Council Blunder costs Residents £100,000. (Barnet Borough Liberal Democrats)

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

Council Blunder costs Residents £100,000.

April 12, 2011 9:55 PM

Councillor Jack Cohen, Leader of Barnet Liberal Democrats, has discovered that the Council failed to implement an increase in the cost of parking permits and visitor vouchers two years ago, thereby losing at least £100,000. The increased charges should have come into force in April 2009.

In a question at this evening's full council meeting to Cabinet Member Brian Coleman, Cllr Cohen asks why the decision of the Cabinet Resources Committee (April 2009) to increase the charges was not implemented.

Councillor Coleman replied: "Sheer incompetence and inefficiency by Council Officers"

Cllr Cohen comments: "Here we go again. The Conservatives straight away blame the officers. Will they ever take responsibility. This error has meant the Council has lost at least £100,000 from parking revenue since 2009. We all knew the special parking account was in a mess but this takes the biscuit. No wonder the Conservatives have had to approve huge hikes in the cost of parking permits and visitors vouchers. We now know the truth: they are incompetent. If the increases had gone ahead as planned in 2009 and if the Council enforcement section had been doing their job properly, then the parking account would have been in a much healthier position today. There would have been no need to have the 400% increase in charges this year. On top of this we now know that the Council messed up the procedure for publishing the 2011/12 increases. This has cost them almost another £100,000. When will all this end? It's about time the Cabinet Member responsible for overseeing this debacle did the right thing and resigned."