What on earth is going on at Barnet Council?

Written by Cllr Jack Cohen and published in Hendon Times on Tue 27th Jan 2009

Last night I attended the Cabinet and Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

This is the Committee that scrutinises the decisions made by Cabinet and hold cabinet members to account. So it should be pretty important.

The make up of the Committee is five conservatives, three Labour and one Liberal Democrat (me)

Well last night we asked questions on a range of important subjects, all of which involved the spending of taxpayer's money in one way or another.

When I say "we" I exclude the Tory members. Throughout the whole meeting they never uttered a word. Why do they bother to turn up?

To be fair the Tory Chairman did speak .This was to confirm that I was not allowed to ask questions! Specifically questions about the payment of honoraria to Council staff.

Apparently I am not permitted to find out why the Council paid out over half a million pounds in extra payments to over two hundred Council staff. Well after all it is only Council Tax Payers' money.

I was though able to ask questions about the Councils policy on depositing money in Banks. I am of course particularly interested in this following the "lost" £27million in Icelandic Banks.

I wanted to know the amount of interest the council had received from its deposits in 2007-08 and how much is forecast to be received this year.

Pretty straight forward you would think. The Leader of the Council did not know, nor could Acting Head of Finance assist.

I also asked about the bi weekly meetings of the Treasury Management Team; in particular the meetings which make the decisions to invest our money. Are notes kept I asked and if so could I have copies.

No one was terribly sure if notes are kept. They will write to me with the answer.

Finally, spotted in the report about increases in charges; there will be a fifty percent hike in the cost of retrieving car keys that have fallen down the drain. Apparently the council provides a service. But it will now cost you one hundred and fifty pounds. You heard it here first!