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.

In this update:

• Is track and trace working in Barnet? We raise concerns about the emerging testing system
• We clapped for the NHS. Now time for a more open approach on key worker immigration
• Our work to create healthy streets as the lockdown eases
• And an update on our MPs' weak responses to the Dominic Cummings scandal

• UPDATE, 27 May: We have received a response from Mike Freer which we have added to this article below

It is now clear that Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister's chief of staff, the most powerful unelected figure in the country, deliberately and repeatedly broke lockdown rules by visiting his family some 260 miles away from his primary residence.

A few weeks ago, the idea that the whole country would go into lockdown to defeat the coronavirus seemed unimaginable. And yet here we all are. In Barnet, tragically, COVID-19 has taken its toll. More than 1,200 cases of the disease have been recorded and very sadly some 350 Barnet residents have lost their lives. Our hearts go out to those whose lives have been affected by this terrible disease. We will never forget the bravery and self-sacrifice of the NHS staff and care workers, who have given their all in the past three months to keep our community safe.

Isabelle Parasram is the Liberal Democrat candidate for Chipping Barnet. Isabelle's priorities from day one will be to stop Brexit, fight for the investment we need in our public services, and give Chipping Barnet the voice it deserves.

Isabelle works across London as the head of chambers of a legal practice she founded after a lengthy career as a barrister in the public, private and charitable sectors. Isabelle has previously served as a school governor and as a charitable trustee of educational charities.

Clareine Enderby has been selected as the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate for Hendon.

Clareine comments, "I am honoured to have been chosen to fight the next election for the Liberal Democrats in Hendon. The Liberal Democrats won the European elections hands down across Barnet. There has been a real shift in public opinion. People are sick of the Brexit chaos caused by Johnson and aggravated by Corbyn's unclear and ineffective opposition. Most people just want to see the back of it so that we can focus on what is really important: health, education and tackling the threat of climate change.

I look forward to standing as the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Finchley and Golders Green. I will be leaving my constituents of Liverpool Wavertree with a heavy heart but as a family, trying to balance work with raising young children, we have made the decision to move full time to London at the next General Election.

I am absolutely delighted to let you know that Luciana Berger has accepted our invitation to join the Barnet Liberal Democrats - and become our prospective parliamentary candidate for Finchley and Golders Green constituency.

Luciana lives in the constituency, has a track record as a dedicated, hard-working MP and has an unwavering determination to see an end to the Brexit chaos now engulfing us.

She has the full support of myself, the whole Barnet executive and the former candidate for the constituency Clareine Enderby. We believe she will be a brilliant candidate in Finchley and Golders Green.

This is an exciting and invigorating development for the Lib Dems in Barnet.Our membership has quadrupled in four years (welcome to all who have just joined us!).

As the only credible remain party in this solidly remain borough, we swept the board in the recent euro elections, leaving Labour, the Tories and assorted Brexiteers floundering in our wake. We are ready to repeat this performance in a general election.

When that time comes, Luciana's energy, drive and campaigning skills will be a formidable force in the campaign. We will win in Finchley and Golders Green!

After the Liberal Democrat victory in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election, the Finchley and Golders Green's Liberal Democrat candidate urges local Labour voters to support her to Stop Brexit.

"We're likely to have a general election soon, and Labour can't win in Finchley and Golders Green right now," said Liberal Democrat candidate Clareine Enderby. "Labour's failure to deal properly with its anti-Semitism crisis has made it unelectable here. And its failure to adopt a clear stance on Brexit has made it not worth electing."

The Barnet Liberal Democrats are tonight celebrating their biggest result in Barnet, winning 28% of the vote.

Across London the Liberal Democrats topped the poll for the first time ever in a national election. Reflecting on their record-breaking haul of 3 seats Clareine Enderby, Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Finchley and Golders Green said, "our message was clear. Brexit is wreaking havoc in the UK. It is impacting on our ability to run an effective NHS, trade with confidence around the world and solve the Climate Emergency. The people of Barnet have roundly rejected the humiliation brought on this country by the Conservatives and the duplicity of Corbyn. The only way forward to resolve this crisis is to hold a People's Vote and stop this Brexit chaos."

The Liberal Democrats have won the Euro election in Barnet.

Liberal Democrats 27,423
The Brexit Party 17,089
Labour 15,980
Conservative 13,868
Green 9,761
Change UK 7,491

This is a great night for the Lib Dems in Barnet - and thank you to everyone who helped with the campaign. Our campaign against Brexit continues with increased vigour.

The Conservatives have failed Barnet. You can make Barnet a better place by voting for more Liberal Democrat Councillors this Thursday.

Our 8 priorities for Barnet are:

1. More Police
2. Protect our Greenbelt & stop overdevelpment
3. Support more secondary school places
4. Use builder's levies to fund more GP places
5. Reverse the disasterous Tory Library cuts
6. Adopt new streets to save residents money
7. Fix potholes properly and guarantee weekly bin collections
8. Review expensive OneBarnet contracts that are wasting millions.

