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!

Next Action Day will be in the West Finchley area. Keep an eye out for the date.

Meanwhile – pick up copies of the paper, read it and distribute copies in your local street from Gardi, or Andrew. Contact us through this site.

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.

A Barnet Green Party delegation will of course be taking part in the national anti-cuts march on Saturday March 26th.Let’s help make it the biggest march in London since the protests against the invasion of Iraq.

You are welcome to come with Barnet Greens. Some Barnet Green Party members will meet up at Finchley Central station at 10.30 am. You’re welcome just to turn up there on the day or you can check details by calling Gardi Vaswani on 020 8445 6312.

For full details of the march see: March for the Alternative

For more details of the involvement of Barnet people in the march see: Barnet Alliance

Let’s just summarise a few things:

Are the cuts necessary? No, there is no indication that investors are worried about Britain’s debt in the way they are concerned about Greece or Ireland. Britain should instead be investing for the future, like Germany, France and the United States, where President Barack Obama has set aside 600 billion dollars to invest in developing new technologies, new industries and new jobs.

Wouldn’t it be good for Britain to reduce debt? Yes of course. The Greens have proposed more cuts that any other party but our cuts don’t include cutting welfare payments or starving health and education services. For instance, we would scrap plans for Britain to buy a new generation of nuclear missiles, saving up to 100 billion pounds in coming years. We would bring British troops back from Afghanistan immediately, saving 5 billion pounds a year – every missile fired by British forces costs 1 million pounds. etc etc

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:

Andrew Newby, Kate Tansley and Donal Lyven, our local Green parliamentary candidates

Barnet Green Party urges local people to follow your conscience and vote Green both in Thursday’s general election and in the Barnet Council election on the same day, May 6th.

“We know Green policies are popular. Our national policies are in first place in the giant survey of more than 250,000 people on vote for policies, way ahead of Labour, LibDems and Tories. Our main challenge is to persuade voters that there is a chance of us being elected and that a Green vote is a worthwhile vote,” said Noel Lynch, Barnet Green Party chairman and a candidate for the target ward of East Finchley in the council election.

In the parliamentary elections, Donald Lyven is standing for the Greens in Finchley & Golders Green, with Kate Tansley the Green candidate in Chipping Barnet and Andrew Newby the Green man in Hendon constituency.

Newby said: “We call on local people to vote Green in all three constituencies. There is no point in trying to be tactical in order to achieve a hung parliament. You will just end up with an MP from one of the three tired old traditional parties.”

Only the Greens among the national parties would scrap Trident and all British nuclear weapons, saving up to 100 billion pounds. The Greens would also pull out of Afghanistan immediately, saving five billion pounds a year, and would cancel ID cards and other wasteful ‘Big Brother projects’, potentially saving as much as 50 billion pounds.

The Greens are the originators of the Green New Deal project which aims to create a million new jobs by investing in sustainable industries such as renewable energy and insulation.

Locally, the Greens are very much targeting seats on Barnet Council after achieving a strong score last time which would have brought them six seats  if the vote had been held under proportional representation.

“We believe we have a particularly strong chance in East Finchley ward,” said Lynch, who is campaigning with Newby and local stalwart Steve Norman for the three East Finchley seats on the council.

Hopes are also high for Mill Hill ward, where twins Dilan and Dilem Kurt have teamed up with former Barnet councillor David Williams to mount a strong bid for votes.

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.

Candidates, members and supporters of Barnet Green Party gather at Tally Ho Corner.

For more information visit our Council Elections Page.
Press coverage: MEP Jean Lambert backs Barnet Green Party’s campaign launch at Tally Ho today