Strange Noises From the Public Gallery (From Times Series)

Strange Noises From the Public Gallery

3:37pm Tuesday 14th September 2010

• Print
• Email
• Comments(4)

August is traditionally the silly season in Politics. For Barnet this August was the very silly season. The antics of the Conservative Group dominated the headlines and monopolised the local blogs. I decided to let others get on with it. Tonight I propose my motion of no confidence in the Leader of the Council. More of that later in the week Last night was back to school in the shape of the Business Management and Overview Committee. This is the committee that can call in certain decisions made by Cabinet and individual Cabinet Members. This is the forum you will recall where the former Leader admitted he knew nothing about the Icelandic deposits, and where a certain Cabinet Member admitted it was too upsetting to meet residents in sheltered housing. In short there is always some fun to be had and the odds of a cabinet making a gaffe or two are about even money.

The third item on the agenda is called whipping arrangements. Helpfully, it explains (in accordance with Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 17) what it means is that if members are instructed by their party bosses to take a view they must declare this. In all the years I have sat on this committee no one has ever made this declaration. True many of the Conservatives have appeared though to have taken a vow of silence .

Last night (on the eve of the no confidence vote) there was more than a hint of a sub plot. The star player in the leadership challenge was stony faced but asked a number of pertinent questions , so did his colleagues, the committee chair bent over backwards to be charming and helpful to everyone. The Cabinet member for the Environment sat in the public gallery muttering to himself. Two of the conservative members left early with out giving a reason, the Chair constantly asked members not to use their blackberries. I was not using mine and from what I could observe neither were any of the Labour Group.

Well the Cabinet Member for Resources was in the firing line last night. He is one of the new boys. I had called in his delegated powers report. This is a report which never goes to any committee but is circulated to Members. The Cabinet member had agreed to award a contract to a firm of consultants. This was for work to do with the Future Shape Programme. The problem for me was that his report did not spell out what the consultants would be doing and more important, it appeared that the consultants were being given a blank cheque “in excess of half a million pounds”

There was a separate report on blue paper. This contained information which the public is not allowed to know about. I think I can tell you that it provides details of all the companies that bid for the tender and it also made a vague reference to exactly how much in excess of half a million pounds this contract is worth. In my view this figure ought to be in the public domain, after all it your money readers that is paying for this.

So I asked first of all if the cabinet member would talk to the lawyers and put the figure in to the public records. Second I asked for an explanation of what the Consultants would be doing for all this money. To cut along answer short, no one seems to have a clue.

I had to pursue the cost of all this so members of the public were kicked out whilst we looked at the blue papers. I am of course not allowed to tell what went on. I can safely confirm that the cabinet Member did not reveal the secret of how to turn metal into gold. I did though pick up a startling comment which in my view ranks alongside “I did not know about Icelandic Deposits” and “its too upsetting”

Having got precisely no where with any of this the public were invited back in. A vote was taken not to accept the Cabinet Member’s report. Just to prove there is no whip a Conservative Member voted with Labour and me and the Cabinet Member was sent away to do more work and provide better information. May be next time the true cost will be made public.

All of this was too much for the Cabinet Member for the Environment who could be heard making strange noises in the Public gallery.