Agenda and minutes

Hendon Resident Forum

13 January 2016

Members Present:-

1.    General Budget Consultation 2016/17

At the invitation of the Chairman, Stephen Evans, Director of Strategy and Communications, gave a short presentation on the Council’s General Budget Consultation 2016/17 which runs from 18 December 2015 – 12 February 2016.     

Residents were advised that the consultation questionnaire can be accessed via the councils website (https://engage.barnet.gov.uk/commissioning-group/barnet-budget-consultation-2016-2017/consult_view) or as paper copies at council buildings including libraries.

2.    Environment Consultations

Residents were also advised of two environment consultation which were launching on 18 January 2016 with a closing date of 13 March 2016.  These consultations were for the Draft Parks and Open Spaces strategy and Draft Recycling and Waste Strategy. Barnet is now the most populous London borough and is set to grow further in the coming years.  Along with a booming population, the council faces financial challenges.  Members of the public were requested to get involved and give us their views about how we could manage those services in the future.

Draft Parks and Open Spaces Strategy

Residents were advised that Barnet has a collection of over 200 green spaces which are widely loved by residents.  At the heart of the new strategy is a vision that the borough’s parks and open spaces will:

i)     continue to make Barnet a desirable place to live and do business;

ii)    that parks can  improve the health of residents; and

iii)   that they help reduce pollution in the borough.  The strategy also supported the council’s commitment to ensuring the borough’s parks and green spaces were “amongst the best in London”.

The draft strategy set out five alternative options to the current Parks and Green Spaces service structure for how the borough’s parks and open spaces could be managed. These include shared public services, third party contract management, social enterprises and partnerships, trusts and foundations and area based precepts and levies.

Responding to questions from residents, Mr Chalmers advised the Forum that the proposals were not linked to budget savings, but were seeking to make the best use of the council’s 200 parks and open spaces.  It was noted that an aspiration of the strategy was that funding could be leveraged in from other sources

Recycling and Strategy

Residents were advised that key to the draft strategy was encouraging residents to take more responsibility over the waste they produced and to encouraging them to recycle more.  The four key aims were:

·           To provide services that help Barnet manage its environmental impact

·           To encourage residents to re-use more to manage costs of waste collection and disposal

·           To encourage residents, businesses and visitors to recycle the waste they produce, using enforcement where necessary

·           To embrace new technologies and ways of working that help improve the council’s waste and recycling service

The draft strategy outlined the council’s plans to provide every household in the borough, including people who lived in flats and above shops, with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.