How do the Barnet Conservatives choose their committee chairmen?

Last week I attended the Barnet Council audit committee. As I mentioned at the time, I was completely underwhelmed with the performance of the chair of the committee, Councillor Brian Salinger. I wrote a blog detailing just what an awful job Councillor Salinger was doing. Given that audit is probably the most important committee, I had to wonder just how he was chosen. My mind was cast back to the early years of the last decade. At the time I was working in an office near Aldgate. Every day I'd nip down to Sidoli's in Leman ST, a family run cafe, and get a cup of tea from Marge. The cafe had been there since the 1950's and Marge would often tell us how when she started "The cafe was always full of seamen from the docks" (to general myrth). By the 1990's the dockers and seamen had been replaced by yuppies and bankers. Over the road from Sidoli's a lap dancing club had opened. The manager was a larger than life character, who was full of interesting stories.

One day, we were all having a cuppa and a chinwag and he told us he'd just interviewed three new lapdancers. He said that he asked all three the same question. He said "if you are doing a dance in the private booth and when the punter has gone, you notice he's dropped his wallet with £500 in it what do you do".

The first girl said "I'd run after the punter and return his wallet"
The second one said "I'd take the money, put the wallet in the bin and deny all knowledge if asked"
The third one said "I'd take the money and give you half, then put the wallet in the bin"

He then asked me and Marge, "which girl should I employ". Marge said girl no 1 on the grounds she was the most honest. I countered and said "Girl two as she is probably the only one telling the truth and so at least you know where you stand with her. He laughed and said "no you're both wrong". So we asked "so which one would you employ?" He replied "The one with the biggest tits of course".

You may wonder what this has to do with Barnet Council? Well, the manager of the lapdancing club gave an insight into what it takes to run an organisation successfully. Whether or not you like his business, or his answer, he demonstrated that he was empoying the person best equipped to do the job. It isn't a pleasant job and honesty is not a primary requirement for his business.In his judgement and experience, he chose the girl who was best equipped for the task.

Broken bins

The problem with Barnet Council is that there is no such focus. The chair of each committee gets an allowance of over £15,000 for their efforts. This is our money. We pay it in taxes and in return we expect the council to spend it wisely. Sadly in Barnet the jobs are divvied up as political favours, not based on the 'assets" of the individuals. Another important committee is the Environment Committee chaired by Dean Cohen. Anyone who has seen Cohen in action will recognise that he is totally out of his depth.  It is 100% clear that his appointment was purely a dog bone to someone the leadership viewed as politically useful. Since taking over from the disasterous reign of Brian Coleman, Cohen has singularly failed to achieve anything. When he took over, Brian Colemans policy of abolishing pay and display had laid waste to high street businesses. It was clear that the policy should be reversed in short order. Cohen lacked the cojones to do this. Eventually a sort of half way house was established, with a few machines being installed, that took credit cards. Whilst this is better than a mobile only solution, it was so clearly a bad political fudge. There is no leadership and no direction to the environment policy. 

Walking around Mill Hill park this week demonstrated this. Dangerous man hole covers and broken bins. I am particularly concerned about this manhole cover. Many young people frequent the park after dark. This is a highly dangerous feature, which could cause a severe injury. In cold weather, if you broke your leg it may even prove fatal. it used to be the case that local councillors would work with the chair of such committees to ensure that their patch was spotless. Sadly under the reign of Cohen, the concept has gone out of the window and all we ever get is excuses for inaction.

What do the committee do? They most certainly don't ensure that the environment is looked after. I have no idea why Dean Cohen has been chosen, but he doesn't cut the mustard.


Then we have the Children, Education, Libraries & Safeguarding Committee which is chaired by the truly horrible Rueben Thompstone. Thompstone managed the near impossible and forced Tory uber loyalist Maureen Braun to rebel over the closure of after school services at Mapledown School. He is currently overseeing the destruction of the Barnet Libraries network. There is no councillor more popous and condescending in the whole of the council. One Tory councillor who I get oin quite well with joked about Thompstone that there are two types of people those that dislike him and those that haven't met him. I asked why he was chosen for such a role, the repsonse "I suppose it is because he's a teacher". It must be said that he gets on quite well with one person, Dan Thomas who is the deputy leader of the council. Thomas sees Thompstone as a useful foil for unpopular policies. Given his personality, he acts as a lighetning rod for protests, deflecting flak from the puppet master pulling the strings. Anyone who has ever watched Thompstoen closely will have seen how he watches Thomas like a hawk for signals as to what to do. It is clar to anyone who has attended any Council meeting to discuss libraries that Thompstone,w ho clearly wasn't born or raised in the Borough, has no understanding of the role libraries play in the lives of local families. It is not unreasonable to expect a chair of the committee who has at least got some sort of understanding of what the service provides.

