A few words from the Leader of Barnet Council - Mike Freer

Well thus far, Mike Freer hasn't taken up my offer to put his case for Cricklewood regeneration here. Could he be "Frit"? - to quote Lady Thatcher, Finchley's most famous and successful Tory.

He has, however, outlined more details of his Easycouncil scheme to make Barnet the Ryanair of Local authorities (Ryanair must be chuffed to be associated with Mike Freer's record). On his LEADERLISTENS.COM website he says the following :-

We no longer turn up and say “we are from the council, we think you need this”. We are moving to “we are from the council, what do you think you need?”.

Now let me remind you about the decision to abolish Sheltered Housing Wardens. As Mike Freer says, the Council did ask the residents for their views on the proposal. They spent tens of thousands on a consultation. What did the residents say? Well 85% of them said they liked their wardens, they wanted to keep them and that Freer's alternative scheme placed their lives at risk. So having asked them, what did Mike do? He totally ignored them and ploughed on, to public outrage.

What else does Mike say on the subject

Of course this involves help and advice from experts but where in the past there was a feeling that the council knew best, now we think you do.

Well again Mike is spot on in what he says. Barnet Council's ruling Tories thought they knew best about abolishing wardens. The residents disagreed and challenged this in the High Court and the Judge has ordered that the scheme be stopped pending a judicial review. If Mike had actually bothered to ask an expert, such as Yvonne Hossacks, the lawyer representing the residents, she'd have told him that his plans were dangerous and probably illegal.

Mike, listen to your own words. It's probably the best advice you could possibly take regarding the wardens decision.

You know that blogging about Mike Freer and Barnet Council is very easy really. You just wait for Mike to say something and then compare it with what he actually does in practice.