Saturday 17 March 2012

Boris and his trips to Barnet

Having a look on Conservative Home website I came across a list of how often Mayor Boris Johnson has visited the London Boroughs during the last four years. The article was trying to show how Boris has made loads more visits than when Ken was Mayor. What I found mildly irritating was how few time Boris visited Barnet, the largest London borough, compared to some of the inner London Boroughs.

In the last 4 years Mr Johnson has visited Barnet 10 times. During the same period he visited:

Hammersmith & Fulham 17 times
Wandsworth 21 times
Camden 23 times
Kensington & Chelsea 24 times
Lambeth 28 times
Tower Hamlets 29 times
Southwark 40 times
Newham 42 times (possibly due to the Olympics)
Westminster 149 times

My view is that in Barnet we should see the Mayor a just as much as the inner London boroughs. Instead we get sent the bill and largely ignored. The cycle hire scheme doesn't really cut it in Barnet when you can't get a direct bus from Barnet General Hospital to either Chase Farm hospital or to the Royal Free.

Who ever is mayor after the election, they need to start taking Barnet a bit more seriously. 350,000 people don't like being ignored.

For the record Mr Reasonable supports none of the candidates and would prefer to see the entire GLA and mayoral role abolished along with the expensive representatives and advisors. Each borough could send along one of their representative (with no extra allowance) when London wide decisions need to be made.

3 comments:

  1. Yes, but they would send Brian.

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  2. Good point, baarnett ... in this election, even those who have reservations about the GLA, and cannot support any particular candidate must please consider the consequences should they not vote tactically to remove the present member. Another four years of Coleman? If residents decide not to vote or fail to support the one candidate who can beat him,he will be returned to power.

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  3. Just for the record, I meant I do not support any of the mayoral candidates. As for GLA candidates I shall of course vote tactically.

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