Barnet Council - it's tough at the top !

La la la , la la la, Happy days are here again, read this extract from the latest £140,000 + job advert for Barnet Council :-

It is a really exciting time to be working for the London Borough of Barnet. We’ve always prided ourselves on actually realising the grand plans that we speak about.

As a public service, I've listed the full details here on the Future Shape blog :-

http://barnetfutureshape.blogspot.com/2011/02/job-vacency-at-barnet-council-140000.html

As Council Leader Lynne Hillan says "We're all in it up to our necks together".

As Barnet public services are put to the torch, it's great to know some people are getting nice exciting jobs

Stop Press : Barnet Council withdraws report on New Jewish School from Cabinet resources meeting

Following the publication on the Barnet Leaks website of details of plans for the New Jewish school, Barnet Council have withdrawn the paper from consideration at tonights cabinet resources meeting. Nick Walkley announced this in a letter to a local resident, stating that more work was needed on the paper. I have published this letter on the Future Shape leaks website

http://barnetfutureshape.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-jewish-school-for-mill-hill-latest.html

From Mr Walkleys letter it was quite clear that the whole process was being rushed through. Barnet have made many costly mistakes rushing such papers through in the past. A typical case in point was the sale of Underhill Football ground. The resulting legal enquiry cost nearly a million pounds and the potential loss to the taxpayers of Barnet is several times that.

This blog has no objections to the concept of  a school for Jewish children in Mill Hill. We do however have many concerns about the fact that Barnet Council has a history of rushing things, not drawing up contracts properly and not paying sufficient regard to process. As a result, the whole community is left with huge bills. I completely understand the desire of parents pushing to get a good school for their children, I raised thousands of pounds to help rebuild my childrens school. I just urge those parents to make sure that Barnet Council do not botch the sale and end up with court cases, legal bills and delays due to "unforeseen circumstances".

Barnet Council always say "no one could have predicted that....." when things go wrong. I can predict one thing with absolute certainty. This isn't the only thing in Barnet which needs more time spent on it, more proper scrutiny doing and more attention to detail. Sadly whilst putting the details of this proposal on a blog will without doubt ensure that things are done properly, there are plenty of other things that will slip by.

A very Barnet Style of insurrection

Yet again Barnet Council is mentioned in the Evening Standard today (on page 2 of the West End Final edition). The story says "Councils "could need Police to pass cuts". The text says "Police were called to Barnet town hall last week and in Labour controlled Islington protestors in the public gallery drowned out councillors agreeing £52 million of cuts".

On page one of the Standard there was a headline "LIBYA ABLAZE" with a picture of a building burning down, with reports of hundreds of people being shot. So in terms of riots, how did the Hendon Town Hall massacre shape up (given that it was only knocked off the front page by such a story).Well in the front row of the public gallery, there was a lady in a wheelchair and a couple of pensioners. I suspect (although I may well be wrong, that I was the third or fourth youngest of the 17 people who asked a question and I'm 48).

As to the Police being called. There were several Police around before the meeting began. These weren't TSG riot police, just the normal bobbies who you ask where the loo is if you don't know the place. One of these was summoned to the council chamber and had to speak to a couple of members of the audience. One of these was a pensioner and the other was a lady who was a Doctor. The Policeman rather politely asked them both to be quiet or he'd have to ask them to leave. The two people in question stated they had a democratic right to free speech. The policeman agreed but asked them to be quiet. This was repeated several times as both the pensioner and the lady who was a Doctor were rather upset.

Quite a few of the rest of us chipped in as well, but not with the persistence to actually get a telling off. I must confess that I must confess that the walk out by the cabinet was really rather a poor show. It just demonstrated  what a spineless, cowardly bunch they were. At the point where they walked out a couple of extra bobbies were summoned from downstairs. They came, took one look at the crowd and walked off again. I've stood on Football terraces when trouble has kicked off, been to marches which have turned into riots. I've been in pubs where full scale brawls have taken place, with people losing eyes to broken glass & bottles. I'm a pacifist, so when I see the signs I leave. There was never the slightest chance of any violence whatsoever. The one thing that was patently clear was the "raging mob" was not out for violence. They were there to make a political point and have their say. I was probably identified by the bobby on duty as "a ringleader and potential troublemaker". What did it earn me?  A smile and a joke when I went home.