The Liberal Democrats today received the backing of former Conservative Mill Hill Councillor Sury Khatri who was deselected by his own party in the run up to this year's Council Elections in Barnet.

Sury Khatri, who represented Mill Hill as a Conservative Councillor from 2010 until he resigned the whip in response to his deselection this year, said, "it has been an honour to serve as community champion for the residents of Mill Hill for 8 years. In that time I have tried my best to take up their issues and deliver real positive changes, such as the Diving Club, the future of the Library and with the many planning applications we have received. I fear though that my zealous advocacy for the residents of Mill Hill may have cost me the selection. As Cllr Dan Thomas [chair of Hendon Conservatives] lays the ground for his right wing and hard Brexit based leadership coup, he only wants 'yes' men in the Conservative group, and thus I have been discarded. Astonishing that after 8 years of serving the community, without a blemish on my record and more than a decade serving the party I have been silenced."

1 Continue our record of listening to you, and responding promptly to your concerns;

2 Ensure the Council deals promptly with broken roads and pavements, litter & potholes;

3 Guarantee weekly bin collections;

4 Oppose further cuts to our police, and promote community, outreach and youth projects, which tackle the root causes of crime;

Once again we have a full slate of 63 candidates across Barnet standing for a fairer and better Barnet. Below are all our candidates in each ward;

Chipping Barnet

Brunswick Park

Clareine Enderby

Michael Hughes

Roy Seger

Coppetts

Julia Hughes

Alexander Ollier

Melvyn Rees

East Barnet

David Bullen

Jon Finlayson

Sean Hooker

Watch Roger Tichborne, one of our excellent Lib Dem candidates for Mill Hill, highlight the dreadful state of our streets in Barnet. A danger to all road users, the Lib Dems will ensure that potholes are fixed quickly and checked to ensure they last. Barnet Deserves Better. Vote Liberal Democrats this May.

Responding the the Tory migration target of only "tens of thousands," Alasdair Hill, Liberal Democrat candidate for Hendon says;

"Immigration has made London the successful world city that it is today and the plans to cut immigration to the size of Mill Hill or Hendon, nationwide, is nothing short of an economic own goal.

Lord John Alderdice, former leader of the Alliance Party, Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly and a signatory of the Good Friday Agreement visited Chipping Barnet on Monday evening to publically endorse the Liberal Democrat Candidates in Barnet.

Discussing the difficulties in securing peace in Northern Ireland, Lord Alderdice spoke of the importance of rationality in the advancements of science, medicine, and politics, but said that mere rationality was not enough if people could persuade themselves to treat others as not entirely human beings because they were different in religion, colour, attitude or politics. There also had to be respect for human rights. However even the combination of rationality and rights has not prevented us from sliding into a bad and dangerous place today.

Over the past few days, millions will have shuddered at Conservative plans to fund social care.

Under the initial proposals, people who receive care at home will be required to fund the entire care cost until they reach their last £100,000 of assets which the State would allow them to keep. And for the first time, the value of their home will be taken into accound when meeting care costs.

The Liberal Democrats have announced they would plug funding gaps for the NHS and social care by putting a penny on income tax, in their first major manifesto commitment of the election campaign.

The tax would raise an additional £38.5 million for Barnet, with £26 million for the NHS and £12.5 million for social care each year.

This is the party's flagship spending commitment and its first major policy announcement for the election. The Liberal Democrats manifesto will also set out a 'five-point recovery plan' for NHS and social care services in their manifesto.

At least 70% of Brits would happily pay an extra 1p in every pound if that money was guaranteed to go to the NHS, an ITV poll found last October (link).

Liberal Democrat candidate for Chipping Barnet, Marisha Ray said:

"Right now across all of Barnet we are hearing complaints about waiting times, concerns about staffing and worry about a lack of mental health provision.

This weekend the Liberal Democrats formally adopted their candidates Jonathan Davies, Alasdair Hill and Marisha Ray to fight the seats of Finchley and Golders Green, Hendon and Chipping Barnet respectively.

Leading the adoption Lord Monroe Palmer of Childs Hill and vice chair of the Liberal Democrats Friends of Israel said;

A survey has revealed there are 22 tower blocks of 20 storeys or more in the pipeline in the Borough of Barnet, 18 in NW2 and 4 in NW9.

Liberal Democrat candidate for Finchley & Golders Green Jonathan Davies said -

"This appears to be massive over-development. Whilst tall buildings may be appropriate in Manhattan or Canary Wharf, this number of tower blocks will change the character of our suburban area and overshadow Childs Hill and Cricklewood. This will put even more pressure on school places, our local health service and the transport network. Local residents will be expecting the Labour Mayor and Tory Barnet Planning Committee to protect their local area."

Access to the EU Research Infrastructure and Horizon 2020 funding has been the bedrock of our research output. Over €80 billion of funding is open for the UK to access and the adversarial rhetoric about our relationship with the EU from the Conservatives puts this in jeopardy.

Many residents of Barnet, particularly those who worked at the National Institute of Medical Research in Mill Hill before the laboratories were relocated to Central London, rely on this funding for their livelihoods and for their ground-breaking research,

Membership of the Barnet Liberal Democrats has jumped sharply since May's announcement of the snap General Election on Tuesday.

