How to get the sack at Barnet Council - Andrew Travers gets the boot

How useless do you have to be to get the sack from the job of CEO of Barnet Council? This is a question I've asked myself on many occasion. The list of major cock ups that have caused major embarrassment is endless.

Here's just a few.

Getting sued by Catalyst (care home provider) because the private contractor wasn't making enough profits (but had seen an avoidable death and an outbreak of Legionella).

The Metpro scandal - Security firm operating for the council illegally, without SIO accreditation/CRB checks and overcharging.

Aerodrome Road - £11 million overspend on a £12 million budget.

Your Choice Barnet - Private company set up by council to run adult social care, which required a multi million bale out after a year.

Icelandic banks scandal - Millions lost as council tried to borrow money and play the markets (don't believe the spin, the council had huge interest charges to pay and huge lost interest on money).

But you don't get sacked for losing the taxpayers money in Barnet.

What about cocking up election arrangements?

Well Barnet did this in 2010 - Even Tory activists were saying it was outrageous and should be rerun. There was an inquiry and a whitewash. Did an heads roll? Of course not. Even though it was clear that the "irregularities" had cost Andrew Dismore the seat, it was swept under the carpet.

So imagine my surprise when I saw a report on the BBC that Andrew Travers, CEO of Barnet and election returning officer had been sacked.

The difference this time is that it seems the Tories think they were the ones who paid the price for the cock up. Here are a couple of tweets from Daniel Thomas, the beaten Tory candidate

1. Dan Thomas ‏@Daniel_Thomas81 May 7

   We all know why turnout in Barnet and Camden was lower than London average, the question is would it have made any difference?

2. Dan Thomas ‏@Daniel_Thomas81 May 7

   Just 100 people refused per polling station = 15,500 across borough. Many were people on the way to work.

He's not the only one. Tory GLA Leader Gareth Bacon has also been prattling on about it.

North London News ‏@NrthLondonNews 7h7 hours ago

Have Tories paid the price for election blunder in Barnet? @GarethBaconAM @Assembly_Tories Gareth Bacon Barnet Comments


So it is pretty clear to those of us who follow sucgh things. You can do what you like and it doesn't matter, so long as the Tories win in the election. If they think they've been shafted, you are out on your ear, before you can say Jack Robinson. I wonder how Andrew Dismore feels about this?