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 By the 1990's the dockers and seamen had been replaced by yuppies and bankers.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.

Melvin Cohen - Probably Barnet's most useless Councillor

Carlsberg don't make useless Councillors, but if they did, they'd probably make one like Melvin Cohen. On the 21st July, I sent every Barnet Councillor and email with the title -

Urgent  - Barnet Council expose massive risks to staff, data protection, councillors and residents

Why? To alert Councillors to a report, which they may not have seen, detailing massive management failures at Barnet Council. This report explained that your personal details were not secure and could have been compromised. It also explained that there was no proper disaster recovery planning. Finally it explained that fire suppressions systems were not working properly and that rats were chewing through cables. I thought that every councillor should know about this. I put a read receipt on the message. I just noticed that on 27th November I got this back from Councillor Melvin Cohen
---------------------------------------
Your message

  To:      Cohen, Cllr Melvin  Conservative;
  Cc:       eric.pickles.mp@parliament.uk

  Subject: Urgent  - Barnet Council expose massive risks to staff, data
protection, councillors and residents
  Sent:    Sun, 31 Jul 2011 08:41:47 -0000

was deleted without being read on Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:07:12 -0000
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So Councillor Cohen received an email marked urgent in July, didn't bother to look at it until now and then just deleted it unread. There are many Barnet Councillors I think are pretty useless, but this takes the biscuit, useless, lazy and rude all in one hit !

Is Barnet Council run by complete twats?

You will be pleased to know that Barnet Council, not content with losing our money in Iceland, keeping Lawyers R Us in work for years with many and varied cock ups and doing their bit to prop up hard up building contractors with huge overspends on Aerodrome Road, have found a new way to waste your money. They've started issuing press releases on how to have barbeques.

http://www.barnet.gov.uk/press_releases.htm?id=2225

Sadly Councillor Melvin Cohen, Cabinet Member for Governance and Civic Affairs, who issued the release doesn't advise us on a good red to go with a burnt burger, or even tell us where we can source the finest sardines in Barnet (they are great on the Barbeque) - my advice - try the fishmongers in Burnt Oak. Nope, Melvin gives us some advice on how not to kill ourselves. I didn't realise this was covered by Governance and Civic Affairs, but Melv, ever the, clearly wants to grow the role. Anyway, I'd hate to think any Barnet Eye's readers will die, due to not reading Melvins advice. I must be a bit strange as when I'm having a barbeque, I don't automatically check the Council website for hints. If any of you have managed to miss Melv's tips - here you go.


* Cook food thoroughly so it is piping hot throughout. With chicken and meat, when you cut into the deepest part there should be no pinkness and juices should run clear

* Some meat, such as steaks and joints of beef or lamb, can be served rare as long as the outside has been properly cooked or 'sealed'. It's important to seal meat to kill any bacteria that may be on the outside

* Keep raw meat separate from ready-to-eat food. Store raw meat and poultry in sealed containers at the bottom of the fridge to avoid dripping on other food. Never use the same chopping board for raw meat and ready to eat food without washing the board and knife in between

* Don't wash meat before cooking it. Washing does not get rid of harmful germs - only proper cooking will. You also run the risk of splashing germs onto worktops and utensils.

The Barnet Eye would like to add a few helpful hints which Melvin seemed to miss.

* Don't drink three bottles of vodka before you light the Barbeque as you may set yourself on fire


* Don't plung your face into the red hot coals on the Barbeque as it will hurt (unless you've drunk six bottles of vodka, then the pain will be deferred till you sober up)

* Always make sure you are outside of the house when you light the barbeque or you may burn your house down

* Do not rest the baby on top of the barbeque stove when it is hot or you will burn the baby

* Don't relight the barbeque by pouring petrol on as you may burn yourself to death

Now you may find all of these rather obvious ( a bit like Melvins tips really) but they are all stories which cropped up when I googled for a few Barbeque related injuries. Whilst it clearly is an extremely serious matter, it strikes me that if the Council has enough press officers to sit around writing this rubbish, it has enough press officers to make a few redundant.

I look forward to Melvins next safety email. Maybe he could have a chat with Matthew Offord MP and do a "safety in jacuzzis" press release or even Brian Coleman and do a "why we should obey the speed limit" press release. Or even better. Maybe he could actually try and run the council properly and cut out this crap.

Brian Coleman - My priorites are Toads, Toads, Toads

Being a thickhead and a dyslexic, sometimes I spell things incorrectly, so please bear with me. Leader of Barnet Council, Lynne Hillan has announced her new cabinet. Full details are here in this press release :-

http://www.barnet.gov.uk/press_releases.htm?id=2212

The most intriguing thing is the way they award themselves ever more meaningless and wordy job titles. Check out some of these :-

Cabinet Member for Customer Access and Partnerships, Councillor Robert Rams
Cabinet Member for Governance and Civic Affairs, Councillor Melvin Cohen
Cabinet Member for Resources and Performance, Councillor Daniel Thomas
Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Cohesion, Councillor Joanna Tambourides
Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Education, Children and Families, Councillor Andrew Harper

What has this blogs dear friend Councillor Brian Coleman done wrong. His title is vaguely understandable and to the point.

