Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better (Barnet Borough Liberal Democrats)

Barnet Borough Liberal Democrats <info@barnetlibdems.org.uk>

Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better

October 15, 2009 11:40 PM
By Cllr Jack Cohen in Hendon Times

I went walk about (not in the Australian Bush but along Cricklewood Broadway) last week end. It was organised by a resident group called North West Two. This group operate from the Brent Side of the Edgware Road. They are well organised and their campaign to make Cricklewood a better place to live is paying off.

It goes to show that local people can be very effective when they organise themselves into an effective force. They are of course also helped when the Local Council, in this instance Brent, are prepared to provide a little bit of money. I was shown the community notice board they had erected. Also they have hanging baskets on the lampposts and the side streets are adorned with small patches of flowers.

With us were Councillors from Brent and Camden. Cricklewood is the cross roads of three Councils. As we processed along the Broadway it was noticeable how clean the pavements were and in good repair.

So far so good until a resident from Barnet suggested I walk along the Broadway on the other Barnet side. What a mess in comparison. I saw broken paving, unsightly hoardings around an empty building site and overflowing sewerage. I had reported all of these previously to our Council Officers.

Well anything the Brent people can do we can do better (as the song goes from Annie Get Your Gun), which by the way I am off to see soon at the Young Vic starring Jane Horrocks. I digress. Well we are now pressing Barnet to put up hanging baskets on our side. The residents in Railway Terraces are hoping to arrange funding. We also wish to join Brent in putting up Christmas lights this year. And of course we want our pavements repaired.

One way Barnet Councillors and Residents can raise issues which affect them locally is by putting them on the agenda of the local Residents Forum. In a previous post I speculated whether the Finchley and Golders Green Forum is being allowed to "wither on the vine". The meeting scheduled for this week was cancelled at short notice. No reason has been given. Typically I had to learn why from a report in the Hendon Times. Seems the Council has blundered with the venue, but to my mind the meeting could still have gone ahead. But the end result is that residents have lost another opportunity to hold the Council to account as well as to have a dialogue how they would like to see their area improved.

I have on behalf of the Lib Dems put a motion to the next full Council meeting (November 3rd). This will call for action to work with Camden and Brent to coordinate improvements to Cricklewood.

Meanwhile the Brent Cross planning meeting saga goes on. I seem to be told different things each day. The latest is that the meeting scheduled for next Tuesday will not go ahead. However we apparently still have to turn up to vote to postpone the meeting. It will be rescheduled for the evenings of 18th and 19th November. This is to allow all those who wish to speak to do so. That is if Councillors at a special meeting of Council set to be held on the 3rd November agree. Surely there must be an easier way to sort this out.