Light the blue paper (Barnet Borough Liberal Democrats)

Barnet Borough Liberal Democrats <info@barnetlibdems.org.uk>

Light the blue paper

November 23, 2008 12:00 AM
By Cllr Jack Cohen in Hendon Times

At Council Committee meetings when someone shouts out" Move Part 2" it means what follows next at the Committee Meeting is secret and the general public must leave the room.

The Committee Papers discussed in Part 2 are called the blue papers.

This is because they are printed on blue papers, in case some of you may have got hold of the wrong end of the stick.

There are strict rules about what should be discussed in Part 2. These rules are laid down by Parliament.

Anything on blue paper is strictly confidential and any Councillor or Officer who leaks this information to the Press or Public is in big trouble!

My own view is that Part 2 items should be kept to the minimum; Often Councils try to slip in Part 2 items for their own convenience.

There is a Council Committee called the General Functions Committee.

What does this Committee do? , you may ask.

I'll tell you……… I don't know!

Seriously, it is the Committee that picks up Council Issues that do not fit in to the nicely ordered remit of other Committees.

The next meeting of this Committee will be on the 8th of December.

The Agenda contains eighty eight pages of blue papers!

These relate to eight separate agenda items.

Seven of these items also appear in the public section of the meeting. This means that some of the issues will be discussed with the public present, but not the finer detail (i.e. money) To whet your appetite, the items are "Restructure of Adult Social Services" Restructure of Housing and Environmental Services" Restructure of Housing and Environmental Services" "Restructure of the Regeneration Service" "Restructure of Revenues Control, Revenue Services, Resource Directorate"

I am falling asleep just typing this, "Libraries Staff Reorganisation" and "Restructure of Parking Permits Team"

Exactly what is restructuring. A cynic might say, worse services, redundancies and more pay for the top people.

As I said seven of the eight will at least in part be discussed openly with the public present.

And the item that will be discussed only in private is; "Directors, Executive Directors, and Chief Executive Grading Structure " My lips are sealed "move Part 2!"