Two days after the Lionesses made us proud, Barnet's Labour Council is to be taken to Court for sex discrimination

File under "You couldn't make it up". The Labour Party was founded by Trades Union members and the Unions pay the bills for the party, regardless of whether the Leader is Jeremy Corbyn or Tony Blair. Whilst the root and branch membership of the Labour Party are proud of this association, it seems that as soon as Labour Politicians get their hands on the levers of power, they somehow seem to have a conscience bypass. Back on the heady night in 2022, when Labour took power and booted the Tories out, I spoke to the rather shell shocked Leader of the Barnet Labour group and the new leader of Barnet Council, Barry Rawlings. I made a note of his exact words. I didn't do this so I had a rod to beat him with, but because I thought what he said was important and I was impressed by his sentiments.

Barry said "We won't get everything right, I am sure we will make a lot of mistakes on the way, but whatever we do, we will put fairness, equality and decency at the centre of it" He then went on to say "I expect you to hold us to account and remind us of this when we do get things wrong". Although Labour has made many mistakes, I've had no reason to remind Barry of his pledge. Until now. Today, two days after the Lionesses amazing victory, where we are all basking in the reflected glory of our amazing female team, a dispute has been launched by the Public sector workers union UNISON, alleging that Barnet Council and its Labour bosses are acting in a discriminatory manner towards their own female employees. The Press Release says:-

"Barnet UNISON is urging its female members in the London Borough of Barnet (LBB) to come forward as the union prepares to launch a collective legal challenge over potential equal pay breaches by the Council.

The move follows extensive investigations into pay practices within LBB, particularly in relation to the use of “task and finish” arrangements in the Waste & Recycling service. UNISON believes there is now sufficient evidence to support equal pay claims with reasonable prospects of success.

John Burgess, Branch Secretary of Barnet UNISON, said:

“The possibility that staff – the majority of whom are women – may have been underpaid for years is deeply concerning, especially in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. Equal Pay is not just a legal right, it’s a fundamental matter of fairness. UNISON is committed to ensuring our members receive the pay they are legally and morally entitled to.”

The union is now asking affected members to complete an Equal Pay case form detailing their job roles, grades, and employment history. This information will allow UNISON to assess each claim and proceed with legal and procedural steps, including lodging a collective grievance and initiating early conciliation.

Barnet UNISON is also reminding staff of the strict six-month legal time limit for making an Equal Pay claim. Anyone who has recently left the Council or changed roles is urged to act quickly.

UNISON has led the fight for Equal Pay in local government for over a decade, winning millions in compensation for underpaid workers. The union will continue to engage in constructive dialogue with Barnet Council while preparing to take legal action where necessary."

It really is appalling that now, of all times, such inequality is happening in Barnet, especially with a Labour Council. Now we all know there is no magic money tree and with cash tight at Barnet Council, it is hard to sort these sort of matters out. However, not only is it morally wrong to pay discriminatory pay rates, it is against the law. Any legal action will cost taxpayers money, and I for one, resent my hard earned cash being spent to defend the indefensible.

I sincerely hope that Barry Rawlings now picks up the phone to Unison branch secretary John Burgess, who is decent man and an excellent Union Rep and gets him around a table to resolve this. The people who are suffering as a result are amongst the lowest paid employees on the Borough payroll and if Barry really is a Labour politicians, he should start acting like it and sort this out. If you see Barry out and about, please ask him if he still believes what he told me on the night he was elected. 

Barnet Council Cabinet review Edgware Redevelopment and give the Barnet Tories a does of reality

 It's been an odd week for me, as regular readers will know. Digging up ancient memories from long ago. Monday, visiting the hospital where my Mum was treated for cancer, yesterday visiting a Barnet Council Cabinet meeting, where I made my name as a blogger, attracting national interest from press, TV and all sorts of other social media. I stopped going a decade ago, as the then Leader, Tory Richard Cornelius agreed with me that the Cabinet system did not work in local government, and abolished it. Labour had brought it in, under their previous administration in 1999. Whenthe Tories were run by Maoist style leaders sucha s Mike Freer, they loved it as it avoided public and council scrutiny. When Cornelius took over, he went back to a committee system. Whatever you may think of Cornelius, he was by far the most open and reasonable leader of Barnet Council. He believed in transparency and openness and would attend public meetings to put forward his case. As a result, he was shafted after he won a stunning victory, when Labour thought they had it in the bag, in 2018 and Dan Thomas, who was more in the Freer mold came in. The dodgy, secretive ways of time gone by started to come back. The first act, when Labour won, was to bring back the Cabinet system.

Since I last attended one of these, there's now a big row of tables, stuffed with council officers, all looking bored, playing with pencils and presumably getting overtime. This space used to be reserved for the public. You can see them all looking bored, behind me in this crafty selfie!