There has been a 12% increase in membership in the first 12 hours of the campaign with people moving across from both Labour, Conservatives and people new to politics. New members have cited their dismay at, "Labour's supine opposition and failure to spell out the benefits of the EU" and that, "Liberal Democrats are the only principled party left post-brexit" who have the, "courage to expose Brexit for the economic and social justice disaster it is."

People in Hendon, Finchley and Golders Green and Chipping Barnet should vote for the Liberal Democrats to prevent a hard Brexit and protect the local economy, the party's three Barnet Parliamentary Candidates have announced today.

The Prime Minister today [Tuesday] called a snap General Election to be held on the 8^th June.

The Liberal Democrats are standing on a clear platform to prevent a hard Brexit by staying in the Single Market, and to give the British people the final say on the Brexit deal through a referendum.

A snap General Election has been called for 8th June 2017. If you want to support us in Barnet, please fill in the form at the foot of this page today.

Commenting on the Prime Minister's call for a General Election, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said:

"This election is your chance to change the direction of our country.

The Mill Hill Liberal Democrats took Spring cleaning to the local park this weekend to make safe the popular playground and preservation area and to highlight the problem of park and street cleaning in Barnet.

Mill Hill playground, preservation area and the surrounding Daws Lane pathways were cleared with a variety of hazardous materials including broken glass, used nappies and laughing gas canisters found.

Barnet Council voted on its 2017/18 budget plans last Tuesday.

What strikes me about the Conservatives is how complacent they are. They claim 75 per cent of residents feell the council is doing a good job. Yet my email inbox is overwhelmed with complaints. Street cleaning, broken pavements, car parking, planning enforcement, housing: the list is endless. Many relate to the council not responding.

Dear Dr Matthew Offord MP, Mr Mike Freer MP and Ms Theresa Villiers MP,

We the undersigned call on you, as our parliamentary representatives across Barnet, to publically support the right of EU citizens that live in the United Kingdom to remain here once the UK leaves the European Union, keeping their rights and obligations identical to those prior to the UK leaving the EU.

At the Barnet Planning Committee meeting last night (Wednesday 23^rd February) Labour and Conservative councillors voted 6-5 in favour of the Hasmonean School development on greenbelt land in Copthall, Mill Hill. Planning Officials recommended the rejection of the development plan on the basis of its, "location and its excessive footprint, [the Hasmonean School plan] represents inappropriate development within the Green Belt which would cause substantial harm to the fundamental intention and purposes of including land in the Green Belt."

WHAT do the Tories have against our pupils? First they cut the libraries. Now they cut the schools budget. Why are the Barnet Tories hell-bent on attacking opportunities for future generations? As a secondary school director of studies I see first-hand the struggles that schools face when their budgets are squeezed. The ability for me to fund enrichment activities for my students alongside funding for resources is reduced which, alongside the threat to recruiting, maintaining and training teaching staff, is a disaster for the education of our next generation. Whilst nobody will deny greater funding for schools elsewhere in the UK is a good thing, it should not be at the expense of others; why can't all schools have a boost in funding? Indeed whilst the Liberal Democrats were in government we increased the funding to schools in Hendon by over £17.5 million via the pupil premium. Now the Tories are slashing this by £500 per student per year across Barnet; and the local Conservative Party are openly supporting this! Let it not be forgotten that the Barnet Tories' record on supporting children is diabolical and their lack of backbone when challenging central government is astounding. For future Barnet pupils the prospect of reduced access to books and study space in libraries and a threat to resources and teaching staff at schools is a grim prospect indeed.

Across the country Liberal Democrats are campaigning to guarantee EU citizens who live and work in the UK the right to stay following Brexit. Here in Barnet many hundreds of EU citizens contribute massively to society through their work, businesses and their taxes. EU citzens are also our wifes and husbands, partners and children, parents and friends. Their part in our open and tolerant society should never be questioned.

Dozens of Liberal Democrat activists were out delivering the Spring edition of Childs Hill News across the ward this week. Highlights include;

• Cllr Jack Cohen's concerns over ineffective planning enforcements
• Dismay at the Tories' plans for Childs Hill Library
• News from Lord Palmer's work in the Lords on protections for tenants and renters.

(Reporter Rhys Handley, Barnet Times (04/02/2017))

A prominent figure in Barnet's Labour party has defected to the Lib Dems due to his "massive disappointment" with Labour's response to the Brexit vote.

Richard Logue, of Hammers Lane, is the former chair of Mill Hill Residents Association, a leading activist in the Save Barnet Libraries and was involved in the EU Remain campaign.

Scientists say it is a fact the older you get the quicker time appears to pass by. It is something to do with having so many memories stored in the brain. So here we are again another year drawing to a close.

In trying to recall the events of 2016 or looking forward to 20217, I am reminded of an exchange in the film Casablanca. Humphrey Bogart is asked "Where were you last night?" He replies "That's so long ago I don't remember." The next question "will I see you tonight?" He replies "I never make plans that far ahead."