Councillors such as Hillan, Harper and Coleman clearly know that they are in the wrong. There has been an unprecedented level of spin about the meeting. Harper has tried to pretend that there were "respectable residents trying to make their point, being drowned out by a raging mob". I don't know if he's telling Porkies, got lousy eyesight or he's just plain stupid, but the "raging mob" were a bunch of respectable local residents who were riled by the pisstaking of the individuals at the cabinet table. There was anger at the meeting, people were highly upset, but in a dignified and reasonable way.

I have a theory as to why Hillan, Harper and Coleman made so much of the whole thing. Because they despise the people of Barnet and they'd probably have enjoyed it if the Old Bill had piled in and duffed me, a pensioner and a lady who is a Doctor up, in the hope that we'd not come back.

Sunday Express Front Page : Barnet Council parking Rip Off

The Front page of The Sunday Express

Guess what Council the Express is referring to - here's what they say :-

Barnet Council’s income from parking fees has more than doubled in four years from £2.2million to £4.7million. Police were called to a council meeting last week after residents in the north London borough protested at plans to double the cost of parking permits this year and raise the cost of a three-month visitor permit 400 per cent to £240.

Read more: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/230129Council-car-fees-rip-off#ixzz1EWRdixZf

The Sunday Express is one of the most staunchly Conservative papers. For Barnet's antics to be slagged off on their front page just shows what a basket case the Council is. Another Lynne Hillan/ Brian Coleman lead disaster. Can any Tory Councillor now doubt that you are plonkies lead by donkies

Urban Terrorism in Barnet - Simple ways to make bombs at home

I've just returned from the private viewing of the Harry Beck exhibition at the Church Farmhouse museum in Hendon. Harry Beck designed the modern tube map, a design classic, copied around the world.

Due to the Tory Council chopping it's budget, sadly this is the last exhibition at this iconic museum, the oldest standing building in Barnet. Well that's what we'd been told but today at the meeting it was announced that there will be one more exhibition squeezed in. This is the one we've all been waiting for :-

Urban Terrorism in Barnet - Simple Ways to Make Bombs at Home

Yes the Church Farmhouse museum is staging an exhibition dedicated to the struggle against the cuts ! For the youngsters there will be the chance to make Molotov Cocktails and practise using them in the beautiful gardens of the Museum. The local womens institute are holding workshops in how to conceal handguns in your bloomers and hand grenades in your handbag. The Rotary club have chipped in, making a film on how to sabotage a Gatso camera and best of all the Catholic Womens League are holding a cake making contest to find the best cake with a concealed weapon in, so your loved ones can break out of Barnet nick.

Local Police boss, Neil Basu stated at "Well as the Council are going around vandalising the Borough and wrecking local services, it would violate our equal opportunities policy of we stopped residents doing the same. We did consider sending a PCSO down to the class to make sure the Molotov Cocktails for Kids conformed to the Health and Safety guidelines for Urban Terrorism classes, but we decided that nicking old ladies for parking on yellow lines was a higher priority"

Leader of Barnet Council, Lynne Hillan added "Barnet believes in Big Society. We believe that the public should be fully involved in the process of cuts and if we can get them to blow up a few libraries, that will save us a fortune">

Local MP, Matthew Offord, who attended the private viewing, along with esteemed and well respected councillor John Hart added "Harry Beck changed the design of the tube map forever, with the new exhibition  we're rather hoping that the whole place might get burned down and that will free up space for a nice new Tescos on the site".