I've had np cause to visit the Cabinet since, but last night I had a question on the arts strategy. I turned up and the public gallery was full. The Edgware redevelopment was being discussed. The room was packed, I was eyed suspiciously by a security guard who challenged me as to my motives. When I explained, he opened the door. After the usual pleasantries, we had opposition questions. Three Tories made their way to the front. These were the Leader Peter Zinkin, The deputy Lucy Wakely and a third one, who I must confess I didn't know. Now I have to say that I actually like Peter and Lucy. They are decent people. Unlike the old guard of Freer, Thomas, Rams, Coleman, etc all have only ever been reasonable and decent to me. On the night when Labour won, in 2022 at the count, I saw Peter Zinkin looking dejected at loosing his seat. I bought him a cup of tea and we had a chat. Despite what people say, most councillors are actually decent people, who want to do well for their community. It is sad that the Barnet Tories became a repository for people with dodgy agendas after they won the council in 2002. The like of Coleman had a very bloated idea of their own self worth. A (long) spell in opposition will hopefully cure the local Tories of this tendancy. 

Peter Zinkin strode up and did his best to channel his inner anger at the beastlyness of Labour, who are " ignoring local people in Edgware and not consulting". Peter's trouble is he is a reasonable man. When greeted with reasonable replies from the likes of Ross Houston and Barry the Boss, he reverted to type and was reasonable and sensible. Lucy Wakely had a go and did no better. Ultimately, the redevelopment was the Tories baby under Dan Thomas. They know they are chancing their arm and I suspect that they didn't want to push their luck in front of a bunch of residents who were keen supporters. Labour made perfectly reasonable responses (something that never happened when the Tories had a cabinet, they were obnoxious to all, especially bloggers, so we wound them up no end. The meetings had packed public galleries, that would howl with derision). It all felt rather odd to me. 

I tweeted about the Tories Chutzpah in claiming they were good at consultations, Cllr Zinkin replied

We probably did less well at the beginning but over the years we learnt and by the start of work it was almost a continuous dialogue not always appreciated but fewer misunderstandings

— Peter Zinkin (@pzinkin) June 17, 2025

The main beef seemed to be that the public hadn't had a chance to comment or ask questions. I found this rather odd, as there was a committee item and a competent opposition would have tipped the Save Edgware Campaign off and given them a hand drafting some killer questions, had they been doing their job properly. It seemed a bit strange to me listening to the leader of the Barnet Tories moaning about the way public questions are handled, when they brought the rules in that made it difficult for the public to ask questions. I remember the good old days, when there were dozens. At one time, us bloggers would liaise and share our questions, just to make sure we got everything covered. It did us no good at all, the Tories took no notice, but it was jolly good fun watching them embarrass themselves, as they thought their clever antics in giving non answers were mightily clever. 

Another beef of Councillor Zinkin was lack of consultation. Barry the Boss pointed out that this process didn't begin until planning applications were being debated. Until that point there was 'nothing to debate' Councillor Zinkin stated that in the good old days of the Tories, consultations were done properly. For anyone familiar with One Barnet, this was hilarious. The judge found that Barnet hadn't consulted properly, but that we, the people, could do nothing about it, becase we'd been too late submitting our legal objection. The formula used to calculate the date meant that a perfectly good legal challenge to a very bad administration, failed as The Tories had, by luck or design, managed to string us all along so that we'd missed the date. Our contention that it was impossible to have submitted in the alloted period as it was not clear at the time that the consultation had been botched, sadly was ruled inadmissible. And here we were, ten years later, with the Tory Leader lecturing Labour on how to do good consultations. 

The Tories did make a couple of good point, perhaps the best was that putting a garage for electric buses, that have the habit of catching fire and exploding, under massive blocks of residential flats was a bad idea. Labour seemed to agree, which rather took the wind out of Cllr Zinkins sails. The current big bugbear of the Tories is that Labour are planning to give the developers £41 Million back from the Community Infrastructure levy.  Tory Hale Councillor Gurung posted this on Facebook earlier yesterday.

Barnet Labour Backs Developers Not Residents

Tonight, Barnet Council is being asked to approve a shocking proposal: to hand back £41 million of Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funds to developers Ballymore and TfL money meant for local infrastructure, schools, and services.

Even more alarming, Ballymore admitted their Broadwalk development was financially unviable yet instead of holding them to account, Barnet’s Labour-run Council is working hand-in-hand with them to return money they were obliged to pay.

This is £41 million that should be invested in our community

not handed back to developers to meet infrastructure obligations they always had.

From the start, Barnet Labour has been on Ballymore’s side. This latest move proves it once again.

We deserve a council that stands up for residents not developers. As your local councillors in Edgware and Edgwarebury we will always stand up for our residents.

I had a word with my mole in the Labour Cabinet before the meeting. I asked about this. They told me they couldn't possibly discuss the matter,given its commercially sensitive nature. I then explained that the Tories were giving them a public pasting and they really should, maybe not to me right now, but as soon as they possibly could. To my surprise, I got a full answer at this point. There are strict rules that govern such things, and the council legally has to repay the money. Keeping it and telling Ballymore to sod off, would simply mean Ballymore would sue Barnet, who would lose, have to pay the £41 million, as well as compensation and damages. Oh yes, and the Tories know this (or they should if they have done their job) and are simply making mischief. As to the development being 'not financially viable', this was simply the fault of the Tories who'd done such a rubbish job drawing up the SPD and now Labour were having to sort it all out and Edgware residents were truly lucky to have such a wonderful Labour Council, even though they'd elected useless Tory Councillors. I was then told all of this was priviliged information and if I said I word of this to anyone, I'd be locked up in Gaol for six months for breaking the local government act.

