Wishy Washy? (From Times Series)

Wishy Washy?

10:15am Thursday 5th March 2009

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The Finchley and Golders Green Planning Sub Committee was rather mundane on Wednesday night. Business was completed in half an hour. Is this the effects of the recession? Three people sat in the public gallery. On the way out I noticed two piles of agenda and committee papers; seventy sets in all, lying unused on a table.

So wind back the clock 24 hours. The Council met in full session. We gathered to choose the Mayor Designate for 2009-10 and decide the Councils’ Budget.

A small but determined group of senior citizens were outside Barnet House. These hardy folk had braved the cold to protest about the cuts to the Sheltered Housing Warden Scheme. Others residents were there to lobby against cuts to a Riding Stables project for people with learning disabilities. Good on all of them, I say.

Most of them managed to squeeze in to the small public gallery. The Mayor gave them his customary warm welcome. That is, he warned them to behave themselves and not to make any noise. Actually they were great; the whole evening, they cheered and groaned in all the right places and enlivened the proceedings.

Now in my blog I do not usually mention Conservative Councillors by name, but this will be an exception.

First off Councillor Freer, The Leader proposed Cllr Coleman as the Mayor Designate for the forth- coming year. Cllr Coleman was introduced as the Marmite candidate (definition of Marmite; a sticky, dark brown paste with a distinctive, powerful flavour, which is extremely salty and savory.).

The Labour Group put forward a spirited alternative candidate. The vote which followed was predictable. The Tory majority saw to that. Cllr Coleman was elected Mayor designate. The Conservative Group broke in to spontaneous applause. I did note at least one Conservative who did not join in and sat with arms folded.

I should mention that where I sit in the Council chamber, I am in ear shot of Cllr Coleman and other prominent Conservatives.

We then moved to debate the Budget proposals. We in the Lib Dems articulated the fears and concerns of the residents. We wanted to restore the cuts to the Sheltered Housing and to the Riding Stables Project. Each time an opposition councilor got up to speak,the Mayor designate kept up a barrage of petty and personal comments.

One of the themes in the debate had been the potential overspend on the Aerodrome Bridge project. No one knows how much this will be, but estimates that this will run in to millions are not far out. There has already been one high profile casualty of all this. Now all of us believed that the Cabinet member in charge at the time was the Deputy Leader, Cllr Offord. So far he has declined to comment.

Now he stood up and told Council it did not happen on “his watch”. This could only mean one thing that it is all the fault of his successor Cllr Harper, seated two rows immediately in front of him. We all felt the knife hit its target. Of all the cuts on Tuesday was this the unkindest cut of all?

But more was to come. Cllr Brian Salinger, who sits immediately behind me and to the side of Cllr Coleman, had arrived late. He missed the vote on the election of the Mayor designate. He rose to give his apologies for lateness. The Mayor Designate hissed “we all know why”.Cllr Salinger responded with fury. Not hiding his contempt, he explained his wife was unwell.

Well the Leader by now had decided enough was enough and he proposed “the motion be now put”. This means the Tory majority guillotined any further debate. The vote was taken. The Budget with all its cuts and risks was voted through.

Another evening of democracy in Barnet was over. Not before a nickname for the Mayor Designate had sprung up. From now on he will be known as Widow Twankey. You couldn’t make it up!