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Ok, you probably guessed by now. There is no "Urban Terrorism in Barnet" exhibition as I described at the Church Farmhouse Museum as such. Sadly though, I beleive that the closure in itself amounts to an act of Urban Terrorism by a bunch of right wing extremists. Whilst 52 people were killed in horrific circumstances during the 7/7 bombings (some from Barnet), I believe that the agenda of cuts will kill far more people in Barnet as they are implemented. They won't die as a result of bombs, but as the elderly suffer falls, injury and worst of all stress due to decisions such as warden cuts, the toll will slowly and silently mount up. The situation with the Catalyst Care homes is an example. This week it was announced that Legionella was found in the water. I spoke to a friend who runs an air conditioning company. He told me that the conditions in which Legionella thrives are well known as are the regular maintenance procedures to prevent it. It is his view that there has been systemic failure for this to break out at 2 local care homes.

I'm rather glad we don't suffer from Urban Terrorism and I'm rather glad that we don't solve our problems by making bombs. What does disturb me is the fact that our elected officials are not listening. The one item of what I wrote above which was true was the fact that Matthew Offord MP and Councillor John Hart were at the private view. I sincerely hope that these two come out publicly in favour of Church Farm Museum and persuade their colleagues to preserve it for future generations.

Church Farm Museum was described by a senior councillor recently as "a nice to have". If he believes that history, culture and identity are merely "nice to have's" lord help us all. I don't know about you, but I care about where I live and I want know about the history of the Borough. There is a word for not knowing something - Ignorance.

Author Mark Billingham supports the Save Barnets Libraries Campaign

Mark Billingham is a Barnet resident whose best-selling novels include Barnet locations such as Colindale Police Station and The British Newspaper Library. He created the character Detective Inspector Tom Thorne whose exploits have been adapted into the successful Sky One TV series ‘Thorne’ in which the role is played by David Morrisey.

Mark has joined a 1,000 other residents by signing the ‘Save Our Libraries’ petition online. He comments:

Without the use of my local library when I was a kid I would never have discovered books and, put simply, my life would not have been changed for the better. We should fight tooth and nail to keep every library open.

You can join Mark and sign the petition online here:

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petition/39319.html

Local Tory Library supremo, Councillor Robert Rams takes a different view to Mark on Libraries. He stated that people should get books from their local Tescos and that local libraries could be turned into branches of Starbucks. That is what we are up against !

A lesson for Councillor Andrew Harper in what is unfair

Ah diddums. I have been informed that the Deputy Leader of Barnet Council, Andrew Harper thinks some of the comments about him in this blog are "a bit unfair". Well Mr poor didumkins, let me explain what I think is unfair. Then maybe you'll understand why myself and an ever increasing number of people in Barnet, from across the political spectrum think you are not deserving of respect.

Rog T's Top ten list of things which are unfair in Barnet

1. Elderly and disabled people in Sheltered Housing are having their wardens taken away by Barnet Council, despite and overwhelming majority asking to keep them in the official consultation.

2. Childrens lives being placed in danger, by removal of funding for Lollipop men/ladies, saving less than £45,000 in wages. A sum which is far less than the cost of increases in allowances to Barnet Tory Committee chairmen, voted through just after the Council elections.

3. Shutting of various Childrens services around the Borough, removing vital support for young people. Sadly Barnet have not learned the lessons of the tragic death of Marvin Henry.

4. The Library Closure program. Despite Barnet being committed to Consult, they have not informed us or discussed with interested parties any of their plans or allowed us to make the case for retention of specific libraries.

5. Barnet Council outsourced care homes to a company called Catalyst. This company insisted a clause was put in the contract which guaranteed extra profits for them. Barnet then failed to pay and recently lost a court case, resulting in £8 million being taken from the social care budget, to pay the shareholders of private companies (Note : This week it was announce that two of these care homes had Legionalla, a deadly bacteria, in the water systems).