After three seconds deliberation, I decided to share this with you all. If I get sent to the slammer, I expect protest on the streets of Barnet. A free pot noodle for the first reader to guess which cabinet member broke the rules of the Papal Conclave The Local Government Act. 

They say that history repeats itself. Once as tragedy and once as farce. That certainly seems true of the Cabinet system at Barnet Council. If ever you've wondered how I feel blogging about Barnet Council, Tories and Labour, read the Greek myth of Sisiphyus. 

Barnet Council - They can't organise a booze up in a brewery - Official

Barnet Council is a shambles. There is no accountability, there is no understanding of finance, it is like a truck driving towards a cliff, where the driver is too busy checking Twitter to see the impending disaster. Why do I write these blogs? Three reasons. 1. I pay tax and the less tax I pay, the more beer I can drink, and when they waste money it means my beer budget is smaller. 2. I know plenty of people who rely on Barnet Council for all manner of services and what they do is important. If the council does this badly, people I know suffer. 3. Because I live in Mill Hill, I plan to die in Mill Hill and if Barnet Council screws up, it makes Mill Hill a worse place to live in and we see more potholes, graffiti, litter, crime, begging, old ladies starving or freezing to death, children getting a bad education.... I could go on. 

I started this with blog with a very bold claim. But the sad thing is that as far as I can see is that it s completely true. Recently one of Barnet's top councillors Ammar Naqvi was exposed as having lied on his CV, pretending to have jobs and qualifications that he hadn't. He was the fiannce chief for Barnet Council. When the truth came to light, he was booted out of the Labour party, resigned as a councillor and has forced a by election in Burnt Oak. Labour has a huge majority in Burnt Oak which is there safest ward. The Tories always said that you could stand a donkey with a red rosette in Burnt Oak and win. So even if there is a huge shock, it will make little difference to the way the council is run. Councillor Naqvi has been around for years, how did they not know that he'd embellished his CV? Are no due dilligence checks done before someone is put in charge of Council finances?

Finances? It is something that myself and the other Barnet bloggers have historically taken a keen interest in. My fellow blogger Mr Reasonable has recently exposed the reasons for a £41 million shortfall in the finances. Whilst I accept that Mr Reasonable is right to call out the historical mismanagement of Barnet finances by the Tories, which is the root cause of the problem, he is far to lenient on Labour. They took over in 2022 and should have thrown the books open, exposed the mismanagement they had presided over and put together a properly costed and funded four year plan to try and recover the situation. Speeding up the insourcing of mismanaged services by Capita would have cut costs radically and given the opportunity to improve services. As Mr Reasonable stated, they also failed to put taxes up. When you take over, you get a small window, where you can blame everything on the previous administration, if you have the evidence. After nearly three years, you have to take responsibility yourself. 

There is one thing that Barnet Council could and should have done on day one, was dissolve the Barnet Group, who run Barnet Homes and oversee the council house stock. There is a whole layer of management, on fat salaries, that replicates similar roles in the Council There are duplicate IT systems and huge waste. They also employ shoddy and dangerous contractors. Have a look at these posts on Facebook.

Not only do Barnet Homes cost the taxpayer a fortune, they employ shoddy contractors who do substandard work and even cause fires in tenants homes. It simply isn't good enough. This particular tenant is supposed to be having his kitchen renovated.  The work was supposed to take one week. It is still not done. The tenant has over 100 official complaints with Barnet Homes, for shoddy work and problems with the property. 

The tenant also had problems with Barnet Homes where they were paying their rent and Barnet Homes were saying they hadn't and threatening them with court action and eviction. I got involved and started to do some digging. My digging seemed to identify and issue with a poorly designed payment portal. I wrote to the CEO, I did not get a satisfactory answer to my query. So I put in an FoI to Barnet Homes, asking about the number of such misdirected payments. I submitted the request on 29th October. By law, I was supposed to get a response within 20 days. There is a requirement on the authority to be helpful! 

This was the first response I got, on the 14th November

Dear Mr Tichborne,

 

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request, which was received by Barnet Homes on 29 October 2024.

 

Unfortunately, due to an administrative error there has been a delay to our Complaints and Information Team acknowledging it. I am very sorry for this.

 

Whilst Barnet Homes provides support, the London Borough of Barnet is ultimately responsible for the suspense account and your request therefore needs to be directed to the council’s FOI team. For expediency, I have included the council’s team in this email so they can process your request (@Freedom of Information Act).

 

I apologise again for the delay; I will take this up with our team.

The next response came on the 12th December

The Complaints and Information Team is presently very short-staffed and therefore you may experience a delay to our usual response timescales. We will provide you with a response, where needed, as soon as possible. We are very sorry for any inconvenience and we thank you for your patience. 

This could explain why the poor tenant, who's home has been trashed by dodgy contractors gets nowhere with his complaints.  

