tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371203489316363738.post6978002835726678826..comments2024-01-30T07:41:20.885+00:00Comments on Broken Barnet: Mrs Angry: social delinquentMrs Angryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00586223909475832791noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371203489316363738.post-58465131835681865032010-06-15T16:44:06.051+01:002010-06-15T16:44:06.051+01:00Hold on: are you saying blogging makes you fat? Uh...Hold on: are you saying blogging makes you fat? Uh oh. Signing off now then.Mrs Angryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00586223909475832791noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371203489316363738.post-65859247446268260752010-06-15T15:42:21.489+01:002010-06-15T15:42:21.489+01:00Mrs Angry
I appear to be hogging your blog! A loc...Mrs Angry<br /><br />I appear to be hogging your blog! A local journalist told me recently that every time they wrote an article strongly criticising the council, their editor would receive an angry phone call from Mike Freer (or someone on his behalf). Due to the recession, local papers are a lot slimmer these days (just like <i>DCMD</i> since he gave up blogging!) and I guess council revenue is more important to them than it used to be.<br /><br />Clearly there is now a gap in the market for a truly independent local newspaper!<br /><br />One final comment on the Underhill saga. The council announced that Mr Stephens had been disciplined - presumably to placate people like me who had been calling for heads to roll. The fact that this officer was promoted just a month later only came to light after the investigation by PwC and proves that the council is not to be trusted in what it says.Don't Call Me Davehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13602899129846028170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371203489316363738.post-88374703266588752422010-06-15T12:56:36.092+01:002010-06-15T12:56:36.092+01:00DCMD: well, I know nothing about the Underhill sag...DCMD: well, I know nothing about the Underhill saga, as the mere mention of anything to do with football means that my eyes begin to glaze over and ... it's happening again. In fact the only time I have been to the said place was, reluctantly, to attend a womens' football final which for some dubious reason Mr Angry was very keen to see. <br /><br />What you have to say about the aftermath of the High Court ruling sounds par for the course in Broken Barnet. Maybe this sort of carry on is endemic in local authorities everywhere: how depressing if that is true.<br />You make a very important point about the scrutiny of the local press: in any democracy the independence of the press is crucial, and this is true even on a smaller scale. Surely it would be in the interest of the local papers to become more challenging, and therefore improve their circulation and sales capability on a broader scale. Otherwise people will stop reading them through sheer boredom - there are not really many reasons why one would want to read an article about the declining popularity of the cauliflower, as featured in a certain local paper over several online issues recently! Most people interested in local politics (including, I notice, some local reporters!) read blogs to find out what is happening: if the papers had any sense they would cover the same issues. When I trained as a journalist many years ago the idea of local papers putting up with political censorship for revenue reasons was unthinkable: local papers were central to the community and still could be if they could take a few risks.Mrs Angryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00586223909475832791noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371203489316363738.post-650905382652157232010-06-15T11:42:21.008+01:002010-06-15T11:42:21.008+01:00Mrs Angry
I used to share your optimism, but the ...Mrs Angry<br /><br />I used to share your optimism, but the reality is that councils like Barnet will continue to behave the way that they do simply because they can. There is no incentive for them to improve. The local papers write stories about cats stuck up trees, but when two councillors are found to have over-claimed on their telephone expenses (perhaps accidentally - who knows?) it does not even get a mention. I am sure this has nothing to do with the potential loss of advertising revenue.<br /><br />I have generally tried to avoid writing at length about my experiences over the sale of land at Underhill in 2002 - mainly because people are bored to death by it! However, the inescapable fact is that the High Court ruled that the transaction was unlawful. Did anyone get sacked over this? Well Jeff Lustig, the Monitoring Officer who signed the contract, got promoted to Head of Corporate Governance. And Mr Dave Stephens, who was the officer effectively dealing with the negotiations, received a warning letter advising him of his future conduct. The only problem was, a month later he received another letter promoting him and giving him a wage rise, so that really taught him a lesson (The council’s auditors provided me with copies of the letters).