Update letter to Include our Streets N12 supporters

Dear supporters, We have re-opened the Include our Streets N12 petition. Please pass this on and spread the word and help us build a bigger voice. Why have we re-opened the petition? 220+ supporters (both on paper and from change.org) petitioned to Barnet Council in response to the 2015/16 public consultation on School Admission Arrangements in Barnet. We asked for the catchment area at Moss Hall Infants school to be enlarged to Include our Streets N12. The consultation was a poor joke - with no punchline! Why ask us for our thoughts and then do nothing? We met with Barnet Council, and we were allowed 5 minutes to talk to a local area committee who then passed it on to another committee, the 'School's' (CELS) committee who subsequently voted not to do anything about it! They produced paperwork from a representation to the School's Adjudicator by a local parent (nothing to do with our campaign) from a few years earlier and the Council simply cut and pasted the Adjudicator's comments relating to the Moss Hall Infant School catchment area and didn't even bother to actually understand or respond to our arguments and concerns whatsoever. The fact that we had over 220 supporters was ignored - we were treated with contempt. Our facts and arguments ignored, the council decided to literally do nothing, the parents of children in the Include our Streets N12 area who failed to get a place at Moss Hall and the future parents who will also fail were not even considered. It didn't even matter than two lovely families have left our road and gone to new areas due to the frustration at not gaining a local school place! For these reasons we have decided to shout LOUDER. To not give up - although given Barnet Council's record, it is depressing to feel that this will always be a foregone conclusion! We are encouraged to engage in local politics, not to be apathetic, to get involved, to have a voice - but when you do find a voice, the council ignore you! How does this encourage residents and young people (the next generation) to engage or to even bother to vote! It sends the wrong message to all of us. Sometimes the people should be allowed to win. 1000s of residents regularly object to developments, they set up petitions like us and ultimately get over-ruled by Barnet Council's awful committee system of Governance (note, please sign the e-petition on Barnet Council's website to end the Committee System of Governance and to introduce a directly elected Mayor to Barnet: https://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=500000011&RPID=0&HPID=0). Hundreds said no to North Finchley's former Owen Owen site being turned into flats - the committee sided with the developers and allowed it. Hundreds of residents objected to an academy school building being developed on green belt land in NW7 (Copthall), both Labour & Conservative councillors failed to adhere to Barnet Council's own Unitary Development Plan, Chapter 5, Open Environment, 5.3 Detailed Policies - Green Belt (https://www.barnet.gov.uk/citizen-home/planning-conservation-and-building-control/unitary-development-plan/adopted-udp.html) and voted to ALLOW the development. Barnet Council have just voted to allow the demolition and extension of Barnet Copthall (Allianz) stadium's iconic west stand, within the green belt - Copthall is space for the people of Barnet to enjoy, I love the Saracen's but Copthall isn't theirs or Allianz's to develop into a super stadium it's for Barnet people to enjoy - the Council have already added double yellow lines to the roads within the site ending many years of free public parking - Sport for all, but only if you pay for it! The yellow lines and development will cause havoc for local streets = more CPZ's = more money for the council! It is all wrong! The parking services team is outsourced 'NSL' - a meaningless acronym - who, when you call their control room, explain that they work with 13 other London boroughs! A licence to print money! 850 Brent residents objected to the 2,000 home development at the Welsh Harp - they were ignored. Hundreds objected to the over-development of the Mill Hill, Millbrook Park Estate, they were ignored too. The list goes on. Barnet Council run a subsidised consultancy for developers, investors and landlords so that planning applications can be guaranteed and fast-tracked, developers are able to pay 'compensation' to Barnet Council in return for approval! Meanwhile NO such support exists for objectors. The council use 'Permitted Development' as the excuse to green-light any development and they fail to list important buildings such as pubs, historical buildings and industrial heritage as 'assets of community value' or employ 'Article 4 directions' that allow a local authority to protect a historic building that may be under threat. Barnet Council are on the side of developers NOT residents! These same developers, investors and landlords have built thousands of new 'luxury' flats near our local schools and now it's very difficult to get a local school place, one family house in Nether Street is now 14 flats and it's 50 yards from Moss Hall Infants School! The Council take no responsibility for this or the fact that the people living in the new flats will inevitably own cars, have children that need local schools, they will add to congestion and the over-subscription of our schools. The population of Barnet has increased by 80,000 since the 1990s. Between 1981 and 1990 the population of Barnet grew by a mere 300. Source: The Office of National Statistics. Barnet Council have known that Barnet's population was rising since the 1990s but they failed to build schools and created a crisis not only in school's but with congestion and pollution. Barnet has been designated as an Air Quality Management Area since 2001 because pollution levels are above World Health Organisation guideline levels! Barnet is unhealthy and despite Barnet Council claims that residents are 'satisfied', it is our finding that many residents are really not! 6 years ago, you could get a place at Moss Hall Infant School if you lived in the Include our Streets N12 area despite it being just outside the catchment. If you applied last year for a place you would appear at least 40 places down the waiting list. 3 years ago you would have been 20 places down the list. We know, because we applied last year and 3 years ago and we failed to get in, but, we we moved in to our house 6 years ago and the children from the house went to Moss Hall Infants and the Nursery. We now have to drive to a school outside of our local community. Most school's have a circular catchment area - but Moss Hall Infant School's catchment area is oblong denying residents from both east and west of the school, however the north area is least represented by schools - we just have one school to chose from - Northside. It takes 30 places per year and a high number are either siblings or children with special educational needs. The local councillors believe that the Wren Academy will be the answer to all our prayers, but the catchment for Wren is tiny with just a few more places available to the community as Northside. Barnet Council also green-lighted the recent development of over 150 new properties in two huge developments in the High Street, North Finchley but they are NOT in the catchment for ANY local primary school despite marketing brochures talking of great links to local schools! The short-sighted developments only heap further pressure on our local schools and roads and Barnet's (also out-sourced) School Admissions team will struggle to find school places for the children. One of the sites should have been turned into an all-through school, but sadly the developers won, children, parents and residents lost. One person I spoke to didn't want to sign our petition because it didn't affect him directly. Sorry, but that's no excuse not to sign. This affects children, their health and wellbeing. This particular gentleman was retired and for anyone who went to school before the 1990s, we must all remember that we ALL walked to school, we were all fit and sprightly and energetic. Modern kids need that too, not a comfy ride to school in a car, followed by 3 hours playing on an iPad! Help our children walk to school again by insisting on local school's for local children. Barnet Council have created a crisis. Barnet Council need to do more to reverse the damage. One of the first things they might consider - listen to residents! Thank you. Ian Include our Streets N12 Twitter: @IOSNTwelve