Do you know how much your Council Tax has gone up under the Barnet Tories in the last four years? Check here

Don't be fooled.

Today the @BarnetTories posted this Tweet

Barnet Conservatives plan to FREEZE council tax this year 💷

Barnet has lower council tax than neighbouring Labour-run councils 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/TH3WdH0FsW

— Barnet Conservatives (@BarnetTories) February 3, 2022

You should always check out what they have done over the last four years before believing a word they say. The truth is that the @BarnetTories have been raising Council Tax.

To jog their memories here is what you paid in 2018/19 when they were last elected and what you pay now. Does this look like keeping a promise to you?

2018 Council Tax in Barnet -

Click on image for more readable version

Source - https://barnet.gov.uk 2018 Council Taxles/2019-02/009866_Council%20Tax%20and%20Business%20Rates%20online%20100318.pdf…

2022 Council Tax in Barnet -

Click on image for more readable version

Source - https://barnet.gov.uk 2022 Council Taxles/2021-04/Council%20Tax%20Bus%20Rates%202021-22.pdf…

They promised to Keep Council Tax under control. They have done no such thing. We've all seen how much Boris Johnson likes telling the truth when it is inconvenient. It seems like this has spread to Barnet. We've seen a whole raft of stealth taxes from the Barnet Tories, with Parking charges hikes being imposed across the Borough, potholes appearing as roads aren't maintained, cemeteries getting overgrown. The sad truth is that the Council is being mismanaged and they will say anything to hang on to their juicy allowances as councillors.

Click here to see how much your local councillor was paid

Council Tax in Barnet to rise by 3% for adult social care

Barnet Council are raising local council tax by 3% to pay for adult social care. Being a Conservative Council and for some reason having a rather odd relationship with tax, the truth and facts, they have chosen to claim that they are not raising Council tax and that this is simply a precept! The government has given councils the option to add a "precept" of up to 3% and Barnet have taken advantage to raise this by the maximum amount. In a press release, Leader of the Council, Councillor Richard Cornelius said:

“Applying the social care precept is not a decision we have taken lightly, but given the contribution many of our older residents have made over their lifetimes it is the right thing for us to do. I am proud there has been no overall increase in residents’ Council Tax bills for each of the past six years. This means our residents have seen a 16 per cent real terms    reduction in Council Tax since 2010/11."

 In other words, the council has cut their budgets by far too much and have now had to raise it by nearly TWICE THE ANNUAL RATE OF INFLATION. Now many in the local Conservative party and their fellow tavellers think it is clever to mess around with the lives of the elderly and vulnerable. The Barnet Eye doesn't. The amount of council debt in the  2015/16 Final Statement of Account is simply staggering.  The obsession with tax cuts has blinded the council to its core purpose, which is to ensure the people of Barnet have a pleasant and safe environment and our elderly and vulnerable people need a secure lifestyle. Although none of us want to pay more tax, I am pleased that the council are at least starting to acknowledge the issue that they have damaged the finances by cutting too much. This inflation busting increase is at least a step on the way. I just wish they could be a bit more honest about it.  Then again, whenn do politicians ever tell the truth?

Barnet Council and the debt time bomb waiting to explode in your wallet

In May there is a council election in Barnet. At stake is who runs the council for the next four years. Historically, most residents of London Boroughs have had little engagement with their local councils. It was just expected that Councils would do what we expect of them, such as provide school places, look after elderly, infirm and handicapped people, fix potholes in the road, collect our rubbish with the minimum of fuss, manage planning applications for the local good and run parking regimes which protect local residents and businesses.

Sadly in recent years all of this has become highly politicised. This is because some local authorities have decided that there are votes to be had in cutting council tax. There are only three ways an efficiently run Council tax can be cut. These are

1. Go into debt.
2. Cut Services.
3. Increase charges (ie Stealth taxes like parking charges and planning charges)

So what has happened in Barnet Council since the Conservatives won the council in 2002? In 2002, Council debt was £38 Million. The Conservatives claimed this was dangerously high and immediately passed a budget that lead to a huge hike in Council Tax. According to the latest accounts in 2013, the net liabilities has risen to over £707 million. It isn't getting better, in 2012 it was £674 million. If you don't believe me have a look at them yourselves http://www.barnet.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/3178/summary_of_accounts_2012-13 (check page six for these figures)

Worryingly, the net assets of the council have declined from £620 million in 2012 to £595 million in 1 year as well. So debt has spiralled up by £34 million ( only £3 million less than the total of £37 million that the Tories claimed was unsustainable in 2002, whilst losing £25 million worth of assets.

