Mike gets the recognition he deserves

Check page 9 of the Hendon Times this week. There is a poll showing that 77% of Barnet Resident's think Mike is doing a great job. There is also a letter from Mr A Gupta saying that Mike has cut costs, eliminated waste and pulled council finances out of the red. It is great to see that ordinary people like what they see.

Welcome to Barnet's most successful blog !

It's a funny old world. I only started this blog to counter all of the nasty and unfair comments about Mike that various Barnet malcontents were continually publishing in the various Barnet blogs. It seems that these bloggers were rather upset to find that rather more people read Mike's leader listens blog (figures announced at the recent Hendon residents forum) than their rather dull efforts.

Well even Mike's fantastic blog cannot keep up with the Friends of Freer. We've put Google Analytics in to track us and it seems that a whopping 75,000 of you have visited in the last month. It seems that people rather like reading good news and what a great job Mike is doing. I really never ever expected this much interest ! Thank you

Yet again Mike leads the way !

It seems that Barnet is at last getting the respect it deserves under Mike Freer's leadership. It seems that even Hazel Blears is a big fan of Mike. She's been paying tribute to the innovative Future shape scheme, and has been praising Barnet for its pioneering and innovative approaches taken to involve local residents in shaping policy across the borough.

The use of social networking sites such as Youtube and Facebook, along with informal neighbourhood meetings known as Leader Listens are cited as improving dialogue with local people to give them a direct input into improving local services.

In response to the compliment Mike welcomed the support of the Communities Secretary and went on to say: “Our unique approach is now being copied across the country by other councils and public services showing that Barnet has been the trailblazer in bringing true public engagement to those the council serves.”

Good for the goose !

The various bloggers of Barnet have been in uproar recently. For year's they've been hurling insults at Mike. Recently he spoke frankly and honestly about his feelings regarding the criticism and guess what? They don't like it up em Mr Mainwarning

A criticism of Mike !

It may surprise you to know that the Friends of Freer are not completely uncritical of Mike !

One thing we've often asked him and he's yet to give us a satisfactory answer to, is why he's so nice to the 5 or so malcontents in Barnet who feel the need to post multiple comments on every single thing he does, no matter how good bad or indifferent. Mike meets lots of people every week who he gets on really well with, but it seems there are some people with nothing better to do than wait for Mike to say something and then make nasty comments.

Now the question The Friends of Freer ask ourselves is this. If these armchair critics are so clever, why haven't they got proper jobs? Any suggestions?

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.”