Having not got a response by January from Barnet Council, I warned them that I would report them to the ICO who regulate FoI requests.

On the 15th January, I finally got this response

Dear Mr Tichborne,

 

London Borough of Barnet apologises sincerely in the delay in providing you the requested information.  Please see response below.

 

Your request:

Please can you supply me with the closing balance for the suspense account, where misdirected payments, including rent payments with incorrect payment reference numbers are directed, for the following dates 

1st January 2024

1st April 2024

1st October 2024 

Please can you also supply me details of the total number of payment transactions directed to this account for the month of September. 

Response:

Please see the totals for Council Tax below.

 

Please can you supply me with the closing balance for the suspense account, where misdirected payments, including rent payments with incorrect payment reference numbers are directed, for the following dates

 1st January 2024 - £275,712.91

1st April 2024 - £0.00

1st October 2024 - £513,295.92 

Please can you also supply me details of the total number of payment transactions directed to this account for the month of September - 924

Kind regards,

I was horrified at this. This indicated that nearly 1 in ten tenants payments were being misdirected. So I emailed the leader of the Council and the CEO of Barnet Council to explain. 

To my amasement, the next reply I got was this. It wasn't from Barnet Council. It was from Elliot Sweetman, the CEO of Barnet Homes

Dear Mr Tichborne,

 

Thank you for your email which Cllr Rawlings has asked me to respond to.

 

Just to clarify, the figures in terms of values and transactions you have been provided in response to your FOI request relate to the council tax suspense account, not council tenant rent payments. We’re still investigating why different information was provided to that requested. However, in respect of council tenant rent payments, Barnet Homes undertake daily checks to identify incorrectly assigned rent payments and advise that on average circa. six rent payments per month are identified in the suspense account and reallocated to the correct rent accounts.

 

We will come back to you with the further information you have enquired about as soon as possible.

 

Kind regards,

 

Elliott Sweetman

So here we are. It is nearly three months since I first made the enquiry. I still don't have the information I requested, although Mr Sweetman has provided some rough fugures, that his organisation originally said they couldn't provide! We also now know that last September, nearly a thousand council tax payers payments went astray. If that is representative of the year, that is over ten thousand council tax payers who are paying and their account isn't being properly credited. There is another issue that the response highlights. The balance on 1st April was zero £. As there was a quarter of a million in January and half a million in September, why was there a zero balance in April? I asked the question for a specific reason. That is when the council is finalising its annual accounts. It is pretty clear that the cash was transferred to other accounts to balance the books for year end. I have emailed the Section 151 officer for an explanation. The Section 151 officer's job is to ensure financial probity. I've not had a response, so far and have emailed the officer again to ask for confirmation of receipt.

It interests me that Barnet Council Leader, Barry Rawlings did not respond to my email. Despite Barry assurring me, on the night he won the election, that he welcomed critical scrutiny, it is clear to me that the Labour Administration are not interested in such things. 

I will give Mr Sweetman and Councillor Rawlings the opportunity to provide a guest blog, unedited to explain themselves. It is clear to me that neither organisation are up to the job. The emails are there, what do you think?

By the way, this is what I was talking about here.

The 10th Anniversary party for the Friern Barnet Library Occupation

 It was my pleasure to be invited to a 10th anniversary party to celebrate the reopening of the Friern Barnet library by members of the occupy movement. This eventually resulted in the council scrapping their plan to demolish the library and put a Tescos there. The Library is still going strong and looking better than ever. I thought I'd film the highlights for posterity


I was delighted to see the Leader of Barnet Council, Barry Rawlings in attendence, as well as Councillor Pauline Coakley-Webb, who were stalwart campaign supporters, as well as new Friern Barnet Councillor Linda Lusingu. Also present was Sarah Sackman, who is running to be the candidate for the Finchley and Golders Green seat. Sarah represented the campaign in the court case. I'm not an FGG resident or a Labour member, but I genuinely think Sarah should be selected. She is one of the most capable and committed people I've ever met. Parliament and the Labour Party needs strong MP's and she would be one of the very best.

It's happening! I have applied today to be Labour’s next candidate for Finchley & Golders Green.

I've spent the last decade fighting for our communities, speaking truth to power & giving a voice to people who need it most.

Now I need your help to turn this seat red. pic.twitter.com/Bj255E7us2

— Sarah Sackman (@sarahsackman) September 20, 2022

I have absolutely nothing against the other candidates, but Sarah is a far higher calibre candidate. When she spoke, I was reminded just how good she is. 

What a lovely afternoon at the 10 year celebration of the reopening of the Friern Barnet Library. Great meeting Phoenix again! Good speeches from @BarryJohnRawlin @sarahsackman & @Barneteye Where did those ten years go? pic.twitter.com/6bu8EbgREY

— Donald Lyven (@barnet_rebel) October 9, 2022

It was also nice to see retired rabbi Jeffrey Newman, former accountant Keith Martin, who was one of the defendents in the case and Joanna Fryer who has kept the library running. Perhaps the biggest shout out, should go to Pete Phoenix of Occupy, who lived in the library during the occupation and organised the reunion. I was reminded of the video I made of him when the occupation started.

