Hadley Highstone

This is Hadley Highstone on the A1000 at the northern edge of High Barnet ward. In the past few weeks there have been two serious accidents on this stretch of road one of which resulted in the death of a Hadley resident.

The High Barnet Focus team have called for a pedestrian crossing on this stretch of road. A survey was conducted and we were told that a crossing was not warranted. Surely now that we have had these accidents this has to be seriously reviewed. I am told that there will be an investigation and recommendations will be made. I have also been told to wait for the outcome of that investigation as councillors should be advised by "advice from professionals officers".

I agree that we should follow a due process and take professional advice, but it was that advice that originally said that a pedestrian crossing was not required. There has to be room in the review process for input by residents and their elected representatives. If I wait until the review has been completed I will then be told that it is to late to have any input as the decision has been made.

So to those who would like me to keep quiet, sorry but it ain't going to happen. I will be leading the fight to make this road safer for the residents of Hadley Highstone and the surrounding area.

Full Council

Last night it was that time of the month again. The full Council meeting. It has to be one of the most pointless meetings that we have to endure. Firstly there are always more motions to debate than time allowed to debate them, so at the beginning of that part of the meeting the administration announces which motions it is going to take. The problem is that we do not know in advance what motions are going to be picked so we have to be prepared to speak on all of them. An utter waste of time which could be easily rectified by the Tories telling everyone in advance what motions they intend to debate.

Debate is a bit of a misnomer as the tories will stand up and say everything the administration is doing is wonderful whilst the opposition generally stands up and says the opposite almost regardless of the facts. I always think that if we are going to bother to speak on a motion then we may as well try and add something constructive to the debate. The problem is that it is never appreciated. Last night I spoke on a motion about cutting back the usage of plastic bags. I was supporting a tory motion but also asking what practical steps they intend to take to reduce consumption. No real answers from the tories other than to repeat the London Council proposal to introduce a levy. This is fine but how about some local initiatives. Motions that are passed as this one was generally go to the cabinet to be turned into policy. I actually think that there is a place somewhere deep in Hendon Town Hall where motions go to die. We certainly don't seem to see half of them again.

Then there were the policy items. Really these are just motions with another name. The administration item was about Barnets missing population and the problems with funding caused by poor, inaccurate statistics. There was (for a change) cross party agreement. We could have forgone the speeches and just agreed the motion but no. We had to sit through several speeches all basically saying the same thing in order to have a vote that we could have had half an hour before. The time saved could have allowed another motion to be debated. A little less of the silly party politics and we could have a useful meeting. Until then I guess we just sit there and wait in hope.