Mike Freer - Cutting back the costs

Mike has been busy recently trying to get the government to ease the financial strain on businesses and Council Tenants. At a meeting of London Councils, Mike forcefully argued for a freeze on business rates. Mike said that business rates were going up by 5% and London Councils should be arguing for them to be frozen in London. I don't think too many people (apart from Gordon Brown) would disagree with that.

In Mike's excellent Leader listens blog he details how Council tenants will face a rise fo between six and nine percent. Mike argues that this Government driven rise should be reconsidered, given the current financial climate.

One practical step Mike's council have introduced is to inroduce special parking permist for builders working on residents homes. This will help companies and residents who are involved in work improving homes.

This follows the success of the permits for religious leaders, which allows community leaders to buy Borough wide parking permits to allow visits for the needy.

We are lucky to have a council leader like Mike who cares about all sections of the community.

Another award for Mike Freer's Council

Barnet Council has been recognised for its innovative work with Muslim communities by the Government Office for London. The award, for Best Overall London Project, presented on 17th February at the Prevent 2009 One London Conference, is in recognition of the Council’s groundbreaking approach to engaging with members of Barnet’s Muslim community through the borough’s schools, community organisations, university and mosques.
Using research findings from one of its partners, Middlesex University, the Council designed its projects specifically to reflect the diversity of the borough’s Muslim community.
Among the projects undertaken by the council and carried out by the Barnet Muslim Engagement Partnership was the 2008 award-winning Madrassa Citizenship Programme which was adapted to fit mainstream, multi-faith schools. The programme aimed to improve inter-faith understanding among school pupils through a series of workshops taken by different faith leaders. Other programmes included empowering local Muslim women to become public influencers and increasing the self-esteem of south Asian, Somali and Afghani young people through performing arts, sports and national youth accreditations.
The project also succeeded in challenging myths in the community through its critically acclaimed exhibition ‘Muslims in Barnet’ portraying the positive contribution of Muslims engaged in daily life.

Commenting on the award Mike said “This award recognises and reflects the breadth of projects undertaken by the council across the whole of the Muslim community in Barnet over the last year, and our overall efforts to work with all faith communities.”
“Not only has our innovative approach in understanding the complexities of our local Muslim community helped increase self-esteem among residents, it has also been recognised by other government bodies who are looking to Barnet to see how to successfully deliver projects like this.”
“We are fortunate that our communities do live peaceably together and projects such as this continue our history of working with all faith communities across the borough.”

Barnet Leads the Way

Barnet Council is leading the way in London. Under the Leadership of Mike it has developed the most innovating and exciting website in London. I've put a few links to this so you can go straight there yourself. Check out the interesting and informative YouTube videos and the Fantastic pictures on the Flickr Site. See why people such as Boris are flocking to Barnet to see how a modern Council in the 21st Century does things. It makes me proud to live in Barnet.

When the going gets tough, Mike gets going

It's been a tough week for everyone. Barnet had the worst snowfall for years. It's times like this that I'm glad Mike Freer is the man in charge. Read this press release about how Barnet Gritters were on the road from 3am on Friday, in preparation for the snow.

http://www.barnet.gov.uk/highlights/adverse-weather-services/hazardous-weather-gritting-updates.htm

Read this story from the London Daily News to see how other boroughs have struggled

http://www.thelondondailynews.com/rubbish-snow-joke-londons-streets-mess-p-2331.html

You won't see too much thanks on the other blogs for Mike or the council's workers. You will here. Thanks