High Barnet Community Action Panel meeting

This is a summary of many of the points discussed at the recent High Barnet Community Action Panel meeting. As it is a neighbouring ward with a common boundary along Station Road many of their concerns also affect Oakleigh Ward.

There have been further incidences of eggs being thrown in the High Street at night time, 10.30pm – cctv has captured a black /dark blue 2 door smart car driving southbound along the high street. Unable to obtain registration number of the car. Please inform local residents etc and if anyone is able to get a registration number please inform Barnet SNT.

A reminder to you all that the Barnet Street Christmas Fair is on Sunday 6 December 2009.- 11am till 4pm

Burglaries are up at the moment, please make sure that car keys are not left just inside the front door, as rods are being used to retrieve and take cars. Report any suspicious activity/people etc direct to the police 999.

At the last meeting, one of the priorities set for the High Barnet Safer Neighbourhood team was to try to lobby the Council to delegate certain powers from the Council to the Safer neighbourhood teams e.g. dog fouling, litter and smoking in public places, and minor traffic offences.

At the moment, the enforcement of warnings, fines etc is solely down to the council, and it appears that there are no enforcement officers at the council to actually carry out these enforcements. You may have seen the front page article relating to this in the local newspaper, together with letters published in the papers.

The SNT, who are out on the streets daily and see and hear what is going on, are willing to take over these powers (which no one is implementing at the moment), but the council wont delegate these powers, for some bizarre reason. There appears not to be any actual enforcement officers in the council that can ticket offenders, and so blatant offenders are getting away with breaking the law. The police/PCSO’s meanwhile may see these offences right in front of their eyes, but can do nothing about them!!

Other Boroughs appear to have delegated powers, why not here?

Another priority set at the last meeting is for the SNT to be given use of a motor vehicle in order to carry out their duties effectively.

At the moment the team have no car, so they are unable to attend problems if anything is happening any distance from where they are at the time (potentially 6 miles from one end of the ward to the other). They have had use of a car for the last 4 years, and suddenly it is taken away from them. Yes, we understand they are to be on foot patrol, but at the same time, they cannot effectively cover the ward on foot, and as residents have become used to being able to telephone the team direct and request help, they have been able to deal with situations, arrests etc. Now the SNT will no longer be able to deal with these matters effectively.

I have been told that we cannot have the use of motor vehicle as a priority, but from what I understand, it is up to the residents who form the CAP to set the priorities, and if this is your priority we need to reiterate this to the Police.

We need to work on a strategy as to the way forward, and I would appreciate your input. Please let me have your comments on the above matters

Finally despite managing to get barnet police station open continuously during the day – it has now reverted to being closed between 10-11am and 6-7pm! Despite all our efforts to keep it open, it didn’t last long! However at the moment it is open 24 hours as the custody suites are being used in addition to Colindale, but this is only for a few weeks.

Simone Strauss, High Barnet CAP Chairman
e. highbarnet@hotmail.co.uk