With this huge spiralling of debt and depreciation of assets, can you honestly say the Council are managing your money well?

So that is one way they've kept council tax down, but as we all know, sooner or later debts have to be paid. Have you reaped the benefits of this £679 million pound spending spree?

Then we have service cuts. Well since I started this blog, we've had cuts to sheltered housing wardens, which make the elderly and infirm vulnerable. We've had cuts to the transport services for disabled people. We've had huge scaling back of daycentre provision and we've had cuts to personal care packages. The council have been clever and have done this by outsourcing the contracts and hiding behind "contract arrangements" with these provisioners of service as an excuse.

Then there are the stealth taxes. In Barnet the worst of these is the way parking enforcement is used as a cash cow. The parking meter and the yellow line was invented to "improve traffic flow and parking space utilisation" in busy areas. Since 2012, the Conservative administration have milked this cash cow for all its worth. To escape the blame they outsourced parking control to NSL in 2011. Targets are now set for ticketing and you end up paying. There are yellow lines in some rather odd places in Barnet and restrictions in place at some rather odd times. All of these catch unsuspecting motorists.

I've monitored the council account since I started blogging in 2008. Every year the debt goes up, services are cut more and new stealth taxes are sprung on us. Every year I have conversations with local Tories where they start by saying I'm exaggerating. I then refer them to the councils own accounts. Then they say that "it would be worse under Labour". I say to them "Labour wouldn't have spent tens of millions on consultants to outsource and wouldn't have transferred assets to the private sector" to which they say "but then they would cost more". I then point out that the Conservatives refused to do a "public sector comparator" to prove this, when they were doing the One Barnet Outsourcing. I asked why they would not do this if they believed the case was proven.

I asked a senior member of the Barnet Council administration if he believed that the current level of debt was sustainable. He said yes. I asked how he could say this. He said "I've seen nothing to suggest otherwise". I asked how the council would ever pay the debt and he said "it is all being managed". But the point is that it isn't being managed. It is increasing and the asset base is shrinking. On this debt there is interest payments. At the moment, the interest rates are low. Should they rise, what happens to the debt? The stark answer is that when rates rise, we will have to pay a lot more council tax.

The stark truth is that the Barnet Conservatives have sleepwalked in, placed a timebomb under our finances and don't even know what they've done. None of them have said "is a tax cut responsible when debt is spiralling out of control". It is clear to me that the Conservatives need to be kicked out of power, for no other reason than to get some fresh blood in their ranks, who do not act like Ostriches with their heads in the sand when problems come along. If you are a Tory, you should do the local party a  favour and vote out this bunch of incompetents, to clear the way for some new blood who might actually deal with this time bomb before it blows up in all our wallets. You may think that a different administration would be less careful with your cash or your council tax may be a few pennies higher, but the truth is that this timebomb is entirely of the Conservatives own making. There is no prospect of it getting fixed until the people who caused the problem have been kicked out.

Another Barnet Council Cock up

It looks like the executives and councillors in Barnet Council are too busy negotiating huge pay rises to actually bother collecting the Tax from those who can't be bothered paying it. It is sad to report that the Sheltered housing warden service could have been funded 18 times over if they had. The money is roughly £6 million from Council Tax and £3 million from Business rates.

Barnet is fifth worst Borough in London. Why does this not surprise me. Yesterday we reported that Brian Coleman claims he works 100 hours a week.  If him and his colleagues actually devoted their time in the office to doing something useful rather than figuring out new ways to siphon off our cash, we'd all be better off. This money would fund the rebuilding of 3 of the boroughs schools


http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/topstories/8281875.Union_criticises_council_s_tax_collection_efforts/

Lynne Hillan is trying it on !

