registered my vehicle with the Westminster parking system, I went through the laborious procedure of entering 4 digits from my registered debit card, entering the location number, confirming which vehicle I wish to park, how long in minutes I want to park, then enter the three security digits on the back of the card!

I can now do this in 90 seconds!  However, I saw people drive in, look at the sign and drive away!  There were lots of other people standing around on their mobiles with credit cards in hand, and the carpark was eerily empty for the time of day!  As reported at the Forum, there were street parking places available in Finchley as
well as along the High Road.  Basically, those clued up to the system have never had it so good, being able to park in any shopping street!

Barnet Council refused to offer a Christmas parking amnesty to the shop owners, and the Parking Scratch Cards to be introduced from 5th Dec will be only £2 for one hour, and you can only buy a minimum of 4!  So that’s £8 to pay out before you can stop for that loaf of bread!

Anyway, I delivered three bags of stuff to the charity shop, visited my optician, went to the shoe shop for some slippers, and then popped into the newsagent, and yes, just for a pint of milk (to take to the allotment for my tea).  Had I been one of those who had no mobile, wasn’t or couldn’t register, I too may have driven to
Brent Cross instead!  Our local high streets are suffering big time, possibly leading to shops closing down; loss of business rates to the very council stupid enough to cause this current crazy situation.  And whose idea was all this?  Yep, Brian Coleman.  The anger at the Forum was evident.

Also, increased traffic speeds past schools due to mini roundabouts and humps being removed during resurfacing also caused a great amount of anger towards the council – another problem caused by yes you’ve guessed, Brian Coleman.

I trust Barnet Green Party will highlight these two severe current problems with which to criticise the current Tory Assembly member!

Jenny Jones and Poppy at Avenue House with their bicycles

AM Poppy, our London Assembly candidate for Barnet Camden, writes about the increasingly bad tempered standoff between local cyclists and pedestrians

It appears that conflict is escalating in an unlikely power struggle between Barnet cyclists and pedestrians.

Since the day a month to two ago when I was on a cycling tour hosted by the Barnet LCC along with Jenny Jones, our Green mayoral candidate, the debate has not gone away – and was resumed on my Twitter stream today.

On that day in August, we approached Windsor Open Space, dismounted and were being briefed about the debate over how to spend Boris’s thousands on improving the Dollis Valley Greenwalk when we encountered a dog walker. One of us hailed h

er in a neighbourly way and was repaid with a torrent of angry invective. We sought to mollify her but she was having none of it.

She left us with the curse ringing in our ears that now she’d met us she would lend only more energy to the campaign opposing cyclists along that stretch of the Dollis Valley.

Her tone is echoed in a lobbying e-mail from a constituent this week, who hurled intemperate contumely on cyclists in parks:
“Anyway if you met one or more cyclists coming towards you – you get out of their way or suffer abuse and threats. Cyclists NEVER get out of the way for pedestrians,” he raged.

On those occasions when I have been a cyclist (in summer only, I’m a fair weather cyclist) I have always dodged pedestrians, often on paths dedicated to cycling, so I know he’s wrong, but the volume of this conflict seems to have risen too high for anyone voice to be heard.

On Twitter this week the admirable Mrs Angry and Londonneur have been continuing the controversy over the wheeled-or-footed fate of the Dollis Valley Green Walk – and I’m thinking, who is winning here? Who do I imagine is looking at these exchanges and chuckling closed-jawed like a Barnet Muttley in an unseemly Wacky Races that he controls? Why, Barnet’s own transport supremo and our esteemed representative in the glassy City Hall, Brian.

In this battle, whom are we fighting if not ourselves? There are no cyclists who are not also pedestrians. This battle is absurd. If we don’t wish to play directly into Muttley’s dastardly hands this must stop!

Lets recognise that we all need to share this planet, which means yielding to the weaker and slower, and flying our bikes shouting “wheee” when the opportunity and the slope allow for it.

By all means put up a sign saying Pedestrian Priority Area in places if you must, but that should surely be the rule on all paths. Then we can attend to the real issues that threaten us – global warming, air pollution and the highest road traffic casualty figures of any London borough. Guess where our ire really needs to be directed?

Poppy (second right) and supporters campaign outside East Finchley Underground Station

Please sign our online petition for a 20 mph speed limit in Barnet, at:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/20-mph-speed-limit-on-barnet-residential-streets.html

Barnet’s AM Poppy launched her campaign as Green candidate for Barnet and Camden Boroughs in next year’s London Assembly elections by cycling slowly up East Finchley High Road to highlight our campaign for a 20 mph speed limit on Barnet residential streets.

She was joined by around 10 other Greens and cycling enthusiasts and their protest attracted quite a crowd of onlookers.

Poppy said: “I know it’s provocative to cycle slowly up the road, but the challenges facing Barnet’s residents call for urgent, drastic action, including curbing traffic speed.

“Firstly, there’s Barnet’s tragic road casualty figures – the highest number of road deaths in London, and the second highest number of people suffering injury on our roads last year. (In 2010, nine people died and 1,520 were injured on Barnet’s road network, a rise of 8% on the previous year.)

“There is also our shameful air pollution. For example, the pollution monitor at Tally Ho (the only monitor in Finchley) has registered average annual Nitrogen Dioxide levels above the World Health Organisation recommended maximum ever since the monitor was installed in the 1990s.

“The dangers of bad air are consistently underplayed, and the mayor does everything he can to avoid paying the hefty fines that exceeding the levels carries, rather than everything to bring down the levels.

“In any case I want to see London become a more livable, affordable and happy city, and convert Barnet into a model borough for cycling and pollution reduction, not like it is now – London’s most deadly borough for road users of all kinds.”

Please sign our online petition for a 20 mph speed limit in Barnet, at:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/20-mph-speed-limit-on-barnet-residential-streets.html

- The elections for the Mayor and London Assembly take place in May 2012.

- Jenny Jones has been selected as the Green Party candidate for Mayor.

- The London Assembly consists of 25 members – 14 elected from constituencies 11 elected from a Londonwide proportional list. The Greens have two members on the outgoing Assembly.

- POPPY BIO:

A communications professional with experience on three continents, Poppy went to school and lives in Barnet borough. A life-long campaigner for community, sustainability and fairness, Poppy chaired the committee that spearheaded the successful campaign to introduce anti-sex discrimination legislation in Hong Kong in the last days of the colonial government, and has served as a peace worker in Palestine and in the Philippines. She has stood in Barnet

as Green parliamentary candidate, and now co-chairs the party’s Regional Council. She can also be found jogging along Dollis Brook, cycling across Hampstead Heath, and people-watching with her family at Camden Lock.

Waste bins at a Whetstone home

Latest news: The number of ideas has reached 27 but we still want more. We’re sure there are dozens of possibilities.

There are so many different things wrong with the planned Pinkham Way waste treatment plant in Friern Barnet that the Green parties in the three boroughs involved have divided up the research responsibilities so that we can mount the strongest possible case against this awful proposal.

Barnet Green Party has take on the task of assembling suggestions and proposals for ways in which Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Councils could improve their recycling rates and thus reduce the need for their plan to  build a 300,000 tonnes a year MBT (mechanical bio-treatment) factory at Pinkham Way.

Please send your ideas and comments by e-mail to Andrew.Newby@barnetgreenparty.co.uk.

We plan to submit the ideas by the end of  July to the three councils and the North London Waste Authority, the seven-borough organisation which is behind the Pinkham Way project.

Here are the main suggestions we have collated so far:

Proposals for improved recycling, reduction and re-use of waste materials in Barnet, Enfield and Haringey boroughs:

1/ Councils should bring in incentives and/or penalties to encourage businesses to recycle. Business waste contributes up to half of the total and most boroughs have made little effort. Responsibilities for business waste are scheduled to transfer to councils from central government.

2/ Councils should start recycling all recyclable plastics, instead of just a small proportion, eg in Barnet plastic bottles only and in Enfield only plastic of grades 1 to 3.

3/ Improve the recycling arrangements for blocks of flats. Cities abroad don’t seem to have a problem with recycling from flats. Many cities in European countries have large bins at the entrance to blocks of flats with the recycling bin or bins right next to the ‘grey’ bin. Barnet and Haringey have failed to take public funding to encourage recycling at flats.

4/ Make businesses take back packaging, which would encourage them to use less packaging to start with.

5/ Provide more neighbourhood recycling centres, like Summers Lane in Barnet.

6/ Improve the recycling lorries so that crews are better able to take larger items, eg cardboard from large packages.

7/ Bring in reduced charges for small amounts of rubbish in the traditional bins, eg by putting a line in bins and lowering fees if the rubbish is below the line.

8/ Implement penalties or disincentives for putting large amounts of rubbish in the traditional bins. Even better than recycling is keeping your waste to a minimum in the first place.

9/ Empty traditional bins only once a fortnight instead of once a week. Councils which have tried this (often Tory ones aiming to save money) say that it does lead to increased recycling rates and to smaller volumes in traditional bins.