<br /><br />Barnet effectively operates as the fiefdom for the benefit of officers and councillors alike. They do not exist to serve the public. We exist to serve them and fund their extravagant lifestyles.Don't Call Me Davehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13602899129846028170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371203489316363738.post-38620823915360080122010-06-15T09:32:30.755+01:002010-06-15T09:32:30.755+01:00Greetings to you, 'Group of people known as Da...Greetings to you, 'Group of people known as David Miller':Mrs Angry salutes your veteran career of relentless campaigning for justice in our beloved homeland of Broken Barnet.<br /><br />How very interesting.<br /><br />Is there ever any excuse for doing what you know to be wrong in the course of your work? Most people,of course, worry about stepping out of line in case they are punished in the next restructuring and lose their jobs. (If you have a Catholic guilt complex,btw,any of you at NLBP, maybe you should worry a little more about being punished in the next life? Just a thought.) Other officers,usually more senior, are simply desperately keen to ingratiate themselves in order to climb the greasy pole of promotion. In all cases people justify what they do in a form of corporate mob rule, disassociating themselves from personal responsibility. All a matter of conscience, I suppose, and some people have none. If you do, or you believe in the law of karma, your actions are eventually going to cause you problems, aren't they?<br />There may be little chance of individual success in pursuing complaints to bodies like the LGO, or the ICO, but that does not mean it is pointless. Doing the right thing is well, the right thing. The importance lies I think in making sure all these issues are in the public domain, so that others can see what is happening. If an authority is continually breaching the law, or flouting guidelines, and each incident is seen only in isolation, therein lies a problem. If all these incidents are seen in a larger context, there might be a chance that public dissatisfaction may actually gains a momentum and bring about some fundamental change.<br />As you can see, Mrs Angry is an eternal optimist!Mrs Angryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00586223909475832791noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371203489316363738.post-60013859567609675842010-06-14T23:29:31.171+01:002010-06-14T23:29:31.171+01:00Mrs Angry
I won’t patronise you by saying I know ...Mrs Angry<br /><br />I won’t patronise you by saying I know how you must feel about your experiences because I don’t, and fortunately most of us never have to suffer to such a living hell.<br /><br />But on the subject of making formal complaints about Barnet council (about less important matters), I do have some experience and frankly, I have to say it isn’t worth the stress and aggravation. Barnet routinely tells lies or put atrocious spin on its version of events, rather than admit that it did something wrong. <br /><br />On one occasion, in respect of an appeal against a planning decision where the council had erred in law, it simply ignored the Planning Inspectorate’s request to provide evidence to support its reasons for refusing me consent. If I had refused to provide details to the Inspectorate, no doubt my complaint would have been summarily dismissed. But Barnet was allowed to continue dragging the process out for another nine months before finally conceding (two days before a full hearing was due to be heard) that it had made a mistake and that consent would be granted. I got some of my legal costs back, but not all. The council officers did not care because it was not their time or money being wasted.<br /><br />The Information Commissioner has upheld many of my complaints concerning Freedom of Information, but a trick Barnet has developed is to agree to provide the required information just at the point when the Commissioner was going to issue a formal finding in my favour. By throwing in the towel <i>before</i> the Commissioner makes a ruling means that the complaint doesn’t show up in official statistics of complaints upheld against local authorities.<br /><br />Personally, I would be ashamed at some of the stuff Barnet comes out with. On another occasion I made a complaint that a public report had unlawfully named me in a list of people making FOI requests. The alleged number of requests listed against my name was demonstrably false, but Barnet is not one to let facts get in the way of a good smear and publishing my name without consent was a breach of the Data Protection Act. In its correspondence with the Commissioner, Barnet argued that the publication of my name in the report did not identify me personally. According to the Barnet Officer, the report merely referred to “a group of people known as David Miller.” When you are dealing with shit-for-brains officers like this, you know that it is simply not worth getting worked up about. And although the Commissioner found in my favour and ruled that the publication of my name was indeed unlawful, the council have simply refused to take the report down from their web site. What can I do about that? Well I suppose I could complain to the LGO…Don't Call Me Davehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13602899129846028170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6371203489316363738.post-5724107716568868752010-06-14T11:41:19.503+01:002010-06-14T11:41:19.503+01:00Hello Alan, thanks - good to see the blog has read...Hello Alan, thanks - good to see the blog has readers from so far away!Mrs Angryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00586223909475832791noreply@blogger.com