There was a rather revealing letter in todays Daily Telegraph from a selection of Conservative Council Leaders, including Lynne Hillan. It says :-

Keeping council tax down

SIR – As leaders of Conservative local authorities, we are sick of hearing Labour ministers crowing about how they have helped keep council tax down this year.

Readers should be aware that we have managed to keep taxes low in our authorities despite the efforts of John Denham and his department.

Labour red tape has led to the unprecedented council tax increases since 1997.

The average increase is so low this year through a combination of two factors. First, Conservative authorities have been committed, as always, to efficient and low-cost public services. Second, with every passing year, more high-tax Labour councils are failing at the ballot box.

What Lynne Hillan neglects to mention is that the Conservatives took over at Barnet Council in 2003. Then the council tax was lower than the National Average and much lower than Brent Council next door. This year it is higher than the National Average and Higher than Brent Council. What is the difference between Brent Council & Barnet Council. Well for a start the Leader of Brent Council is a Liberal Democrat called Paul Lorber and the Lib Dems control the Council.

Now I'm sure some of the Conservative Council Leaders who have signed the letter have done a fine job and are competent administrators. I just think that given the record of Conservatives on Barnet Council, who have made Council tax payers look enviously West towards Brent (who would have believed that a few years ago), they should never have allowed Lynne Hillan to hijack their letter or associate themselves with low Council taxes. The Conservatives in Barnet have nothing at all to teach anyone about running a council efficiently.

Brent Vs Barnet

Band	Brent	Barnet	Difference
A	£912.51	£948.84	£36.33
B	£1,064.59	£1,106.79	£42.20
C	£1,216.68	£1,264.91	£48.23
D	£1,368.76	£1,423.02	£54.26
E	£1,672.93	£1,739.25	£66.32
F	£1,977.10	£2,055.48	£78.38
G	£2,281.27	£2,371.70	£90.43
H	£2,737.52	£2,846.04	£108.52

I asked a promenant Local Conservative for a comment recently. His response "Erm, er, are you sure?" Yes I am - CLICK HERE FOR BARNETS FIGURES and then CLICK HERE FOR BRENTS FIGURES. If you think you are voting Conservative in the Council Elections for low tax, think again. High Council TAx in Barnet isn't the fault of the Labour Government. It is the fault of a useless Conservative Council, who blame everyone but themselves for the problems.

Lynne Hillans biggest Porkie

This article, on the front page of the press finishes with a statement from Lynne Hillan :- "This has no effect on council tax because it's nothing to do with the revenue budget"  - When the Tories took power in Barnet, they put Council tax up by 24%. The reason? Because they said there was a £10 hole in the reserves. Was a £10 million "hole in the reserves" anything to do with the revenue budget? Last time there was a supposed £10 Million hole in the reserves, the Tories put up council tax by 24%. They won't this year because it's an election year and Hillan would rather slash and burn than tell us the truth and plug the hole.  Victor Lyon was the Tory leader who enacted the 24% rise, he claimed at the time that it would be a one off. He claimed that the Tories would transform the Tories into a "low tax council". In 2008 the Hendon Times reported that 5 years of Tory rule had resulted in 44% rises.

However much Council Leader Lynne Hillan bleats, the truth is that in 2003 when the Tories took power the London Borough of Barnet had a lower Council tax than the London Borough of Brent.

Brent Council - Council Tax - Band D 2003/4 - £1075.05

Barnet Council - Council Tax - Band D 2003/4 - £796.89

Brent Council - Council Tax - Band D 2003/4 - £1368.76

Barnet Council - Council Tax - Band D 2003/4 - £1423.02

You may also be interested to know that Barnet Council Tax is now above the national average (£1414). Brent is lower. So you may ask. What is the difference between the administration in Brent and the administration in Barnet. Well as a Lib Dem, I'd like to point out that a Lib Dem Council has kept tax down in Brent. If Barnet had the same Council tax increase as Brent over the period (27%), we'd all be paying £1012.05 per annum - over £400 less.