10/ Provide separate sealable recycling bins for food scraps, as it would appear many people don’t like putting food in with green garden etc waste.  Some councils in England already do this.  Barnet Council says a lot of food scraps still go into the general bins. If food bins were separate the big green bins could be collected less frequently.

11/ Encourage people to use kitchen bins with separate compartments so that different kinds of waste can be kept separate, making it easier to recycle all of the.

12/ Provide more recycling bins at bus stops, stations, in parks etc and set up a system to empty all public bins regularly. This would also help keep litter down.

13/ Encourage and promote schemes that re-use bottles, such as door-to-door milk delivery. Many people seem unaware that milk delivery to your door is still available.

14/ Reintroduce (ie reintroduce in Britain though they are still current elsewhere) deposits on glass and plastic bottles and jars to encourage people to take them back to the shop. Alternatively or additionally, shops and supermarkets could give loyalty points, charity tokens or ‘neighbourhood currency’ for returned bottles.

15/ Encourage more repair facilities so that items can be re-used instead of recycled or scrapped. Eg some English councils and many in other countries support repair shops for furniture, cycles, electrical and electronic equipment and many other items. Summers Lane, for instance, might be one suitable location.

16/ Encourage the teaching of repair skills so that people can provide repair services either as professionals or volunteers, whether in their own home, customers’ homes or in small workshops.

17/ Set up facilities for exchange of wood and construction materials so that craftspeople and builders can have easy access to reusable materials. This could also help avoid the needless destruction of old, traditional and attractive fittings.

18/ Amend planning and building regulations to encourage the re-use of old wood and construction materials.

19/ Allow controlled public removal of appropriate items from neighbourhood recycling centres, as happens in other countries.

20/ Allow people to help themselves from skips unless the skips are marked otherwise.

21/  Tell residents about recyling levels in their ward, street or lorry collection round. Create a competitive spirit by encouraging people to exceed past performance.

22/ Reward wards/neighbourhoods with high levels of recycling by discretionary spending, priority on other green initiatives or the issue of  ‘neighbourhood currency’ to spend with local businesses.

23/ Encourage people, including supervised children, to have garage or table sales outside their homes for unwanted items instead of throwing them away. Such events could develop community spirit by bringing neighbours together.

24/ Promote annual street ‘mini-markets’ at which people can buy, sell and exchange items among local people.

25/ As some other boroughs have done, nominate volunteers to be neighbourhood promoters of re-use and recycling, to explain recycling services to new residents and to encourage all residents to reduce, repair, re-use and recycle.

26/ Give official encouragement to charity shops, Freecycle and other services which enable goods to be re-used instead of thrown away.  Eg, with extra publicity such as website where people could look to see which local organisations will take the books, furniture or whatever items they no longer want.

27/ Develop and expand council schemes to encourage home composting. Eg: http://www.barnet.gov.uk/composters

More ideas please! I reckon we can get at least 50.  If you’ve sent an idea before that we’ve failed to include without saying why not please send it again.

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.

Barnet Green Party's 2010 council candidates at our campaign launch at Tally Ho corner

Barnet Green Party are calling for the introduction of congestion charges in busy and polluted areas such as Brent Cross and Tally Ho Corner. This is just one of the many ideas the party is putting forward to show how Barnet Council could balance its budget without resorting to welfare cuts or closing libraries.

Here are a few of the ideas we are submitting to Barnet Council:

Major ideas to bring in large revenues or save substantial sums of money:

• Introduce a road congestion charge in busy or polluted areas such as Brent Cross and North Finchley. This would have the double benefit of bringing in money and reducing pollution, with big health benefits. Average annual nitrogen dioxide levels at Tally Ho Corner have been above the World Health Organisation recommended maximum ever since a pollution monitor was installed there in the 1990s. The central London congestion charged had net revenues of 148 million pounds in the 2009/10 financial year, so Barnet could expect income of several tens of millions a year from congestion charge zones.

• Raise revenue from electricity feed-in-tariffs by installing solar panels on Barnet Council’s office buildings, schools and social housing. Payback can be 10 percent a year, so Barnet Council could envisage income of 10 million pounds a year if it invested 100 million pounds a year, the amount Birmingham Council is spending on solar power and energy efficiency. Or it could perhaps even avoid any capital outlay by outsourcing the scheme in return for annual rent on the council’s roofs.

• Save hundreds of thousands of pounds by seeking the advice of local community groups instead of issuing valuable contracts to consultants. The only reason Barnet Council’s administration won’t like it is that the community groups will tell them the truth whereas the consultants say things the Conservative administration are pleased to hear, such as: “How about putting some money into Icelandic banks. Form selected panels of volunteer advisers, like the former Community Health Councils.