The reunion was rescheduled due to the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. The group shared stories. Perhaps the sweetest was of Don and Lucy, who met at the Pop Up Library and have now been together for ten years. Like many events in Barnet, the get together was slightly bonkers. Phoenix recalled how during the negotiations with the council, we ensured the officials had to sit on kiddies chairs. We recalled how Will Self did a book signing at the Occupied library. 

The Library campaign was the best, most successful I've ever been involved in. When it started I doubted we'd save the Library. Not only did we do that, but we managed to ensure that the architect of the closure, Councillor Robert Rams lost his seat on the council at the next election. I doubt that Labour would have ever won the council if we'd not won the library campaign. 

I gave a short speech, where I explained that the Policing Bill, so beloved to our anti libertarian government, would prevent a benign campaign such as the Library campaign. Liberty asked me to make a video for their campaign, explaining this. 

.

Sorry Barry, us loudmouths don't want a megaphone, we just want reasonable answers to reasonable questions

 I have to say that I was more than disappointed to hear the answer of the new Leader of Barnet Council,  Barry Rawlings to a question I sent into BBC Radio London's Eddie Nestor show, who was being interviewed. Eddie asked for questions.  Eddie posted this tweet

Our #MeetTheLeader series is back

First up is new Labour leader of Barnet Cllr Barry Rawlings

If you have a question
📩 Email Eddie@bbc.co.uk

📻Listen live https://t.co/5wxIKa6FEI @EddieNestorMBE | @BarryJohnRawlin | @BarnetCouncil

⤵️More on Barnet with @susana_mendonca pic.twitter.com/jesTrnNAhq

— BBC Radio London (@BBCRadioLondon) July 6, 2022

I sent this in.

Hi Eddie, I'd like to book a question with Barry Rawlings for the show on Wednesday. In 2018, the then Conservative administration changed the rules regarding questions from the public at council meetings, imposing strict limits on what could be asked and how many questions could be asked, making proper public scrutiny almost impossible. Barry was highly critical of this and lead everyone to believe that a Labour administration would change the rules. They have not done this. Can Barry explain why he's gone back on his word and whether this is due to a desire to restrict scrutiny whilst the Capita one Barnet contract is being reviewed. Regards Rog

I'll post a link back to the interview, which was quite interesting. However, I was deeply disappointed with Barry's answer. He said that he doesn't want to "Give a megaphone to those with already loud voices".  Yes, I have a loud voice, I don't need a megaphone. The reason I sent my question to Eddie was because I had a chat with Mr Reasonable, AKA John Dix about raising the issue of Barnet Labour not changing the rules back. We were discussing whether to go public about the fact that Barry in opposition promised to remove the restrictions on public questions at meetings and has changed his mind. This is what John said.

Part of me was also tempted to leave it till September but they will have to discuss the Capita contracts by September and I am worried the delay on the gagging rules is to keep us out of the scrutiny/debate that will take place.  

I felt I had to ask the question. John is 100% spot on. The meetings where the Capita contract is being discussed are massively important to Barnet's residents and residents should be given the opportunity to have their say.  Barry has heard me ask hundreds of questions over the last fourteen years, I'd like to think he recognised the fact that every single one was the result of hours of reading council papers and doing homework. Yes I'm not a shrinking violet, a loudmouth, but I had liked to think that people recognised that I was serious and that my questions were the result of proper research. 

At the election count Barry suggested that I should not give up on scrutiny, when it was clear that Labour had won. I assumed that the first move would be to remove the Tory restrictions, so I could carry on as Barry suggested. Barry said on the show that he was putting together a People's Assembly, so people in Barnet could have a voice. As someone who is interested in the council and knows how it works, I know it would be far less effective for actual scrutiny purposes. It is committees where decisions are made. When there are technical issues or gaping holes in policies, it is the commitee where this can be rectified. I can recall dozens of instances of the Tories listening to questions and making small tweaks that lead to bad policies being changed and stupid ideas dropped. It resulted in the Metpro scandal being exposed. It resulted in the Mapledown respite changes being dropped. This was all prior to the 2018 rule changes. Former Tory Audit Committee chair Hugh Rayner, personally thanked myself and John Dix on many occasions for raising issues and he fixed them. This may have been a drop in the ocean, but it did make a material difference to how the Borough operated.

After the rule changes, I rarely bothered asking, unless there was a slam dunk issue. I developed a reasonable relationship with a couple of Tory Councillors. I realised that I couldn't ask questions, so I'd email them and they'd do the dirty work if they accepted my arguments. It was only when they didn't I'd bother showing up.  The problem with this was that there was no public accountability or recognition that the council wasn't putting its papers together properly. It gave Dan Thomas, the former Tory leader, the figleaf that his councillors were doing their job, when they weren't.

As to Barry's assertion that a Peoples Assembly will fix the problem, People's assemblies are good at setting direction and strategy, they are not good at allowing residents to forensically challenge specific defects in council papers. I suspect that they will provide a far better forum for a loudmouth like me to spout ideological nonsense and waffle for hours than when specific questions are required on specific issues in relation to specific policies.

