17 November - Barnet’s reunion in Bexley
Conservative controlled Barnet is fairly universally acknowledged to be a
failed Council; it farmed out all its services to Capita, didn’t save the money
it claimed it would and then froze Council Tax for rather too long. Now it
cannot provide decent services while it makes a half hearted effort to get
itself out of trouble. It is still under the Capita cosh.
Not unnaturally the top staff are anxious to distance themselves from the mess
that has been created, but is it really necessary for Bexley Council to offer the lifeline?
At the last Full Council meeting we were able to see the ex-Barnet Director of Finance sitting next to
his Finance colleague. She is Nickie Morris, also ex-Barnet. How has she
suddenly ended up in Bexley and become so important?
It would appear that the Deputy to Paul Thorogood suddenly left and a consultant
appeared from nowhere. No recruitment process, no press advertisement.
Presumably the Director of Finance is free to do whatever he wants. He revised the Council’s
corporate regulations and delegated the powers to himself. How very convenient. And who
rewrote and signed off those new rules? One Nickie Morris. It’s not just our elected
Councillors who are a law unto themselves.