Some other ideas for more modest savings and new revenues, among the many possibilities:

Noel Lynch (left) outside City Hall alongside Green London Assembly Member Darren Johnson (centre) and Andrew Newby, Green parliamentary candidate for Hendon in 2010 general election (right)

Barnet Green Party is calling on voters to object to Boris Johnson’s plans to remove part of the London congestion charge zone.

Transport for London (TfL) has opened up a consultation asking Londoners for their views on the proposed removal of the western congestion charging zone in central London.

Barnet Green Party is urging people to voice their opinion and urge the Mayor to keep the scheme.

“The zone has been successful in reducing the number of trips by polluting vehicles, and making the roads a safer and more pleasant environment for those travelling on foot or by bicycle.” said Noel Lynch, chair of Barnet Green Party and the co-ordinator of the London Federation of Green Parties.

“Coming just a few days after accident statistics showed a dramatic increase in vehicle collisions in pro-car Barnet, removing part of the C-charge zone doesn’t make any sense, both environmentally and in terms of safety” Lynch added. “Boris Johnson claims to be passionate about cycling, but by pandering to wealthy west London residents he will do nothing for cycling in that part of the capital”.

View the consultation and submit your views on the TfL website. The deadline for submissions is Monday, 2 August 2010.

The western C-charge zone is less than 2 miles from the southern boundary of Barnet, in Cricklewood.

Our bid to fly a kite to the height of the proposed incinerator chimney really irked the Brent Cross Cricklewood developers

Barnet Green Party would like to thank everyone in the borough who voted Green in the national and local elections last week and we would particularly like to thank the dozens of people who helped out, some of whom contacted us out of the blue.

The number of Green votes in the Barnet borough elections almost doubled from 11,637 in 2006 to 20,388 this time, which would have entitled us to several councillors under a proportional election system. Unfortunately, the current winners-take-all system continues to deny us any seats on the council, demonstrating at a local level the urgent need for major electoral reform.

Thankfully Caroline Lucas managed to win the Greens’ first ever parliamentary seat when she triumphed in Brighton Pavilion constituency, while across the country additional Green councillors were elected in Bristol, Cambridge, Reigate, Reading and Rochford in Essex, though the vagaries of the dreadful voting system and linking of the parliamentary and local elections meant we lost a few seats on some councils in London.

“As I monitored the count for East Finchley, the ward where I was a candidate, I saw that an enormous number of people had voted for names from two or three different parties, rather than backing three candidates from a single party. Judging from my strolls around the marquees where the votes were tallied, the trend was the same in other wards,” said Barnet Green Party press officer Andrew Newby.

This proves that a large proportion of people in Barnet borough really would like to see a balanced council, with a fair representation of all the political parties rather than the overwhelmingly Conservative administration that we are lumbered with.

Let us hope that the new British government, in whatever shape it may take, brings in a truly proportional voting system for local councils as well as for parliament.

Meanwhile, Barnet Green Party will continue to campaign on the many urgent local issues, not least our efforts to persuade the council to adopt a 20 mph speed limit in all residential streets in the borough. This would not only reduce accidents but make side streets more pleasant to walk or cycle along, improving people’s quality of life and boosting community spirit.

We will very much need your help in future and hope you will continue to support us as we begin preparations for the next major electoral challenge, the London Assembly elections in 2012, when we and activists across London will be fighting to increase the number of Green members of the London Assembly. Greens have played a key role in shaping policies on the assembly and could have even more influence if we win additional seats.

Max 20 - that's plenty

Barnet Greens are calling for a 20 mph default speed limit on residential and shopping streets across the borough, using as a “case study” the problems in East Finchley’s Church Lane.

As well as cutting the number of accidents, a 20 mph limit would be “good for children, cyclists and the planet,” said Andrew Newby, who will be a candidate in East Finchley ward in the borough elections on May 6th.

Barnet Council’s Conservative administration has had no credible road safety strategy for several years since Councillor Brian Coleman unilaterally decided to abolish speed humps, Newby said.

Peacemeal traffic calming controls remain in place on some streets but residents of many neighbourhoods across the borough are increasingly angry that their pleas for increased road safety measures near their homes and schools have fallen on deaf ears.

Barnet Green Party has decided to address the issue by proposing a 20 mph speed limit on all residential and shopping streets in the borough, in line with decisions already approved by Camden council, amongst others.

Barnet Greens have prepared a report on the proposal and will submit it to Barnet Council and ask councillors to back the idea.

“A 20 mph speed limit is proven to reduce accidents and also makes cycling or walking much more pleasant, such as for children going to school, if speeding traffic is no longer rushing by,” Newby said.

To see the full report, click here