I'm happy to make a deal with Barry. If he wants me to refrain from asking questions, I'll retire from going to meetings completely, so long as he changes the rules and allows people like John to ask questions, if thats what he really wants. Many people in Barnet fought for years for a change of regime and to oppose the policies of the Conservative regime. We genuinely believed that things would be better. I'm used to being called names by Leaders of Barnet Council, I don't take it personally, but I really expected a little better. 

The reality is that I'm in it for the long haul. I don't ask questions for the benefit of the two other bloggers sat in the public gallery at Council meetings. I do it because I want the London Borough of Barnet to be the best place possible for people like me and you who live here. I had rather hoped that this was recognised.

There is one good thing that came out of this. It gives me a chance to play one of my favourite tracks by the Ramones. Enjoy!

How good is your councillor? The Barnet Eye League table of councillors - Part 2 - The list of shame

This is the second in our list of blogs, where we look at Barnet Council and we rate our local councillors. This is a purely personal view. On Sunday 16th November we looked at the good councillors in Barnet. Those that we believe are doing a good job, irrespective of their party allegiance.  I chose 8 Tories, 1 Lib Dem and 11 Labour councillors as examples of effective Councillors doing a good job. Todays list are the ones we believe don't cut the mustard and should be shipped off to the political wilderness. This list is not a list of personal gripes, it is based on the fact that I believe these politicians can demonstrably be shown to have failed to do a good job. The list is in order of worst first.

#1 -  Barnets worst Councillor. This was an exceptionally easy choice. This man has been responsible for developing a string of policies so unpopular that they have been slung out by the the council even though the Conservatives have a majority in both the Council chamber and the relevant committees. He championed the hugely unpopular cuts to the Mapledown School after school respite service and the Moss Hall nursery school. His pompous, dismissive and arrogant manner has alienated Councillors of all persuasions and infuriated the public at meetings. I happened to bump into a Tory Councillor in Finchley on Saturday who asked when I would be running this blog. I told them that this would be running today. They asked who I'd picked as my worst Councillor, when I told them, they laughed and said "an excellent choice". Just in case you were wondering, this isn't a councillor who generally endorses the Barnet  Eye, if you get my drift. I also notice that this councillor declines to give a contact number in his profile.  In his declaration of interests, he doesn't list a single organisation to which he contributes, other than CFI, FGGCA and CBCA - http://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=177&T=6 - Now of course this is his business, but most councillors play an active role in their community. If you want a good example of a concerned Conservative have a look at Sury Khatri's interests.

• 
  Councillor Reuben Thompstone Golders Green
  Conservative - Work: cllr.r.thompstone@barnet.gov.uk
   
  

#2 - This councillor is extremely lucky that Rueben Thompstone is a member of Barnet Council, as she most certainly deserves the accolade of Barnets worst Councillor. She is the Councillor who has lead the local Labour party from defeat to defeat locally, when Tory Councils all over London Tumbled in May 2014. Not only has her election strategy failed to secure a Labour Council, she has failed to represent the views of the people who elected her and failed to take advantage of the numerous cock ups of successive Conservative administrations, to deliver a Labour victory. Under her 'wise' Leadership the local Labour Party signed up to a report that stated that returning "Your Choice Barnet" to in house operation was "not an option", even though the outsourcing has been a nightmare and the company required a taxpayer funded bale out. She failed to oppose the One Barnet outsourcing, refusing to ever say that the services would be brought in house under a Labour adminstration. In a spiteful attack on Barnets best councillor, Lib Dem Jack Cohen, she launched a Labour campaign drive in Childs Hill, a seat where Labour had no chance of winning, delivering two out of three seats to the Tories. Had the Lib Dems retained all three seats, Labour would now be leading an administration running the Council. Even worse was the fact that these resources could have been used in Hale ward that Labour narrowly failed to take from the Tories. Perhaps the biggest failure of all, is her signing up to the Tories budget. This policy was justified on the basis that anything else would lose the election. She lost the election and lost her credibility.

• 
  Councillor Alison Moore East Finchley
  Labour - cllr.a.moore@barnet.gov.uk

#3 - Next up we have the Labour architect of the infamous "keep Uopur Choice Barnet outsourced" policy. This councillor is surely an affable chap, but when it comes down to it he has simply acted as a merkin for ultra right wing Tory policies in Barnet. Where effective opposition was needed, this councillor actually bolstered the Tories. What this meant was that local campaigners, who had broken their backs supporting Labour and fighting outsourcing, were completely undermined. There is no point blaming Conservatives for implementing bad policies if the opposition simply says we agree with them. This councillor has the best attendence record of any in the Council with 24 out of 24, yet the Barnet Eye has to ask, what is the point being there as an opposition councillor, if you simply agree with what the administration do all the time. Barnet needs people who don't just turn up for the tea and biscuits. We need people who will fight for the residents and taxpayers.

