Barnet Green Party chairman Noel Lynch asks 'Where's the sense in Future Shape?' Green MEP Jean Lambert's insulation block at least HAS a shape.

Barnet Green Party calls on Barnet Council’s Conservative administration to cancel its notorious Future Shape strategy after auditors Grant Thornton criticised the policy as lacking direction.

The damning report to the council’s audit committee by a team of expert professionals highlights that council leader Lynne Hillan and her cronies don’t have the faintest idea how much money Future Shape might save, nor do they have a serious programme for implementing the scheme.

“Grant Thornton’s report shows that Future Shape, better known as easyCouncil, is a complete mess,” says Andrew Newby, who was Barnet Green Party’s candidate for Hendon in this year’s general election.

“Barnet Conservatives’ concept seems simply to be: ‘Let’s privatise as much as we can and hope it saves money’,” Newby said.

“I call on Barnet Council to cancel Future Shape and go back to the idea that local authorities exist to provide accountable, democratically-controlled services, assessed according to the needs of local residents rather than treated as a trial ground for baseless political dogmas.”

Grant Thornton’s report spells out clearly that the easyCouncil idea is all talk and no substance. The experts wrote: “The council needs to develop and agree a more fundamental mandate for the programme by developing a programme level business case that sets out the planned costs, benefits, time scales, risks and outcomes of the programme.”

Councillor Brian Coleman this week launched a typically childish tirade of insults against the organisers of the Barnet Alliance for Public Services but his outburst was no more than a desperate bid to distract attention from the fact that Future Shape is a shambles.

Newby said: “Grant Thornton’s report provides proof if any were needed that Future Shape is merely an attention-grabbing attempt to implement political dogma without a scrap of evidence that it could achieve real savings and efficiencies. Future Shape? It is definitely Shapeless and let us hope it has no Future.”

Even Coleman might be taken aback if he had any real idea of what happened at Thursday’s launch of the Alliance at the North London Business Park. Not only was the meeting well organised with a panel of prestigious speakers including film director Ken Loach, but more than 200 local people crowded the Emerald Suite to express their anger at the current threats to local schools, hospitals, social services and libraries. Hardly the “lone voices” imagined by Coleman.

Everyone went away fired up to campaign to save our vital local services and facilities.

“It became clear to me that though Tory councillors are eager to slash jobs and cut budgets, what really motivates them is privatising as many of the council’s services as possible. Council workers told the meeting of how they had asked fruitlessly for details of how outsourcing their particular operation would save money – it was obvious that there were no details,” Newby said.

Unfortunately, outsourcing privatisation often leads to greatly increased costs rather than savings, as Private Eye magazine spells out in case studies in almost every issue.

“It is far from proven that Barnet Council needs to make the humungous spending cuts that a being talked about but even if savings are necessary the first priorities should be to save jobs and avoid any hardship to people who use council services. Those are definitely not uppermost in the minds of Barnet’s Conservatives, who simply want to make a name for themselves with massive privatisations,” Newby said.

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

Caroline Lucas delivers her keynote speech at The Arts Depot in North Finchley

A photo slideshow of the Green Party Conference including Caroline Lucas’ rousing keynote speech at the Arts Depot in North Finchley can be viewed here.


Caroline Lucas’ speech can be viewed here

BBC News report of the Conference here

Here are links to reports in the local press, The Hendon, Finchley, Barnet, Potters Bar, Edgware, Mill Hill Times
Keynote speech by Caroline Lucas in North Finchley promises Green Party action on inequality

Green Party conference held in Finchley

Jean Lambert MEP

London Member of the European Parliament, Jean Lambert, strengthened the campaign for a sustainable Brent Cross regeneration this week, when she announced her support for the Coalition for a Sustainable Brent Cross Cricklewood Plan just as Barnet Council appeared to be facing the prospect that the original scheme could collapse.

The London Green MEP said,

“This scheme clearly has regional repercussions, given its scale, and there are still questions around compliance with the London Plan, as well as issues around traffic pollution and transport infrastructure.  There are also unanswered questions regarding the planned waste disposal process and its impact on health.

“I fully support the Coalition’s call for a full Public Inquiry so that an informed and robust debate can take place into this major and controversial development.”

Is the plan viable?

Meanwhile, a report [1] to the Barnet Cabinet meeting on 21st October addressed the issue of the viability of the Plan. The Council now expects the first rents from the shopping centre to be realised in 2018, six years later than originally envisaged, with work not starting until March 2015 at the earliest. Capital receipts from transfer of land to Cricklewood Regeneration Ltd would not be received until 2015. They expect the timeline to be extended by a year to 18 months if the planning application is called in, giving a probable start date of 2017 [2].  Over-shadowing the whole scheme is the current economic situation, which Barnet Council say will mean negative returns for developers in the already drastically reduced first phase, and may lead to further renegotiation.

The report [3] notes that if by January 2016 the conditions of the Development Framework Agreement have not been ‘fully satisfied’ the Council will have to find alternative ways of achieving its objectives.

How much housing?

The amount of housing included in the Plan is much less than the 7,500 units often quoted by the developers.  An appendix [4] reveals that a minimum of only 795 units is guaranteed in the first phase. Another 554 units are subject to ‘viability and cooperation with third parties’.

Public Inquiry needed

Alison Hopkins, a Dollis Hill resident,  speaking for the Brent Cross Coalition, said, ‘It is clear reading between the lines, that the Council is now contemplating serious delays and even the failure of the development. Even as they seek planning permission, fundamental negotiations with development partners are continuing and crucial key elements are undefined and not agreed while the amount of guaranteed housing is sharply scaled down. None of the claimed social benefits in terms of jobs and new housing would be delivered until an unknown and uncommitted dated far into the future. It is no surprise that the cabinet considered what could be done to safeguard Barnet’s reputation in the event of failure. The case for a full Public Inquiry is now overwhelming and imperative before a commitment is made to a scheme that could be a financial, economic and environmental disaster.’

References:

1. Agenda Item7 – Barnet Cabinet Meeting 21.10.09
2. Above report para 7.4.2
3. Above report para 7.5.2
4. Above report Appendix 2

The report is available at:

http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/reports/reportdetail.asp?ReportID=8579

Notes:

1. The “Coalition for a Sustainable Brent Cross Cricklewood Plan” comprises twelve residents’ associations plus Forum of Residents’ Associations in Barnet (representing the 12 largest residents’ associations in Barnet), Brent Cyclists, the North West London Light Railway (NWLLR) group, Brent Friends of the Earth (FoE), Barnet & Enfield FoE, Camden FoE, Sarah Teather (MP for Brent East), Dawn Butler (MP for Brent South), Labour and LibDem Councillors from Brent and Camden, Navin Shah (London Assembly Member for Brent and Harrow), Darren Johnson (London Assembly Member), Jean Lambert (London MEP), Brent Green Party, Barnet Green Party, and Bestway Group.

2.The petition to call the development in for a public inquiry is available at:

http://www.petition.co.uk/campaign_for_a_sustainable_brent_cross_cricklewood_development

3.Facts about Brent Cross and the Coalition are at:

Wikipedia – Brent Cross

Wikipedia – Coalition for a Sustainable Brent Cross Cricklewood

4. Coalition blog for breaking news is at: here

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.