I see that Iain Dale is touting a report by the Tories saying that government should use more open source software. Well I tried to suggest that to Barnet Council back in April 2007. See Here. Unfortunately I got short shrift. The main reason is that like many other local authorities Barnet has been trapped by the Microsoft juggernaut with very tempting deals. Of course that does mean that our data is tied up in proprietary and often undocumented formats. Anyway it’s nice to see that the Tories are playing …

Set our below is my motion for the next Council meeting. The serious point that I’m making is that the Leader of the Council who is also Chair of the Cabinet Resources Committee which oversees the Council’s treasury strategy did not know where Barnet’s money was invested. When he did finally find out he blamed the officers and when that didn’t wash he tried to blame the opposition for not pointing it out to him.
In order to shoulder all this responsibility he gets over £51,000 in allowances and allows …

Barnet Liberal Democrats will keep up the pressure on the Conservatives Administration over the Icelandic banks deposits. In a series of written questions Cllr Jeremy Davies and Cllr Wayne Casey are asking the Leader of The Council for answers about how the loss of 27million Pounds and the steep reduction in interest rates will affect Council Tax Payers.
In a separate motion Cllr Davies will demand to know how the Council will comply with accounting rules so that the true state of the Councils finances is revealed in the budget.
Cllr …

The leader of the Lib Dem group on Barnet Council Jack Cohen now has a blog too.

The leader of Barnet Council Cllr Mike Freer (also Tory PPC for Finchley and Golders Green) has a chequered career when it comes to blogging. His first attempt was in a blog on the Hendon Times Group website. This was free and presumably reached a wide audience. However Cllr Freer withdrew from that blog when a shiny new blog started up with its own domain name ‘leaderlistens.com’. At the last council meeting I asked a number of questions about his new blog. Why? Because it is costing the council tax …

I don’t really know what to say about the meeting of the Resources, performance etc committee other than can I have two hours of my life back please.
The first part of the meeting consisted of looking at various performance indicators. A third of these indicators have no data and many of the rest are linked with the performance of other agencies, so there was very little to comment on.
We then talked about setting up a working party to look at the events surrounding the potential loss of £27.4 million …

Today I attended my first ever tree planting ceremony to celebrate the 450th anniversary of the Eleanor Palmer Trust. The trust provides residential accommodation for elderly people in Barnet. It all started with a bequest made by Eleanor Palmer in 1558 just months before Queen Elizabeth the first was crowned.
The charity does a fantastic job but is hampered by Barnet Council’s decision to use Freemantle as the provider of their elderly care in preference to Eleanor Palmer due to the contract they have with them. Given all the problems …

Below is the text of a press release issued by Barnet Liberal Democrats this morning, ahead of tonight extraordinary meeting of the council.
“Barnet Liberal Democrats will keep up the pressure on the Barnet Tory Administration at an extraordinary Council meeting this evening. The Extraordinary Meeting has been summoned at the request of Barnet Liberal Democrats. The meeting starts at 6.30pm.
Councillor Jack Cohen Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group says there still remains many unanswered question about the Councils behaviour in investing millions of pounds in Icelandic and other foreign banks.
Cllr …

I have submitted several questions for tomorrows council meeting. The questions (with the number from the Council papers and the answer I have received are listed below. My comments are listed after the ‘answer’ in bold
Question 2
Can the relevant Cabinet Member please advise if works to existing roads and pavements (including street lighting) in the Borough follow the guidance set out in the DETR’s Manual for Streets?
Answer by Councillor Andrew HarperThe Manual for Streets (MfS) publication produced jointly by the Departments for Transport and Communities & Local Government replaces Design …

Cllr Susette Palmer now has a blog. You can read it here.