Stop Barnet - I want to get off! (Includes suggestions for things you can do to make Barnet a better place in 2012)

Just thought I'd let you know that I am still alive and I am still living in Barnet. Every time I went to put fingers to keyboard recently some fresh horror arose, worse than the last... that or I didn't get around to it! It is hard work earning a living and being mother to two demanding young cats.

But it has not escaped my notice that the borough is in some kind of political meltdown, not without a reaction by its hapless residents.

1. The council's crazy plan to let out some of its public parks for private hire has so far provoked a big public meeting and a petition, with more to follow, I'm sure.

• To contact the campaign around Victoria Park in Finchley email: SayNoToVictoriaParkEvents@gmail.com

• To sign the petition around Lyttelton Playing Fields, Barnet click here.

2. The council's bad relationship with Barnet FC has broken down irrevocably, it seems. I don't really get fandom but I recognise that I am in a tiny minority in this, and I do get football in general. I certainly get keeping a social focus in Barnet - we have few enough of them.

• To sign the petition to keep Barnet FC at Underhill click here.

3. And Barnet Council leader Richard "Clueless" Cornelius, in the teeth of the howling opposition from shopkeepers whose business is being hammered, persists in the disastrous move to cashless parking (let alone the move to privatisation). Has he not read this tale of woe from Westminster Council showing that pay-by-phone has lost the borough money?

• To sign the petition on Barnet Council's website calling on them to reverse this year's parking charge increases click here.

Barnet's Labour Group have called for an emergency council debate on the parking situation. If the debate goes ahead it is likely to take place on my birthday. I can't think of a more splendid way to spend one's birthday than sitting in the public gallery at such an important event. More details if I get them...

UPDATE: The council say no, apparently, to the request for a special meeting. The Labour Group will persist and try to get some movement in January, but the shopkeepers of Barnet were hoping for parking charges to be suspended over the Christmas period to help make up for the lousy year they have been having. (I hope the voters of Barnet, especially those normally inclined to vote Conservative, keep all of this in mind in elections to come.)