• Barnet's Liberal Democrats call on Barnet Council to guarantee Free School Meals during October and December School holidays
• A local guarantee must apply for any future periods of lockdown and school closure

Liberal Democrats in Barnet are today calling on Barnet Council to step in where the government has failed on child hunger.

For years, Barnet's Tory-run council has ignored Finchley Central.

Now the neighbourhood faces a crisis - and your local Liberal Democrat team is sounding the alarm bell.

Finchley Central is Barnet's employment hub, which normally sees thousands of commuters every day. But home working means the high street is half empty.

Barnet has done it again. Last year they scrapped the Housing Committee and bundled it into their regeneration committee. Now the renamed Housing and Growth Committee has decided to get rid of housing policy altogether. The committee voted to hand over responsibility for drawing up its housing and homelessness strategy to Barnet Homes, the arms-length body that manages the borough's housing stock.

Years of local government funding cuts dictated from Whitehall have left Barnet Council ill-equipped to deal with the financial consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Council's Financial Performance and Contracts Committee met last month for the first time since January, and featured sobering discussions of the council's depleted reserves, which may yet fall below the permitted floor. A later investigation by BBC News found that Barnet is one of at least five English councils warning they may meet the criteria to, in effect, declare themselves bankrupt.

A planning application has been submitted for a 24-hour gaming centre, including slot machines and a bingo licence, at the site of the old NatWest building on the corner of Ballards Lane and Redbourne Avenue. If approved, the 'Merkur Cashino' would sit right in the heart of Finchley Central, directly opposite a pub, drawing vulnerable people into addictive gambling around the clock and causing widespread disturbance.

Photo credit: Instagram user @cleanairdulwich

Analysis by London Liberal Democrats shows that London boroughs have applied for a total of £30.1m of funding for 'Streetspace' initiatives designed to support the transformation of our streets in favour of active transport. With social distancing here to stay, we urgently need to make the best possible use of cycling - and Lib Dem-run boroughs have been among the most proactive in applying for funding.

It emerged this month that the government intends to turn our finely-balanced planning system into a free-for-all. According to an email sent to all councillors by Barnet's Director Planning and Building Control, the Tory government wants to allow homeowners to build up to two storeys above their properties, as long as neighbours approve. These new 'permitted development rights' are a recipe for monstrous and potentially unsafe house extensions; these eyesores will inevitably then be subdivided up into precarious HMOs (houses of multiple occupation).

In the past week, we have all shared in the anger at the brutal death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis. The way that US police forces have responded to lawful and peaceful protests has been nothing short of shocking. We stand in solidarity with black communities in the US, and are united in our condemnation of the violence, racism and harassment they face. And we stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter across the world, across the UK, and in our own borough of Barnet.