6. Barnet Council Tories have made catastrophic blunders with money, resulting in over £54 million worth of losses to the taxpayer of Barnet (£27.4 Million in Icelandic Banks + £3 million lost interest, £11 million overspend in Aerodrome Road, £8 Million lost to Catalyst Court Case, £1 million legal fees etc for Underhill enquiry, £1 million legal fees for reopening Partingdale Lane, £5 Million wasted on reports for Future Shape projects + Consultants fees, delivering zero savings after three years). Who has picked up the tab? The Taxpayer. Who copped a payrise? The Barnet Tory Council leaders. Who copped a promotion the leader and deputy, who are now MP's.

7. The 800 Barnet Council staff have been served redundancy notices. At the same time senior council posts are occupied by contractors, using shell companies to "optimise" their tax status. Some of these receive up to £17,000 a month.

8. Residents wishing to ask questions of the cabinet at a recent open meeting were mocked and laughed at by elected officials and treated with total disdain. The local press then gave a full article to Lynne Hillan to tell blatent porkies about the meeting. Residents who were present were given no opportunity to respond to her fabrications.

9. Tory Councillor John Hart insulted a member of the public and was immediately stripped of all responsibility by Lynne Hillan. He is not a member of her inner circle. Councillor Brian Coleman has insulted members of the public on numerous occasions, has lost a Standards complaint case for doing just this, has recently been reported again for such behaviour and yet is allowed to carry on with his cabinet job. He is a member of Lynne Hillans inner circle.

10. Tory MP for Hendon, Matthew Offord used Parliamentary privilige to attack a disaffected member of the Hendon Conservative Party. Not a single local Tory Councillor, many of whom were helped by the man in question Adrian Murray-Leonard, has publicly stated that Offord was not telling the truth, despite the many hours Mr Murray-Leonard put in to help them get re-elected. They all know the truth of the accusation and the real motive for saying it.

So Mr Harper, please tell me why you think all of this, which as a senior Barnet Tory, you could easily sort out is fair. Tell us why you think that a man who can not only tolerate this, but is up to his neck in it is worthy of respect. As deputy Leader of the Barnet Conservatives and a cabinet member for several years, there is not one thing on this list that isn't covered in your fingerprints.

If you are a party to the sort of obnoxious behaviour and policies as outlined above, you really need to "Man up" take it on the chin and stop whinging. You'd better get used to it because as your policies sink in, it will get far, far worse.

Say no to 0870 - Don't let these robbers rip you off - Shame on Talk Talk

And now for something completely different. Of the many things this blog tries to do, one is to stop us all being ripped off. A massive thank you to my good mate Brian Maskall for this tip. Yesterday I had to ring Talk Talk to cancel an account. I got my bill and was just about to ring when Brian said "Don't ring that number, it's a premium rate line". This means you don't get charged the normal cost of a call, you pay a fortune. I responded "But I need to ring them up". Brian responded "I think you'll find that if you go to the Say No to 0870 website, you'll find a normal rate number there." So id followed his advice and sure enough I did. Guess what? Talk Talk passed me from pillar to post. I was on the phone for half an hour and I still didn't manage to even speak to the right department. The final operator I spoke to said "I have to transfer you to customer services" and at that, the line went dead. I will be reporting Talk Talk to OFCOM. I was only calling them as they didn't cancel the account when I wrote to them. This is sharp practice and a rip off. If any utility, phone co etc puts a number starting "087" on your bill as a contact, you will be ripped off. You can avoid this by visiting this website :-

http://www.saynoto0870.com/

Click on the dialog line (near top left hand corner of the page) that says "search to find an alternative number".

I reckon I saved between £14 and £30 as a result of this yesterday. Please pass this tip on.

