Monday 6 April 2009

It's always someone elses fault

First post on the Leader Listens blog for nearly a month and guess what? Mike Freer is at it again. He's blaming everyone but himself. Because the government has cut the council tax increase to help hard up poor families, Mike is whinging that £60,000 will have to be found to send out revised rent notices.

Unlike Mike, us at the Barnet Eye don't sit around moaning, we believe in action. We can advise Mike exactly how to find this sum. David Miller, who runs the Barnet Council Watch blog is a member of the Conservative Party. David has suggested savings of nearly 18 times that amount, which will have zero effect on front line services. Judge for yourself

Not only could they find the money to reprint the documents, they could scrap the Sheltered Housing Warden cuts. It seems outrageous to me that in the current climate, a council is spending over £85,000 for "political assistants". I think we need less politics and more public mindedness in Barnet. I'm sure David would advise him for free !

On the subject of Leader Listens, I posted a comment on Mikes taxpayer funded blog. Yet again, it's not been published and I've not had an answer. Judge for yourself if I've been to beastly to warrant publication. He's what I said :-

One Comment

  1. Rog T
    Posted April 4, 2009 at 10:01 am | Permalink
    Your comment is awaiting moderation.

    Mike,

    Please could you tell us :-

    a) What the collection rate is for council rent in Barnet

    b) How much are the uncollected arreas

    Thank you

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Now I think it's a fair question, but I suppose I'm biased.


3 comments:

Don't Call Me Dave said...

Worse that the money spent on political assistants is the £60,000 spent on a cabinet advisor.

According to the council’s web site, “The Chief Executive is Head of Paid Service and Principal Policy Adviser to the Council.”

Why are we paying a cabinet advisor to do the job the Chief Executive is already paid to do?

Rog T said...

I'm surprised that the advisor doesn't have an advisor.

Councils are meat to empty bins, sweep roads etc. Paid political advisors is scandalous. Sack the lot & get on with the job.

If you are the leader of the Tory/Lab group, you shouldn't need someone else to tell you what the party stance is. You just run your admiistration based on your personal principles (assuming you have some)

Rog T said...

Just read my last post. Maybe I need a spelling/grammar advisor !