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.