Another wholly inappropriate choice of chairman is councillor Tom Davey as chair of the housing committee. You will see from his declaration of interests that Cllr Davey is a financial analyst for British American Tobacco. Davey has made many pronouncemens about social housing tenants. Like many well to do young men who have had a priveliged start in life, Mr Davey has no real experience of the lives of people his decisions affect so greviously. Mr Davey is apparently a landlord. One has to assume that the salary of a financial analyst for a tobacco firm is either massively well paid or mummy and daddy have helped out with his property purchases. Given his age and his listed property is in one of the most well sought after cul-de-sacs in Mill Hill, it is fair to assume that the plight of young people seeking social housing in Barnet are a million miles away from his personal experience. I suppose it is ironic that many of his fellow Tory members find the fact that many social housing tenants and benefit recipients spend cash on the addictive products that Mr Davey's firm produce distasteful. Mr Davey clearly sees no problem with the sale of addictive and dangerous products and one assumes that his analysis produces information which is used to justify a product which has killed and caused debiliating illness to millions of UK citizens. We have to ask, what experience he has he got to justify this important role? As a private landlord, his income is presumably affected by the provision of social housing, as all commercial rents are dictated by the laws of supply and demand. Am I alone in seeing a clash.

Finally we look at the Planning Committee. The chair of this is Melvin Cohen. He is Dean Cohens dad. Councillor Cohen is a lawyer by trade (according to his declaration). Given the huge amount of building going on in the Borough, this is a massively important committee. By all accounts Councillor Cohen is reasonably effective as chair when dealing with small scale planning applications in nice leafly suburban areas such as Edgware, Golders Green and Mill Hill. The problem is that the vast majority of planning applications that are phase shifting the nature of the Borough are mega developments in places like Brent Cross, West Hendon and the Inglis Barracks in Mill Hill. Cohen has shown himself to be completely out of his depth. In fact I get the impression that the whole Tory team on the planning committee are genuinely clueless when it comes to what is happening in our Borough. I have no idea if any of the Tories actually have any interest at all in ensuring a mixed neighbourhood, social housing or green spaces are preserved in planning applications, but there has been scant indications of this.

For Barnet to remain a great place to live, all of the committees I've mentioned need strong chairmen. If they don't do their job, then our Borough and our lifestyle will be trashed. We are aready seeing huge pressure on roads, schools, hospitals and police. When I a teenager, we had two A&E hospitals in the Borough. In that period the population of the Borough has increased by 50% yet we've lost one of these. Try applying for a school place. My eldest daughter was declined a place at the nearest secondary school to us on "catchment", despite living less than 1 mile from the establishment. She ended up having to take a bus to Finchley every day.  This is the monster they are creating.

A final word for the Labour group. It is simply not good enough to go along with these lacklustre Tory placemen. They need to use every meeting to ram home the message that the Tories are getting  a massive payout and they are not cutting the mustard. They are singularly failing to do this. They need to get on top of their briefs and start holding these rather ineffectual placemen to account.

When I was chatting with my friendly Tory councillor I told him the joke about the manager at the lap dancing club. He roared with laughter. He wryly commented "We can't choose people like that in the council". Of course he's right, but what he didn't say was how they did choose them. I guess the reason is because it is even more embarrassing.

What are councillors supposed to do?

Several of my loyal army of readers seemed to be a little upset that I'd been less than nice to one of the Barnet Councillors yesterday. As I made my way at 6.30am to the The Passage Day centre for Londons Homeless in Victoria, to feed the hungry homeless, I pondered just what it was that specifically annoyed me about the performance of said Councillor. I realised that I was asking myself the wrong question. In fact, with all the blogs and all of the talk recently about "no confidence votes", we all have. The question we have to ask is "What are Councillors meant to do?". Perhaps the next question is one for individual Councillors. Are they doing what they are meant to do? I suspect that perhaps 95% of the residents of Barnet don't really know what Councillors are supposed to do (as opposed to what they actually do).

Councillors in Barnet get £10,000 a year for being a councillor (substancially more if they are in the cabinet or chair of a committee). For this they only have to do one thing to be legally entitled to claim the dosh. They have to turn up to 2 Council meetings a year. So that is the legal requirement, but I daresay that is not what anyone would agree is a satisfactory answer.

Councillors are elected for a four year term. There are 21 wards in Barnet and each has 3 councillors. Let us clear up the first misconception. Councillors are not supposed to "run the council". Even the Leader, Richard Cornelius is not supposed to do this. This job is done by the CEO and his team of executives. The role of the Council is to "decide council policy" and to make sure officers implement it. Councillors are elected by the residents and are meant to represent residents wishes. They have the power to intervene and take action when officers do not act in the best interests of the people of Barnet. They should make sure that officers implement the agreed policy. If you have a problem with a council provided service, a Councillor is supposed to make sure that you have been treated correctly by the Council. A diligent councillor holds regular surgeries for constituents and uses these to speak to residents and undertake casework. In Mill Hill, the local Tory Councillors do this on a Saturday morning at Mill Hill library.

As I pay the councillors to represent me (via my taxes), I expect them to listen to my concerns and if I have a genuine grievance, to act on it accordingly. As the local Councillors in Mill Hill are Conservatives, they were elected to impliment the Conservative manifesto. If I don't like something the Council are doing, but it was a policy laid out in the manifesto, I have no grounds for expecting them to act upon my complaints. I will have the opportunity in 2014 to get another party elected. That is my democratic right. If the council is implementing a policy which was not in the manifesto, the Councillors may still be within their rights to ignore my requests to act. They should however listen to me and explain the reason for their decision.

