Dear All, Now that our lives are full of dust and in the near future will be full of rubbish, vermin, air pollution, traffic jams and other horrors I would like to take this opportunity to recap on what Residents Against Abbots Depot Committee have done in the last year to defend our doorstep. We have made representations to council meetings, Mayor of London, various other organisations, leafleted the area 5 times X 3000 leaflets in average. Managed to gather 1500 signatures and 700 objections on the Barnet planning application. We have also been running and updating our facebook and twitter accounts, our two change.org petitions and our email address and list. We have also appealed for donations to be able to take the Council to court. We have managed to gather about 600 pounds in total to do all the above. I, personally, have decided with this money (which we also used for printing the leaflets) to take the council to court. With the pro bono assistance of the Environmental Law Foundation. It was an Aarhus Claim which means that I was trying to defend my local environment with no specific gain to myself. That claim also limits my liability towards the council to 5k if I loose the case. I was warned that though I had a strong case, it would be difficult to get a judge to go against a local authority. So.... Barnet council's main line of defence was that it would be loosing 40m if this project did not go ahead and they did not evacuate Mill Hill in time. The Honourable Judge, though she did not dismiss the case without merit awarded me the whole of the 5k to pay to the council as it seems that one gets punished for 'getting out of line' and daring to defend its neighbourhood. And that was before the case even started. Of course I appealed and the cost went down to GBP 1500. But that is where our money finished. Please, note: Barnet council does not have the money to keep the libraries open and does not have the money for freedom passes for some of its citizens in need, BUT it can afford to pay GBP 250 per hour to defend its decision to bring the waste amongst our schools and into our lives. For those of you who are interested to read the whole case, I will be posting the most interesting documents in our facebook page in the next few days. I cannot do attachments here at this stage as they need sorting out. The case has over 700 pages but there is about 30 of them that should be known to all tax payers as they cost them almost 9k. I can also email anyone interested if you email me at barnetraad@gmail.com (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1409433536029416/) Weather permitting, we will also be in New Southgate recreation park at the Oakleigh rd south entrance on Saturday 25th June from 10am-12am. We will be there to answer questions and of course have the documents of the case there for anyone that wants to have a look at them and discuss them As for my GBP1500 owed to the council for daring to go against it? I am in the process of borrowing the money to send to council. In a letter from HB law dated 14 June, Barnet council is threatening legal action against me if I do not pay up until the 6th July. Once more congratulations to Barnet Council for looking after the welfare of its citizens. Kind regards Stamo