Tuesday 18 March 2014

The immorality of Councillor allowances in Barnet

There is an election for councillors in Barnet in May. There are 63 council seats in 21 wards up for grabs. In Barnet we currently have councillors of all descriptions, the good, the bad and the extremely ugly. They all have one thing in common. They get an allowance of £10,000 for the job (some get much, much more if they are in the cabinet or committee chairmen). For this they are required simply to turn up to 2 council meetings a year. That is all. Now many of them do far more, some work their socks off for their communities, but some don't. Some do sweet FA for their ten grand. How many jobs are there where you simply get a bung and have to turn up twice a year? Now many argue that it is up to the electorate to decide if a councillor is a lazy, no good for nothing. The trouble is, most residents don't realise how much councillors are paid and how little some of them do. My view is that all councillors should have their full voting records and details of attendence listed on their profile on the council website. If people don't care, then that is up to them, but if they want councillors to do more than turn up twice a year, then they should be able to find the information in an easy manner. When I stood for council last time, many residents didn't even realise councillors got a penny and thought they did it out of the goodness of their hearts. They don't

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