The One Barnet program was not included in the Conservative Manifesto in 2010, nor was the plan to hike parking charges. As such, my Conservative Councillors lack a democratic mandate to implement the changes. They have a legal power to do it, but the two things are different. I would expect my councillors to make the case for the changes, if asked. At a recent meeting, two of the Councillors Sury Khatri and John Hart met and discussed the issues with residents. They undertook to take our concerns back to the leadership. As such, I have no issue with the two gentlemen. They are doing what Councillors should do.

We then turn our attention to the person who inspired this blog. His name is Dean Cohen and he is the cabinet member with the responsibility for parking. I have a degree of sympathy with Councillor Cohen. He inherited a poison chalice from Brian Coleman when he was sacked. That is where the sympathy ends. He took over the role in May. It is now November. Dean Cohen has just announced his plan to remedy the mess Brian Coleman left him. His planned measures, to be trialled in North Finchley are:



- A 35% reduction in current parking charges on-street to increase turnover with a proportionate slightly less reduction for off-street car parks to ensure overall parity. 

- The introduction of dedicated business parking bays within off-street car parks, to increase on-street parking space. 

- Making a number of on-street parking bays a 2 hour maximum stay to increase turnover. 

- Adapting existing on street loading bays to allow a 15 minutes free parking period after 10am to promote rapid turnover. 

- Introducing a 15 minute stay facility on pay-by-phone bays. 
 
- Introducing a number of new ‘Pay-by-Phone’ short-stay parking bays at specific locations in the High Street to increase on street parking availability. 
 
In addition to the parking review changes, six on-street credit and debit card payment machines will be installed in the New Year. In yesterdays blog, I posted a link to Dean Cohens response to Alan Schneiderman. Councillor Cohen refused to entertain Councillor Schneidermans request for a "free parking period" to boost the High Streets, on the grounds that it would cost too much money. Now I thought that Cohens arguments were weak to say the least. Here are the reasons why

1. The special parking account is over £1 million under budget since NSL took over enforcement. Mr Cohen does not address this huge black hole at all.

2. Mr Cohen claims the changes proposed by Labour would cost money. The hike in parking charges has resulted in a massive defecit in the budget. If Mr Cohen was a serious politician, he would have addressed all of the relevant issues in a costed scheme and have the figures to hand.

3. The figures Mr Cohen attributes to the cost of the Labour amendment are highly dubious. I did some calculations and I think it is unlikely that the officers have got the figures right. Mr Cohen should have challenged these figures and ensured that his answers were robust and credible. Do the maths yourself if you don't believe me.

4. Dean Cohen is delivering the new credit card operated meters in January, after the busiest time of the year for retailers. Presumably their could have been a mini bonanza in parking fees if he'd got the meters in now. They have been planning this for six months.

5. Dean Cohen has sought to repair some of the damage caused by Brian Coleman. Allowing 15 minutes parking in loading bays after 10am is a sensible move, but doesn't address the primary issue that parking charges have been used as a stealth tax. The raise is still well above inflation.

6. Mr Cohen states that if the money is not collected from parking charges, then roads may not be resurfaced. I was under the impression that parking was not the sole source of revenue for Barnet Council. If they were to cut waste (which you know there is plety of) then they could resurface roads and give the High Street a boost. By auditing the Metpro contract properly, the council saved £450,000 on work costing £1.4 million. That is one contract. Barnet only intend auditing 173 out of 9,300 contracts. RM Countrysides were told they could charge what they liked for removing meters. How many other dodgy deals are there out there. Mr Cohen gets paid £24,000 as cabinet member to stop the Council officers taking the piss out of the taxpayer. I think he has not done this.


So in short, I believe that Councillor Cohen has failed to represent the needs of businesses and residents properly. As a councillor and a cabinet member, he has a duty of care to us residents to work tirelessly on our behalf. He may be a nice chap, have a lovely Dad and be very bright, but he is a councillor and a cabinet member and he is paid by you & I, the taxpayers of Barnet to do a job. There are several Tories who are backbenchers, who are hard working and have sharp minds. Three that spring to mind are Brian Salinger, Mark Shooter and  Sury Khatri. I cannot believe that any of these would have done such a poor job of getting to grips with the mess Brian Coleman left in the parking department. 

We must acknowledge that Dean Cohen is an improvement on Brian Coleman, but to be honest, wouldn't just about anyone be? His "trial" scratches the surface of the problem and does nothing for 18 of the 19 High Streets in the London Borough of Barnet.  That is not good enough for the people of Barnet. It is time that the Councillors started to take their job as seriously as they take collecting their allowances and it is time the cabinet started working as hard at dealing with the issues as they did at raising their allowances after the 2010 council election. 

Is that really too much to ask.
 