Councillor Andrew Harper - A very very bad boy

Mrs Angry has pointed out how deputy leader of Barnet Council, Andrew Harper always refers to Leader Lynne Hillan as "Madame Leader". Following his revelation that he "wants to go with Model X" at a recent council meeting, the Barnet Eye has been greatly amusing ourselves by doing a Google Image search on various keywords with Andrew Harper. It seemed logical to do a search of  the keywords ANDREW HARPER MADAME LEADER. Guess what popped up? Amongst other things this image :-

According to the Daily Mail, this is Madame Lash, a notorious Australian dominatrix. Now whilst there is clearly no connection between our esteemed deputy leader and this lady, it did cause me to reflect on the Cabinet of Barnet Council. With a couple of notable exceptions, all of the men come across as a bunch of rather weak, ineffectual and useless individuals. I never quite worked out why someone as useless as Hillan could become leader of the council, but it is clear that (again with a couple of exceptions) they are all scared to death of her.

Avid readers of this blog will recall that one of the first paid painting and decorating jobs I undertook, back in the 1970's, was to redecorate the home of a local madame. At the time I asked her how she managed to keep on the right side of the law. One of the tips she gave me was this "Coppers are always welcome for a free session and Councillors are always welcome for a free spanking". Now quite clearly, that was a long time ago and I'm sure none of our current bunch of Tory Councillors would ever indulge in such activities. It did however remind me of the scene in the film Personal Services (starring Julie Walters), about the life of notorious Madame Cynthia Payne. She had a whole bunch of silly old duffers, who used to tidy her house and garden, in exchange for a good telling off. That was enough to keep them happy (interesting footnote - much of Personal Services was shot in Mill Hill and the wedding scene was filmed at John Keeble Church)

Maybe this is the secret of Hillans success. Maybe she's realised that if you assemble a selection of completely useless men and tell them off on a regular basis, they will love and adore you forever (of course if you give them a big fat allowance, thrown into the deal, it helps no end). It strikes me that Harpers description of "madame Leader" is very Freudian. For all his many sins, Harper has never struck me as stupid. He must know that Hillan is not up to the job, yet for well over a year he has propped her up in her role. Last June he had the ideal opportunity to finish her off, but he bottled it. Why? She's been a disaster for the Barnet Conservatives and she's destroyed any credibility Harper may ever have had. He is now mortally wounded as a politician, for his role in such a bankrupt regime.


Lynne Hillan rather gave the game away on Monday night when she announced "There are places for sensible discussion and the Cabinet is not one of them". It reminded me of the classic Spitting Image sketch, where Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet are dining in a restaurant. The waiter asks Thatcher what she wants. She replies "Steak". The waiter then enquires "and the vegetables". Thatcher responds "They'll have steak as well".

How can we possibly make this bunch of dullards see sense? I've no idea. Maybe the "Madame Bloggers" of Barnet could borrow some clobber off Miss Lash, corner Harper and a few of his cronies and tell them they will be thrashed to within an inch of their lives if they don't get rid of Hillan. Sadly though, they'd probably enjoy that and decide to keep Hillan. Lord help us all.

Full details of proposed new Jewish School at Wyvale Nursury site

There is a cabinet paper detailing the full proposal for the New Jewish Nursery in Mill Hill at the site of Wyvale Nursury. I've published this on the Future Shape leaks website in full :-

http://barnetfutureshape.blogspot.com/2011/02/barnet-council-cabinet-report-on-new.html

Key details :-  Wyevale Ltd to transfer lease to new School, Car Park MAY be developed (with extra car parking provision elsewhere ??), Sea Cadets building to be a temporary location whilst the school site is developed. There is also an exempt report (rather oddly for a school development).

As I said before, I welcome the additional school places, I am sure it will provide an excellent education and I personally have no objections to faith schools or parents sending their children to them.

I have concerns about the loss of amenity if the car park is "developed". I have concerns that the "replacement" may be on park or green belt land. I have major concerns about the effect on traffic as 150 parents drop their kids off so close to the A1/A41. All of these would be true, regardless of the religious nature of the school. I am also rather puzzled at the fact that the State is 100% funding the school. When St Vincents RC school was rebuilt, parents & supporters had to raise 10% of the figure, which amounted to approx £250,000. I wasn't aware that the rules regarding faith schools have changed. I am not sure why this rule has been waived? Can anyone shed any light on this?