• 
  Councillor Barry Rawlings Coppetts
  Labour - cllr.b.rawlings@barnet.gov.uk

 #4  - This Councillor has responsibility for housing in Barnet. He seems to have a complete lack of understanding of the issue and the need for decent quality social housing for working people. Not only that but he's presided over a policy where leasholders on Barnet Council estates have been lumbered with huge bills for maintenance work on their properties, where the properties are earmarked for demolition next year. Some leaseholders will be lumbered with bills of up to £10,000 and find themselves looking for new properties next year.  We believe that the primary job of councillors is to stick up for the voters. We believe that any policy which hammers local people such as this, at a time of deep economic hardship, shows that a councillor is simply not up to the job.

• 
  Councillor Tom Davey Hale
  Conservative - cllr.t.davey@barnet.gov.uk

#5 - This councillor had been a councillor for many years in the Borough, representing Hale Ward for the Conservatives. When it became clear that the ward was targetted by Labour as a winnable marginal, he moved to the ultra safe Tory seat in the neighbouring Edgware. In the event, Labours Kitty Lyons won the vacated seat, whilst the other two Hale Tories (Rayner and Davey) hung on. His little chicken run activities very nearly cost the Tories control of the Council. One has to assume that this councillor believes the Tories would provide a better council for Hale Ward councillors, but he put his own interests beyond those of the voters who supported him.

• 
  Councillor Brian Gordon LLB Edgware
  Conservative - cllr.b.gordon@barnet.gov.uk

#6 - This councillor is the Deputy Leader of Barnet Council. In the previous administration, he held the portfolio for managing the Councils portfolio of assets. Amongst the policies he championed were the sale of Friern Barnet library, a policy that came off the rails spectacularly, nearly losing the Tories the election to boot. At the initial hearing at Finchley County Court, he turned up to gloat when the case for eviction of local campaigners was heard. The council had botched the paperwork and the council were sent back with a flea in their ear, to prepare the case properly. At the subsequent hearing, it became clear that the Council had botched the whole issue and the Council were forced to compromise and save the library. As the architect of such a cock up, which cost several colleagues their seats on Council, one may have thought the Tories may have wanted a new Deputy Leader. One would be wrong.

• 
  Councillor Daniel Thomas BA (Hons) Finchley Church End
  Conservative - cllr.d.thomas@barnet.gov.uk

 #7 - According to disgraced former Councillor Brian Coleman, this is the Councillor who is really running the Council. She is the wife of the Council Leader. Mr Coleman rather bitchily says "Not possible to have a short conversation with her it is just easier to say yes and save the phone bill cost .  Her husband long ago opted for the easier option of agreeing with his wife . Has turned the Conservative Party in Totteridge almost into a family business." Whilst the Barnet Eye has little time for Mr Coleman or his antics, one suspects that Mrs C is the one person who holds sway over the Leader. As such she must take much of the blame for the mishaps that have struck the council. We really think it's time she started to use her influence a little more wisely.

• 
  Councillor Alison Cornelius Totteridge
  Conservative - cllr.a.cornelius@barnet.gov.uk

#8 - This councillor has developed a reputation for "no shows" at council meetings and events. He has the worst percenatge attendence rate of any Barnet Councillor, bunking off over a third of all the meetings he meant to show up for. He's a nice chap and a successful businessman, therefore it is with no great joy that we list him in th duds section. The truth however is that if you are elected to serve the people of Barnet, then that is what you should do. If you are building your global empire, do that instead. The people of Barnet need councillors who are prepared to put in the hours, represent the voters and stand up to the executive officers and even their own party when needs be. If you look at the list of good councillors, they've all shown a willingness to work and take the brickbats. So if you don't want to find yourself on this list, do the job!

• 
  Councillor Daniel Seal Garden Suburb
  Conservative - cllr.d.seal@barnet.gov.uk

#9 - Now we are down to the last two in our list. I have chosen these two purely to make a point.  They both have the lowest attendence record of council meetings in the last six months for their respective parties and they have both failed to attend meetings which the council logged them as being supposed to attend. For the Tories, the member with the lowest attendence is our Controversial Mayor, who has managed a mere 6. Now as Mayor, Mr Rayner will be excused the workload of other members, which may be a mitigating factor, but he's still failed to show for 25% where he was expected. When you consider that his colleague Sury Khatri (who is rightly in the best councillors list) made 18 out of 18, one has to say "Come on Hugh, pull your socks up"

• 
  Councillor Hugh Rayner Hale
  Conservative - cllr.h.rayner@barnet.gov.uk

#10 - At the bottom of the table for Labour and at the bottom of the table for the whole Council we have a Labour Councillor for Burnt Oak. If one part of the Borough needs someone to be a fearless champion, it is this ward. Yet this councillor has managed a mere four out of seven appearances. I must say she's never really registered on the Barnet Eye radar before. Now I think we know why.