Book Review - Mammoth Boy by John Hart

Of all the Barnet Councillors, perhaps the most colourful is John Hart. John doesn't mince his words and one suspects that he started his career in Barnet when the minutues of meetings were transcribed on parchments, using quill pens and only the finest octopus ink. Unlike many of his colleagues, John is highly educated and used to be a lecturer. He also has a keen interest in literature and has recently written a book. I bumped into John a couple of weeks ago in Waitrose car park. I was off to buy some fish fingers for supper and pulled up next to him, just as he was loading a couple of cases of the finest Ruby Port, a side of venison and a dozen of the finest quails eggs into his 1957 Armstrong Siddley (actually I've rather egged this up, but if the meeting were a Hollywood film, that is most certainly how it would happen).  Anyway, as ever we had a brief chat. I asked John how his book sales were progressing and he said "I'm down to the last few". He then gave me a copy and I promised to review it. I cannot think of another Barnet Conservative Councillor who's prose I'd bother to read. For a bit of fun I thought I'd construct a list of possible books they could have written :-

"Brian Salinger - My Part in his downfall" by Brian Coleman
"Sheep farming in Barnet" by Daniel Thomas
"101 Uses for a dead Twat" by Robert Ramsbottom
"50 Shades of Grey" by Helena Hart
"Smoking is Good for You" by Thomas Davey

Interestingly, I googled "Book about a friendly Parking Warden" for a book for Dean Cohen and not a single title came up. Anyway, as far as I know, John Hart is alone in being a published author amongst the Barnet Councillors. I took the book away to France with me, to read on the plane. Knowing John, I expected it to be a decent read. I rather suspected that as the subject was a boy growing up in Stone Age Spain, there would be much ravishing of fulsome blondes from the tribe next door along with the decimation of the liberal namby pambies who ran said tribe. I expected a bit of neolithic capitalism, with red blooded heros getting the girl and the loot (or at least a few Mammoth steaks) !

In actual fact, the book is a very gripping read. Sadly, there is no ravishing of fair maidens. Mammoth Boy Urrell is struggling to survive in a very harsh world of nomadic tribes. He is taken under the wing of the mysterious Agaratz, who has various maladies and many mystic powers, which would in this day and age entitle him to a free disabled parking ticket in Barnet (oops sorry just read that they are going up to £10). Agaratz teaches Urrell that you must respect nature to survive. When you take a birds egg to survive, only take one, so that the bird will have a chick to hatch and carry on the breed. When berries are plentiful, don't kill animals for food. When food is scarce, share it with the animals. Agaratz also teaches Mammoth boy the beauty of art and music and introduces him to the joys of psychedelic drugs, in the form of mysterious magic mushrooms., used by the shamen to see ancient times (I wonder if John's own experiences were drawn from ;^) ).

As Urrell grows stronger, he is taught how to fight and defend himself, but always with honour and dignity. Eventually Agaratz and Urrell set off on a mission (with Urrell's wolf and an old, starving and dying lion, who they have befriended during the harsh winter months). They visit magical places and see strange things (Blind fish, Geyzers). They arrive at the gathering of the clans. Urrell has many tasks to prove himself a man. His prize is a maiden fair (although one who he respects rather than ravishes).

I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in stories of ancient times. It is well written and researched and vivid in it's storytelling. It would make a great Disneyesque story (although they'd probably ruin it). You can get the book from Amazon here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mammoth-Boy-ebook/dp/B008MZJ63C - and you can even download it onto your kindle.

Fair play to John for proving not every Barnet Tory is a complete philistine (in fact he's probably the only one who actually knows what the classical definition of a  philistine really is).  I was left wondering if  deep in Johns true blue soul, there is a liberal lefty screaming to get out. I read the book effortlessly and like all entertaining books, I was left wondering what happened next and wishing it was a little longer. Recommended.

Brian Coleman ex AM : A message that the Barnet Conservative Party cannot ignore

I didn't celebrate the demise of Brian Coleman's career as a member of the London Assembly. There was nothing to celebrate. Do you celebrate when you pull a painful splinter out of your finger? I am extremely proud of all of the groups and people in Barnet who worked together to get the message across, but all I felt was a sense of relief that Brian Coleman was no longer my assembly member. Let me share a little story with you about his replacement, Andrew Dismore. My former business partner died in 2001 of cancer. His wife was left with four children, one of whom is disabled. She was living in council provided accomodation. Barnet Council tried to evict her and get her to move to Norfolk. She contacted Andrew Dismore when he was MP for Hendon. He worked tirelessly to sort the problem out and she is still there today. A move would have uprooted her from her family and friends, ripped her children away from friends at school, whilst suffering a bereavement. In short Andrew Dismore did his job. I was reminded of this when a single mother, Sharada Osman contacted her London Assembly member, Brian Coleman,  for help with housing problems. Coleman dismissed her with an abrupt invitation to "live in the real world". It was typical of the man. Brian Coleman arrogantly believed that his bumptious, pomposity would carry him through. He believed that being a Conservative and being a loudmouth was enough in Barnet to guarantee another £53,000 a year term. He was wrong.

The main thing about the demise of Coleman is the message it sends to the Barnet Conservatives. They have been pursuing a hard right agenda since 2006, when Mike Freer organised a palace coup against the more sensible and measured leadership of Brian Salinger. Brian Coleman was the power behind the throne. Freer immediately embarked on what has become known as the One Barnet program. Freer was "engaged" by BT on a program called "Vital Vison" which is a tool BT use to indoctrinate dim councillors and other decision makers into thinking outsourcing (usually to BT) is the way of the future for Councils. The central plank of the One Barnet ideology is that Barnet Council is a business and lots of cash can be made out of it. In effect, we have paid to set up a system where our cash bankrolls the profits of huge companies and rather than providing services, the council has become a huge machine generating cash for multinational companies. The worst example of this are the changes to the parking regime. All of these have been geared to making the system as profitable as possible for the private contractors who now run Barnet. Pay and display was abolished because handling cash is not that profitable for private companies. Free parking bays in CPZ areas were abolished because there is no profit in these for the contractors. Charges were hiked so that there was plenty of fat and profit in the contract. Brian Coleman was the man who introduced these and he has paid for it with his GLA job.

