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.