Can I tell you why Brent has done so much better than Barnet? Because the Councillors running Brent Council do their job properly. Brent Council used to be so badly run that it was nicknamed "Bent Council" by Private Eye. Sadly now it's Barnet which has become a "Barmy Council". Who pays for this extravagance? You and me, my friend.

They ask questions when Council officers demand more money. They understand the fact that if you lose £9 million, it has to be paid for out of your tax. I daresay that a Barnet Conservatives will come up with all manner of excuses when asked about this, but at the end of the day you are paying over £400 a year more than you should. That is the bottom line. That is a difficult fact that the Tories running Barnet do not want you to know.

(Hat Tip to Not the Barnet Times for the picture of the Press)

Barnet Council and the big Pork Pie

There is a council election in May, so despite  the fact that in the last year, Barnet Council have lost untold millions in dodgy investments in Icelandic Banks, overspent £11 Million on the Aerodrome Road bridge project, wasted millions on consultants for smoke and mirrors Future shape projects and having one of the worst rates of collection of Council Tax in the country, the Barnet Tories are trying to con us that they are doing a good job, by freezing Council tax this year. Are you taken in by this ruse? Well consider this. Just suppose you drive a new BMW 7 series car. Suppose you bought this last year on Hire Purchase and you are happy with it. If a bloke from the hire purchase company turned up on your doorstep and said "Hello, I'm from the Hire Purchase company. As we lost all our money in Iceland and by mismanagement, we've had to take your BMW away. Never mind though, we're giving you a 10 year old Ford Mondeo with 6 months MOT as a replacement and you won't have to spend a single penny more on your HP agreement." Would you think "What a marvellous company, they've done a great job, I'm so lucky to have a beaten up banger, I can still drive".

You see that is what is happening. Barnet Council cannot provide the same services that they did before for the same money, they are making huge cuts to the budget for childrens services, the elderly and the vulnerable. They are cutting corners wherever they can. Visible signs of this are things like running out of grit during a cold snap. The truth is that it is only a price freeze if you get the same thing for the same money. Marks and Spencers wouldn't claim they've frozen the price of eggs because you can buy 3 eggs for a £1, wheras 10 years ago you could buy 6 eggs for the same price. Sure you've still got a eggs, but it isn't a freeze, because you get less for your money.

The reason Barnet Council have run out of grit is the same as the reason they lost millions in Icelandic Banks. They gambled. They thought that because we've had a few mild winters, they could cut back on supplies of Grit. They are gambling that no one will care that our children, our elderly and our vulnerable will suffer because of these cuts. Many London Boroughs are cutting council taxes and not slashing services. This is because they have managed their money with competence. This claim of a "Tax Freeze" should be taken to trading standards. It is misleading in the extreme, because you are getting less for the same money. Real tax cuts will only happen when competent people start running the council. Let's be sure of one thing, if Lynne Hillan, Brian Coleman and the rest of them are re-elected, the mismanagement will continue and next year and for years to come. When there is no election in the offing, you'll get this years tax rise, next years tax rise and the kitchen sink thrown at you. Don't be fooled

The Barnet Eye Challenge - Where would you buy your bogroll?

Ok, simple question. You want to buy a pack of Andrex toilet tissues because it's your favourite. There are three shops in Mill Hill which sell it. Which shop would you go to?

Shop A is run by Mr Freer who is a Tory?
Shop B is run by Mrs Moore who is Labour?
Shop C is run by Mr Davies who is a Lib Dem?

The answer? You'd probably go to the one who sold the toilet paper cheapest. Now just suppose that Shop A has a big sign in the window which says "our toilet roll is 5p cheaper than the other shops". Just suppose you bought the toilet roll and found out that Mr Smith was telling porkies and it's the same price. Would you go back to him? I don't know about you, but I'd certainly think twice. Just suppose you found that it was 5p more expensive? How would you feel then? My guess is that you'd give him a piece of your mind and that would be the last time you went in that shop.

Just suppose that Mr Smith in shop A told you, when you queried the cost "Well it should be 5p cheaper, but I lost all my money in an Icelandic bank which promised a high rate of interest but went bust, so I had to make it more expensive" Would you say thats OK, I'm happy to be ripped off? Just suppose Mr Smiths shop had been there for 50 years and you'd always gone in there? Would you think it was OK that he'd mislead you?

