I kid you not. On Thursday 24th March, the Barnet Council audit committee meet to discuss the Corporate Risk management policy. I was intrigued to know what constituted a Corporate risk. Item 8 on the agenda -
http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/reports/reportdetail.asp?ReportID=10175 - explains how this works. Have a look at the numbers at the bottom of the page. On page 66 it explains what constitutes a political and a reputational risk. These are contained in this illustration (i've stuck the definition of catastrophic on the bottom of it).
So what have we had under the Hillan and Coleman regime. We had a leadership challenge caused by her poor judgement. I doubt that as a political risk anything could be greater than this. As the vote was split by a single vote, it is clear that "internal issues" prevented the Torys from working collaboratively. There have been a whole host of other political issues within the Tories which have shown them to be in catastrophic disarray. The Allowancegate scandal destroyed forever the notion that they were a political group interested in anything but lining there own pockets. The action to discipline Councillor Kate Salinger was highly divisive and the whole fiasco lead to Brian Coleman getting the sack as Tory chief whip.
Then there is the reputational damage. Hillan has become a national media laughing stock with her involvement in the OneBarnet/Future Shape/BarnetTrack scheme. When asked to explain the Easycouncil concept, she announced that developers could pay for their own planning officers, only to be informed this was illegal. Even more disasterous has been her refusal to take up Tory cabinet minister, Eric Pickles suggestion to allow open access to council meetings. Just today, Tory Councillor Danny "Imber" Seal made a none to veiled attack on Lynne Hillan in the Hendon Times. Following Hillans inept attempt to ban social media, he told the Times "We have some older members of the group who don’t understand social media and I want to educate them it’s a great way forward". The only elderly member who has come out against social media is Hillan. It is clear that Imber and his colleagues questions have moved well away from corporate priorities.It is clear that when Tory councillors speak to the press, portraying their leader as "elderly" and out of touch it is catastrophic for the reputation of the Council. There can be no question that public confidence has been eroded. No one thinks Hillan is a credible leader of the Council, outside of the cabal of Tory cabinet members who owe their allowances to her.
Then there is Brian Coleman. He has been a catastrophy for years. He regularly makes the National Press, be it for his Taxi expenses, his visits to the Standards Committee or his outburst against the British Olympic team. He even went so far as to "out" former Tory Leader Edward Heath, waiting till he'd died and couldn't put his side of the story.
Now according to the Risk management strategy, "immediate action" must be taken to deal with such catastrophies. A number of corrective measures may be required. If I was a Barnet Tory Councillor, I'd be looking to replace Hillan as leader and send Coleman to the back benches (assuming he wouldn't willingly go to the Outer Hebrides).
http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/reports/reportdetail.asp?ReportID=10175 - explains how this works. Have a look at the numbers at the bottom of the page. On page 66 it explains what constitutes a political and a reputational risk. These are contained in this illustration (i've stuck the definition of catastrophic on the bottom of it).
So what have we had under the Hillan and Coleman regime. We had a leadership challenge caused by her poor judgement. I doubt that as a political risk anything could be greater than this. As the vote was split by a single vote, it is clear that "internal issues" prevented the Torys from working collaboratively. There have been a whole host of other political issues within the Tories which have shown them to be in catastrophic disarray. The Allowancegate scandal destroyed forever the notion that they were a political group interested in anything but lining there own pockets. The action to discipline Councillor Kate Salinger was highly divisive and the whole fiasco lead to Brian Coleman getting the sack as Tory chief whip.
Then there is the reputational damage. Hillan has become a national media laughing stock with her involvement in the OneBarnet/Future Shape/BarnetTrack scheme. When asked to explain the Easycouncil concept, she announced that developers could pay for their own planning officers, only to be informed this was illegal. Even more disasterous has been her refusal to take up Tory cabinet minister, Eric Pickles suggestion to allow open access to council meetings. Just today, Tory Councillor Danny "Imber" Seal made a none to veiled attack on Lynne Hillan in the Hendon Times. Following Hillans inept attempt to ban social media, he told the Times "We have some older members of the group who don’t understand social media and I want to educate them it’s a great way forward". The only elderly member who has come out against social media is Hillan. It is clear that Imber and his colleagues questions have moved well away from corporate priorities.It is clear that when Tory councillors speak to the press, portraying their leader as "elderly" and out of touch it is catastrophic for the reputation of the Council. There can be no question that public confidence has been eroded. No one thinks Hillan is a credible leader of the Council, outside of the cabal of Tory cabinet members who owe their allowances to her.
Then there is Brian Coleman. He has been a catastrophy for years. He regularly makes the National Press, be it for his Taxi expenses, his visits to the Standards Committee or his outburst against the British Olympic team. He even went so far as to "out" former Tory Leader Edward Heath, waiting till he'd died and couldn't put his side of the story.
Now according to the Risk management strategy, "immediate action" must be taken to deal with such catastrophies. A number of corrective measures may be required. If I was a Barnet Tory Councillor, I'd be looking to replace Hillan as leader and send Coleman to the back benches (assuming he wouldn't willingly go to the Outer Hebrides).
The Barnet Council Engine has been ticking over on 'catastrophic' for some time.
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