Saturday 9 July 2011

Barnet Council : When do they admit there's a problem?

Since I started blogging in 2008, I've seen all manner of cock up from Barnet Council. Let me list a few (+ The excuse) :-

 Icelandic investments - Barnet lose £27.4 Million (Mike Freer  - "Nobody expects the spanish inquisition")
Aerodrome Road - Overspend by £11 Million (Matthew Offord - "It's all Network Rail's fault")
Underhill sale - Barnet may lose £5 million (Mike Freer - "No one was to blame")
Barnet roads ungritted in snow & run out of salt - (Brian Coleman - "We didn't expect so much snow")

Do you get the picture? They never admit anything, they never take responsibility. This is the culture that allows situations such as Metpro to develop. Now an even worse scandal has emerged. The Jesse Moores case is far more serious and tragic. A vulnerable person in the care of Barnet has died  - http://barneteye.blogspot.com/2011/07/another-barnet-council-scandal-serious.html - Councillor Sachin Rajput stated 
But I am also very disappointed with the way the council failed to provide the support that Jesse’s family needed at the time when they were dealing with the tragic death of their son and brother. At times like this councils need to face up to their responsibilities rather retreat for fear of being sued over their liabilities.
Quite right. Barnet Council need to take a long hard look at themselves. How come that it takes someone to actually die before they do something? In the Metpro scandal it took a concerted campaign by local blogs to kick them out of their torpor. The Barnet Tory administration need to look at themselves and decide what sort of council they really want to be. I can't believe any of them want a council which allows Metpro style scandals or the death of vulnerable people such as Jesse Moores. The way such scandals are prevented is by councillors taking responsibility and doing their jobs. The first step is to actually admit when they have a problem. New Leader Richard Cornelius needs to have a long hard think about this as his first priority

No comments: