Cllr Coleman then did one of his tour de force speeches and said "I have no confidence in that traffic expert and I have no faith in our Highways dept. They get every scheme wrong. We must go to outside consultants who know what they are talking about. Proper Experts. They don’t know what they are doing. They will cause harm for many years to the area."
When Councillor Coleman says that the Highways department have got every scheme wrong, he clearly means Partingdale Lane, which passes next to the new development. This was his baby and he's quite right. The Council wasted a million pounds on legal challenges. Another scheme that he got the Highways department to enact was road hump removal. Residents such as those in Uphill Road Mill Hill are up in arms, now that their sleepy residential roads have become race tracks for boy racers. We all know about the Aerodrome Road scheme, where the council overspent by £11 million on a £12 million budget. Councillor Coleman denounced the suggestions for the Brent Cross Railway scheme as "men playing with trainsets" despite the huge benefit both environmentally and financially to the Borough.
The truth is that when Brian Coleman says that he has no faith in Barnet Councils Highway Department, he is really berating his own performance as roads supremo and the failure of the Conservative Administration to manage the Highways department. The sad truth is that they have no idea how to improve the Boroughs transport. What Councillor Coleman is really saying is this
"We are clueless and we need to get someone who knows what they are doing to tell us how to run the show"If one of the most senior members of the Conservative administration is saying that after 8 years, the Tories have cocked up EVERY scheme in the borough and they are so clueless that they need to get someone to tell them how to run the show, then it is really time for the electors of Barnet to make the choice for them and kick them out of office. For the Mayor of Barnet to admit being useless three months before the election is truly unprecedented.
Rog
ReplyDeleteI don’t have a problem with the council hiring outside expert consultants. However, we are constantly being told that the reason we have to pay our chief officers six figure salaries is because you have to pay the best to get the best.
So if we are already paying for the best, why are these officers not up to the job? And if we are employing outside consultants, why can’t we get rid of a few more chiefs?
Couldn't have said it better myself
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