Cabinet Member for Environment, Councillor Brian Coleman

What is less understandable is Colemans interpretation of the role "My priorities are roads, roads, roads and roads" he croaked. Now like Councillor Coleman, I think sorting out all of the potholes which have appeared due to his administrations incompetence should be a top priority. Having said that, he obviously didn't read the Tory manifesto which said that "protecting the green belt" would be their top priority. So much for the manifesto then Brian?

I do wonder what Brian wants from his role. Does he want to cover Barnet in tarmac? Where are these new roads he wants to build? Maybe a nice bypass through Totteridge valley? Maybe he wants to turn Barnet Lane into a three lane highway? Given that all trunk roads in Barnet are controlled by Boris via TFL, he must be talking about rebuilding and widening existing backroads. Maybe he's planning to up the speed limit outside our schools. There is a theory that if cars drive really fast past schools, parents make sure that their kids keep well clear (well there is a theory now that I just made it up).

One small point though. Given that Barnets Tories lost much of the reserves in Iceland and overspent another chunck on their last major Highways project at Aerodrome Road, how does Brian Coleman plan funding his "Empire of the Roads". I guess he'll fund it the way he funds everything else. He'll get us to pay for it through our taxes.

I do wonder what his colleagues think when he opens his mouth and croaks his bizarre blatherings. Do they think "Good old Brian" or do they groan. Well I'll tell you what I think. I think it's disgraceful that Councillor Coleman has abandoned all of the Tories manifesto commitments to protect the green belt, less than two weeks after the election. Needless to say that he'll soon be agitating for Lynne Hillan to sacked  so he can completely take over. It's the job he's always wanted and I hear he has reason to want it now.

Parking and Business : Lynne Hillan just doesn't get it !

Last week I attended a Leader Listens business breakfast at Barnet Council Offices. Sadly, the leader, Lynne Hillan was poorly so her Deputy chaired the meeting. As one of the major initiatives I'm working on is to get Barnet to change the parking arrangements in Mill Hill Broadway so that the first hour would be free, I thought I'd raise the issue. All of the businesses present agreed that this was a great idea. The only objection came from Brian Reynolds, the Deputy Chief Executive, who said it would cost the council a lot of revenue. Members of the Barnet Traders association were present and they all agreed that in Barnet, such a move would be a great boost to trade and help business thrive. This would improve the quality of the High Street and allow shops to take on staff, reducing unemployment. The Barnet Traders detailed how they were adopting the Crouch End Project model to boost trade.

I was interested to read a story further detailing the project in this weeks Barnet Press. In it they quote Lynne Hillan. She makes a couple of choice quotes :-
We have always believed in low intervention and that the market will sort itself out.

We have always believed in low intervention and that the market will sort itself out. We could tinker around the edges but we are wanting to do something that would actually mean something. In this recession everyone is struggling.We could tinker around the edges but we are wanting to do something that would actually mean something. In this recession everyone is struggling.

Now the Council has given the traders a £10,000 grant to set up the Crouch End project model. This will pay to help businesses set up a coalition, website, branding and schemes for the area.Whilst the £10,000 is welcome surely it is just the sort of tinkering at the edges Hillan talks about. What traders need is for Barnet to transform the parking charges. Before Christmas Barnet Council suspended parking charges at meters after 3pm across the borough to help boost trade. The scheme cost the authority £100,000 across the Borough's 19 shopping centres, but a survey of traders said the scheme helped increase sales and meant customers could spend more time browsing.Hillan says in the article:-

In Barnet we have traders saying the problem is with parking, but in Haringey there is nowhere to park.

I couldn't believe this. As usual Lynne Hillan and  Barnet Councils solution to everything is to blame someone else. As with everything, they fail to see that although they may lose some money on parking, the overall benefit is huge. It would generate employment, which reduces taxes and improves the quality of life. The London Borough of Barnet will never become a business friendly place until we get people who know and care about small businesses and know how to run them.

Sadly The Leader of the Council, Lynne Hillans efforts to run a company, Ashurst Direct Marketing, ended in the company going into liquidation in 2006. I hear through the grapevine that there were some rather interesting changes to the names of various companies owned by Lynne Hillan just before the company went bust. I'm sure it was all completely above board though, as her Solicitor was fellow Tory Cabinet member Melvin Cohen and it is unthinkable that a pillar of the community such as the venerable Councillor Cohen would stand for any shenanigans.

