Comment

Finance process is an insult

Barnet Council is asking residents for their views on decisions that have already been taken says Philip Clayton

Headshot of a man in the top right corner of a photo of a town hall
Hendon Town Hall and (inset) finance chief Cllr Simon Radford

Dear Barnet Post,

You are published an interview with Cllr Radford in this month regarding the massive funding gap that Barnet faces. Anyone who knows the history off Barnet over the last 25 years understands that the council have inherited an impossible financial situation, created by swivel-eyed, ideological, loonies who believed that nothing should be run by any public body. So Cllr Radford and his colleagues have my sympathy.

However, it is hardly democratic, or ‘open government’ to bring the plans to the council on the 12th of October and then hold a ‘Question Time’ on 26th October to allow residents to express their views about a process that will have already been decided on. What’s the point? I think, to be blunt, that’s an insult.

Philip Clayton

Edgware


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