The reason I ask you this is because many people will vote for Conservative Councillors in the 2010 council elections. They do so because they think that they'll get lower council taxes. Sadly there is more to delivering low cost services than just saying you are going to do it. Let me explain.

In 2009 Band E Council Tax in Barnet is £1739. In the Borough next door, Brent it is £1672.

What was it in 2004 when the Tories took control of Barnet?
Band E Council Tax in Barnet was £1483. In the Borough next door, Brent it was £1558.

7 years of the Tories has seen Brent become a cheaper place to live than Barnet. What is the difference between the two councils? Brent is run by the Lib Dems, Barnet is run by the Conservatives. In 2004 when the Tories took over from a council run by a Lib Dem and Labour coalition, the tax was lower. I have no doubt that many Tories in Barnet dream of having a low tax administration, but the facts speak for themselves. The current bunch of Tories at the Town Hall have a track record of failure. They cut vital services such as the Sheltered Housing wardens, whilst wasting cash left, right and centre with crazy and wasteful schemes.

I don't believe in slashing vital services. I don't believe in making tax cuts the no 1 priority, but I passionately believe in doing the job properly. I believe that this will deliver savings, without badly thought out slash and burn cost cutting. I have a strong background in running a business, one which is successful in a very competetive marketplace. Why? because I check the detail. Sadly most of the waste at Barnet has come because our Tory lords and masters couldn't be bothered to check details or ask the officials difficult questions. They then complained that "officials hadn't told them the truth".

The people of Barnet deserve better. My advice to you. Before you buy your Andrex or anything else, check that the price really is cheaper. Before you cast your vote, check whether the party you are voting for really does what it says on the tin.

Barnet Council : Conservatives wasting your money wisely

Barnet Council is leading the way in London. Barnet has "spearheaded" a joint study with five other North London Councils into the lives of black and minority ethnic communities.

According to a press relase on the Barnet Council website, this "has revealed some interesting discoveries" - pray what might these discoveries be? Over to Councillor Richard Cornelius, Cabinet Member for Community Services

"The report shows that members of all communities want to work, save money and buy a property"

 What does Mr Cornelius conclude from this TWO YEAR study?

"Barnet's priority must be to avoid getting in the way of this journey to home ownership"

 And how did they reach these conclusions? They

"looked at a wealth of already existing data, such as school and council records, census data and social landlords' letting details, as well as holding a series of focus groups between June and December 2008 with 130 people from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds."

I really am speechless. What did Mr Cornelius think people from ethnic minorities wanted? Did he think they wanted to be unemployed, have no savings and live in holes in the road? How much money did Barnet spend on this? Let me give some advice to Richard Cornelius, Mike Freer, Lynne Hillan and any other Barnet Tory politician of the best thing they can do to help ethnic minorities and everyone else have homes, jobs and savings. Stop wasting money.It really is quite simple and you lot being Tories should understand this without a swivel eyed Trotskyite to tell you. Every penny in tax you waste on surveys such as this, is a penny that the Taxpayer can't save up, invest in a house or spend on a bus to the jobcentre. Lets just remind Mr Cornelius of some of the cash wasting cock ups his colleagues in the Barnet Tory Junta have inflicted on our wallets since Mike Freer staged his Palace Coup against Brian Salinger, just after the last Council elections.

* Money Lost in Icelandic Banking scandal £27.4 Million
* Overspend on Aerodrome Road Bridge replacement £11 Million
* Money spent on obsolete laptops computers, many of which are in storage £1.4 Million
* One of highest rates of non collection of Council Tax in London
* Inflation busting rise in Council Tax

They say if you can't be trusted with little things, how can you be trusted with big things. Here are a few other smaller extravagances which the Barnet Eye has heard about :-

* Cost of Plasma screen tellies for Council officers desks - approx £15,000
* Cost of sending Council officers to South of France for a "property development conference" approx £5,000
* Cost of allowance for Conservative Council group chief whip £3,000

Even the Taxpayers Alliance, regarded by many as a front for the Conservative Party, has no time for The Barnet Tories.

