You can click on their name here to see what they actually do fir their money :-
http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/council/listcouncillorname.asp?intSubSectionID=13&intSectionID=9
Barnet Council staff have been issued redundancy notices three weeks before Xmas. This list shows how much each of these councillors is entitled to claim and how much they have claimed "because they are worth it"
As an example of how hard they work, Maureen Braun gets the extra £8,852 for chairing the Hendon Planning committee. Last night she couldn't be bothered to turn up. How many times a year do you think she has to go? How many times has she "bunked off". I picked a random selection to give you a flavour of how much each committee will net you. As you can see all of the talk of councillors not taking their allowances in full was, shall we say, rather wide of the mark (apart from Darryl Yawitch and Alison Cornelius- thumbs up to them).
How many councillors are getting redundancy notices to save costs? Silly question really
The Tories employ a "political officer" called Ricahrd Robeson at my expense (and yours assuming you are a Barnet Council Taxpayer). His job is to meake sure all of the Councillors in Barnet understand Conservative Policy. As Grant Schapps, Local Government Minister derided the increases for Tory Council Chairmen in Barnet, maybe you'd like to discuss this with him and ask him why he hasn't explained national party policy on this matter to the Barnet numpties - in the words of his press release :-
For more information contact Richard Robeson - 0208 359 2004 or Richard.robeson@barnet.gov.uk
I think that the day when the Tories decided to try and award themselves the massive pay increases was the day they issued themselves with a redundancy notice. I am sure that most Barnet residents are counting the days until this takes effect, ie the next local elections.
ReplyDeleteAs to the payments to absentee committee or Forum chairs: I think this is a very serious matter. Where is the promised new performance appraisal of councillors? How many times do chairs miss their committees? How many times when this occurs do they send a public explanation and apology for absence? If they don't turn up, is the payment seconded to the councillors who are substitutes? We pay the £15,333 for each of these posts, and we are entitled to know.
Mrs Angry
ReplyDeleteYou are mistaken if you think that Allowancegate will bring about a change in Administration. The reason Lynne Hillan tried to hike the allowances straight after the election was because:
1. She knows that very few people read or are influenced by local papers and blogs and do not know what goes on (or simply don’t care)
2. Most people who do know will have forgotten about it in 4 years time
3. Most people who are outraged by this believe that the opposition would have done exactly the same thing if they had thought of it first.
3. The opposition will remain to be completely useless for the remainder of the term allowing the Conservatives to get away with it.
Whilst Hillan did retreat slightly in the face of strong opposition, committee chairman still got their 50% rise and nobody talks about it anymore. You can be sure that the remainder will all get their increases eventually - by stealth if necessary.
Oh DCMD: you are in a grumpy mood this week ... is it that time of the month? In response to your points, may I politely reply:
ReplyDelete1. rubbish
2. no, they won't
3. I don't think so
3. (again: dreadful decline in standards of numeracy, you know)let's hope not
I still talk about the 54% increase at every opportunity.
And 83% of people opposed the warden cuts, but the Tories still got re-elected.
ReplyDeleteOpposition now is "Beyond" Middlebrand Labour ever since Alan Williams went beyond Labour.
ReplyDeleteI'm in it together with Dave on this one. Grant Schapps won't be repeating the same today having since put a few policies together because it's quite a bit EasyCouncil and H &F Council.