Sam L Jacobs

When I was a local Councillor almost a decade ago I had one of the oddest casework experiences of my professional life. I got an email from a resident who was afraid to go onto her balcony because her kids had found a snake skin on it. Her and her children were now petrified of going outside, in what was a hot summer. The ask was: could I come round and find the snake on the balcony. Definitely not a core local Cllr duty, but I was intrigued. I replied: have you asked the housing association to look? Or a neighbour? The answer came back - no, they won't come round and do it and we don't know anyone who will go outside and look for us - please help. I lived a 3 minute walk from the property, and I wanted to help so after work the next day I went meet the family. I was shown (through a locked glass door and locked windows) the large balcony. It was built-in, with wooden slats and a space underneath where rain and leaves would gather. The resident and her kids were convinced the snake was still there. The ask: would I open the door, go on the balcony, find the snake and scare it away? I was getting quite nervous but decided to step outside... The whole family stood at the far side of the room as I paced up and down on the balcony, shone a torch in between the gaps in the slats and generally looked carefully for signs of life. But, no snake. I thought this would reassure and my Councillor duties would be done. But, no, they still did not want to go outside, even after my searching. What if the snake was still there and I'd missed it? So, at a loss, I called the leadership at the housing association. Have there been any other reports of a snake in the area? They said they'd check. A few days later, I get a call back. Actually, yes - we know what's happened. (!) One of the residents in a nearby tower block, c. 50 meters away, has pet snakes. The other day, it turns out, he was drying their shed snake skins on his balcony and one strangely went missing. So - it turned out that a snake skin had come loose from his washing line, wafted its way over the gardens and houses of Bromley-by-Bow one summer evening, and had landed on the balcony of the most snake-phobic household I had ever met. Just amazing. Happiest residents ever when I went back to tell them the good news!

Right now some £10m homes are paying less council tax than a normal family home. It's not right and it's not fair. So this government is changing it.

Some highlights, not an exhaustive list though: - Working closely with parents to lead the local smartphone free schools campaign, Barnet now first borough where schools are going smartphone free in unison from this month - High Barnet Post Office closure not going ahead, and it staying on the High Street - Negotiating an exclusive 25% discount for a highly effective car tracker project as part of my focus on car theft, where we had a packed Summit with the policing minister and I pledged to keep working on getting vehicle thefts down (thefts are down since the election) - Under Labour, 16 more local police officers in the borough since the election (from when I last checked) - Waiting lists falling in the Royal Free Trust area after a decade of increases - Working with Cllrs, getting Prince of Wales pub listed as an asset of community value and seeing it reopen earlier this year - Securing a free breakfast club pilot for Ashmole Primary (more coming!) - Holding FirstPort to account in Parliament and locally for residents of Millbrook Park, where things are improving. - Mayor of London adding Totteridge & Whetstone station to his longlist for step-free access for the first time - Stopped the plans for a Whetstone Bus Lane that wouldn't have worked given traffic and parking needed for businesses. - Campaigned against potential changes to parking charges, outcome tbc but hoping for a reasonable response from the Council. - Getting TfL to take service failure at Mill Hill East more seriously, Meet the Manager event and holding them to account. More to do. - Helping a local nursery open on time by getting Ofsted to prioritise it - Police taking action on shops selling illegal products in High Barnet because of my intervention, Hadley Local is closed now because I reported it - My office working very closely with the police and two schools in the patch who had their windows smashed in, update on this coming in a newsletter soon - but confidential just now. - Pushing the govt and council on road resurfacing funding and action, and seeing the results - many of the main roads are transformed in the borough over the last 18 months - Listening to residents at almost weekly street stalls and "Teas", where I've picked up lots of casework - And there are many individual bits of casework, which I will keep private of course, where I feel I and my team have made a difference in someone or a family's life. It's those private wins that can sometimes mean the most.

This week I met with @GNRailUK and @nationalrailenq to highlight the importance of step-free access at New Barnet & Oakleigh Park stations. Inaccessible stations limit opportunities to travel - public transport should work for everyone in our constituency.