And then we have the Easycouncil. Now in my book this should be called "Stealth Council" In reality this is a scam to pretend to keep taxes low, by simply charging extra for everything. The council will recruit a whole load of Bin Inspectors to check you are not putting too much rubbish in. They say that if they can save £200 on your rubbish processing by cutting the amount you put out, then they'll give you £100 back. What if you generate three times the average? Lets get this clear, if you are a profligate waste monster, you get a discount. If you are a good citizen they'll rob you of £100???? A bizarre method of accounting and a strange way of treating good citizens.

Sad but true

Last 10 pence A father walks into a restaurant with his young son.. He gives the young boy three 10p coins to play with to keep him occupied. Suddenly, the boy starts choking and going blue in the face.... The father realises the boy has swallowed the coins and starts slapping him on the back.. The boy coughs up 2 of the 10p's but is still choking. Looking at his son, the father is panicking, shouting for help. A well dressed, attractive, and serious looking woman, in a blue business suit is sitting at a coffee bar reading a newspaper and sipping a cup of coffee. At the sound of the commotion, she looks up, puts her coffee cup down, neatly folds the newspaper, places it on the counter, gets up from her seat and makes her way, unhurried, across the restaurant. Reaching the boy, the woman carefully pulls down his pants; takes hold of the boy's' testicles and starts to squeeze and twist, gently at first and then ever so firmly.. tighter and tighter !!! After a few seconds the boy convulses violently and coughs up the last of the 10p's, which the woman deftly catches in her free hand. Releasing the boy's testicles, the woman hands the coin to the father and walks back to her seat at the coffee bar without saying a word. As soon as he is sure that his son has suffered no ill effects, the father rushes over to the woman and starts thanking her saying, "I've never seen anybody do anything like that before, it was fantastic. Are you a doctor? " 'No,' the woman replied. I'm with the Inland Revenue..'

Does Freer's left hand know what his right hand is up to?

There is an interesting press release from Barnet Council Leader Mike Freer today. It details how Barnet has only collected 96.3% of Council Tax this year. This means that we all have to pay more money to subsidise those who don't. Looked at another way, it probably means that, statistically at least, there's probably 7 or 8 households in my road paying nothing, whilst I pay over £2,000 per year. I guess that there are three main reasons why people don't pay.

1 - They move on and can't be traced
2 - They have financial difficulty and can't pay
3- There are administrative failures resulting in non collection

If people know they are moving abroad and deliberately run up arreas, that is hard to deal with. I have no issue with the council, here as their options are limited. The other two categories are slightly different. I'd like to see the breakdown for the reasons. All failures of administration are inexcusable and I'd expect the council to be taking urgent action to remedy this. Maybe we'll get a post on the Leader Listens website to explain how much the Council is costing us? If the figures I've been told unofficially are correct, then it would spare us the cuts to the welfare service, cancel the increase to the infant burials and give us a small but welcome tax cut.

Then there is the third group. Those that can't pay because of financial difficulty.

In his press release, Leader of the Council, Councillor Mike Freer said:

"The collection of Council Tax is an important function which ensures that the services we provide to residents can be maintained and I am delighted that once again we have seen a further increase and improvement of performance.

"While it is difficult for the council to trace some absconded debtors, particularly those of a transient nature, we do everything possible and urge those who are struggling with their bills to contact our dedicated teams for advice and assistance."

You may think that it is good that Mike Freer cares about those in financial difficulty. You might think it is great that the Council has dedicated teams helping those in difficulty. Well it seems to me that Mike's left hand doesn't know what his right hand is up to, because his regime have proposed that the Welfare Rights Unit, which helps people to claim benefits, be closed down.

Here's the page to have a look at :-
http://www.barnet.gov.uk/index/council-democracy/consultations/welfare-rights-unit-budget-consultation.htm

The Tories are making political hay out of the current recession and the rising unemployment figures, but at the ground level, they are cutting the budgets of departments that help people. Rather ironically this week, I've been featuring the role of Barnet Councils Political Officers. David Miller estimates that the cost of these people to the taxpayer, who's sole job is to help Barnets Tories stay true to their creed, is £175,000. The budget for the welfare rights unit that will help anyone in difficulty is £180,000. Which provides the Barnet Taxpayer with better value for money?

I'm afraid that I won't believe that the Tories have changed and now care for us ordinary folk, until they start putting the wellbeing of the general public before the pockets of party lackeys. What amazes me is that it really shouldn't be a hard shout for a Tory regime to make, should it?

How to cut your council tax bill by 50%

Are you struggling to make ends meet? Would you like to instantly cut your council tax bill by approx 50%. If like me you are paying band F in Barnet, you could save £1019 per year. This saving can be achieved perfectly legally, it's all perfectly above board. What do you have to do? Move to Wandsworth. I found this website which gives you comparisons for the various boroughs. Here's a link for Barnet and Wandsworth


http://www.net-lettings.co.uk/London/Borough-Guide/Wandsworth.html


http://www.net-lettings.co.uk/London/Borough-Guide/Barnet.html

Now I'm not a Tory, I don't subscribe to their politics or policies, but I thought that for you, dear reader, I'd pretend I was, just for the day. As I understand it, the Tories are for low taxes, so surely Edward Lister, Wandsworth Council Leader is the best Tory in London. Lets compare how he runs the show, with our good friend here in Barnet, Council Leader Mike "No one saw that coming" Freer.

Lets start with the local campaigns the Wandsworth Tories are running on their website :-

http://www.putneyconservatives.net/issues.jsp

Now imagine my shock (real Rog T shock, not Tory for a day Rog T shock) -

A campaign for a new local Bus Route
A campaign for a new train line
A campaign for improvements on the district line
A campaign for better local station facilities at Earlsfield
A campaign for better financial Transparency
A campaign to improve the Northern Line


To name but a few. Strangely, all things I thoroughly agree with and all real local issues. No wonder Wandsworth Tories are popular !

Now lets visit Mike Freer's Finchley conservatives local campaigns website

http://finchleyconservatives.com/local-campaigns.html

We get

A letter from Mike Freer about the Equitable life scandal
A campaign to keep some post offices open
The National Dump the Bin Tax campaign
The "Shame on Labour" campaign with this lovely quote from Mike Freer

The Government should be doing more to keep Council Tax down, not finding new ways to tax hard working local residents.

Quite staggering really. The Tory Leader of Barnet Council, rather than ringing up his mate at Wandworth for a few tips, wants Gordon Brown to come and tell him how to run the council.

Now as regular followers of this blog will know, I've been rather critical of Mike Freer's Leaderlistens.com blog, paid for at the taxpayers expense. I thought I'd have a look at Wandsworth's leader blog. Guess what? He hasn't got one, he's too busy running the council.

Now you may wonder what interested me about Wandsworth. Well one of Barnet's Councillors elected at the last election, Jane Ellison decided to up sticks and move to Putney (in Wandsworth) to stand for Parliament. Now Jane decided that she'd not have time to be a Barnet Councillor and a PPC, so she resigned from Barnet Council. I decided to see how she was getting on and to be quite honest I was shocked by what I saw. It seems that not every Tory London Borough is plagued by the problems we have in Barnet. Wandsworth is in many ways quite similar to Barnet, but it seems that they seem to know what they are doing. The Council Leader gets his head down and gets on with it. Personally I cannot understand why two boroughs, both with Tory administrations can possibly have such a massive Council Tax difference. I cannot understand why Barnets Tories are so dead set against anything to improve Transport, whilst Wandsworth Tories are running a whole host of campaigns. Doesn't it occur to the plonkers running Barnet, that the borough is full of commuters?

I'm sure that Wandsworth has it's problems, but I couldn't find a barrage of criticism for the council in the way we see here. Sadly for me, I'm a local lad. Moving to Wandsworth is not an option. I'll just have to stay here and make life miserable for Freer and Co until they actually appoint someone who can do the job properly. From what I've seen of the way they run the show, I can see why Jane decided that she'd be better off being a Tory in Wandsworth.