Some Councillors appear to need counselling

Two days before he had a little holiday thrashing round the racetrack on his motorbike Mr Mustard attended the Cabinet Resources Committee ( on 27 September 2011 ). Mr Mustard has a motorbike that will travel at 155mph and in order to add some colour to the blog, here it is.

It's a mean machine, and so it would be perfect for the councillors who sit on the CRC. 

The councillors are also pretty quick themselves and went through the agenda like a (Triumph) rocket and spent only 35 minutes of their time in tearing through the 151 pages of various reports; 34 minutes were in public and a whole minute was spent going through the exempt reports, or not, as the case may be. Are they speed reading experts? no, of course not. Mr Reasonable slowed them down by asking questions and Mr Mustard has the feeling that if there had been no-one in the public gallery the whole meeting would have been over in less time than it takes to boil the kettle and have a cup of tea.

So what decisions were taken in those 35 minutes? These, and others:

• Close the Mill Hill Sports Club. See The Barnet Eye blog here.
• Update the Hendon Cemetery ( and then flog it off along with Mrs Angry's family, see here )
• Enhance (increase) the management charges for sheltered housing and try and get the Court to dismiss a resident's Judicial Review.
• Negotiate out of the 15 year contract with Greenwich Leisure Ltd who manage the borough's leisure facilities ( the few that are left anyway ). The folly of entering into 10 year out-sourcing contracts at the same time as trying to get out of a 15 year one does not seem to have been noticed.
• "Transform" Passenger Transport Services ("PTS")

When Mr Mustard reads the word transform he expects an ugly duckling to turn into a swan. Sadly, the ugly ducklings were speaking.

This agenda item was dealing with the passenger transport needs of Adults with mobility needs related to disability or age ( such as a friend of Mr Mustard who has had a very severe stroke and can't walk very far or hold anything with one of her hands ) and for vulnerable adults and children.

What did our esteemed abhorrent councillors have to say?

Rams - No comment ( on the report ) any questions ? ( anyone - please don't have any as we all want to go home ) the report has already been to Scrutiny ( where nothing gets thoroughly scrutinised - except by bloggers )

Thomas - Likes the proposed savings - Savings to be reported back to a future meeting (anyone would think that he worked for a savings bank or building society - there is more to life than money Cllr Thomas - go and visit a care home and see what vulnerable people think before you visit this subject again please)

Coleman - A hugely expensive service - need to change the law to stop doing some of these services for people ( public commenting at this point annoyed Cllr Coleman - tough - the public do not have to be quiet at council meetings Cllr Coleman - heckling is not against the law and is pretty minor at Barnet ) uneasy at getting into bed with other councils who are not in the same league ( as Barnet ) ( correct - Barnet are in division 2 and the others are in the premiership )

Rajput - Mustn't double up on transport - if they have a mobility car - tough luck ( i.e. Barnet Council will cast you aside ).

Mr Mustard was very disappointed by all of your remarks and the indecent haste.

So the message to those with special needs, the vulnerable, the elderly, the young, the sick, the disabled is that you are costing Barnet Council too much money and you are a nuisance.

Mr Mustard's message to these councillors is that one day a road accident may befall you in which you get injured, you may have a stroke, you will get old and frail, you may have to enter a care home ( and your relatives will forget about you ) you might get Alzheimer's and at that time you will value all the assistance that society has to offer. Please reflect on what councillors are meant to do - putting the community first - you weren't on 29 September.

On the other hand you might just get booted out at the next election by all the people that you have upset i.e. most of the electorate of all political persuasions, or none at all.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard