Make Barnet sustainable - and save money

Barnet Council's Conservative leaders have given themselves until December to come up with ideas to turn their Future Shape strategy into a serious policy rather than just a collection of political soundbites.
Here's my proposal: Abandon the dogma about 'cuts' and 'privatisation', which might end up costing more money rather than creating savings. If they want genuine buzz words I suggest 'sustainability' and 'solar panels'.
Birmingham Council has agreed a 100 million pounds scheme to create jobs and sharply reduce the city's carbon emissions. The project will start by giving an energy efficiency upgrade to 10,000 existing homes and energy savings in the retrofitted homes will generate funding for similar work on thousands more homes in the city.
Birmingham is a Conservative-Liberal Democrat administration so why can't Barnet's Tories come up with a similar plan that would create jobs, improve the lives of occupants of the improved homes and lead to a sharp reduction in energy costs and carbon emissions?
Before anyone asks where Barnet would get the initial funding, can I point out that Birmingham Council itself is only putting up 25 million pounds, ie roughly the amount that Barnet Council handed over to Icelandic banks.
I'm sure banks (British not Icelandic ones please!) would be eager to lend Barnet Council the money for an equivalent energy savings scheme and there might be ways of reducing the council's proportion to an even smaller percentage of costs.
The feed-in-tariffs which energy companies pay for power from sustainable sources mean, for instance, that photovoltaic panels can generate surplus electricity every year worth up to 10 percent of the cost of their installation. After ten years the panels are paid for and the electricity is pure profit.
Companies and syndicates are starting to spring up to develop rooftop “sun harvesting” operations and Barnet Council's thousands of homes, schools and other buildings would be an extremely attractive resource.
That's the kind of project that Future Shape should be looking at: dynamic, exciting, forward-looking, job-creating and sustainable.

Future Shape is so... shapeless

Barnet Green Party chairman Noel Lynch asks "where's the sense in Future Shape?" At least Green MEP Jean Lambert's insulation block HAS a shape
Barnet Green Party calls on Barnet Council’s Conservative administration to cancel its notorious Future Shape strategy after auditors Grant Thornton criticised the policy as lacking direction.

The damning report to the council’s audit committee by a team of expert professionals highlights that council leader Lynne Hillan and her cronies don’t have the faintest idea how much money Future Shape might save, nor do they have a serious programme for implementing the scheme.

“Grant Thornton’s report shows that Future Shape, better known as easyCouncil, is a complete mess,” says Andrew Newby, a Green Party candidate in East Finchley in this year's council election.

“Barnet Conservatives’ concept seems simply to be: ‘Let’s privatise as much as we can and hope it saves money’,” Newby said.

“I call on Barnet Council to cancel Future Shape and go back to the idea that local authorities exist to provide accountable, democratically-controlled services, assessed according to the needs of local residents rather than treated as a trial ground for baseless political dogmas.”

Grant Thornton’s report spells out clearly that the easyCouncil idea is all talk and no substance. The experts wrote: “The council needs to develop and agree a more fundamental mandate for the programme by developing a programme level business case that sets out the planned costs, benefits, time scales, risks and outcomes of the programme.”

Councillor Brian Coleman this week launched a typically childish tirade of insults against the organisers of the Barnet Alliance for Public Services but his outburst was no more than a desperate bid to distract attention from the fact that Future Shape is a shambles.

Newby said: “Grant Thornton’s report provides proof if any were needed that Future Shape is merely an attention-grabbing attempt to implement political dogma without a scrap of evidence that it could achieve real savings and efficiencies. Future Shape? It is definitely Shapeless and let us hope it has no Future.”

Even Coleman might be taken aback if he had any real idea of what happened at Thursday’s launch of the Alliance at the North London Business Park. Not only was the meeting well organised with a panel of prestigious speakers including film director Ken Loach, but more than 200 local people crowded the Emerald Suite to express their anger at the current threats to local schools, hospitals, social services and libraries. Hardly the “lone voices” imagined by Coleman.

Everyone went away fired up to campaign to save our vital local services and facilities.

“It became clear to me that though Tory councillors are eager to slash jobs and cut budgets, what really motivates them is privatising as many of the council’s services as possible. Council workers told the meeting of how they had asked fruitlessly for details of how outsourcing their particular operation would save money – it was obvious that there were no details,” Newby said.

Unfortunately, outsourcing privatisation often leads to greatly increased costs rather than savings, as Private Eye magazine spells out in case studies in almost every issue.

“It is far from proven that Barnet Council needs to make the humungous spending cuts that a being talked about but even if savings are necessary the first priorities should be to save jobs and avoid any hardship to people who use council services. Those are definitely not uppermost in the minds of Barnet’s Conservatives, who simply want to make a name for themselves with massive privatisations,” Newby said.

Barnet Greens earn 20,000 votes but denied seats

Barnet Green Party would like to thank everyone in the borough who voted Green in the national and local elections last week and we would particularly like to thank the dozens of people who helped out, some of whom contacted us out of the blue.

The number of Green votes in the Barnet borough elections almost doubled from 11,637 in 2006 to 20,388 this time, which would have entitled us to several councillors under a proportional election system. Unfortunately, the current winners-take-all system continues to deny us any seats on the council, demonstrating at a local level the urgent need for major electoral reform.

Thankfully Caroline Lucas managed to win the Greens’ first ever parliamentary seat when she triumphed in Brighton Pavilion constituency, while across the country additional Green councillors were elected in Bristol, Cambridge, Reigate, Reading and Hull, though the vagaries of the dreadful voting system and linking of the parliamentary and local elections meant we lost a few seats on some councils in London.

“As I monitored the count for East Finchley, the ward where I was a candidate, I saw that an enormous number of people had voted for names from two or three different parties, rather than backing three candidates from a single party. Judging from my strolls around the marquees where the votes were tallied, the trend was the same in other wards,” said Barnet Green Party press officer Andrew Newby.

This proves that a large proportion of people in Barnet borough really would like to see a balanced council, with a fair representation of all the political parties rather than the overwhelmingly Conservative administration that we are lumbered with.

Let us hope that the new British government, in whatever shape it may take, brings in a truly proportional voting system for local councils as well as for parliament.

Meanwhile, Barnet Green Party will continue to campaign on the many urgent local issues, not least our efforts to persuade the council to adopt a 20 mph speed limit in all residential streets in the borough. This would not only reduce accidents but make side streets more pleasant to walk or cycle along, improving people’s quality of life and boosting community spirit.

We will very much need your help in future and hope you will continue to support us as we begin preparations for the next major electoral challenge, the London Assembly elections in 2012, when we and activists across London will be fighting to increase the number of Green members of the London Assembly. Greens have played a key role in shaping policies on the assembly and could have even more influence if we win additional seats.

Lucasmania grows as Green policies top survey

Forget Cleggmania, what the media should be reporting is Lucasmania, reflecting the nationwide surge in support for the policies championed by Green Party leader Caroline Lucas.

Unheralded by national newspapers or television, the Green Party's pledges under various headings are by far the most popular policies in a giant survey being carried out by http://voteforpolicies.org.uk/

From more than 190,000 people who had completed the survey at the time I wrote this blog, Green policies have been selected as best by more than 26 percent of participants, with Labour second on 18.5 percent, the LibDems on around 18 percent, the Conservatives at 16 percent, UKIP on about 11 percent and BNP slightly less than 10 percent.

The special feature of the survey is that it does not tell you until afterwards which party each policy comes from. But it does show you that Green policies are liked by a large proportion of people, something which I have already discovered for myself while campaigning for the election.

I have lost count of the number of people living in the Hendon constituency who have said to me: “I like your policies but you aren't going to get in so I'm going to vote Labour to keep the Tories out.”

My personal view is that the three main parties are as bad as each other. None of them are proposing the policies this country needs such as scrapping British nuclear weapons, getting out of Afghanistan, stopping subsidies to sunset industries such as North Sea oil etc etc.

But it is hard to argue with the people whose first priority is to keep the Conservatives out when Britain's old fashioned electoral system rigidly maintains the traditional two-party system which has led to the current political crisis in this country.

A large proportion of voters have been alienated by the expenses scandal but the antiquated electoral system is forcing them to continue voting for people who have been deeply immersed in it and is denying people the chance to vote for much-needed electoral reform.

In 2005 Tony Blair and Labour managed to gain a majority of parliamentary seats even though the party received the votes of only 22 percent of British people entitled to participate.

