We asked, you said, we did

You can read more about this consultation here.

We asked

We asked for your views on proposals to changes to our Fairer Contributions charges.

You said

A total of 55 responses were received – 12 questionnaires were completed online and 43 paper questionnaires. Just over three quarters of respondents disagreed that introducing a charge for only those who use the service was fair. Four fifths of respondents opposed the introduction of an annual subscription. Of those that responded, almost a third of respondents (29%) said they would prefer to see an increase in Council Tax rather than a charge introduced.

38% of respondents said they currently use the service would continue to use it if a charge was introduced, and this is a relatively positive level of response compared with the take up rates seen in other London boroughs.

The majority of respondents who said they would consider using a chargeable service would be able to sign up online.

We did

The Adults and Safeguarding Committee agreed the proposed changes to the Fairer Contributions Policy Charges to take effect from 1 April 2020 – 31 March 2021

Regarding the increase in the Homecare rate – as a result of the consultation rates were increased from April 2021. We wrote to all clients in advance of increasing the charge to explain the new rate and confirm the date it would become effective. Notification letters were sent out to all clients in receipt of a chargeable service in March 2021, as part of the annual review in line with benefit increases, these letters detail how contributions are calculated and confirm how to appeal if appropriate.

We decided to delay the implementation of the one-off £300 charge until our Policy is updated and we have a system in place, with work scheduled to begin July 2021

You can read the full consultation results here.

You can read more about this consultation here.

We asked

We asked for your views on our draft Equalities, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Policy 2021-2025. The draft policy and action plan have been updated to reflect the progress that has been made since the policy was last published in 2013, and provides an overall vision and action plan for the next four years which aims to ensure the borough is a place which is fair, inclusive and safe for all its communities. The policy highlights how diverse our borough is and the importance that we reflect this diversity. It also outlines our commitment to go above and beyond our legal duties which local authorities must fulfil. We specifically asked for your views on the vision, the Strategic Equalities Objectives, the principles and approach, and our corresponding action plan which sets out how we will shape services for residents which actively address inequality and exclusion as well as the high standards the council will continue to expect of itself.

You said

We received 124 responses to the consultation. 90 respondents completed our questionnaire (82 online and eight easy-read paper questionnaires were completed), the questionnaire responses were mainly from Barnet residents. 28 residents also attended a virtual residents’ workshop, four members of the Barnet Multi Faith Forum were consulted through another virtual meeting, and two written responses were received by e-mail.

Overall, the feedback from the consultation was very positive with high levels of agreement for the vision, the new Strategic Equalities Objective, the principles, and how we plan to measure the success of the new policy. There were some suggestions on how the policy could be updated and these suggestions have been used to help inform the final policy.

You can read the full consultation findings here.

We did

As a result of the consultation feedback we have updated our Equalities, Diversity, and Inclusion Policy as follows:

EDI Vision: Some of the consultation responses asked for clearer clarification on the role of the council and its partners to be added into the policy’s vision and throughout the policy.

• the vision has been updated to further clarify the council’s role and to make it clearer that the policy will be achieved in partnership with community groups and residents. The whole policy has also been reviewed to ensure there is enough emphasis on the council’s role and how the council will deliver the policy
• the council’s strategic partners have also been referenced more and the policy has been updated to make it clearer that this is a policy that will be delivered in partnership with other agencies who we expect to share our values
• another section has been added on partnership working in particular with further reference on the Voluntary, Community and Faith Sectors (VCFS)
• to help address some concerns around a lack of clarity on how we will achieve these aims, and how success of the approach will be measured, more detail has been included on the EDI Policy’s approach and what we are doing to achieve the aims set out within the policy
• there were also a few comments within the different consultation strands that the vision should state how the council will deal with structural inequalities; however, after careful consideration it was felt there is sufficient emphasis on this.

Strategic Equalities Objective (SEO): There were some comments that the SEO was too vague with a call to reinstate the wording ‘Access to quality services’ which was included in the previous SEO. This wording has now been included.

Faith: Some respondents asked for more emphasis on faith to be added throughout the policy. The Barnet Multi-Faith Forum (BMFF) suggestion of including ‘play and pray’ into the council’s EDI vision has been incorporated and further references to this have been added to the rest of the policy.