The question is whether the rest of the Barnet Tories will get the message. The One Barnet program and it's many consequences have destroyed the local Conservative machine. We made a film "A Tale of Two Barnets" about the effects. We packed the Phoenix Cinema, the House of Commons and a few local venues. At the end of every screening, people would come up and say "I didn't realise it was this bad". In actual fact it is worse. Unless the local Conservatives start to listen, they will be slung out en masse in 2014. They have created a massive, grassroots campaign against their policies. A couple  sticking plaster policies will not fix the mess. The Brian Coleman vote was in effect a referendum on One Barnet. People were given a choice between it's architect, Brian Coleman or Andrew Dismore, a man who believes in listening to people, providing services for people not to fleece people. The result could not be more resounding.

I happen to believe that Richard Cornelius, Leader of Barnet Council is a decent man. He now has the option to sack Brian Coleman from the cabinet, bring in some fresh blood, call a halt to the One Barnet program, introduce sensible parking arrangements for the High Street and start listening to the people who voted him in. He needs to call Council CEO Nick Walkley into his office on Monday morning and say "Nick, you have failed the people of Barnet and they have spoken. You have transformed Barnet Council into a joke. You're fired!". 

In late 2009 I was asked to stand as a Council candidate in Mill Hill. In May 2010, I lost. Whilst many people would give up, I analysed the results. I talked to local people to try and work out how I could have got the message I wanted to tell over. I realised that the biggest mistake was to not allow enough time, not engage enough people and not make sure that everyone who voted knew what I stood for and what the other guys stood for. The next election was yesterdays GLA election. I worked tirelessly, via this blog, via the film and through networking with various local groups, to ensure that we made sure as many  people as possible knew what the issues were.

The next election is the May 2014 council election. The work to change the way things are done starts today. Richard Cornelius has a small window to change, an opportunity afforded by the demise of Brian Coleman. If he announces a reshuffle and a change of tack, then he may be the saviour of the Barnet Conservatives. If he decides that it's business as usual, he'll have two years of sensationally bad press headlines. He'll have more films and better films like "A Tale of Two Barnets". He will see protest marches, rallys, political stunts. He will then find that in May 2014, there will be no Conservative Councillors in Barnet. You may think that such a statement is ridiculous. Well Brian Coleman thought he was uuntouchable. He got trounced. The message could not be starker for Richard.

Is Barnet Council run by lobotomised zombies? The Barnet Cash lottery

Picture courtesy of scoutnetworkblog.com

"Times are hard", "We are all in it together", "They believe money grows on trees", "Labour are very good at spending other peoples money". These are all phrases that I've heard local Conservative Councillors use in relation to myself, other bloggers and the opposition. What they keep very quiet about is just how completely useless and profligate they are with your cash, if you are lucky. The Barnet Tory Councillors sometimes remind me of an army of lobotomised zombies, who are very good at responding to basic commands (such as "put your hand up now to vote for this idiotic policy") but who are seemingly incapable of actually thinking about anything they do or what effects it has on Barnet. They seem to have no problem at all holding diametrically opposed views on issues at the same time. For example overdevelopment in Cat Hill (LB Enfield) is bad. Over development in Brent Cross is good. Some may call this being two faced (as the councillors who oppose this are representing people near Cat Hill).

Let me explain what their basic mantra is. This is that if they keep council tax down, then they will get re-elected and keep their generous allowances and perks. If you are from a Conservative persuasion, you will probably say "quite right too". Then all of a sudden, you find that the methods they use, hit you in the pocket. Let me give  a couple of examples. CPZ charges have been hiked massively. Now the likes of Brian Coleman, who are responsible, don't have much CPZ in their constituency. It won't affect them, but plenty of other Tories do. These lobotomised zombies aren't prepared to even think about the effect on hard pressed families, many of whom are Tory voters. by squeezing the 10% here, they can save a wider tax rise for the rest. If you are a Tory voter in a CPZ, affected by the changes, you are the sacraficial lamb, your cash paying a subsidy for a few even more wealthy residents council tax, who don't live in CPZ's. Then there is the pay by phone parking changes. Brian Coleman beleived this would save money. Sod the OAP's and other people who can't for whatever reason use it. The guys who work for me used to drive to Mill Hill Broadway to buy lunch. A 15 minute parking charge was 30p. Now it's a pound. Thats £250 a year just to buy a sandwich. They have voted with their feet and now buy their sandwich at the garage on the A41. All the small sandwich shops lose out. The rumour on the street is that Barnet parking revenues are down by 7%. If you drive down Bunns Lane during a working day, you can tell where the parking zone ends. Cars are parked in sidestreets where they used to be parked in the statiomn car park. It seems that Colemanballs didn't realise that people would vote with their pockets.

