Barnet Council - Delusional Deputy Doesn't Do Democracy

So what sort of a "consultant" do you get for £17,000 a month if you are Barnet Council?

Well, you get one like Mr Andrew T. Ravers. Mr Ravers is the bloke who runs the Council when the Six Million Dollar man (assuming the current CEO Mr Nick "Yer Hubcaps" Walkley works for 20 years for Barnet Council on his current £200,000 a year salary) is off on a well earned holiday.

Today Mr Ravers sent an email to his staff, telling everyone what a marvellous job him and his colleagues had done - full story here - http://barnetfutureshape.blogspot.com/2011/03/barnet-ceos-weekly-broadcast.html - here is just one sentence -

The people putting together BBC London’s ‘council cuts’ coverage must have been thinking they had chosen the wrong place to send their political editor.

Even more disturbing he goes on :-

Understandably there were some protests but these never got out of hand and the democratic process was able to take place with residents present in the public gallery.

Ok, Mr Ravers - who pays your wages? That's right - we do, the residents. Sure residents were present in the public gallery, but that is far from the whole story.  The Hendon Times reported

There were angry scenes as several people were stopped from entering the gallery during the debate on this year’s budget at Hendon Town Hall last night.

Although police had given the green-light for people to go in the council’s private security contractors blocked their entry, in a bid to prevent further disruption.

In actual fact Mr Ravers comments are an insult to the people of Barnet. Nobody intended to "disrupt the proceedings". As detailed by this blog and all of the other Barnet Blogs, all we asked residents to do was video the proceedings for posterity. Council Leader Lynne Hillan stated that this was banned. We ascertained that the ban was illegal and so we video'd the meeting. I was one of many residents completely excluded from the meeting, many others were put in a side room, with a dodgy audio feed and no video at all.

Barnet residents are not stupid. There was never any talk of "stopping the council setting a legal budget". Despite many people disagreeing with the cuts, the whole emphasis of the campaign has been about trying to get the council to cut waste rather than front line services. As far as this blog is concerned, Mr Andrew T. Ravers is a big part of the problem. His "fees" of £17,000 a month would pay the entire wage bill for all ten lollipop patrols at schools in three months.

Whilst Mr Ravers clearly thinks the evening was a success, the fact the BBC sent their political editor is a victory for the anti cuts campaign. My blog stats tell me that three times as many people looked at my blog this Wednesday, compared to the same day last week. Same again Thursday. The local press have yet again given the council awful press. Mr Ravers comments are completely deluded. There was never any prospect of the Town Hall burning. The over the top security was a panicked and desperate overreaction (also a rather expensive one). It has  highlighted many further questions regarding how Barnet arranges it's security.

Mr Ravers reminds me of "comical Ali" in Bahgdad, claiming Saddam had beaten off the Americans as tanks rolled into town. What really annoys me though is the fact that I am paying for this deluded buffoon to make these pronouncements. Even more annoying is the fact that yet again, when there is important business, a Barnet Council boss is on holiday. Setting the budget is the most important meeting of the year. With the Tory government cuts, it is even more important this year. How on earth can Walkley justify a holiday this of all weeks.

Let me sum up the people running Barnet Council for you

The Leader Lynne Hillan - This week she pronounced in the press that the security arrangements were nothing to do with her.

The CEO of Barnet Council, Nick Walkley - On holiday

The new Deputy Mayor - Top priority collecting left over cakes and biscuits from the buffet.

The Deputy CEO - Mr Andrew Travers - thinks a meeting where many members of the public were excluded and those that got in were outraged was a resounding success.

Lord Help us all