Disability: There were some comments to include more references to disability in the policy, and further references to the needs and rights of disabled people. After careful consideration of these comments it was felt that references are balanced and equally addressed across each protected characteristic. Also, Section 3: Our Legal Duties outlines all the protected characteristics that are encompassed within the policy. However, the EDI Action Plan will be regularly reviewed and further actions for each protected characteristic will be addressed through this monitoring process.

Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities: Two responses were received by e-mail highlighting a lack of any mention of GRT communities. As with disability, it was felt that as these communities fall within the protected characteristic of Race, it would be unbalanced to make specific points about them. However, the needs of these communities and how the council can meet them will be considered through the EDI Action Plan.

EDI Action plan: Some respondents wanted to see more actions around: anti-racism campaigns; reaching out to all communities; supporting, and encouraging partners, and actions around making information accessible. The action plan has been reviewed to address these comments and will be updated over the life of the policy to ensure it includes more actions covering these areas.

The amended policy was approved and adopted by the Policy and Resources Committee on 16 June 2021. You can view the final Equalities, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Policy 2021-2025 here.

You can read more about this consultation here.

We asked

Following engagement with keys stakeholders on how we can help our Conservation Area Advisory Committees (CAACs) to work better, we asked for your views on establishing a borough-wide Heritage Advisory Panel, to deal with significant heritage in the borough and to improve the consistency of information provided and reach across the borough.

You said

We received 15 responses to the consultation. Whilst respondents agreed that a borough-wide approach was needed, there was less agreement on the changes to the existing CAAC arrangements and whether the creation of a new Heritage Advisory Panel would achieve its goals.

We did

Following the consultation a decision was made that the council would cease to provide a planning officer to attend CAAC meetings (in person or virtually) from 1 January 2021. The Council continues to publish all planning applications online and encourages each CAAC to use the online comment facility to submit their representations. It was also agreed a Heritage Advisory Panel would not be established in Barnet.

You can read more about this consultation here.

We asked

We asked for your views on the introduction of car parking charges to car parks in parks, to protect these particular car parks for park users and also to help generate income that would be used to offset the costs of maintaining the borough’s parks and open spaces.

You said

We received 537 responses to the online questionnaire and 11 written responses.

We did

The results on the consultation were reviewed and presented to the Environment Committee in March 2021 where the decision was taken to implement the proposals. The full committee report and consultation report can be found under Agenda Item 10 here

You can read more about this consultation here.

We asked

We asked you to share your views on the draft Growth Strategy 2020 - 2030. Specifically, we asked for your views on each of the three guiding principles, the five key priorities of the draft strategy, and our character-led spatial approach to delivering growth and associated infrastructure priorities borough-wide and across three main areas. The five key themes of the Growth Strategy are:

• A Growing Borough
• A Connected Borough
• An Entrepreneurial Borough
• A Borough of Thriving Town Centres
• A Great Borough to Live in and Visit

You said

The survey received 142 responses. Overall, they showed support for the strategy, with 54% of respondents agreeing with the aims and objectives of the strategy to some extent, in contrast to 15% of respondents disagreeing. The guiding principles outlined within the strategy were strongly supported, and 61% of respondents confirmed their agreement with the principles.

The strategy’s approach to growth was outlined through the strategic themes, which was strongly supported by respondents. All five strategic themes received support from respondents, with the Connected Borough theme seen as the most important; 86% of respondents supported the theme and 87% of respondents agreeing that “enabling new and enhanced public transport connections” was the most important objective within the strategy. By contrast, the objective to “Establish Brent Cross as a destination” was not considered as important by respondents, and subsequently this objective was integrated within a wider objective around ‘growing the visitor economy’.

The survey invited respondents to provide their views on the spatial approach to growth developed, which outlines the Council’s approach to growth in Barnet until 2030, based upon expected development. These were also supported by respondents, with 56% of respondents agreeing with the spatial approach to growth. Furthermore, the six boroughwide infrastructure priorities underpinning the strategic approach to growth were supported by respondents (84%).

Across the three spatial areas in the west, centre, and east of the borough, the connectivity priorities were identified as the most important, supporting the strategic theme, but interestingly the growing borough theme was completely split being identified as the most and least important priority in all three areas of the borough to some extent or other. It is thought this may reflect the difference between respondents indicating a view that housing affordability is most important, versus respondents indicating that the overall housing target and proposal to increase housing supply went too far.

Alongside the questions outlined above, respondents also had the opportunity to provide qualitative comments on the draft Growth Strategy 2030, and the five most frequently given responses related to environmental sustainability, infrastructure provision, affordable housing provision, protecting Barnet’s heritage and avoiding overdevelopment.