But just as there are losers, there are winners. After the last Council Cabinet resourses meeting, I had a beer with Mr Mustard, another blogger. I asked him what he thought Barnet would try and sneak through on a DPR as the council shut for Xmas. We speculated, but we were wildly wrong. Mr Mustard, ever eagle eyed, spotted this - http://lbbspending.blogspot.com/2011/12/1000-well-spent-or-waste.html - Barnet Council are giving Brian Colemans favourite vicars son £1,000 to write a song for the queens jubilee. This is an outrage. Unlike my fellow bloggers, I think that money spent on the arts such as this is money well spent. Where I have an issue is the method they've chosen to allocate it. Surely they should have said "We'll have a competition locally to write a song for the jubilee and the winners will get £1,000 towards equipment for their school or college". That way everyone would have become engaged and young people would have been inspired to be creative. Such tunes are invariably unlistenable dirges, so at least give everyone a bit of fun.

Then there are the "special" companies, who operate without contracts and seemingly get all manner of highly lucrative work, much of which is unneccessary and overpriced. We've seen two examples (both exposed by bloggers). These are Metpro Security and RM Countrysides. Between these two companies, Barnet Council has spent £4 million pounds. Neither has a contract. When Metpro's contract was cancelled, it was revealed that many of the services they were providing were deemed unnecessary. Kerching, your money down the bog. I emailed all of the Barnet councillors about Metpro before XMAS. I asked for them to call an emergency council meeting to debate the latest revealations. I got 16 read receipts and not a single reply from the Conservative group. One councillor - Maureen Braun, deleted the email without reading it. One may ask what value Councillor Braun adds, if she can't even be bothered to read an email marked urgent, concerning a scandal that has cost the council £1.4 million?

I don't expect Barnet Councillors, especially Conservative ones, to agree with me about everything. I don't expect them all to reply when I send an email marked urgent, detailing a scandal that bloggers were praised by the Tory local government minister for their role in exposing. I am however amazed that not a single one got in touch to either say "Yes this is terrible we'll do something" or "No, you've got it all wrong, it's all in hand".

This leaves us with the impression that they are useless. What I can't comprehend is why, when Barnet Council must realised that the Barnet bloggers are in control of the local agenda, that they don't engage and try and build trust. I can almost see the likes of Brian Coleman sneering as they read this "in control of the agenda, ha ha ha". Any Conservative Councillor who reads the local papers, will have seen 52 weeks of negative stories this year. These have all started in the blogs of Barnet. Private Eye has yet again pilloried Barnet in its end of year awards. Local businesses and residents are reading the blogs in ever greater numbers. My blog readership has doubled this year, with well over 250,000 hits. That is more than the population of Barnet. October was the peak month this year and February was the quietest (as it has 3 less days, this is not surprising).

I don't really ask much of our controlling group of Tory councillors. If they simply did their job, for which they are paid a decent allowance, and made sure Barnet Council was properly run, that would be enough. The Barnet bloggers read the DPR's and reports. If we can why can't  they? We spotted the Metpro and RM Countrysides scandals, yet we don't get big fat allowances. We read the reports that are supposed to be discussed in committees. We turn up to meetings and they are ignored. It is clear from the few questions that ever get asked that the majority of committee members don't even bother to read them. I have come to the conclusion that many Barnet Councillors just treat the issue of being a councillor like winning a lottery. A bit of extra cash and the odd night out with their friends.

I sent a questionaire to all Barnet Councillors, asking what contribution they had made. I said for every returned copy I'd donate £5 to the mayors appeal. Two Conservative Councillors replied - Brian Salinger and Sury Khatri. All the Lib Dems did and two Labour members, Barry Rawlings and leader Alison Moore. I will be sending Councillor Rutter, the Mayor a cheque for £35. To be honest, I am rather disappointed at this response. I have to ask whether they didn't respond out of embarrassment at their lack of contribution? And I thank and commend those councillors who took the time to respond.

Allowancegate : Now Hillan must go

The Leader of Barnet Council, Lynne Hillan deserves an award. One for bare faced cheek. Having completely destroyed the reputation of herself, her colleagues (except Kate Salinger), her party in Barnet and Barnet Council generally, she has the gall to claim it shows she's a good leader. In the Times, she bleats that she has shown she listens.

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/topstories/8334142.Leader_claims_retreat_on_allowances_scheme_shows_they_are_listening/

She seems to think that she can spin the debacle into a glorious victory. Now whilst this blog is never one to underestimate the stupidity of some of our Barnet Councillors, surely even they can't possibly have missed the fact that they look like a bunch of prize plums. Can anyone think Lynne Hillan is the Conservative Councillor best suited to run the council after this? Lets review what happened. She sprung the allowance rise on the Tory group, bullied them against vocal opposition, even from cabinet members (I believe Helena Hart argued against the rise), publicly humiliated Kate Salinger for her principled abstention, waited four weeks to do anything, in the face of an absolute torrent of public opposition, unprecedented in both of our local paper groups.