This time it could be even worse. If David Cameron becomes the next prime minister he will lead a Conservative government whose policies are supported by barely 16 percent of people, if the Vote for Policies survey is accurate.

A hung parliament sounds a tempting idea but how do you avoid letting Cameron in or, equally bad, letting Gordon Brown stagger on for another five years?

The best way in my view is for everyone to vote with their consciences. Think what a political earthquake there would be on May 6th if 26 percent of people voted Green – the level our backing in the Vote for Policies survey.

That really would be Lucasmania.

Greens’ protest kite soars into the empty skies

A protest kite launched by Barnet Green Party was the only authorised craft in the skies above London on Sunday 18th, as Donald Lyven, the party’s candidate for Finchley and Golders Green, attempted to fly the kite to 140 metres, the height of the chimney at an incinerator planned as part of the Brent Cross Cricklewood development.

The flight, for which Donald obtained prior permission from the Civil Aviation Authority, mocked the Brent Cross Cricklewood developers’ denial that the 140 metre chimney will spew fumes across the whole of North London.

“Of course it will,” said Donald Lyven. “140 metres is an enormous height, (460 feet). The legal maximum height for flying a kite is less than half of that – 60 metres in fact. It seems crazy the developers expect to get away with building a polluting chimney 140 metres tall when we can only fly a kite to 60 metres.”

Donald, helped by the Greens’ Hendon candidate Andrew Newby, launched the two-&-a-half metre wide Giant Cody box kite into sunny plane-free skies as all commercial aircraft remained grounded over London because of volcanic dust in the upper atmosphere.

“The fact that volcanic dust from Iceland can halt air traffic over Britain shows just how far any kind of airborne pollution can travel,” he pointed out.

The Green Party were joined by other environmental groups and concerned residents at Clitterhouse Playing Fields, Claremont Road, NW2.

When pulled along, the kite soared above the expanse of the Playing Fields, a stone’s throw from where the Brent Cross Cricklewood developers want to build a chimney taller than any cathedral in Britain. “Unfortunately variable light winds prevented us from getting the kite as high as 140 metres, but that just shows how tall the chimney would be,” Donald said.

Andrew Saffrey, Golders Green candidate for the Green Party in the coming Barnet Council elections, believes the incinerator would blight Golders Green and spread pollution far and wide.

The waste incinerator has been dressed up in the consultation material as a “gasification plant” or a “CHP station”. Whatever it is called, it will emit large quantities of harmful emissions from a 140-metre chimney into the suburbs of North London, and produce tonnes of waste,” he said.

With prevailing winds taking these emissions to the east, the Boroughs of Enfield, Haringey and Waltham Forest would also be affected, as would the Counties of Essex and Hertfordshire,” he said.

Andrew Newby said: “When the Brent Cross Cricklewood plans came before Barnet Planning Committee its Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat members of the planning committee all just rolled over and let their tummies be tickled by the developers.

They approved the plans almost on the nod when the sheer number of objectors and the broad scope of the various objections – the incinerator is just one of many problems – meant that the only truly democratic decision would have been to call a public enquiry,” the Hendon candidate said.

Barnet Council needs a strong Green group to hold the administration to account not just on environmental policy but on jobs, housing, social issues and certainly planning,” he added.

Labour’s Communities Minister John Denham may have blocked the development for the moment but he has not ruled out approving the scheme after the election, still without the vital public inquiry needed to expose the many flaws in the scheme.

Andrew Saffrey said in his submission to the ministry: “With an estimated 29,000 vehicle trips a day predicted to be generated by this development, clearly this project is seriously jeopardising efforts to control and reduce CO2 emissions.”

Suggestions that a light-rail system is sorely needed to serve Brent Cross have been derided by Conservative councillors yet providing light rail has been enormously successful in other large-scale development projects, notably Canary Wharf,” he said.

Barnet Greens back public transport

Barnet Greens waved their Oyster cards to show their support for public transport as they gathered for the launch of the party's council election campaign.
The party is running 51 candidates across 19 wards, almost a full slate and easily the biggest contingent that the party has put up for election.
Its key pledges are:
Jobs: We will press Barnet Council to do more to help prepare local 16-24 year old people for the world of work and to help them find jobs.

Nationally, the Greens want to create a million new jobs through the Green New Deal.

Homes: We will work to ensure that Barnet Council takes serious steps to encourage the building of affordable homes to buy or for rent.

Barnet’s performance in meeting local housing needs is among the worst of all the London boroughs.

Insulation: The Greens’ national ambition is for free insulation in all homes. We plan to submit proposals to Barnet Council for improved policies on insulation for public and private homes.

20 mph Speed Limit: Barnet Green Party is proposing a 20 mph speed limit on all residential and shopping streets in the borough.

Lower limits lead to a sharp reduction in accidents and also reduce people’s sense of fear and danger. People walk and cycle more and feel safer about letting their children walk or cycle to school.

Public Transport: Greens will continue to campaign for better local bus services and will fight any threat to Tube services or ticket office staffing at stations in the borough.

Greens focus on jobs in Barnet election

Barnet Green Party is prioritising job creation in its pledges for both the national and local elections. Here are our pledges for the Barnet Council election on May 6th:

Jobs

We will press Barnet Council to do more to help prepare local 16-24 year old people for the world of work and to help them find jobs.

Nationally, the Greens want to create a million new jobs through the Green New Deal.

Homes

We will work to ensure that Barnet Council takes serious steps to encourage the building of affordable homes to buy or for rent.

Barnet’s performance in meeting local housing needs is among the worst of all the London boroughs.

Insulation

The Greens’ national ambition is for free insulation in all homes. We plan to submit proposals to Barnet Council for improved policies on insulation for public and private homes.

20 mph speed limit

Barnet Green Party is proposing a 20 mph speed limit on all residential and shopping streets in the borough.

Lower limits lead to a sharp reduction in accidents and also reduce people’s sense of fear and danger. People walk and cycle more and feel safer about letting their children walk or cycle to school.

Public transport

Greens in will continue to campaign for better local bus services and will fight any threat to Tube services or ticket office staffing at stations in the borough.

Green Party councillors in Barnet will also:

* Support community services such as libraries and post offices.
* Fight any new plans for major supermarkets in the area.
* Protect local parks, green spaces and allotments.
* Propose measures to help local businesses continue providing vital services to local people.
* Encourage a high visibility by local police and support officers to deter crime and make people feel safer.
* Spur Barnet Council to adopt a more sustainable approach

For further information contact Andrew.Newby@barnetgreenparty.co.uk

Tube ticket office plans could see off Boris

Reported plans by Transport for London to axe 800 tube station staff, affecting around 12 ticket offices in Barnet borough among dozens across London, could be the broken pledge too far that causes so many people to end their support for Boris Johnson that he will fail to win re-election if he stands again as Mayor of London in two years' time, predicts Andrew Newby, one of the Green Party's candidate for East Finchley in the Barnet Council elections on May 6th.

In 2007 when previous mayor Ken Livingstone announced plans to shut the ticket offices at Totteridge and Whetstone, West Finchley and Mill Hill East stations among 40 proposed closures, tube travellers were so keen to make their objections known that they literally grabbed draft protest letters from the hands of Barnet Green Party campaigners who offered them to people emerging from the local stations.

"Some people told us awful stories of problems they had had when no staff member was around to help them - elderly people who had had to climb over barriers, mothers with children in pushchairs who had had to lift the chairs over stubbornly closed barriers before climbing over themselves, and so on," Newby said.

Wily Ken backed off from his idea and so will Boris if he has any sense. Despite the impression given by the vociferous road lobby that most people rely on cars, in fact around 80 percent of people who work in central London commute by public transport every day and they deserve improved tube, train and bus services, not reduced.

The objections to reduced ticket office opening hours are as strong now as they were then - greater risk to everyone, delays to journeys, loss of revenue. Worst of all, the heightened feeling of insecurity when no staff are around might put some people off travelling by Underground altogether.

Barnet needs a 20 mph limit

Barnet Greens are calling for a 20 mph default speed limit on residential and shopping streets across the borough, using as a "case study" the problems in East Finchley's Church Lane.

As well as cutting the number of accidents, a 20 mph limit would be "good for children, cyclists and the planet," said Andrew Newby, who will be a candidate in East Finchley ward in the borough elections on May 6th.

Barnet Council's Conservative administration has had no credible road safety strategy for several years since Councillor Brian Coleman unilaterally decided to abolish speed humps, Newby said.

Peacemeal traffic calming controls remain in place on some streets but residents of many neighbourhoods across the borough are increasingly angry that their pleas for increased road safety measures near their homes and schools have fallen on deaf ears.

Barnet Green Party has decided to address the issue by proposing a 20 mph speed limit on all residential and shopping streets in the borough, in line with decisions already approved by Camden council, amongst others.

Barnet Greens are preparing a report on the proposal and will submit it to Barnet Council and ask councillors to back the idea.

"A 20 mph speed limit is proven to reduce accidents and also makes cycling or walking much more pleasant, such as for children going to school, if speeding traffic is no longer rushing by," Newby said.

Meet your Greens this -- Saturday

Barnet Green Party has selected East Finchley as its target ward for the borough council elections on May 6th and will officially launch its campaign in the ward this coming Saturday, February 13th.

The launch will take place outside Budgen’s supermarket on the High Road. We invite all local people to come along at about 11.00 am to meet ward candidates Noel Lynch, Steve Norman and Andrew Newby.

The Electoral Reform Society calculated that the number of votes achieved by Barnet Green Party in the last borough election in 2006 could have won six seats for the Greens under a fair system of proportional representation.

The present first-past-the-post system and the fact that our votes were spread widely across the borough meant that we were denied any seats, so this time we are focussing our campaign effort on East Finchley, the ward where we have greatest support.

In the London Mayoral election in 2008, around 25 percent of East Finchley participants voted Green as either their first or second choice. We only need to boost that score by a few percentage points to win the East Finchley council seats and secure a much-needed Green presence on Barnet Council.

Greens in several London boroughs, including neighbouring Camden, have won council seats by targeting certain wards and Barnet Greens are aiming to match that achievement this time.

The launch in East Finchley will be part of an action day that will also include canvassing around the ward and a stall outside Budgen’s. At the stall we will be collecting signatures in support of our campaigns for a new bus service between East Finchley and the Royal Free Hospital and for a 20 mph speed limit in East Finchley’s Church Lane as well as other local streets. We will also be collecting supporters for our call to Barnet Council’s pension fund to sell its BAe shares.

Our general election candidates Donald Lyven (Finchley & Golders Green), Kate Tansley (Chipping Barnet) and Andrew Newby (Hendon) will all be at the target ward launch.

Let's be eco-friendly in East Finchley

Everyone in East Finchley needs to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions they cause and adopt a more sustainable way of life to help in the worldwide fight against climate change. Why not start in 2010 with a 10 percent cut in your carbon footprint? We can still have fun Perkin the purrfect draught excluder while we adapt ourselves.

ANDREW NEWBY'S 10 WAYS YOU CAN LIVE MORE SUSTAINABLY IN 2010:

Food and clothing:

1/ Eat food grown in Britain when possible, to save on 'food miles' -- energy used in transporting imports. Eg, don't give up bananas but when you eat an apple make sure it is a British one.

2/ Eat meat no more than once or twice a week. Producing a kilogramme of beef uses ten times the resources needed to produce the equivalent amount of vegetarian food.

3/ Grown your own food. Grow fruit and vegetables in your garden or on the patio, where tomatoes, peppers and chillis will ripen nicely in pots. In a flat, grow herbs in pots on the windowsill.

ECO-FUN: 4/ Fed up with your clothes? Swap items with your friends instead of buying new garments that need a lot of energy to make and to import to Britain. Hold a clothes swap party!

Transport:

5/ Walk or cycle as much as possible, eg when going to the shops. It is good exercise, it will save you money and you will see sights and hear sounds you would have missed inside a vehicle.

6/ Use one of East Finchley's regular bus services or the underground instead of going by car. You can relax on buses and trains by reading or sleeping. If you are tired (or drunk!), public transport is the best way home.

ECO-FUN: 7/ When planning a holiday see if you can avoid travelling by air, which has a high carbon footprint. Try the Eurostar train to Paris – it's luxurious and can be cheap as a bargain flight.

In your home:

8/ Close your curtains at night. Day-to-day habits like closing your curtains and internal doors can lower your gas and electricity bills. You can save even more money by ensuring the loft and walls of your home are well insulated and by installing high-grade doubling glazing.

9/ To make a meal use a microwave instead of the oven, when suitable. On average, cooking a meal in a microwave uses only half the electricity of cooking the same food in an oven.

ECO-FUN: 10/ Sit under a duvet to watch television instead of turning up the heating in your living room. Better still, invite a friend to sit under the duvet with you.

Www.barnetgreenparty.co.uk
Http://eastfinchleygreens.blogspot.com

Greens back 20 mph limit for Church Lane -- and all residential streets

Greens in East Finchley are urging the introduction of a 20 mph speed limit on East Finchley's Church Lane and all the other residential and shopping streets in Barnet borough.

Barnet Council has fobbed off a call by East Finchley Village Residents Association for a 20 mph limit on Church Lane by saying some people will ignore the limit whatever it is set at.

There will always be tearaways who drive much too fast but the Greens point out there is a much larger proportion of people who drive at or no more than slightly above the prevailing speed limit – you can witness this on almost any road on any day.

"These more or less law abiding people will change their behaviour if a speed limit changes and it would therefore be very worthwhile to introduce a speed limit on part of Church Lane, East Finchley," said Noel Lynch, chair of Barnet Green Party and an East Finchley candidate for the council elections in May.

"Given that the average speed along the stretch is 29.5 mph while the limit is 30 mph, there is a strong chance that a 20 mph limit would bring the average speed down by a fair amount, making the road much safer and making life more pleasant for schoolchildren and other pedestrians using Church Lane," he said.

The danger and nuisance caused by speeding motorists do not just affect Church Lane of course but also blight many other roads in Barnet borough and the Green Party would like to see a 20 mph limit adopted for all Barnet residential and shopping streets, with appropriate enforcement measures.

Islington Council, at the initiative of a Green councillor, has just become the first borough in the country to adopt a 20 mph limit for all except principal roads and "it will be very interesting to see what the effect is not just in terms of road accident figures but in the percentage of children walking or cycling to school," Noel said.

Greens urge councils to act to cut bus fares

The Green Party of England and Wales has urged local authorities across the UK to take advantage of new legislation and cut bus fares.

An amendment to the Local Transport Act of 2008 which came into force this month enables local governments to create Quality Contract Schemes. Such provisions allow authorities the power to instate London style quality control over service provision including fares, timings and routes.

Caroline Lucas, Leader of the Green Party, said: "Greens welcome amendments to the law that allow for Quality Contract Schemes. We must make sure buses are a financially viable alternative to cars. While such provisions give local authorities a fantastic opportunity to move ahead with plans to reduce fares, the current government has done little to make buses an attractive option.

"In the past decade the cost of motoring has fallen by 13% in real terms whilst bus fares have risen by 17%, and funding for buses is poor compared to many of our European neighbours. In addition 53% of people would take the bus to work if the service was better [1]. Cutting bus fares is a sure fire way of easing congestion and pollution on city roads. The QCS's present a real chance to make this happen."

However the optimism over QCS's may be short lived. Exponents of the scheme have warned that local authorities must act quickly after reports surfaced that a Conservative government would repeal the part of the act that allows for QCS's in favour of a more competitive bus industry.

A spokesperson for the CBT (Campaign for Better Transport) said:

"Shadow Transport minister Stephen Hammond wants to scrap Quality Contracts. We advise Quality Contracts should thus be quickly approved, and that the Department should play an active role in encouraging and supporting local transport authorities who want to use these new powers. Currently bus services in the UK receive some of the lowest funding in Europe. A better funded and attractive bus system would do a good deal to lower carbon emissions and create more pleasant city environments."

Your Green candidates for East Finchley

The Green Party has selected Noel Lynch, Andrew Newby and Steve Norman as its candidates for
East Finchley ward in the Barnet Council elections to take place in May. East Finchley is Barnet
Green Party's top target ward and Noel, Andrew and Steve are aiming to win. Please vote for them!
Noel Lynch – long-time East Finchley campaigner

Green Party stalwart and former London Assembly member Noel
Lynch has campaigned in East Finchley for many years.
He is currently pushing for improvements to East Finchley's bus
links, in particular for a new route to the Royal Free Hospital.
Noel said: “London Greens are proposing the cancellation of
Boris Johnson's recent approval of a big rise in bus fares. Boris
doesn't care about ordinary people or the environment.”
Noel has fought to protect East Finchley and other
neighbourhood communities and has been a long-time champion
of small business.

Financial journalist Andrew Newby has had his home in the
borough for 23 years.
He is furious at Barnet Council's weak social and environmental
policies and its refusal to adopt the Sustainable Communities Act.
“Some Green policies are unglamorous, such as better insulation
of private and social housing, but they can save money and give
everyone a better quality of life,” he says.
In Totteridge ward in 2006 he doubled the Green Party vote,
beating Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates. In East Finchley
he aims to beat all other parties and win a council seat.

East Finchley-born Steve Norman is a professional gardener but it
wasn't just the environment which led him to join the Greens.
“I joined because of its policies on animal rights and civil
liberties issues. I am concerned about corporate interests being
given priority over human rights,” he said.
Steve himself coordinated a campaign against greyhound racing,
focussed on Walthamstow track, which has now closed down.
Steve first stood in East Finchley ward in 2005, campaigning
alongside Noel. In that year Noel and Andrew were the top polling
Barnet Greens, with Steve not far behind.

Greens say extend 603 route

Transport for London has rejected a petition signed by more than 400 people for a new bus route
from North Finchley via East Finchley to the Royal Free Hospital, on the grounds that the route
would require a subsidy estimated at more than 800,000 pounds a year.
Barnet Green Party, which raised the petition, is challenging the figures and has put forward a
modified proposal to run more journeys on the existing 603 route between Muswell Hill and Swiss
Cottage and to modify the route slightly to take it past the Royal Free.
Green members in the London Assembly will formally ask Mayor Boris Johnson to tell TfL to work
out the cost of an hourly service until midnight on the amended 603 route.
The daytime journeys would help people to reach the Royal Free and the Greens believe the
evening buses would be popular with people wanting to attend social events along the route, which
goes via East Finchley, Highgate village, Kenwood, The Spaniards Inn and Hampstead village.
The 603 currently operates only four journeys each way from Monday to Friday, two in the morning
and two in the afternoon, mainly to serve North London schools.
In response to the petition, David Brown, TfL's managing director for surface transport, told Green
Party London Assembly member Jenny Jones that the North Finchley to Royal Free route would not
attract enough passengers to justify the estimated subsidy.
But Andrew Newby, of the Green Party's East Finchley group, said: “TfL bases its rejection of a
new route on its estimate that there would be around 700 passenger trips per day if a 20 minute
service was provided. People in East Finchley know that far more people than that would use it,
reducing the amount of subsidy the route would require.”
“More and more Finchley people are being referred to the Royal Free Hospital. At the moment
people have to take two buses and it usually takes them over an hour to get from East Finchley to
the Royal Free.”
Brown also rejected other ideas for improving bus routes between East and North Finchley, linked
only by the 263. Extending route 17 to North Finchley would cost around 1.2 million pounds
according to TfL's calculations, while diverting some 134 buses via East Finchley would mean there
was insufficent capacity on the existing route at peak times, London's transport authority said.
“If we can get a service launched between East Finchley and the Royal Free we are certain it will be
successful. Once that is established we can go back to TfL and make the case for better links to
North Finchley and beyond,” Newby said.
“Many people in that area have said they would use a bus route to Hampstead and the Royal Free,”
he said.
A full copy of Brown's reply to Jones is on www.barnetgreenparty.co.uk.

Greens tell Boris: 'don't raise bus fares'

The Green Party's Darren Johnson will be aiming to freeze bus fares when he seeks to amend Mayor Boris Johnson's draft budget.

The £75m that the Mayor is raising from the 12 percent bus fare increase would instead be raised mostly from motorists, with the reinstatement of the £25 emissions charge on gas guzzlers and retention of the western extension of the congestion charge.
>
Responding to the London Mayor's consultation budget proposals for 2010/11, Darren Johnson said: "I will seek a reverse of this year's fare rises on the buses by urging the Assembly to support an amendment to the mayor's budget.

The Mayor's budget proposals will mean less money raised from car drivers, whilst public transport users are paying more. I want to see the Mayor protecting the poorer Londoners by freezing bus fares and making those who pollute more, pay more.

The Mayor claims that he has to increase bus fares whilst cutting bus services in order to fill a financial black hole, but a large part the deficit is created by for vanity projects such as scrapping bendy buses and dropping charges designed to discourage polluting cars."