Back in the USA

Written by Cllr Jack Cohen and published in Hendon Times on Thu 22nd Apr 2010

End of term for Councillors. The final full Council meeting of the current term took place on Tuesday. We all said our goodbyes, some will not return (not standing again), and others may or may not return.

The Deputy Mayor intoned the now traditional vote of thanks to the Mayor. The Mayor responded and commented that thankfully he had neither died nor been arrested during his term of office. Someone shouted out that there was still time, laughter all round.

Party leaders paid tribute to members who are not seeking re-election. Apparently one Conservative Councillor who was not there and who I have not seen since the turn of the year is off to live in the USA.

The Leader of the Council praised the former Leader describing him as the best Leader that Barnet has ever had. The Mayor's lip twitched ever so slightly. The reporter from the newly launched Barnet Bugle could be seen frantically typing in to his laptop.

The debates that followed were hardly memorable. We seemed to be discussing pot holes all evening. The Conservatives as usual were congratulating themselves on a job well done. Members of both opposition groups reeled of a list of roads still full of what my Colleague Cllr Jeremy Davies described "as canyon cracks."

This was all too much for the top Tory in charge of er.. Potholes. He complained that the Council meeting was not the place to raise this. The Mayor put him in his place, in a way only this Mayor can do. "This is exactly the place for members to raise this", he bellowed.

By common consent the worst road in Barnet appeared to be Watling Avenue.

The Leader at some point in the evening, it was becoming a bit of a blur, tried to defend her "Easy Council" Plans. The leader likened it to the choice people had as to whether to buy a first or second class stamp. So there you have it a policy written on the back of a postage stamp, or should that be on the back of an envelope.

There is one more meeting left for me its next week's planning sub committee meeting.