She has allowed blogs like this one to set the agenda and lead the debate. She has revitalised the political career of Andrew Dismore in Hendon, who has collected a massive petition, hugely damaging her colleague Matthew Offord. She has driven a huge wedge between herself and Mike Freer, who has the political savvy to see it's just plain wrong. With her U-turn she's destroyed the public credibilty of Councillors such as Richard Cornelius and Hugh Rayner who put out press releases praising the rise and claiming it was vital. She has destroyed the reputation of new councillors such as Graham Old who ended up looking a complete idiot at the residents forum claiming Kate Salinger was "my hero".

She's also destroyed the reputation of Councillor Barry Evangeli who jumped into Kate Salingers seat at the Chipping Barnet residents forum and was publicly exposed as a toady. Surely she's finally exposed Brian Coleman for what he is. He lead the humiliation of Kate Salinger, who today stands vindicated, the only Tory to emerge unscathed. Colemans vindictiveness against such a principled colleague surely cannot be forgiven by the Tories, can it. Then there's Councillor Andrew Harper. he'd previously been seen as a safe pair of hands, a steady Eddie. Now he's been exposed as Lynne Hillans gimp and a coward with his "No comment" whilst being deputy leader. Prior to Allowancegate, I saw Harper as a potential leader. Now I see him merely as a failed teaboy for Hillan and Coleman. He either agreed with them, in which case he's tainted or he didn't in which case he's too big a coward to ever be trusted again.

We must give some credit to Hendon Conservative Councillor Mark Shooter who brought the whole house of cards down. Apart from Kate Salinger, he's the only one who has shown any guts at all. His intervention has caused the panic and the U-Turn. Whilst Hillan claims she performed a couragious U-Turn, it was nothing of the sort. It is a last ditch effort to keep her job and retain a fig leaf of credibility. If the Tories want to regain any credibility at all, they need a top team who have public trust. This means that it will be one which contains Mark Shooter and Kate Salinger. They at least have shown some backbone and moral fibre. It is telling that Hillan made no mention of an apology or reinstatement for Salinger, who events have shown to have been right.

Lynne Hillan has got to go ASAP and she's got to take her motley cronies with her. This must be sooner rather than later, preferably before the next council meeting on the 14th September. It is time for decent Conservatives to find their backbones and make their voices heard. I invite any Tory Councillor who believes Lynne Hillan to be the right leader to email me ASAP. They can write a guest blog and explain to my readers exactly what I've missed. Come on Brian, you know you want.

Do you fancy a good laugh? or even a good cry?

I thought I'd just have a quick trawl through the Barnet Tories manifesto from 2006 to see whether we got what we were promised when they were elected in 2006.

The first thing I noticed is that it's got a nice picture of Brian Salinger, then leader on the cover. We didn't get him, because Mike Freer lead a palace coup against him immediately after the Tories were reelected with a bigger majority.

The Tories start off there manifesto with a little dig at the Previous administration.

"4 years ago, in May 2002, we inherited a Council which after 8 years of control by a
Labour/Liberal administration had become a shambles.

The finances could not have been in worse shape. The previous administration
had used up all the Councils reserves to reduce the Council Tax rise ahead of the 2002
elections. Confidential warnings had been given, that their actions would add a
minimum burden to the following years council Tax Bill of an extra 10%. "

So how have the Tories done under Freer? Well they've certainly put the Lib/Lab's to shame in the finances department. They've lost £26.4 million in Iceland (which they'd borrowed at a rate well in excess of the current bank lending rate). They've also overspent £11 million on a £12 million budget replacing a bridge in Colindale. How have they done in the Tax rise department. As interest rates have tumbled, they've hiked taxes every year. This year they raided the reserves to keep Council Tax down, precisely what they criticsed the Lib/Lab council for. Not only that, but Council borrowing has rocketed by from just under £40 Million to under £200 Million. Who will pay it back - You and me.

What else did they have to say about the Lib/Labs? "The Education service was in chaos."

We've just seen an emergency program enacted at great cost to install portacabins at several schools as they hadn't anticipated the number of children reaching school age. Other schools have had facilities such as newly installed IT suites turned back into classrooms. The excuse - they were surprised at the number of children reaching school age?????

Another major criticism "Plans for the regeneration of Cricklewood had barely progressed in the 8 years of the Labour/Liberal administration." "Progress on the Cricklewood/Brent X development has continued and there is now the feel of an 'end play' to our discussions with the developers. They are keen to progress and a timetable leading to a planning decision in 2006/7 has been agreed. "

How much further have they progressed under Freer? Not at all. Oh, but he has sacked the Council officer responsible for regeneration projects.

The manifesto then goes on to detail the Tories main priorities :-

"Barnet Conservatives regained control of the Council. We had been elected with 5
key priorities...

1. Supporting the Vulnerable

2. Improving Roads and Pavements

3. A Cleaner and Greener Barnet

4. Tackling Crime

5. A First Class Education Service. "

Ok So lets have a look at these.

1. Supporting the Vulnerable - Well Mike Freer has made the BBC stand up and take note of his policies to get rid of Sheltered Housing Wardens. This measure, which has been exposed as a callous cut in services to pay for expensive consultants to implement bonkers ideological plans, is likely to end up in deaths of Barnets most vulnerable people. The manifesto said

"We will give vulnerable adults in Barnet’s care more choice and control over the
services offered to them. "

What did Barnet do when nearly 90% of those consulted about the Sheltered Warden Plans opposed Barnets scheme - they ignored them completely. So much for choice. I've seen dozens of pensioners reduced to tears at the Council meeting where Freer announced his plan to implement the cut. Support the Vulnerable? I don't think so.