*** Note **** Please note that due to a typo, mention was inadvertantly made to Ashcroft Direct marketing. Please note that this should have referred to Ashurst Direct marketing and in no way reffered to any company named Ashcroft Direct Marketing (or any other Ashcroft), please accept any apologies for any confusion caused.

First Picture of New Barnet Conservative Council Cabinet

Group Photo of Barnet Conservative Council Cabinet

L-R Councillor Matthew Offord, Leader Lynne Hillan, Councillor Andrew Harper, Councillor Richard Cornelius, Councillor Melvin Cohen, Councillor Helena Hart, Councillor Daniel Thomas, Councillor Sachin Rajput, Councillor Robert Rams, Councillor Daniel Webb.

The new Cabinet would like to thank Mayor Brian Coleman for making the tea and bringing the biscuits whilst they celebrated their new jobs and would like to say sorry for not bothering to turn up on time to welcome him into the chamber aferwards at the last cabinet meeting.

Members of the public will be pleased to see the new busts of former council leaders Victor Lyon and Brian Salinger in the background.

Please note this picture is a spoof. Any likeness between any member of Barnet Council and totally wooden puppets on strings is purely coincidental

Planet Earth to George Osborne

George Osborne really hasn't got a clue, has he? He has a plan. He's going to reassess all of the people on incapacity benefit and cut it for those found to be malingers. Billions will be saved as the lazy are found out and have their benefits chopped.

There's just one problem with his plan. The system is not designed to get people back to work. Doctors are not encouraged to get people into rehabilitation schemes and people are penalised for trying to get better. As a result, everyone plays the game.

George's plan may save a few quid but the concept that all of the recipients of Invalidity benefit will turn up at the doctors and say "I'm better, cut my benefits", is quite frankly bonkers.

As to the plan to freeze the pay of public sector workers. Does this apply to Councillors allowances. Anyone on over £18,000 a year will have their pay frozen. He talks of public servants earning more than the Prime Minister. What about people such as Tory Melvin Cohen who's just been awarded a £7,500 allowance for a few hours work attending meetings. I'm all for cutting a few taxes, but the the Tories should get their own house in order first and sort out the greedy councillors who stack up allowances like alcholics stack up drinks at the bar.

Barnets EASYCOUNCIL strikes again

There are two stories which have made my blood boil this week, related to Barnet Council

Dozens of community and voluntary groups across Barnet are likely to have their funding stopped or reduced following the £10,859 cut. This is reported in the Barnet Times here

Also in the news is the massive new allowance of £7,500 for Councillor Melvin Cohen, who will get the cash for chairing a committee which meets 4 times a year. This is reported in the Barnet Time Here.

Organisations affected by the cuts include the Barnet Somali Community Group, Barnet Action 4 Youth, Barnet Cypriot Youth Club, Hendon Sea Training Corps, and several regional playschemes and toddler groups.

I'm sure that all of these will be happy that they have helped pay for a couple of holidays and a few slap up meals for Councillor Cohen. Former Council Deputy leader and Tory Parliamentary Candidate Matthew Offord writes a blog about sailing on the Barnet Times. I should imagine that he'll be especially pleased to see that Barnet Council have taken decisive action to keep the Riff Raff away from the upper class twit sailing community, with the cuts to the Sea Cadets. Well known Cypriot husband and wife team, the Tambourides, who copy a nifty £50 grand in allowances between them, maybe could chip in a few quid for the Barnet Cypriot Youth Club.

What is truly bizarre is that these cuts to voluntary groups are being touted as "efficiency savings". Doesn't it occur to these numbskulls that this isn't efficiency. The old saying goes that "the devil makes work for idle hands". Giving youngsters positive activities is an investment. Small amounts for voluntary groups make a huge difference. What difference does a £7,500 allowance make to anyone in Barnet apart from Mickeytaking Melvin? His defence?

it was the Independent Review Panel, not him, who decided to grant the annual award based on the "size and intricacy" of the job.

Sorry Melvin, that isn't good enough. You don't have to take it. You could set a good example. The Times reports

Mr Cohen said: "Each committee meeting entails reading through masses of paper, double-sided and in small print.

"Each committee involves three or four hours of reading and preparatory work.

"If you accept the principle of reasonable remuneration then surely this significantly increased burden should be remunerated.

Mr Cohen talks about "reasonable renumeration". What has happened to the concept of public service. Mr Cohen thinks he should get £400 per hour for his part time committee work, but begrudges unpaid volunteers who do priceless good work a few quid to keep playgroups and community projects running.

Last week Mike Freer trumpeted his EASYCOUNCIL project. It strikes me that the only thing easy about it is cash for councillors.