• 
  Councillor Claire Farrier Burnt Oak
  Labour - cllr.c.farrier@barnet.gov.uk

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So we conclude our list of shame. Do you agree? Have we been unfair to one of the recipients of the Barnet Timewasters awards? We think if you are ineffective, don't do your job, can't be bothered to turn up or don't have the intellect to make the case for the people you are supposed to represent, then you shouldn't be in the Town Hall and you shouldn't be claiming an allowance from the taxpayer. As to the third list - Well these are the councillors who I are either too new to draw a conclusion about or who have never done anything to get on the radar. If they are not in this blog or the list of good councillors, then I suggest you look at this list - http://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?VW=TABLE&PIC=1&FN=  - and if they are your councillor, drop them an email and ask what they've been doing to justify the the minimum Ten Grand a year, we as taxpayers are paying them. I would also ask that if they are on the good Councillor list and you agree with me, then you drop them an email and thank them for doing their job well. Finally, if they are on the list above, drop them an email and tell them that they have made the clunkers list. Ask them what they intend to do to pull their socks up. Point out that their job is to serve you!

Guest Blog - Discrimination against the ill by Barnet Council? - By John Sullivan

By John Sullivan,

I just read your cancer blog and the update on your own personal cancer issue. My cancer treatment left me with a stomach problem, a quite acute stomach problem that attacks me at random, it should not have happened it was probably  an error on the part of a member of staff of the NHS. But I have never thought to try to sue or anything like that I am just grateful to the NHS that I am still around to enjoy my family, and support my beloved wife and daughter, and  a public free at the point of need NHS currently being privatised by stealth as is the London Borough of Barnet via the One Barnet programme without consultation.

As you are aware part of that support is my dogged determination to ensure quality of life for disabled people in Barnet, with a particular interest in the activities of Your Choice Barnet and its board of directors, along with LBB councillors and officers that are highly paid to ensure the quality of life for the most vulnerable people in Barnet. One of whom is my daughter Susan and linked to her and  important to her quality of life are her peers with a learning difficulty and some with a sensory impairment and other disabilities, and the vitally important skilled and committed support staff  we rely on and value so highly yet have no value where LBB councillors  and YCB  directors are concerned.

Even before the formation of YCB, we had from the then head of adult services Kate Kennally obfuscation misinformation and obstruction, and absolutely no attempt to meaningfully consult on equal terms with parents carers and service users on any important issue. Someone determined to get her own way, someone that thinks they know everything and parents and family carers with hundreds of years of coal face experience know nothing. As a consequence she set in train the divide and rule policy that was adopted and continued by YCB to ensure complete control of all and every decision, ensuring parents and family carers have no impactive input on any subject. Someone enjoying an income in excess of 150K per annum that has decided that skilled coal face workers that have forgotten more than they will ever know about attending disabled people, are being overpaid and as a consequence are having their already low wages cut significantly. A revisit  to the guest blogs of Linda Edwards MBE and the torrid time she had convincing this highly paid person that her daughter Rachel was not enjoying any quality of life or being treated properly will give you some indication of where I am coming from.

Last night at the BSOMC committee Councillor Rawlings was successful in his attempt to secure a review of YCB  I am pleased to say. What I am not pleased about is the rules of this committee. I wrote to them asking permission to speak to the committee in favour of the request of Councillor Rawlings, and believe it or not after having checked with the legal people, that permission was granted . I am a Barnet resident that wanted to speak in support of an item on the agenda, so what need was there to check the legality of my request ? simply because I had had the courtesy to advise them that along with other parents carers and service users we had already instructed experts in this field to undertake a complete review of YCB. Its successes and failures related to the business model it was launched upon, the future viability of all YCB services in their questionable hands, and the viability of bringing all YCB services back in -house. 

We hear the cries of  "outsource anything that moves" Conservative councillors. We hear  that to bringervices back in-house would not be viable based on prejudice not fact, so our review will allow us a few unbiased facts to consider.

One fact  Kate Kennally, LBB councillors and YCB directors  cannot overlook is the fact that after more than 40 years of action in-house,  these services never finished up in huge debt, or found the need to get rid of skilled workers and replace them with cheap labour unskilled labour any Tom Dick or Harriet agency workers. As is the case after just one year of YCB, so might I suggest the return to in-house provision might just possibly be a better bet for Barnet taxpayers and service users and families , than those so determined to outsource everything suggest..

Sadly I was attacked earlier in the day by my random cancer treatment induced stomach problem and unable to make the meeting to speak in support of Barry Rawlings, therefore my colleague and co joint founder of CADDSS Janet Leifer asked to read my statement on my behalf.  It was a statement supported by many other family carers , parents and service users and the intention was quite simply to have those opinions placed on the record and Janet was denied that request.

Like Roger and everybody else that has been visited by cancer I did not choose this situation, and I find it incomprehensible that in these circumstances my democratic right to be heard and have my opinions placed on the record was denied me. Purely and simply because I am one of the many victims of cancer, and was unable to attend and afforded no facility to ensure my democratic right to  be heard via a second party was ensured.

I am so pleased that Councillor Rawlings has stuck to his task he has been continually fighting the corner of disabled people in Barnet and the call to bring YCB services back in-house ,so all we can do is hope and pray he like us is not struck down by some illness. Because that might result in his lone voice in the council chambers in defence of the most defenceless people in Barnet , being silenced  by an uninvited  illness, which I find absolutely bizarre. I ask "since when have people with Cancer been legitimate targets of discrimination and when did they cease to have the rights and dignity afforded to healthy people"