2. Improving Roads and Pavements. Well if you think that ripping up measures designed to improve road safety is an improvement, you'll be happy. Many residents such as those in Uphill Road aren't. I must say that Mill Hill currently seems to have more roadworks and temporary traffic lights than ever at the moment. It took me 20 minutes to drive from Edgware to Bunns Lane in Mill Hill yesterday at Lunchtime because of this.

3. A Cleaner and Greener Barnet. Well if your idea of a "greener Barnet" is thousands of rabbit hutch sized flats in huge developments across the Borough, maybe you'll be happy. One Tory Councillor actually tabled a motion to scrap the Council's green belt policy recently.

4. Tackling Crime. This very afternoon, I was visiting a friend who lives two doors away from Councillor Maureen Braun, who had been burgled on Friday. He was told that there had been 12 burglaries in his area in the last two weeks. I've also found that Mill Hill is a "high burglary area". Anecdotal evidence maybe, but it scares the hell out of me.

5. A First Class Education Service. As I mentioned above, if you think kids being taught in portacabins is first class, then you'll probably be happy. SAT results also got worse this year.

Here's a few more choice sections from the Tories 2006 manifesto :-

"Barnet Conservatives will support Barnet FC to help them to succeed and to
play a full part in our community."

Barnet FC have recently set up a fantastic training scheme, with great a great community project. In Harrow. They are currently looking for a new home in a Borough with an administration which appreciates them.

Barnet Conservatives will continue to strive for excellence in the provision of all
services. We will continue to improve the efficiency of the Council to reduce
costs for our chargepayers

Last year Barnet made a big fuss about being a "four star authority". This year they lost a star. Have you council tax bills gone down? Have Council rents gone down? Has anything gone down which the Council charges you for? Even the cost of burying dead babies has gone up.

We will keep increases in Council Tax to the lowest levels possible without
jeopardising the provision of front line services.

Council Taxes have gone up. Ask the people facing cuts to their Sheltered wardens whether Front Line Services have improved.

Barnet Conservatives will continue to strive to impress on our residents the
need for ‘civic pride’ and will respect and uphold the traditions of the Council
and the Mayoralty.

With the appointment of Brian Coleman as Mayor, all of the respect for the office has gone. The man needed a £10,000 legal indemnity to fight a standards complaint. He was the only GLA AM to resist publishing his expenses. He besmirched the reputaion of Barnet with his comments about the British Olympic team. He thinks that leaving a taxi waiting for 5 hours while he guzzles dinner is a good way to spend £395 of taxpayers money.

We will campaign to get the benefits from the Olympics for the people of Barnet
and will encourage young people with Olympic aspirations to fulfil their
potential.

I'm still waiting for all of these Olympic benefits for the citizens of Barnet? Have you seen any?

We will promote active participation in sport.

What has happened with the Pavillion Road playing fields, where several community groups have actively campaigned to reopen the facilities? What has happened to Mill Hill Village Sports club where the Council has imposed a rent hike.

Here's a final two which anyone familiar with the planned developments around the Borough will fall off their chair when they read them. I'm not going to comment on these because I have a policy on bad language in the blog.

We will do everything in our power to prevent the further destruction of family
housing to make way for flatted accommodation. We will insist on the highest
standards of design and build in new developments.

We agree with Barnet residents that Barnet needs more houses than flats.

Do you think that the Tories have delivered on their manifesto commitments? I think they are a disgrace. I have a message for the Liberal and Labour opposition Councillors, especially Alison Moore, the Leader of the Labour Group and Jack Cohen, Leader of the Lib Dems. Do you think that the Tories have delivered on any of this? Do you think that the people of Barnet would vote for them again if they realised just how badly they've been conned? Stop feeling sorry for yourselves and get off you backsides. Your best campaigning tool is the Tories own manifesto from the last election. It's your job to remind the people of Barnet just how badly they've been let down. People may not care about everything the Tories do, but I'm sure most of the voters of Barnet hate being lied to. Get out there and do your job.

The Mill Hill Music Festival - Dear diary - Day 4.

00:21 AM Wednesday.

Busy evening. Stewart Curtis K-Groove at Quench Cafe. Dropped off PA gear, set up desk & did a rough Soundcheck, then back to studio for final False Dots rehearsal prior to gig on Friday at Mill Hill Sports Club. Connie sang superbly and I'm really looking forward to the gig. Back at 10pm to Quench for final couple of numbers.

I must say it was good to see one of our leading local politicians supporting the event. Former Council leader Brian Salinger arrived with a delegation of 17 people from France. I've not always seen eye to eye with Councillor Salinger, but it is always good to see staunch support for local events. His French friends certainly had a good time.

Gerry has done a fine job running the desk & the sound is superb. Then we break down the PA & lights and off home to bed.

Even managed to grab a bag of chips at 7pm, so I'm only tired, not hungry as well. My foot hurts where I dropped a speaker on it. I wonder if I've cracked a bone. That would be fun !