We did

All of the comments received in the consultation were fed into the final strategy and accompanying consultation report, which both went to Housing and Growth Committee on 27 January 2020. The comments around connectivity emphasised the importance of the theme on ‘Enabling new and enhanced public transport connections’, as well as sustainability and transport and development concerns to promote healthier street design. These comments informed the development of the final version of the Growth Strategy approved by Housing and Growth, as well as the Local Plan (Reg 18), Long Term Transport Strategy, approved at Environment Committee in September 2020, as well as the forthcoming Sustainability Strategy currently in development. Based upon some of the free text responses, amendments to the guiding principles and some of the detail of the proposed projects and outcomes have also been made, which were also compiled through a delivery plan to more explicitly set out proposed projects and programmes of work.

You can read more about this consultation here.

We asked

We asked about your awareness of harmful practices and the related services available. We wanted to understand how Barnet residents are affected by harmful practices and how to improve the support we provide. Harmful practices are discriminatory practices committed regularly over such long periods of time that communities and societies begin to consider them acceptable. Harmful practices can include female genital mutilation, honour-based violence, forced marriage, breast flattening and abuse linked to faith or belief.

You said

13% told us that you know someone who has been affected by harmful practices, showing it is affecting our communities. You told us that your main priority was education is schools (95% of respondents) and that it was important that we build confidence in communities to report abuse. You told us you are most comfortable contacting the police (52%) and least comfortable contacting the voluntary, community and faith sector (8%).

We did

We’ve implemented our strategy to address harmful practices in Barnet. This has included training for multi-agency frontline practitioners (across education, health, police, council and the voluntary, community and faith sector) to improve understanding about harmful practices and how to provide effective support. We held an event with young people and guest speakers to raise awareness about different kinds of harmful practices. We have worked with schools to share information about harmful practices so teachers are better equipped to identify and respond to harmful practices.

You can read more about this consultation here.

We asked

We asked for your views on the Final Draft of the Golders Green Town Centre Strategy.

You said

This consultation generated a lot of response with 54 people completing feedback forms, that demonstrated clear support, with over 70% of survey respondents agreeing with the overall vision. This level of support was maintained over the three ‘character areas’ identified, with only the Golders Green Hub area around the station falling below this, at 60% (but with 20% stating they were neutral regarding this area). This general level of support was also reflected in the face-to-face conversations with over 250 community members.

We did

The final strategy document has been revised in response to public consultation and the Final version of the strategy was taken to Housing and Growth Committee in January 2020 for adoption.

You can read more about this consultation here.

We asked

We asked for your views on the proposed reduction to the Published Admission Number (PAN) of Frith Manor and Dollis Primary Schools, both from 90 places to 60 places, on the grounds that the demand for school places in the local area has fallen and is unlikely to increase in the foreseeable future.

You said

For Dollis Primary, we received four responses. Three respondents agreed to the proposed reduction and the fourth tended to disagree. Respondents in favour of the proposal gave the reasons that children tend to thrive in smaller environments and the reduction made sense in view of the falling pupil roll. No reason was given against the proposed reduction.

For Frith Manor Primary, five responses were received; two respondents agreed to the proposal, two disagreed and one was indifferent. ‘Falling pupils numbers’ was reason given in favour of the proposed reduction. Those who opposed the proposal gave the reasons that Frith Manor is facing competition from another local school and it may attract more applications if it was part of a academy chain.

We did

The PAN for Dollis and Frith Manor Primary Schools was formerly been reduced from 90 to 60 places, with effect from 1 September 2021.

You can read more information about this consultation here.

We asked

We asked for your views on the Mill Hill Neighbourhood Forum designation application.

You said

The application generated a largely negative response (46 objections, eight supporters and four neutral). Objectors highlighted concerns about the proposed constitution and the Forum not being truly representative of the area.

We did

The application was withdrawn from the Strategic Planning Committee meeting on 22 June 2020 and therefore is no longer being considered.

You can read more information about this consultation here.

We asked

We asked for your views on the submission (Regulation 16) West Finchley Neighbourhood Plan submitted by the West Finchley Neighbourhood Forum.

We did

The consultation responses were sent to the appointed independent Examiner, Jill Kingaby, to consider as part of the examination of the West Finchley Neighbourhood Plan.