An issue that will not go away was raised again when I held a regular ward surgery at the Railway Terraces. Some months ago Barnet Council painted double yellow lines. No one told the residents who awoke one morning to find Council Contractors hard at work.

It is true that Residents had been consulted but as the overwhelming majority who responded did not want double yellow lines they assumed that they would hear no more about it.

The Terraces are a designated conservation area. Any work is supposed to protect or enhance the neighbourhood. Double yellow lines in my opinion hardly fulfil either criterion. The residents are now trying to find out how come Barnet took this action despite the opposition.

A volley of emails has been fired off to the Council. So far the residents do not believe they have had satisfactory explanations. But one response they received looks odd. One interpretation of this response explaining why they did not have notice that lines would be painted is because the Council are saying if they had forewarned residents it would have led to residents asking the council questions ! You could not make it up.

Mention of which reminds me to report on last weeks Finchley and Golders Green Planning Sub Committee. Not much on the agenda but as usual plenty of entertainment. Objectors had turned up to oppose an extension to a property in Hampstead Way NW11.

One of the objectors warmed to his task. He railed (in a Garden Suburb-ish way) against the proposal describing the proposed extended property as “a testosterone fuelled house” I quite liked the description but it did not persuade the committee.

A planning application in my ward once again highlighted the frustration when developers appear to put two fingers up to the Local Planning Authority. The site in question is on The Finchley Road. It has been the subject of many planning applications. One of which was, in my opinion a preposterous attempt to demolish the house on the site and build a 33 bedroom hotel.

In 2006 we refused an application to convert the property into 7 self contained flats. A planning Inspector overturned the refusal and granted permission. Did the developer convert in accordance with this permission? What do you think?

Yep, they converted the premises to 11 flats. The Council found out, the neighbours are watching this one carefully. So to sort this out the developers were now asking the Committee to agree to nine flats. The planning officers took the view this would be acceptable.

I then got into my usual argument when developments are not built in accordance to planning consent. It goes along the lines, but yes we know there are in fact 11 flats. What are we doing to make them rectify this? And the answer comes back, yes but they now have permission for 9 . So, will the Council still take enforcement action to reduce the number? Will they set a deadline will they inspect the property? By now I had given up and despite a promise that something will be done, I made a note in my diary to follow up in December.