Brian Coleman - Arrogant, lazy and useless

I started work on this blog before I read the report on the Tomb tax in the Edgware Times (Click HERE to see). As is often the way, I start counting the cannonballs and a new delivery arrives. Well on to the newest information first. Brian Coleman receives £85,000 per annum from the taxpayer in the form of allowances for his roles as a Barnet Councillor/Cabinet member and as our local GLA member (Barnet and Camden). So what does he do for his £85,000?

Well in Barnet he seems to have responsibility for the part of the Council Budget which decides how much we pay to bury dead babies. His job should be to oversee the construction of the budget and make sure that the people of Barnet are protected from poor decisions made by Council Officers. It seems that they proposed a 10% hike (3 times the rate of inflation) in burial costs for children under 3. At the same time the costs of weddings and Civil Partnerships were frozen. Now most people I know plan their weddings. They save up for them and make sure they can afford them. I've got a friend who's baby died from Cot death. Unlike a wedding, a childs death is an awful experience. It is not planned for and not budgeted for. It is the most horrible thing I can imagine. If it were down to me, I'd make child burials free. Fortunately it is rather rare in Barnet. When it was pointed out to Brian Coleman that this horrendous rise had been inserted into the budget, he said council officers had failed to alert him to the proposal and that he will now consider what the increase will be.

"I think the answer will probably be an inflation-linked charge" he added.

Well I'm sorry Brian, but this response isn't good enough. You get paid a good wage, you shouldn't rely on officials to tell you. It is pure laziness. You should be there, going through the budget with a fine tooth comb. Let me remind you that you are a Tory. You should be going through the budget, looking for savings. If something looks excessive, get down on the shop floor and find out why. THAT IS YOUR JOB. There really is no excuse.

************ please note that this blog has been amended. I have been informed that Brian Coleman did attend the TFL seminar on Cross River Tram on 9th September despite not being listed as an attendee in the TFL brochure, therefore I have removed my criticism of Coleman for not attending the seminar. I would suggest that he asks for the report to be amended to show his attendance to avoid further confusion. Apologies to Brian Coleman for this error ***********

As I mentioned in my previous blog, Colemans response to the BCR proposal was arrogant. It seems that he can add Lazy and Useless to the list of failings. Maybe by the end of the year, we'll have a complete A-Z of what's wrong with Brian Coleman. At this rate, it may be much much sooner