Updated: see below
For some time now, Mrs Angry has been trying to assert her right to see the withheld declaration of interests of several of our Tory councillors, and has asked also to see the updated versions of the interests available online, which are now a year and a half old. Mrs Angry was under the impression that these declarations are meant to be updated and signed every year, but perhaps she is mistaken.
This process involves a visit to North London Business Park, where, in the interests of transparency, openness and public scrutiny, such documents, containing information which is meant to be in the public domain, is kept under high level security and released for view under conditions similar to released archive material held by security agencies in the States. You may look at the declarations only under the strict supervision of a council officer, and you may not ask for copies of the information. This is Broken Barnet, after all.
Mrs Angry has sent several emails, and made several phone calls, in order to try and see the interests. No one has replied, for some reason.When she spoke earlier this week to a switchboard operator about the problem, the poor girl had never even heard of the register, and ha ha, oh dear, put her through to CAFT, the Corporate Anti Fraud Team. Just imagine Mrs Angry's amusement!
This morning, at last, Mrs Angry managed to catch an officer offguard, and extracted a stuttered promise that it might be possible for her to be allowed into North London Business Park in order to exercise her right to inspect information which, yes, should already be in the public domain, (if we did not live in Broken Barnet).
Apparently we are now actively considering mutually convenient times:(somewhere in December, 2014, probably), and plans are being made for a welcoming reception by the Director of Corporate Governance, with coffee, some light hearted banter and a plate of suspiciously flavoured biscuits.
Mrs Angry is waiting by her inbox, breathless with anticipation.
Update
Oh dear, naughty naughty London Borough of Broken Barnet: you promised you would reply today about seeing the register, didn't you? But you were fibbing, London Borough of Broken Barnet, and now Mrs Angry has lost her patience, and has been through the available councillors' interesting interests with a fine tooth comb, and found some amusing discrepencies.
Stand by.
Joe, from your doting mama xxx
